dbguide2's reviews
664 reviews

I was really hoping to absolutely love this one as it seemed to have cool things – pirates, tons of magic, immense world-building. And a mermaid to boot! Unfortunately I soon realised it wasn’t going that way, but also that I still liked it enough to carry on. 3 stars for both books, which is totally fine!

I think it was a mixture of Grace wanting to do absolutely everything plus it’s her debut novel. To me it just didn’t just work out although I will commend her for trying to do a lot. In my opinion debut authors do tend to cram so many things in their debuts – either because they aren’t sure if they’ll get another one or they want to prove themselves. Grace is a good author, yes, but I think she just tried too much here (I hope it’s not a recurring theme as I have another of her books to read).

I’d say it was also a combination of the characters, the plot, and world-building – all too much and not well-managed. Maybe others felt differently (as is their right). There are seven versions of magic, and all very complicated (to understand). Maybe if there were only 3 or 5 (ways of magic) or still seven just not so big. The world-building goes along with the magic system – in that it’s confusing (but also they are tied together). I didn’t understand much of it and that confusion carried on into the second book. Plus because it’s so linked to Amora, whom I started to like less, I sort of didn’t want to pay a lot of attention (whoops).

Most of the characters were okay but I didn’t really feel connected to them. I didn’t like Ferrick at the start but I realised that was mainly the narrator’s voice for him – it made him so whiny and annoying. Ferrick’s personality and voice (both written and verbal) definitely improved for the second book. I liked Bastien and Amora but as the books went on I liked them less (no real reasons). Vataea, the mermaid, was probably my most-liked alongside Ferrick. I did get the feeling she was mostly there to play against Amora but I like that they became friends. They could’ve easily made them jealous of each other. Plus she did have a full personality other than just “pretty and magic”. 

I keep having to remind myself that with a longer series, like this one, the plot points will be more and confusing and it won’t all be neatly tied up in this and that’s fine! It’s hard but I’m getting there

. Thankfully, Tuli’s a good enough writer that I’m able to not focus so much on unsolved plot points and enjoy the book. I don’t think I’ve met a Tuli book I haven’t extremely enjoyed and for that she’s a top author for me.

Lor and Nadir only grow closer and stronger together in here and I love that. I just love everything about them – honestly, I’ve loved them since the first book so I’m always here for them. I did wonder if we were getting a redemption arc for Atlas but so far… not. Not that I exactly want a redemption arc for him, but I always do wonder. 

I didn’t immediately like Lor’s two siblings when they first appeared but they are growing on me and I hope to like them better in the next fourth (and well, it’s the final book so I hope so). But let’s get to my FAVOURITE character who FINALLY has a pov – Gabriel. Listen, I love him so so much and I need Tuli to NOT hurt him otherwise I will cry. I need him to get anything and everything he wants; I will even climb into the book if I have to do it myself. I’ve read Inkheart (Cornelia Funke), I’m sure I can do it. 
 

Tuli’s always done so well with world-building and that’s difficult to maintain when you’re three books into a quartet and your world is massive! I like that I get a feel for everything and it’s easy for me to see everything – I love it when it feels like you’re in the book and travelling along with the characters because of how well the author is writing the story.

She also writes action and fighting scenes quite well, which I’m always happy to see in a (fantasy) book. It not only means the author is good in their craft, but that they understand the genre and age demographic that they’re writing for. This author definitely does that very well! Another thing that Tuli does quite well is tropes! Since tropes are very popular currently, I find that authors tend to shove a ton of tropes into their books but… don’t fully spend the time to ensure that the book is good (cough cough, Lightlark). Fate is my fifth book from Tuli and I’ve never felt that way, thank goodness. I think even if she crammed one of her books with tropes it wouldn’t bother me because she’s a good enough writer to be able to do so. She’s able to balance tropes and good writing, not have her writing fall because she wants to hit all the tickboxes of everyone’s looking for. 

This was fun! I love Stranger Things and I grew up on the TMNT cartoons (Raphael is my favourite with Michelangelo being a close second) so I wanted to read this. It’s fun and an easy plot that you can follow. I think it’s best if you know (at least) the basics of both fandoms (for Stranger Things it’s before Season 3). 

The casual personalities of the Turtles pair well with the unique personalities of the Hawkins gang. When I first saw this I knew that I had to read it. It tied up everything quite nicely, no loose ends. The graphics were so good. I really like it when the graphic novel feel so real because it’s drawn so well. 

Cute and quick read that took me a day to finish! Okay, not so cute’s the wrong word to use when there’s a body found haha. But it was nice to go back to the Theatre group and see the changes – in the characters, in the dynamics between them. Those dynamics were interesting to see and more visible here than in the first book. There’s hierarchies and people trying to curry favours with the family ‘at top’. There was one character who would berate Character C with Character A and then in an email to character C, berate Character A. A and C didn’t like each other and are vying to be the new ‘it family’ and Character B changes her personality to fit in with both of them. All for… a bigger role in the next play.

