Unabridged audiobook
English language
Published Aug. 2, 2022 by Blackstone Publishing.
I'm not sure why I'm "meh" on this one. I usually enjoy the various elements here: a hidden, dying magic (that maybe isn't), mysterious births, female lead (especially with a bad attitude), treachery, and heist-like plot devices.
I didn't like using "halfling" because that word already has a specific meaning for me and it's different from the usage here.
I dunno. It was fine, just maybe not for me.
Content warning Spoiler for plot.
Very much "booktok." I read this expecting sapphic. And I am bi, so I appreciate there is bi rep, but the fact that it started with "dead lesbian and makes MC into a 'monster' that wants revenge" and she sends up with a guy.... Just.
This isn't shade, btw, to booktok books, but they just use tropes and conventions that just aren't my cup of tea. Nothing wrong, just not my thing. If you like booktok, you'll like it if you can get over "dead lesbian/monster lesbian" trope. I picked up the second book from the library, too, so I'm gonna read it just because I want to see if it does "get better" in my opinion, it had a lot of potential in places and I want to see if those plot points get actualized.
Hella trigger warnings, exposition could be spotty at times, and the author doesn’t seem to know whether the Shadow is a tactical genius or a bumbling noob, but I like the magic system and the attention to infrastructure and it’s nice to follow the characters’ developing relationships. A decent choice if you’re relatively unburdened. If you have serious addiction gremlins though, I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble, at least not this early in the series. It’s entirely probably the author improves further in.
