hann_cant_read's reviews
431 reviews

The entire frame of this story revolves around Freya "wanting". Wanting glory in battle, wanting her family to not suck, wanting to bone Bjorn. But she refuses to do anything about it, preferring instead to let others "control her fate" and then alternating between rage from being used as a tool, and guilt over the decisions she let others make.
If it's not clear, I think Freya is pretty dumb. 
1. The entire story kind of revolves around her flipping back and forth in her bad decisions until

ultimately Bjorn just makes one for her.

2. She has no battle experience, (except like, for playing with her brother as a child? I don't know in what world that counts but okay) But still somehow the fact that other people have ACTUAL experience and might know what they're talking about better than her somehow never occurs to her.
3.

There is literally no reason for Freya to think that Ylva is the "traitor" except that Freya doesn't like her. All the observations of her seeing specifically a woman felt like she made it up to justify her train of thought. It was just so obviously a red herring that it wasn't even believable.

4. She would stop thinking people were lying to her if she would ACTUALLY listen to the things they're (

Bjorn

) trying to tell her without giving away their secrets to every single person around.
5. Her "subconsciously" being against using the healing salve is so stupid. It was an easy ploy by the author to give Bjorn an excuse to have to touch her, but the random psychoanalyzing of her guilt by a stranger and then the salve never being mentioned again was also weird. 

How, after all the nicknames Bjorn gives her, do we end up sticking with "Freya Born-in-Fire" the least roll-off-the-tongue name anyone has ever tried to say.
Which brings me to the dialogue. It was so cringe. First of all, it's a lie. There is no slow burn it is absolutely insta-lust. And somehow it turns to love despite the only thing them ever talking about is how big his ween is in various forms of innuendos. Alternatively, they keep alternating between dialogue that sounds ancient/mythological and then really modern sounding. 

Lastly, wtf was going on with her family? There just isn't any consistency.
Her dad wanted to hide her destiny to protect her I think? He literally said "If anyone ever learns, your life will never be your own!" but then also ignores her begging and forces her to marry an abusive man. 
Her mom

apologizes for choosing her brother over her but then immediately starts berating and calling her a whore before ultimately betraying her to save herself

 
Her brother

in the beginning at least had some sort of loyalty to her even if he was spineless, but the aggressiveness which he came at her toward the end was out of nowhere.

 Idk man I was just so bored. There seemingly should be a lot to be invested in. Dani's mysterious backstory and issues with her mom. The heist gone wrong. The band of misfits that used to be her family. I loved the dog, but everyone else was just kind of meh. I kept finding myself having to push to finish a chapter and life's too short. It's not badly written, I just could NOT get invested. 

I really wanted to love it, but some things fell a little flat for me.
To start, I really did love the prose and the vibes. It was beautifully written, and the descriptions were poetic. It felt like the setting itself was another character.
It was pieces of the plot that I had more trouble with. Not even plot holes, just like "oh, that's it?" moments.
Reid really did a great job setting up for a fantastic story. I think the initial plot line of 

the widow being the true author

was predictable just from the theme of

men exploiting women

that was established very early on. I genuinely don't think a predictable plot is a bad one though, and I had thought that Reid had created enough going on alongside this plot-line to really create a captivating story.
But then, nothing else really happened. There were some super interesting side plot setups:

Effy having some other worldly beauty to the point that even a random boy at the college was annoyed with her until he saw her face then promptly asked her out. Sirens and selkies were even mentioned throughout the story alongside with Effy being a changeling child, but nothing ever came of it.

The war was mentioned quite a bit, but always in passing, like it didn't actually affect anyone we knew. It seemed like the only purpose was for the Sleeper Museum to have a function, and/or for Effy to make vaguely racist comments to Preston when she was mad, but it felt very underdeveloped.

I did like that for awhile we're really not sure if Effy is crazy like everyone thinks or if the Fairy King is real, because even she isn't sure.
Some questions I do still have that people might be able to answer for me:
1.

Why didn't the widow talk to them at all? Why/How did she escape the hall without making a sound if she wasn't a ghost?

2.

The random sex scene felt out of place. It felt less intimate and more like the precursor to a 3rd act breakup

3.

Why was the estate guy so cagey? He was helping Preston one minute, but suspicious of them the next.