I think Hallett really shone with these characters so I’m really hoping that her other books have characters like this again. It was a nice change from how they treated me in her first book (that I read). They changed a bit in this book – the dynamics, how they treated each other – but they still maintained most of their personalities, which I liked.

The law students were in here again and the police officer is now retired and he annoyed me. He strung them around, the end was confusing, he wasn’t helping. Not to be that person but I don’t like to be too confused by my books! I did like the crime in this and I think that the person who was involved, I’m absolving them of any accusations that they might have against them. To me they’re totally innocent. 

I’ll have to read another Hallett book to see if Alperton Angels was a once-off because I really enjoyed this book. Her new book, The Examiner, looks the most interesting but I will pick up The Twyford Code to see what’s going on. I read this in 2 days and had fun all the way through – compared to the slog and bore that was Angels (yes, I should’ve dnfed lol).

I think what changed this time around is that the law students (I kept thinking they were detectives, probably because they were in contact with a PC (Police Constable)) were very in the background. They’d pop up here and there with a few messages and then were only really in the forefront near the end. Compared to Angels when the authors were constantly messaging each other and we were ‘treated’ to their ‘personality’.

The characters (the ones involved in the crime) were also way more interesting than the first Hallett book I read. They live in a small town, so yes, they are quite involved in each others’ lives and are more nosy than I’d like people I’d see every week for community theatre. Isabel was just my absolute favourite. I screenshotted nearly every email that Isabel sent to show my friend and my girl? was so unhinged you just have to love her. Something I said to my friend and I’ll say it here is: Nothing says delulu like Isalulu. She was out here planning a WHOLE TRIP to Africa with her so-called ‘bestie’, Samantha, who’s new to the theatre group (Samantha and her husband used to work for Doctors Without Borders in Africa – everyone just says ‘Africa’, they worked in 3 different countries). Then to other people she’s saying that the trip is Sam’s idea. She’s also just… constantly trying to make Sam her bestie and I was just Regina George in Mean Girls – “stop trying to make fetch happen!”

I thought it was an interesting idea to make Sam and her husband never really interact with any of the others. They don’t send emails or text messages so you don’t get to know their personalities like the others. At the same time they didn’t… really have much of a personality – so that was also annoying because I didn’t feel like I knew them; ; I was just knew them from others’ interactions and feelings of them. And you can’t trust anything Isabel say so lol. 

The actual murder happens quite late in, which I’m not a fan of. I was raised on procedural crime shows where the murder happens before the intro. It’s a good reason (in my opinion) to dnf – but in here that didn’t bother me too much because I did want to solve the murder. I won’t talk much about the murder and the perpetrator but I didn’t like who it turned out to be. I understood the motives, but it didn’t fit the character so much? 

This was such a cute read and I really need to finish watching all the Fast and Furious movies (so I can then rewatch them ). If you’re not a fan there are a lot of references and talk of the movies and characters, so, sorry if you’re one of those who dislike constant pop culture references. I don’t, I really like them and I don’t think they spoil or date the book (I love the older references, especially with technology).

I was drawn to the book because a) Jamie Pacton and b) Fast and Furious. And I’m glad to say it delivered! I haven’t read anything from Podos and I’ve only read Pacton’s fantasies – but I’m pretty sure I could see Pacton in the characters. JoJo and El were so cute – alone and with each other. I thought it was cute that they would both go on tangents about bikes and cars respectively and you could feel the other girl is like “Yeah, I have no idea what you mean but you’re cute!”.

I appreciated JoJo’s grief storyline. Her mom had passed away recently and grief is such a difficult thing to work through. I liked that it wasn’t so well-managed here but there’s  hope that it would and sometimes, that’s all that’s needed. El doesn’t have grief per se, but she’s working through her sister’s disappearance, which is sort of grief because it’s about losing a loved one (albeit not actually).

It’s a very fast-paced book, which is always nice. You could easily read this in one sitting or throughout a day. The plot is fairly simple and because it’s so fast-paced the plot flies through too. I now and then wanted the plot to be more – more twists, characters having to choose a different path – but this is contemporary, not fantasy! Contemporary’s allowed to be straight-forward and plain. Just like a sprint in a race (all my knowledge is from Need for Speed games haha). The characters did occasionally make stupid decisions or say things without thinking but they’re teenagers!! Let teens do these things!! I think of this often when people complain about teen characters being annoying – like teens… are annoying. And they should be allowed to be annoying! 

I realised early on that I was just tapping the screen but not really… reading it. I tried to push ahead and eventually just decided to stop reading. For me it was the way this was written – I just wasn’t vibing with the writing style. I think if this were a movie I would like it. Then I wouldn’t be bothered by the writing/narration style, plus I think the book idea would carry on over to a movie very easily. 

I think that was the biggest reason for not carrying on. Writing style is a big part of a book for me so if I don’t like it early on, it’s very difficult for me to read further and enjoy. I didn’t really have much to say about the characters because to me they didn’t really show their personalities all so much and I was about 30% in.