olivialandryxo's reviews
816 reviews

Katee has done it again. I started this book not particularly attached to any of our four protagonists, and ended it loving and rooting for all of them. Each one felt distinct in their personality and motivations, and watching them initially clash and then eventually come together was a wild but intensely fun ride.

Honestly, the whole book was a wild ride. Olympus is falling apart at the seams, and I’m so very concerned for all of my favorite characters. I said in my Radiant Sin review that I have absolutely no idea what state things will be in by the end of the series, and that’s still true. It’s true and it’s terrifying, and I want more but the next book is SO. FAR. AWAY. :’)))

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[second read, November-December 2023]
I’ve now read the whole Twisted series and all of the Kings books thus far, and so I can confirm: Isa and Kai are Ana’s best couple. They’re my favorites, they’re my babies, they’re the couple to beat. But honestly, good luck with that.

I’m manifesting their wedding in King of Sloth SO HARD. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

[first read, July-August 2023]
I’ve been shipping these two since their very first interaction in King of Wrath—my ship senses were tingling, the gears in my brain spinning—so this was absolutely delightful, from start to finish. If not for my reading slump, I would’ve easily devoured it in a matter of hours. It might be only my second Ana Huang book, but as far as I’m concerned, Isa and Kai are her best couple, no contest. 💜

Updated theories for the rest of the series include Sloth being Sloane’s book (she’s totally gonna fall in love with Xavier) and Envy being Christian’s. Not sure about either Gluttony or Lust.

Current ranking of the series:

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A thrilling tale of pirates, found family and first love that I can't recommend enough. I tend to enjoy most historical fantasy novels purely because I love the genre, but my favorites are always the ones that tell history's lesser-known stories. With this book, C.B. Lee did exactly that, and it was fantastic.

And oh my god, these two baby lesbians are absolutely adorable. They are now my daughters, I have taken them under my lesbian wing and will protect them at all costs.

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I might not have the same deep love and intense attachment to this book as I do Casey’s adult novels, but I did still really enjoy it. This book is a collage of elements from other YA books I’ve enjoyed—the bittersweet feeling of high school ending from The Summer of Everything, the academic rivals to lovers slow-burn that may or may not have been simmering all along from Today Tonight Tomorrow, the self-discovery and acceptance of so many other queer stories—while still being its own unique thing.

It’s a story of ferocious girls and cinnamon roll boys and yet another iconic group of disaster queer friends, the sort of group Casey excels at writing. It’s a story of teens being messy, teens being teens, in the final moments they have before becoming adults; of all the stages of queerness and trauma and healing and love, of love in so many different forms and expressions. And it’s beautiful. It’s fun, it’s important, and it’s so very beautifully done.

It might not be a book I love with enough fervor to call a favorite, but nonetheless, I know I’ll be thinking about it for some time. Casey’s books tend to have that effect.

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This was a great introduction to Ana Huang’s writing. I liked the story, I really liked Viv, and I had fun roasting Dante in my Kindle annotations whenever he did something to annoy me. Which was often. (But, by the end, he was tolerable. Mostly.)

Would’ve been 4 stars if not for the weird feel of the pacing. The first 20% felt rather fast, and then the middle section was a bit of a slog to get through.

Current theories for the rest of the series include Sloth being Luca’s book, Envy being Christian’s and Gluttony being Sloane’s. I’m not sure about Lust yet.

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Jace was the best part of this book and he was barely in it. Everything else, despite seeming interesting at first, just got more and more bland as I kept reading. I grew more and more disconnected until eventually I stopped caring. Extra half star for Jace, and also because the antagonist was someone extremely unexpected.

I’m kinda curious about a few of the other books in this series, especially Jace’s and Kelsey’s, but I don’t think I’m all that interested in reading more from Roni Loren.

Also, to all the readers who tagged this book as lighthearted, enough so to get it officially labeled that way… what the actual hell. I don’t even wanna know what y’all consider dark.

That being said, definitely check the content warnings on this one. It can be a lot.

This could’ve potentially been a five star read if I wasn’t so deeply uncomfortable over Bram’s loincloth. And if there was more Ramanu. Still a fun time though.

Current ranking of the series:

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It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.

I was so excited to start this book, and although a few things had me a bit confused, I was enjoying it. But I’ve been in a reading slump on and off for most of the year so far, and this month, it really hit me hard. So for now, I’m putting this down and giving myself a break. Maybe I’ll pick it up again later and end up loving it; that’s happened before. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this book.

These novellas were absolutely DELIGHTFUL, through and through. I didn’t realize just how much I missed these kids till I started reading, but gods, I really did. And I absolutely adore them all. They finally get to have the happiness and love they deserve, and I love that for them. I love it SO MUCH. I could try to talk about how cleverly Chloe set the stage for the final book, but like. I’m nose-deep in my Romette and Benmars feels and still sinking. They’re just SO GODDAMN CUTE. 🥹❤️

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I’ve joked that Holly Black peaked when she wrote The Folk of the Air, but I didn’t think it would actually be true.

