I read this with my book club. This book was absolutely mesmerising. A powerful, emotional historical saga about a family devastated by tragedy and war in the 20th century. From the start to finish, it was just brilliant.

Before starting this novel I knew very little about either Korea or Japan or the Korean diaspora in Japan; I learned so much. Lee does a beautiful job of immersing the reader into the historical settings and really sets the scene of how people would have lived. She doesn't shy away how harsh life was for ordinary Koreans after the Japanese occupation or the racism that Koreans experienced living in Japan. Her extensive research really stands out.

This novel is beautifully rendered. The plot was well structured and engaging. Lee's prose is absolutely gorgeous, and she described everything so well. The characters are all so well realised, especially Sunja, the protagonist. It was interesting seeing how her character grew and changed over her life and the challenges she experienced. She was so real and human. Every single character was multilayered and flawed and had complex motivations, which made Pachinko such a thought provoking read.

I can't recommend this book enough. I will definitely be reading more of Min Jin Lee's books in the future.

What a fantastic ending to the trilogy. I think the Farseer Trilogy has become one of my favourite fantasy series. I have completely fallen in love with this world and the characters.

I love Fitz so much. What a compelling protagonist he is. I have enjoyed seeing his character grow as well over the course of the series. He is multifaceted and compelling. He is an honourable character yet Hobb allows him to be vulnerable and make mistakes. I can't wait to see where his character arc goes in future installments.

The story was just fantastic. It was very well plotted and there was just so much happening with some interesting reveals. And the world-building was just astounding. Incredibly immersive and expansive full of rich detail. I'm honestly in awe of Robin Hobb's imagination. The prose was sumptuous and lyrical and I just got lost in the story. However, the pacing was too slow in some places which is why it's not the full five stars.

Overall, a fantastic book and I would definitely recommend this series. I can't wait to continue my journey into the Realm of the Elderlings.

Wow, this was such a great book. While, I'm not completely obsessed with this series yet, I'm starting to see why the series is so beloved and this was a major improvement on the first two books.

I think the main highlight of this book is the character arcs. Celaena/Aelin's journey through this book was beautifully written and so raw and emotional to read. She's such a strong character both physically and in spirit so I liked the fact that SJM allowed her to break and be vulnerable in this installment. It just makes her more compelling as a protagonist. Chaol's character arc really stood out to me as well, the inner turmoil he had as his world was completely changing and had reconsider his loyalities was very interesting to read.

I loved the new characters introduced in this book, especially Rowan, Manon, and Aedion. I can definitely see Manon becoming a favourite character of mine, I thought her journey throughout the story was intriguing and I'm interested to see what comes next.

The world-building was so immersive and expansive. I loved the lore surrounding the Ironteeth Witch clans in particular. The fantasy elements really came into their own in this book. The multiple storylines made the book much more interesting to read and I thought all of them were really well thought out. However I wasn't as invested in the Rifthold storyline.

All in all, a really good book. I don't really have anything negative to say. On to Queen of Shadows.

I read this with my book club. Wow, what an ending to the duology! I enjoyed this so much more than the first book. It was gripping, exciting, and I had to force myself to put the book down last night so I could sleep.

The writing was simply gorgeous. The world-building was immersive and well done. This is one of the most unique fantasy worlds and magic systems I've read. I liked the fact we got more of an insight into some of the side characters like Erik Spindle and of course we finally got the backstory of the Nightmare. I was quite indifferent to Elm and Ione in One Dark Window but I grew to like them in this book. Their romance came out of nowhere but I was won over. I got a bit emotional at the end (in a good way). The conclusion was satisfying and all of the plot points were wrapped up nicely. I liked the parallels between the Nightmare's story and the main story.

Unfortunately, I still had a few issues with the book. I still felt very disconnected to the main characters Elspeth and Ravyn. I found Elspeth still unlikeable and Ravyn simply wasn't that interesting as a character. I also didn't feel much connection between them in their romance because they were hardly interacting. Maybe the author should have had a few more scenes of them talking together in the epilogue.

Overall, this was a well written book and I really enjoyed reading it. It was a satisfying conclusion to this duology.

I read this with my book club. This was just so beautiful. This is one of the most unique fantasy books I've read in a long time and it is rendered just so perfectly. It has an interesting concept that is well thought out, the world-building was immersive and unique. The magic system was so interesting and different. I love how atmospheric and beautifully written this book was. I really struggle to visualise when I'm reading (a great trait for a reader I know) but I was completely immersed in the setting and I could see all the locations so vividly in my mind. I picked out some interesting quotes too.

However, there were a few things that ruined my enjoyment of the book and stopped it from being the full 5 🌟. One of the main things was I just wasn't attached at all to the characters. I was still rooting for them and thought their character development was interesting, but I felt very disconnected from the characters until the last quarter of the book. It's extremely important to me that I care and am attached to characters while I'm reading and unfortunately that didn't happen here. I thought the romance was fine but not particularly memorable. The pacing was very uneven and painfully slow at times. It took until well over the halfway point for the plot to start picking up and the major 'twist' in the story I thought was pretty obvious.

Overall, despite the issues I had, I really enjoyed this book. I can see why it's so popular and I would recommend it. I will be finishing the duology.