Well. I'm afraid the characters were bad, the world building was not well explained, the relationship development was random, the chemistry was forced, the main character had zero charm T_T. I'm sorry, this was just really bad!! Having her passion be 'owning a book store' was honestly...lazy. The constant reference to Pru "pru would say this " "pru would think this". Um I'm sorry, is Pru the main character? What do YOU think, lady? The obsession with a book series that low key sounded dumb....also added to the drag of it all! Our heroine had so much work to do on her own confidence, self esteem, understanding of self...and had all these gaps + NO CHARM OR HUMOR, and somehow we were supposed to believe that this random man was enthralled by her? Like I said, forced. I feel like the premise could've been really interesting and magical, with a lot of fun cause, effect, and quick unravelling of "how this world works". It fell flat.

This came recommended from a friend. I was a little confused by the style, because it immediately gave me cozy fantasy vibe with a sprinkle of romance. To me, this genre typically leans on shallow and cheesy. So...there were a few aspects that surprised me! 1 The lust and //mostly closed door/ sex in the third act was a surprise pahah. 2. It verged on on cheesy feminist (like lessons in chemistry) but then sometimes touched on issues of class / intersectional feminism? 3. It verged on a boring cozy romance, but then suddenly introduced this idea of 'false love' being coerced by the vow. 4. I thought the magic was boring (like how many times can you run a spell that tracks where magic has been used -_-) and then suddenly at the end there's a big reveal on how Beatrix has access to a special magic. Anyway, a lot of 'almost boring but just enough spice' moments, but still 3 stars for me. I could be intrigued to read the 2nd book to see how the magic conflict but plays out, but I do NOT care about the romance and have not gotten invested in any of the relationships yet (like, sister-sister relationship could've been complex and interesting here, but instead was just...unexplored? Beatrix does everything that Lydia says?

I really liked the juxtaposition of Jane 23 & what's her name (Sidra?! Sorry I'm too lazy to doublecheck) - it was nice and poetic, but also a good mixup for the sort of boring Sidra story. Jane's story was more like an adventure/'omg how's this 10 yr old girl gonna get off this planet?!', and I found myself really looking forward to the pov switch. Great world building and ventures into the detail of society and mechanics, as always from this author!

This interesting sci-fi, coming of age, slice of life-ish book! The plot was delicate and not incredibly dramatic, but I liked it. I also have been liking these imperfect but nuanced mother characters that have been popping up in books (ie in Margo's got money troubles). I didn't expect to cry T_T ugh. Some of the later adult alien observations were cheesy imo, like high schooler Livejournal esque, including at her public readings lol. The third act got a little confusing, I sort of expected that there was some real-world explanation for the faxes, and wasn't expecting the ending!