dbguide2's reviews
664 reviews

I don’t so much mind modern words and phrases in fantasy worlds but to me if I see them I’m more likely to think a character will soon use a phone or use magic with technology. Writers don’t have to use long or old words to create believable fantasy worlds. I was enjoying how Page had crafted her world and characters and I think using the modern words actually took away from that. I think if she had not used those modern words I would’ve enjoyed reading the book more.

I liked the characters but I kept feeling they could’ve been more throughout the book. I was promised banter, and only got a bit. I was promised enemies-to-lovers, and it didn’t give me that the way I’ve read it in other books. I could tell that the potential was there but as readers we didn’t get it. I think I might’ve loved Erik, had he been written better. Isabel was the main issue for me, I think. She wasn’t working the way I had hoped she would (as a main character).

I liked the plot and definitely wanted to see it through. It wasn’t that it was wholly original but was written in a new way, which is nice to see. It wasn’t all neatly tied up and could’ve been better – but it’s also Page’s debut so I’m not so fussed about that. I could also see the potential and I think I might keep an eye on Page’s future books to possibly see what else she has up her sleeve. I did really enjoy the side characters. I think she shone there (if not with the main characters). They had a ton of banter and improved throughout the book. I sort of liked them better than the main characters but maybe that’ll change if I read the sequel.

Another factor of the book I liked was the magic system. I would’ve liked to have learnt more or see if there’s any subsections of the magic shown in this book. Maybe that’ll be a bigger plot point in the sequel, who knows. I think the world-building was set up well enough but like most of the other aspects of the book – just not enough for me to like it more. 

I thought that the idea of Pride and Prejudice but Lizzie and Mary being witches would be such a fun idea! Unfortunately I soon realised that you could literally take that away from them and… it would be the original story all over again. I did like it but it didn’t really add anything past that little change. I don’t mind when retellings change a bunch of the original story and I felt like Lackey could’ve really gone for it and played around. Added more witches, let them meet all those witches, just something different!

Another reason I would’ve like the witch addition to be more is because it was incredibly of a side plot. They come to their family’s house with the intention of learning how to heal their witch mentor and it takes weeks before they even start to learn anything. It frustrated me because it kept showing that the witch addition could’ve easily been taken out and not changed anything. What’s the point of reading a retelling if it’s basically just the original?

Other than that, I mean the romance is standard, it’s Darcy and Lizzie, and I love to see it. I think they’ve basically made enemies-to-lovers. Darcy being all “oh I love Lizzie, how do I tell her that and propose to her? Oh I know!” Darcy to Lizzie: “Hey, you suck, your family sucks, please marry me?” That’s just classic stuff, if you ask me. Not entirely as good as knife to the throat trope, but still really good. I did like the change from Lydia as the youngest daughter to Claudius and him still having the relationship with Wickman. Mary’s not interested in romance and prefers to work more on her magic skills and it was great to see how barely anyone bat an eyelash. 

I take most adult mystery thrillers with grains of salt. Young Adult (mystery thriller) I’m more fine with. But I’m trying to shop around and see exactly what I’ll like and dislike from Adult books. Unfortunately while this looked really good and I was interested at the start it petered out quite fast. I didn’t like the deaths, I really didn’t like the ending. I could see how it could’ve been better but unfortunately it didn’t go that way.

I liked locked room mysteries, I like it when people are getting picked off one-by-one and anyone could be the killer. This had all three but just threw it all away for an nonsensical ending. And the characters seemed to be interesting all for the first few chapters. Every time I thought I liked one of the characters they did something or said something and we were back to the beginning. The book might’ve been more interesting and likeable if Davey, the one character, just wasn’t there. He was totally my least favourite and thought himself to be the bee’s knees. I don’t think I even had a favourite, or, the character I disliked the least.

In most Adult mystery/thriller books it’s the characters I don’t like. Their personalities, how they treat the characters around them and their dialogue. I like unlikeable characters but only if they’re written well. They were well-written in here but because I didn’t like their personalities at all, it was hard to like their unlikeable personalities. I don’t know if that makes much sense.