thereadingmum's reviews
737 reviews

My favourite of the series so far. Much easier to follow than the first two books. Perhaps I'm just more familiar with the world. LOLed several times. Loved the Wuthering Heights chapter. 

Just not interested in astrology and it's too technical for me at the start so very hard to connect to the story. 

This is a conflicted review. On the one hand, I enjoyed the historical part. I can also see what the writer is trying to achieve. However, I didn't really enjoy the modern part. I wanted to like this much more than I actually did.

It started off well and I can sort of empathise. Though I studied Mandarin for 12 years, it is far from fluent. I took a job that required that I peruse the Mandarin newspapers for relevant articles and then summarise them in English. This was when Google Translate was still in its early stages and not as sophisticated. Also, the newspapers often did not publish the digital version in time and I could not copy and paste the text. By the time I took this job it was about 12 years since I had to read the language so it was very rusty. I survived. I surprised myself reading this by being able to read about 85% of the Mandarin and did not resort to an app. 

I really got into the story of the sociopathic Emperor and his minotaurian tale. However, once #badchinese got to China and the whole ghost city used by the Emperor's modern counterpart, Baby Bao, for his own sociopathic fantasies, my interest started waning. I know that this is mainly due to my own personal peeve with modern China and all that it stands for. I also have a thing about not having to pander to one's ancestral roots. Just because I am born a certain race, doesn't mean I love everything about my "people". This doesn't make me an anglophile or xenophobic, I just believe in my own values, regardless of my birth culture. 

So, while I recognise the writerly value of this book and am very grateful for having been gifted a copy by the author himself, I have given it less than 4 stars because I would not classify it as "great". It is almost great but certainly good. 

Favourite Foley so far. 

Read this one decades ago but only guessed the murderer about 2/3 of the way in. Which makes it a good mystery? 

Exactly as prescribed - cosy murder mystery with likeable pseudo amateur detectives.

This is one of two romantasy series that I have read and loved. Number one is the Outlander series, which is a lot of other genres as well. The All Souls trilogy was a surprise even for me. Why? Firstly, I'm not a fan of the style of writing. It's very modern American where the dialogue is an awkward not quite realistic but too casual and the prose is also some weird in-between style. However, I was totally into the world that Harkness built and the romance between Diana and Matthew. I do have a penchant for proper vampires (no Twilight fairies for me thanks). 

Hence I was excited and eager to read this new instalment of the series. However, I had forgot that Diana grates on me slightly and her irritating traits were worse here. She just comes across as more of a head strong teenager than a full-grown mother in her late thirties. Then again, Sarah, her aunt is worse so perhaps it's hereditary?

Another negative was the anti-climatic action scenes. The crossroad duel was odd and confusing. The labyrinth scene with Matthew was also a bit weird and lacking in detail to make me fully emotionally invested. 

However, I have enjoyed going back into the world and the new plot turns are intriguing. So I'm looking forwad to the next book. I think I may enjoy this on audio more.

Great full cast audio book with a solid thriller plot and believable psychology.