This book took me such a long time to finish and now that I'm finally done with it I feel disappointed. I picked it up cause a lot of ppl who enjoyed the Emily Wilde trilogy recommended it, and as someone who adores the trilogy I decided to give it a chance.
My biggest problem with this book is the writing. I don't know what to pinpoint but it feels as if it's written to not make you immersed. Everything is so surface level and nothing is ever expanded on. It's an easy read for sure but there's literally nothing happening. At times it feels like a childrens book but then a character casually mentions sex or says fuck and you realize oh it's not.
Lots of ideas get thrown around but we never get any tension on it. Mika opening the shop at the end should be a big deal but we just get a sentence on that. Same w teaching the kids magic. If I were to summarize it's a whole bunch of tell don't show writing.
Another thing that bothered me was when characters would say borderline hurtful things to each other and it was brushed off easily. You also forget at points some characters exist cause all u get is a line telling you what they did but never any meaningful active scenes with them. This had potential if I am being honest but it's like everything been dumbed down to fit the cozy fantasy genre, even tho pretty heavy themes have been referenced.
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