***Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley!***

This book is proving to be a difficult one to review and decide on an appropriate rating. I finished it over 24 hours ago and am still trying to put my thoughts together. On the whole, it was an alright story. There was absolutely nothing revolutionary about it, but it’s a solid story.

Let’s start with Liza. I did not really like her as a character. I found her to be annoying for the most part. She starts off fine, a bit histrionic but who wouldn’t be freaked out by the things she is discovering about the world? After awhile she seemed far stupider than I felt she should be. The pieces were there but she just refused to put them together and instead continued with her internal narrative that “there’s no way that any of this involves me”. Literally everyone in the book is telling you that it does. Hell, your dreams are telling you that it does! The strange happenings are telling you that it does! EVERYTHING IS SCREAMING AT YOU THAT YOU ARE INVOLVED!! So while there was nothing actually wrong with the character, she grew to be infuriating. And then when we got to the end of the book, it turned out she was pretty useless and unnecessary to the plot. More on that in a minute.

The characterization of the fae was fabulous. I enjoyed seeing a more horrifying aspect of the land of fae instead of the pretty, sparkling faeries that are so common in literature. I can’t say that the book was overly scary, but the horror aspects of it were very well written and interesting. I can’t say that I can conjure up too much emotion about the other characters since I did not feel that I got to know them at all. They were a flat and lacked qualities that would have made them more relatable and realistic characters. They were fine, but one dimensional. They also seemed to be a bit stupid at times, similar to Liza’s stupid. They acknowledge that everything happening is telling them that the old rules don’t apply. But then they run around screaming, “Oh My God! Why are the old rules not working!?” Well, duh, you just said why just a few pages ago.

A lot of this book was difficult to read. I found myself reading the same page a few times in order to understand what was going on. I am not entirely sure what made it difficult but I had a very hard time.

On to my last point for this: The ending. Warning!!!! Spoilers:

So, the whole point of the book is that Liza is a fae princess and has to choose between two princes. One prince wants the fae to rule the world and exterminate humans. One prince wants the fae to live in a dimension completely separate from humans and allow the peaceful existence of both. In the end, Liza will choose her prince and that will decide the fate of the world. But then we get to the end and she doesn’t choose! She chooses to stab herself instead in order to not have to make a choice. And somehow this meant that her choice was for peaceful co-existence of humans and fae? I have no idea where that ending came from but I didn’t like it. Making a choice by not making a choice and then somehow that means that everything is fine. So dumb and kind of made me feel the book was pointless in the end.

At the end of the day this book was decently written with passable characters and the fae are good enough to make this book a decent read.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.

                This is a collection of photographs by Mohan Bhasker, and many of them are stunning.  As the title indicts, the photos are divided by continent.  While largely pictures, there is some text, for the most part relating experiences while on the journey. 

                It’s strange that North and South America share a chapter, while each other continent gets its own (and you can make a geologic argument that Europe isn’t one).  While there are pretty pictures of New England in the fall, Canada is left out – though Mexico gets attention.  The focus on South America is largely, though not exclusively, on Argentina.  Those photos are beautiful, largely of nature, and they will make you want to visit.

                I do wonder, can anyone not include photos of lavender in France, just once?

                The weakest section of the book, for me, was the Africa chapter.  This isn’t because the photos aren’t stunning; every photo in the book is. It’s because they are all nature photos.  While the focus is on the natural world, the chapter on the Americas, Europe, and Asia do include buildings.  Why not Africa?  Why just the almost standard photos, wonderful as they are, of lions, zebras, and so on?

                Bu hey, at least Africa got more attention than Australia.

                The heart of the book is the Asia section, including a section on Nepal that is impossible to look at without thinking of the earthquake.  The Asia section does make up for other Africa and Australia.  And it is this chapter that truly comes across as a love letter of words and photos.