Unfortunately, it is.

That’s not to say this book was terrible, because it wasn’t. That’s also not to say I wanted it to be exactly like TFOTA, because I knew it wouldn’t be. But, having just reread the trilogy before diving into this, I had refreshed my memory on exactly how brilliant it was and thus expected similar brilliance, even if it was a different sort… only for this to be so startlingly, disappointingly mediocre.

I do love Wren, though; I really do. She was such a compelling protagonist, very easy to root for. I love the way she was written, I love her character arc, and if she’s a little unhinged, so what? We respect that here. I want to give her a nice, hot bowl of soup, and a big, warm sweater, and an even bigger, warmer hug. She deserves all the good things.

One thing we don’t do in this house? Wren slander. I will protect my daughter. I decided to look at some other reviews after finishing the book because I felt so conflicted, and the number of people I saw calling her “boring,” “whiny,” “bland”… y’all are tasteless. This poor girl is traumatized and trying her best, and she absolutely does not deserve to be attacked for it. (If I had the spoons, I could go on a whole rant about how everyone would probably love Wren, if only she had been written as a boy, because I’ve been thinking about this and I have feelings… but, alas, I don’t have the spoons.)

I will make one (1) admission, though—her behavior did shift rather abruptly in the final few chapters. I’m here for the new Wren, no question, but I can still admit that it felt a bit too sudden.

The other characters, though? My feelings ranged from “I have none” (Hyacinthe) to “I actually can’t stand you” (Oak and Tiernan). Honestly, I feel like Oak was done so dirty. I was looking so forward to seeing what he was like now that he’d grown up, but Holly turned him into a much shallower, blonde The Cruel Prince-era Cardan, with nothing between his ears and no reason to root for him. He had a few moments where I thought he was clever or impressive, but that’s about it. If the next book is really from his perspective, that relationship’s gonna be doomed from the start.

And don’t even get me started on Tiernan. He reminded me so strongly of one of my favorite video game characters, but like… said character is what Tiernan could’ve been if he had any personality traits aside from grumpy asshole. I don’t know what his problem was with Wren or why he was so awful to her, but I do know that by the time he (finally) lightened up, it was far too little, far too late.

Now, possibly my biggest beef with this book—we didn’t get to see Jude or Cardan, not even ONCE!! I kept seeing teasers of how there were ~familiar faces~ in this book, and I was waiting the whole goddamn time to see them, BUT NO. The only ~familiar faces~ we see are antagonists, and I am. SO SALTY.

Moving on, for my own sanity.

The romance?? If you can call it that?? felt very much like secondhand Jurdan, like Holly was just trying to see exactly how many of the same stunts she could pull again and still get away with. There was no slow development of feelings, no angst or pining or attempted murder, just boom! Feelings! And it felt clumsy. Like, we know this woman can write an absolutely DELIGHTFUL slow-burn, we’ve seen it with our own eyes, but this time, she was just like… nah. And that’s truly tragic.

Seriously though. Wren and Oak have literally no chemistry. Holly seems to think that some sort-of-cute childhood flashbacks will work in place of present-day chemistry, but spoiler alert: no. They will not.

Now, for the plot… to be quite honest, it didn’t feel like there was one. There was an end goal, but the entire book was just a glorified road trip (except they don’t actually have a car). Most of it was just very boring, very typical fantasy journeying, from point A to point B to point C, which really is so disappointing. In TCP, even when there’s not really any action, there are still things happening. Here? Not so much. And any conflict the trio did find themselves in just seemed resolved far too easily.

(The spoiler tag applies to both The Queen of Nothing and The Stolen Heir. In summary, I found the reason for this book’s quest asinine—due to events from TQON—and guessed the ending’s plot twist. Details below.)

And the fact that all of this was for Madoc??? SERIOUSLY??? I didn’t give a crap about him before, and that hasn’t changed. Not a very compelling point for a quest AT ALL. He almost killed Jude in The Queen of Nothing!! He was the cause of most of that whole trilogy’s problems!! And I’m supposed to care now if he’s imprisoned or not? If he lives or dies? As if!!

And then, moving on—the whole “Wren has Mellith’s heart inside her” thing?? Called it. I absolutely called it. I saw it coming a mile away, and I. Was. Right. The thing is, I’m not sure how to feel about it. Normally I’d scoff, say it was too predictable. But I saw a tweet recently saying that maybe a book being predictable isn’t entirely a bad thing, because that meant the author did a good job laying the groundwork, or something like that?? So I’m torn, because like. I can see where they’re coming from. But I also (usually) want a book to surprise me, to thrill and entertain me. And this one… didn’t.

So, yeah. I think I’ve said all I have to say about this book. And in doing so, I’ve realized that I really didn’t like it that much, that it was quite disappointing. Wren is basically the only reason I’m giving it 3 stars instead of something lower. I’ll read the sequel when it comes out for her and her alone, because I want to support my daughter—and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, I’ll get to see Jude and Cardan too—but my expectations are going to be a hell of a lot lower.

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