shaun_trinh's reviews
94 reviews

This was a fun fast read, I get why the series got really popular in 2020. I knew what the twist was going in but I was still surprised a little by how it all played out. I actually really enjoed every character in the book, mosto f the time I don't care for the ensemble but everyone was pretty entertaining in their own right. I also liked how there were long term consequences for Mare's choices (RIP Lucas, his death is even sadder because he was truly hurt by Mare and didn't forgive her).

This was a cute lil sports slowburn. All vibes, little plot, just the main couple, end goal, random problems, and POOF, the story. But that's okay Mariana Zapata does it well. This was definetly one of her best written slowburns, the relationship build up felt really good and seemless, so seemless I almost didn't realize that very little was happening in the grand scheme of things. 

I knew going in Mariana Zapata didn't really write actual plots, she's a character/relationship driven writer, but I thought with the goal of Jasmine and Ivan wanting to win competition and get to worlds, we'd actually see them lose and win some leading up to worlds, but we only saw them actually compete by around page 428...out of 485 pages. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the practicing and building up a genuine trust and relationship for skating in pairs between 2 people who dislike each other, I just thought we'd seem more actual competing as another way to accomplish that.

All the family scenes were cute, especially with Ivan, I liked the pet scenes, I thought Jasmine and Ivan were actually pretty funny with each other, and while it didn't make total sense for why Ivan waited so long, I really liked the twist of Ivan wanting to work with Jasmine all along and made up the lie about only needing a temporary replacement for his old partner. I was surprised by how genuinely nice and authentic their relationship turned out being as friends, skating partners, and more.

However, I do have greviances. First Jasmine would get so damn stubborn about random shit and it got on my nerves. Her character is supposed to be stubborn but that doesn't mean I can't be annoyed when she makes things needlessly diffcult. Secondly and most importantly, could we never let this woman win????? Every other 100 pages something happens to where they can't skate as a pair and its always linked to Jasmine. FIrst she gets so sick it's as if she's been infected by a zombie virus and can't move for like a week, and then because of her boozo father she makes a mistake and injuries her ankles/calf during practice. Both of which stopped them from participating from a competition might I add. Like yes, yes I get it let the man be swoon worthy and a green flag during her recovery but PLEASE LET THE GIRL GET A WIN SOMEWHERE BEFORE THE WORLDS COMPEITITION. At least mix it up and let Ivan fuck something up.

Oh also I know this is a romance, new adult book, but lets not be too laid back with the WORDING of some lines that I shall not repeat. .

Still liked this though.

 A solid 4.5/5 Stars

Objectively, this books plot was much stronger then the first book, it just wasn't as fun as the other two because for whatever reason the main reason why people love these books was almost entirely excommunicated from the first half of the story. The first half wasn't bad, it just lacked the reason why people love the series, which is Evangline and Jacks. There could have been so much more tension and there just wasn't for a while. And even when we get to the 2nd half while we got a lot more angst, tension, and entertainment, I think I earned a lot more then was given for being the 3rd book in a FANTASY ROMANCE. All this build up for just SOME end payoff. Objectively liked what the story was, had some fun, the entertainment value just wasn't as high as I wanted.

Also, the story just ended very abruptly. I was flaberghasted when I saw the word "epilouge" on the next page. We went straight from climax to the end of the resolution in maybe 2 pages. And then the epilouge didn't even epilouge. It was the first 2 minutes of what happened after the story ended and it didn't even say anything of substance. Don't know what happened to Chaos and LaLa's story after the climax, and Aurara is apparently off in the wild free to commite more crimes. We really were served with nothing after the climax ended. CAPITALISM WON TODAY, because aren't there like a million versions of this book with extra epilouge content????

Lastly on a related note, the story lines were abrupt as hell too. Apollo MURKED that lil boy out of no where, Jack's giving away his heart but then easily stole it back, there was that whole plotline about using Jack's curse on Evangline to follow him that never paid off (and where did the guy with the crow go), and what about the newspaper guy??? There's probably more.

This has been very critical but I did genuinely enjoy the story for what it did give and had fun reading just wish there was MOREEEEEE. 

The anime ended and it's been a year without renewal, so I took matters into my own hands.

