Viola’s Comments (group member since Mar 07, 2015)

Viola’s comments from the Addicted to Ink group.

The primary feeling I had while reading this was confusion. I didn't really enjoy the writing style or world building, but I liked the main characters well enough and appreciated the focus on the darker side of human emotions.

The Bodacious Book Babe wrote: "Viola wrote: "I read Winter and am in the middle of Harry Potter #3"

How did you like Winter? :D"

It was great! At first I had some difficulties remembering all the terms and so on, for it's been a while since I read Cress.
But the action and tension throughout the book were gripping. And the characters were as perfect and lovely as ever, of course ^^
(Scarlet and Winter may have become my new OTP ;D)

I read Winter and am in the middle of Harry Potter #3

Cinder and Kai will always be my favourite couple, though I loved the banter between Scarlet and Winter nearly as much.

Ohhhhh it was GREAT! Marissa is the only author who manages to pull off the separation of main characters and continually switching POV without bothering me. I don't undestand how she does it, but it's wonderful accompanying all those lovely characters and I'll miss them. *sigh*

I'm way behind schedule, but I love it so far. The first 100 pages were really slow for me - probably because I can't remember a thing. It picked up speed pretty quickly, though, and I'm scared for all of them >.<

Because I'm so very funny I nominate Winter (for obvious reasons).
Also I plan on rereading the Harry Potter books, because they always get me in the right mood for christmas.

Virginia wrote: "I'm now reading The Shadow Cabinet, the third book in the S..."

Oh, I really love Maureen's humour. She's kind of brilliant. And I want to mention that I loved Stephen the moment he appeared in book #1. He's awesome.

Sadly, I don't have much time for reading (or generlly ANYTHING aside from University) and therefore only finished House of Whispers this week. But it certainly satisfied my desire for creepy-ness ^^

I think all of the characters were great. They felt incredibly real and fleshed out.
Especially Elias' mother impressed me. She was cruel and evil, but in a way that made sense and was somehow understandable given her background.

The parts that stuck with me the most are the moon festival and that trial where Elias and his female friend (can't remember her name, but I loved her) had to survive their greatest fears.

I read it when it first came out, so I don't remember all of it.

But what I liked was the characters, the romance situation in total and the world building which could have been more in depth, in my opinion, but I understand that it would have probably bored many people if it was even more detailed.
Sometimes I had problems with the pacing, though. Because much of tension in this book is based on the not-meeting of the main characters and I have huge problems in general with the resulting oh-when-do-they-meet-again-already feelings. Also I missed magic. I can't actually remember if there was magic at all. Was there?
Anyway, I expected a little bit more, because of all the hype and the praise by Brandon Sanderson (aka my authorgod of fantasy), but it was impressive for a debut novel.

I only imagined cries all over the whole world: "Get to the lifeboats! The ship is sinking! The Chaolin is sinking!"
My grief was that great. I couldn't face it.

The Bodacious Book Babe wrote: "... I find it a tad unrealistic..."

Because it totally is! I think it wouldn't have hurt if for example Nesryn had appeared later somewhere in the next books.
Also I'm a little disappointed that Rowan and Aelin are now romantically involved, because I really liked the fact that they were just friends in HoF.

But Manon and Dorian, though? YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES. Even if it could get a tad complicated with her being immortal and a man-eating witch heir and so on ;)

I absolutely agree with the out-of-character-argument. I had issues with understanding Manon (still LOVE her, though) and Chaol (obviosly).
Aedion and Lysandra felt a little bit stereotypical and flat, but I liked them.

Sometimes I just wished for a character who isn't unbelievable beautiful and handsome in addition to being the most powerfull fighter ever, you know? But who knows, maybe Lysandra decides to spend the next two books as an ugly, horrifying beast (with huge claws and fangs, of course) ^^

But my most favourite person in this book was Kaltain. I knew she was going to be important at some point in the story and it completely blew me away how dark and twisted and diabolical she became. Could someone please resurrect the poor girl?

I think conflicted is the best way to describe my feelings right now. My overall impression was that most of the book existed only to convince everyone that ChaolxAelin was a bad thing all along. You know, it's not the fact that they didn't end up together which bothers me, but the way it was done. All that fighting throughout the first half - even while driving me mad - was understandable, but I can't stand it when authors try to manipulate me by making good characters suddenly despiceable (*cough* Adam by Tahereh Mafi).
Chaol is NOT the type of person who goes crazy during a rescue mission, gets himself lost in a forest and stumbles headless in a clearing with witches and freaking DRAGONS, while endangering his allies. Urgh. I mean I get that he would be devastated after what happened to Dorian, but he wouldn't act like a obsessed lunatic. It's just not like the Chaol we were introduced to in the first two books.
Generally I would have liked less romantic antics and more plot. For example all the clever things Aelin planned and did were always in secret and held from the reader (to seem more impressive, I guess, when revealed) and therefore I had the feeling that nothing really happened for about 400 pages.
I hate to be killjoy, because I loved the other books so, so much, but those things dampened my enthusiasm a great deal :(
Anyway, the ending was cool. Especially the big reveal of Perrington and Kaltain showing off how badass she is... was.

I'm in for The Wrath and the Dawn or Magonia

In retrospective my favourite part was the worm-fight :D It was so gripping and intense, Feyre really impressed me then.

Kim wrote: "I guess, as an author, if you write a series that has people wanting to read the next installment, that's a win, right? Maybe???"

Of course! I never wanted to say it was bad. And my four star rating indicates my rather positive opinion, I think ;)

Feyre is cool, but I felt a little disconnected from her POV...? Don't ask why, bc I don't know why either.

The moment Rhys appeared I knew I was ruined forever. He's THE role model for fictional crushes and I'm really upset he doesn't exist in RL (please, feel free to correct me on that).
But I think, I'd be more content if Feyre and Tamlin ended up together for their happily ever after. He was the first one to make her truly happy and they really know and care for each other. (Also SJM could write a spin-off series then with Rhys as main character. Just sayin'.)

I have very mixed feelings about this book. It's written by Sarah J. Maas so, obviously, the world/ character development/ phrasing were perfect. But on the other hand it was at no point as surprising or mind-blowing-good as I expected it to be. And yes, I realize that a re-telling cannot differ too much from the original story and therefore surprises are difficult, but... *sigh* Of course, the fact that I was months before the release date already obsessing about it didn't help either.
So here I am. Slightly disappointed, but overall curious about the sequel.