Mini reviews || Lady Renegades and The Glittering Court

Lady Renegades by Rachel Hawkins

Genre: YA fantasy

Status: Book 3 of Rebel Belle

Goodreads

Synopsis:

Just as Harper Price starts coming to terms with her role as David Stark’s battle-ready Paladin, protector, and girlfriend—her world goes crazy all over again.  
 
Overwhelmed by his Oracle powers, David flees Pine Grove and starts turning teenaged girls into Paladins—and these young ladies seem to think that Harper is the enemy David needs protecting from.  Ordinarily, Harper would be able to fight off any Paladin who comes her way, but her powers have been dwindling since David left town, which means her life is on the line yet again. 
 
Now, it’s a desperate race for Harper to find and rescue David before she backslides from superhero to your garden-variety type-A belle. 
 
New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins brings the fun once again in the finale of this pitch-perfect romantic paranormal comedy series.

In the last two books, I was mostly on the ok-ok side with this trilogy. I didn’t dislike it but it wasn’t that great either.

This book started off rocky, I spotted sentences that could have been written better and basically wasn’t that onboard. After a few chapters I finally saw the potential and dived in head-first. I wasn’t attached to the characters previously but in this book, I liked the budding friendship between Harper and Blythe, whom Harper previously hated.

The ending was really good and I became soo much more invested into the romantic relationship between Harper and David in this book. The small flashbacks thought by Harper, the longing on both sides and finally the ending. THE ENDING WAS SOO SWOON WORTHY. I read it three times after finishing the book and couldn’t move on! Now I feel like rereading the relationship parts so I can see them together earlier again.

Overall on the trilogy, I wouldn’t say it’s a must-read but it’s a good read. I wouldn’t say spending money on it is a waste.

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The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

Genre: YA fantasy

Status: Book 1 in the Glittering Court series

Goodreads

Synopsis:

Big and sweeping, spanning from the refined palaces of Osfrid to the gold dust and untamed forests of Adoria, The Glittering Court tells the story of Adelaide, an Osfridian countess who poses as her servant to escape an arranged marriage and start a new life in Adoria, the New World. But to do that, she must join the Glittering Court.

Both a school and a business venture, the Glittering Court is designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies who appear destined for powerful and wealthy marriages in the New World. Adelaide naturally excels in her training, and even makes a few friends: the fiery former laundress Tamsin and the beautiful Sirminican refugee Mira. She manages to keep her true identity hidden from all but one: the intriguing Cedric Thorn, son of the wealthy proprietor of the Glittering Court.

When Adelaide discovers that Cedric is hiding a dangerous secret of his own, together they hatch a scheme to make the best of Adelaide’s deception. Complications soon arise—first as they cross the treacherous seas from Osfrid to Adoria, and then when Adelaide catches the attention of a powerful governor.

But no complication will prove quite as daunting as the potent attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. An attraction that, if acted on, would scandalize the Glittering Court and make them both outcasts in wild, vastly uncharted lands…

I hadn’t even read the synopsis before marking it to-read to be honest. I trusted Mead. But, I’m also glad I didn’t buy a paperback or hardback of the book.

It disappointed me, to be blunt. I’ll break it down to points:

• I didn’t get invested into the story. It didn’t draw me in and hold me.
• The beginning was pretty okay and once I got half through I had to pause reading this and come back after a couple other books because I just didn’t feel like continuing.
• This COULD have been divided into two books and more content could have been given on everything, especially first half.
• Might have been better if it was written in first person POV instead of third. But I guess as the flow and narration goes, third POV was required.
• THE FLOW OF SCENES AND EVENTS. Huge negative in my opinion. Trying to find the right words, it was like a fairytale narration, “this happened. That happened. Skip 8 weeks. One scene. Talk about exams in three paragraphs. Skip another two/three weeks.” And the skipping wasn’t even done in different chapters! It’s like we’re talking about two weeks of prep for tests in a couple paragraphs and then they talk about what happened during the exams and move on to waiting for results. No definitive break.
• The only interesting thing I found was that there was no “villian” for two-thirds of the book. It was just circumstances. I was craving for that spice when villians are there. When one was finally introduced, I pretty much cringed and wanted to take back my wish.
• Too many elements mixed up into one book. The number of characters, events, tribes, history, religion practices and deceits. Everything was all jumbled up. I could see that the intention was to add a lot and perfectly untie everything in the end but it didn’t work.
• Following up the above point, I kind of forgot who some charcters were when they came back later. The writing and pace was in such a way that I couldn’t get invested in anything properly.
• In a couple reviews I read on this book talks about the amazing friendship between the girls. There was good friendship but I didn’t find it that remarkable. They were more like partners in survival, and then became close. Again, the third person POV made me feel detached from all happenings so I guess I can’t say much on feelings and bonds.

Overall, I’m not happy about this book. I’m not sure what all the hype was about pre-release in the ARC reviews I read.

I would say borrow the book from a friend or the library. I wouldn’t want to spend on it. I’m also not sure if I’ll even read the next book, rather mark the date and buy it immediately.