THIS WAS SOOOO GOOOOOOD. Conflict, drama, mess at every page and turn and I loved every second of it. At no point was I bored, the pacing, story, and relationship building was immaculate and took everything from the last book and made it 10x better. So good that I think I need to lower book 1 to 4/5 stars because THIS is a 5/5 read.

 

 Okayyyy I have now seen what this story has been laced with for so many people to be riding so hard for this book. I was a little wary for the first third of the story with how down bad Evangeline was for the throwaway male love interest and that just made me have a lot of second-hand embarrassment while reading, but once we got moving across the seas we got some MEAT to actually read.

The mystery, murder, slow-burn, and betrayal was all great. Despite the crux of this story being all about love, I really enjoyed how the love/romance aspect naturally fed into all the other moving parts of the story that helped make it a breeze to get through. I loooooooooove when I feel like I can easily read through a story and not spend 5 years just to get through 100 pages. While a romance, this book does a really good job a working in the mystery aspect of what Jacks wants and how all the other Fates play into what's happening too and around Evangeline. The story was immersive but didn't let that drag you down while reading.

While Tiberius didn't feel all that threatening or imposing as enemy, I enjoyed that the book circled back to who the main focus for all Evangeline's problems was, Jacks. The constant second guessing and betrayals on where Evangeline stood with Jacks really kept me hooked in and I like how the story kept both of their core characters by the end of the book. Evangeline is still a highly sympathetic, fairytale driven girl, but she isn't nearly naive as she was before and recognizes what love should actually feel and look like. Jacks while seemingly has grown more humane and fond of Evangeline, is still pursuing what he wants and is still willing to use whoever he needs to achieve it. That's what makes the ending so fun and exciting. 

 This was a cute lil regency read. Almost no one in the book could hold a singular thought for more then half a page, a chapter at most for some of the side characters but thats okay.

The main character (Niamh) is one of the most wishy-washy characters I have ever read, a true embodiment of both over-thinking and "no thoughts-head empty". I like her, she's nothing if not a fun and quirky character to see regency and decorum through and I liked how she excelled at her craft. Which speaking of, I love the idea of sewing enchantments into clothing items. Fits great with regency and its a fun twist to have her enchatnments effect the way the person feels and is seen while wearing them. I wish they did more with her illness, i really liked that she had a medical condition that worsened the more she strained herself with magic, but little actually comes of it. It gets brought up a lot, but it doesn't feel propersly capitalized on and used as just the occasional tool.

The male lead (Kit), was definetly the peak of the book. While it's very much grumpy x sunshine type of trope, I feel like his character actually makes it work because its not just him being uneccessarily mean, but someone who is rough around the edges but and has entertaining and alluring personality. I honestly find him a lot more engaging then Niamh. He struggles, changes, reverts, and grows while Niamh is kind of just the same as she is at the start of the book, but now boo'd up.

There's also the poltiical conflict in the story, which was ehhhhh. Um, it was certainly there. I like the fact that a peaceful protest was used consistently throughout the book, most stories resort to the more violent rebellion route which while easier and has more luster, isn't the only way to make change. That said, almost the entire political conflcit, and most conflcit in the book is handled as if it's a child recoutning the story. Especially the third act.

That said, the main reason why I wanted to read this book (besides the great customizations of this edition) was because I wanted the star-crossed, regency romance and that's what I got! From start to finish I loooooooved it. Love that it wasn't insta-romance, that there was a contrast and build up that felt like it made sense and that I could actually see why we were going through all this mess for. 

Read this for a college class. The story was too much of a coward to kill anyone off. Everyone is talking about being okay with dying and being ready, and yet no one wants to do the dying part. This was a real cute, and cultrally rich story with a lot of likable characters, I just wish everyone and their mother didn't die, but not actually die, actually die, and the all come back to life.

 This was a cute little moment. Gay vibes everywhere. The plot is kind of just a cummulation of the previous volumes on the teenage queer experience + now the idea of going long distance and taking the next step in their relationship.

This was probably really present before, but I wish the social commentary wasn't so plain and obvious. Its as if im watching a TEDTalk whenever social issues and expectations are brought up. Like im down with the messages and I can apprecciate that some queer individuals do need to hear these messages plain and simple, but lets pick up our pens take some creative liberties with it as well, at least a little bit. Still a wholesome vibe though!