Heidi's Updates

Heidi liked a review

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:23:12 -0700

Heidi liked phoebe's review of Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2):

Heidi liked a readstatus

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:23:10 -0700

Heidi liked phoebe’s status update

phoebe is currently reading Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

Heidi is on page 24 of 335 of Hercule Poirot's Christma

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:22:56 -0700

Heidi is on page 24 of 335 of Hercule Poirot's Christmas.

Heidi started reading 'Hercule Poirot's Christmas'

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:22:27 -0700

Heidi started reading Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

Heidi added 'The Hate U Give'

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 17:20:27 -0700

Heidi gave 5 stars to The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1) by Angie Thomas
bookshelves: ya, what-is-happening, violence, super-good, school, sad, recommended-book-to-me, realistic-fiction, racism, pretty-good, murder, mature, made-me-want-to-cry, favorite-books, favorites, awesome
Review coming soon...

Heidi wants to read 'Concrete Rose'

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 17:19:13 -0700

Heidi wants to read Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

Heidi marked as dnf 'The Corpse Queen'

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 07:51:47 -0700

Heidi marked as dnf The Corpse Queen by Heather M. Herrman

Heidi added 'The Prisoner’s Throne'

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 21:52:38 -0700

Heidi gave 2 stars to The Prisoner’s Throne (The Stolen Heir Duology, #2) by Holly Black
bookshelves: ehh, ya, adventure, faeries, fantasy, finale, angsty, not-as-good-as-the-first, i-read-this-because-i-was-bored, i-think-the-mc-is-kind-of-stupid, magic, murder, predictable, some-romance, violence, war-fighting, what-is-happening, why-did-i-read-this, witch, cool-fantasy-world, good-ok
Okay...

So...
Um...
Why did that whole series just felt like a decently written long form fanfiction taking place in the world of Elfhame about the unexplored dynamics of Wren and Oak?

I did not feel any of the excitement and anticipation I felt while reading the Cruel Prince series in this. I feel like this duology lost the essence that made the previous trilogy so compelling. I guess because there is no longer that contrast between Faerie and humans (Cardan and Jude <3), but, even with that, Oak and Wren act like humans, even though they are both completely Fae. Which I thought wasn't how that works...?
Literally the whole point of Cruel Prince, Wicked King, and Queen of Nothing was because Cardan couldn't love and express his eMoTiOnS like a human, Jude was pretty cagey with him and he a TRICKSTERRRRR. Maybe it's because they both grew up with humans when they were younger?

...

I don't know, the logic is not logicking with me right now.

Honestly, one of the main reasons why I feel like this series is so jarringly different from the first series may be attributed to the 9(??) year time skip.

Characterization:

All the characters feel just slightly off, that it was just bugging me so much throughout this entire book. [spoilers removed]

The character relationships were just so boring and so flat. Chemistry between Wren and Oak where? I quite literally was about to laugh my butt off every time Wren or Oak was like "I am dangerous and blah, and you can't love me because I am so badddddd and dangerousssssss." and all "You're just trying to trick me and my fragile little heart :("

Bonus:
Also, Madoc being all like "Maybe I screwed up" made me so shooketh until he was like "But, heyy, you wouldn't be here if I didn't train you into a heartless killing machine where your brain shuts down, lolololol." 100% sure he was on something.

Plot:
The entire premise and plot of the first one does not fit well with this book. It just feels so rushed while there isn't anything actually substantial going on (or that's how it felt). The first half of the book where Oak is trying to just talk to Wren was just kind of stupid. I know it was just Holly Black trying to add more fuel to their relationship, but it was just sad to read. [spoilers removed] I honestly didn't care when [spoilers removed] was actually behind the conspiracy against the throne. When that went down the later half of the book, I just wanted it to be over. It was pretty cool to see Jude in action again though. [spoilers removed]

Okay, I'm tired, I don't feel like saying more. Bye gang, don't read this. It's not worth it.

Heidi wants to read 'The Prisoner’s Throne'

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 21:28:49 -0700

Heidi wants to read The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black

Heidi added 'The Stolen Heir'

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 20:52:56 -0700

Heidi gave 3 stars to The Stolen Heir (The Stolen Heir Duology, #1) by Holly Black
bookshelves: what-is-happening, ya, war-fighting, violence, surprisingly-good, some-romance, pretty-good, omg-what, not-as-good-as-the-first, magic, i-read-this-because-i-was-bored, i-am-totally-bias, good-ok, fantasy, faeries, cool-fantasy-world, adventure, angsty
WHAT WAS THAT ENDINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG? FTGWHBSJKNBWKQJBHJWQVHJQVWHSKQBKHQ
I am so happy this one is only a duology where the sequel is already out. Time to book it to the library to read another book I do NOT have time for.

Okay, but seriously, this surprised me in a lot of ways. It was easy to revisit this world even after reading Queen of Nothing like almost three years ago (I have been debating whether or not I should read it again, but I think I will continue to avoid a reread). Maybe since I have had so much time away, the characters feel very new, especially Oak (whom I remember very little about) despite showing up in the last series. [spoilers removed]
Can't ~~read to wait~~ wait to read the next one!