Arianna

I'm nearly finished with the first book, but I think I'm ready to give a review given that there are just a couple of chapter left. For people saying that it ends in a cliffhanger: of course, it is a trilogy, as far as I know, so it is normal that it doesn't end the story on the first book. Now for my score. I'd like to break it down a bit. World building: 4/5 it is interesting, not overly zealous and adds a bit of modernity to the fantasy bit. Nothing wrong with that, it is actually quite entertaining, although sometimes some informations could be better introduced to the reader, than a two lines "and then there is that". Characters: 3/5 I used to like them a lot at the beginning, especially the female main character, which is a super relatable "older sibling" in burnout from being expected too much from a wrecked family and other social expectations. Going towards the end of the book she though loses a lot of her normalcy to be depicted indirectly as this super attractive and incredibly talented young woman ending in the classic trope of *takes glasses off* "but she was beautiful all along!"...meh. Could have been handled better. Relationship building: 2/5 this is really the part that bothers me. I was hoping for a slow burn, but there is a timeskip of 5 months just after the first couple of chapters and suddenly the villain, that has been presented as a cold hearted mofo has for some reason a crush on her out of nowhere and acts as a teenager in love but at the same time trying to not admit it to himself, and the girl is of course super clueless about it although everyone around them sees it. Same goes for the relationship with and between side characters, they seem to come a bit out of nowhere and quite rushed, while maybe it would have been better to put the basis to build something in the following books. Rivalries resolved out of nowhere in a couple of pages...meh? Plot: 4/5 the other saving grace of the book, the story is good paced if you can ignore the random romantic tropes shoved in your face here and there and keeps up the mystery. Writing: 2/5 There might have been issues with the editing, there are quite a few lines here and there that don't make sense grammatically, and you have to read around them. Luckily, it happens sporadically. The writing style is a bit amatorial, more what you would expect reading an online fanfiction made out of a hobby than a book that you paid for. All in all, it is an entertaining book, not the best, not the worst, it is good for when you want something light to read to relax inbetween heavier books without giving it too much thought.