 This book was so freaking funny. I legitimately laughed out loud at people's quips multiple times. The banter really was something else. That's probably why I loved Emily so much but man, she was streeeessing me out. She really was her own worst enemy.

The LGBTQ+ rep was very endearing, and didn't make me feel lectured or condescended to, it just was and the characters were navigating it.
 
If you're looking for an accurate portrayal of the regency period you are very much barking up the wrong tree, it's more "inspired by" the regency period I think,

The audio was narrated by Ell Potter, and she really nailed everyone's different cadences and comedic timing. I absolutely would listen to a book she narrated again. 

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC
DNF @ 27%
I just couldn't get on board with Penny. She seems very dumb despite her somehow being very successful. 
The premise was interesting, I do think I will return to finish it at some point / update my review. Just couldn't get past her

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.
DNF at 11%
This book was interesting, but the world building made me feel like I was reading a text book. I would like to come back to it at some point though! I'm hoping when I get through that it will flow a lot easier.

 Okay. So. I have a lot of thoughts. Most of them being that this book was fine. Nothing was like a major issue, but there were like a bunch of little things that bothered me.
1. Rosy's aversion to war made sense at first. Her grandfather was used and discarded by the Kingdom and then her Grandmother was punished for what seems to be a very natural reaction (familiars going feral when their bonded partner dies). But Rosy keeps acting like the kingdom just wants to go out and conquer land when at least by all appearances they are being attacked and need to defend themselves. Like, you choosing to not help defend your people when you have the ability to isn't going to stop the war from coming to you? I'm pretty anti-war but it felt like a weird take.

We do learn at the end that the war is pretty manufactured, but Rosy doesn't know that.

2. The kingdom has ALOT of politics regarding class systems, wealth, family bloodlines, etc but gender and sexuality isn't one of them. I love a world where homophobia doesn't exist, but it didn't feel like anything was solved/worked through, it felt like any problems that might arise were ignored. The princess is a powerful bone witch, from the bloodline of an extremely powerful bone witch. Where is her heir going to come from when she bonds with Rosy? Whether it's magic that helps them produce a baby together, or a donor is used, it felt like a weird omission when the King wrote to Shaw critiquing her courting choice.
3. In the same vein, no one was worried at all about the only potential heir dying in battle? There is no backup plan and this is crazy to me.
4. The use of the word terrorist so often just felt odd to me. This is a personal thing I think, but it's used so often with racist connotations in the real world, that it felt jarring to hear it in fantasy.
5. The prejudices against Shaw felt less like actual problems and more like a way to manufacture a slow burn relationship. Rosy's gran hated Shaw because a prophesy about her leading a war, but loved her grandmother the queen she fought under? And Rosy just inherited that prejudice and was a bitch to Shaw because of it? Like hate the King, sure, but Shaw has nothing to do with anything.
6. It was also a weird dissonance where, in a book where gender/sexual politics weren't an issue, we spent a very long time in Rosy's inner monologue reviewing the importance of not misgendering someone. Either it's a lesson we need to learn, or it's not a problem that occurs in this world. We can't both acknowledge and ignore it.
7. This book leans heavy into classism / wealth inequality but doesn't actually do anything to address it. The classism seems to exist solely so that Rosy can not care about status, because she's not like the other girls. Shaw tells Rosy she wants to offer scholarships to ALL witches/familiars that can't afford it when she's queen. Like that's great in theory but where is this money going to come from? What's the plan? It gives ethical billionaire vibes, and she's doing nothing to stop the bullying of less fortunate students at witch hall now. You're just suddenly going to do it when you're queen?
8. The ending where

Rosy determines she CAN fight but still won't bond with Shaw. Because she's not cut out for Court politics? This is just so random. Two chapters ago Rosy was complaining about how the ranch is doing just fine without her and how much she misses everything about Witch Hall. These circumstances keeping them apart make no sense except to further the relationship drama. They don't serve any other real purpose.

Netgalley Sampler eARC only supplied the first 5 chapters. Will finish upon full ARC being attained / book being released.

I ended up reading the physical copy instead!
The audio wasn't bad, but the beginning was a lot of world building and was easier to digest (for me!) in written form. I did listen to random chapters in audio once I was invested in the story.