A world eclipsed by darkness and ruled by monsters, ruled by a murdering madman.

A girl hidden away in a tower and a boy hardened by the new, dark world. 

This book was great and this series is going to be AWESOME!

I can't believe it's the middle of April! I bought a lot of books this month too (I'll never learn) and I can't wait to read ALL of them!!

Here is the list:

Away We Go - Emil Ostrovski 

Into the Dim - Janet B. Taylor 

Paper Princess: A Novel (The Royals) - Erin Watt 

Reign of Shadows - Sophie Jordan 

When We Collided - Emery Lord 

The Haters - Jesse Andrews 

Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire 

 

Also, I finished "The forbidden wish" by Jessica Khoury the other day and as I really liked Jessica's style, I went ahead and bought a trilogy series she wrote with a dystopian theme:

Origin - Jessica Khoury 

Vitro - Jessica Khoury 

Kalahari  - Jessica Khoury 

So, are you here to read a ramble-y review about all my feelings about Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan? Well, you are gonna be disappointed because today I have decided to attempt doing a review in GIFS. After all, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words...

Overall reaction to the book

How I feel about the characters

LUNA: sometimes naive, sometimes kickass, also occasional bad decision maker. Overall:

FOWLER: Just an angry young man who is mad at the world for all the wrongs it has done him. Overall:

How I feel about the romance

In theory, I shipped the characters but in practice I just needed them to slow down and get to know each other instead of Fowler being passive agressive and then suddenly falling in love?? (IDK if the L word is used)

How I feel about the world building

 I found it interesting but thought there needed to be a lot more of it. Overall:

How I feel about the plot

 I love me a survival story and I enjoyed the plot, but also wanted more substance. Overall:

The Ending

 

I do have mixed feelings about the book since there are some things I liked and others I felt mediocre about. The book didn't manage to blow me away but it was good brain candy, so if you're looking for an easy, fun book to flip through, Reign of Shadows might just be for you. Just be warned, the ending is BRUTAL.

There will be spoilers... because honestly theres kinda a big one thats hard not to talk about.


hmmm. How to rate this... I enjoyed it. I did. Kinda.. It was a little boring at times... most of the time actually. I wanted to like Luna. I tried really hard but her character was so freaking unrealistic. She is blind. I was like thats going to take this book up a notch because up until that point I was bored stiff. But then I just kept getting annoyed that she could do things like smell if someone was naked. Is that a real thing? It just seemed unrealistic that she had ZERO problems. It made perfect sense when she was at home and in an environment that she has been in her whole life but when she left that.. I don't know. I have issues walking around my own freaking house.

Another thing that really kind of pissed me off was that 75% of this book was kinda pointless.. They were wondering in the woods one way but then she decides to go back the other way and he follows. So they end up back where they started!! UGH. I felt like I wasted my time. Because nothing was learned. Not really. Sure there was a kiss or two and Fowler decides that he cares about her but ehh.. not enough reason for me to read a book.

But the absolutely worst thing about this book is at the very end. In the last 5 minutes of the book. Fowler tells Luna something important about himself and she freaks out on him! She turns into a huge bitch and basically pushes him away. She has spent the whole freaking book all over this guy, he has saved her life multiple times, he has proven over and over again that he is kinda an amazing guy and he has ONE little itty bitty thing against him ( something he can't help at all btw) and she is ready to throw him to the wolves. I hate her. If this would have happened earlier in the book I would have stopped reading. I was so mad.

I know I just ranted a bunch but I am glad I read it. I was entertained. Will I be jumping up for joy for the next book? No. Will I read it? Yes.

Honestly wish I would have liked this more.

Because the way this started, the blurb, the cover - it all made me feel extremely hopeful

I mean:

 

A royal assumed dead. Lost and forgotten. Trapped in a tower within a cursed forest, surrounded by monsters.

 

Doesn't that sound familiar? Well, to me it sounded like my favorite childhood fairytale.

And hence I was looking forward to it.

I liked the idea of the world- the midlight, shadows, the creatures, the eclipse... It's so goth, pretty gruesome awesomeness...Right down my alley.

 

But alas I didn't.

Because let's just face it. That's where my likes end, mostly at least.

 

I am not exactly wowed by the character building.

The support cast, feel exactly like that. Support. Nothing more.

While I like that Luna is a slightly different kind of MC, I found here annoying. In fact, she is rather melodramatic and very ungrateful. Supposedly she is this amazing person... but I just couldn't see it.

And mostly she was the cliche spoilt uber-dramatic princess. I wanted to smack her most of the time. Actually I wanted to shank her. I found her POV overly whiny. Her dramatic self-sacrificial ways, felt more like a way of getting attention than anything else.

Fowler... So he is clearly hot, or at least we are told that, he has a sexy voice. BUT he is just another walking cliche. His big secrets, are not surprise - I could see them coming from a mile off. The only time I felt a connection was when he was thinking about Bethany right at the beginning.

 

The romance is woody and felt a tad tired. I mean we told that there is this huge connection between them- this amazing chemistry. I however didn't see that at all. There were a couple of sweet moments, but the kiss 75% in was totally underwhelming actually. It's insta-love/lust and the few sweet moments couldn't cover up that fact. Oh and where is the starcrossed part we are promised in the blurb?!

 

While I do like the setting, the world building has huge gaps. I was left with a gazillion questions. Still my favorite part of the book.

 

The plot is boring.. most of the time. At least for the first half, not much happens. Much melodrama. But then they started traveling and it got a wee bit more interesting. At 80% though, I was kinda done. I would have totally DNFed if this wasn't a ARC.

This ends on a cliffy. It's supposedly one of those uber-cliffies... but the most disappointing thing about that? I didn't' really care. I was just glad that it was done.

 

 

I am really sad that this didn't work for me. I like Jordan's writing style. I like the way she described how Luna saw things, I like the concept, the general idea and I am not sure I am totally ready to give up on the series yet. I have hopes, that the second book will get better....