Rating: 2

I read and reviewed Shadow and Bone in 2013. Spoiler: I didn’t like it much, which is why I never bought the sequels. A small part of me, however, was curious how the story would continue so when I got my new library membership, this was the first book I picked up. And what can I say? I’m glad I didn’t invest in the English hardcovers. I just can’t warm up to this series. Maybe I’m a little more critical than I usually would be because I didn’t like the first one. I don’t want to get too much into details here to keep it spoilerfree, but I’ve got a couple of things I want to address …

This is the companion to Clara und das Glück dieser Erde. I think the story of this one is not part of the ZDF Christmas TV series, but I’m not sure since I haven’t watched that series yet. After the first novel, I was quite wary about this one. Well, what can I say, this book drove me crazy … as indicated by all the swearing. I’m terribly sorry but I just had to vent my emotions.

I’m not sure of what I’d heard first: the book or the ZDF Christmas series from the same year. I still haven’t seen the series and right now, I’m not so sure if I still want to. I probably will if I get my hands on it one day, but the book really put me off for the time being. Gah, and I had my hopes up!

A heroine set out for revenge; a dark and mysterious, more or less evil love interest; dragons known as Dracyr – this should have been just my kind of YA high fantasy romance novel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Granted, it didn’t take me long to get into the novel and at first, I inhaled it – until I put it down. The more I thought about what I’d read, the more difficult it became to get myself to continue. The concept of the Dracyr is very cool, but that’s about the only redeeming quality of the novel. Not only was I disappointed that the protagonist was a far cry from the kickass assassin I’d expected, the romance had me cringe and my skin crawl …

What the hell?! I’m still baffled and it hurts my soul to write this since Lynn Raven is one of my favourite authors, but in my humble opinion, this novel is a disaster! Seelenkuss reads like a first draft in need of heavy editing with a plot all over the place, characters so flat they’re almost translucent, and world building that had me scratching my head …

I love Icelandic horses, probably because they played a huge role in the very first horse novel I ever read. I’m also fascinated with Iceland and dream of visiting it one day. So far, it hasn’t worked out yet, but one day, I’m sure it will. When I first heard about this book, I really wanted to own and read it. Well, it only took me 7 years to finally get to it …

The only truly beautiful thing about Belle Epoque is the stunning cover. The content, on the other hand, could be a repoussoir itself: it’s positively plain, dull, and boring. The blurb made me believe I held a late 19th century Parisian version of Gossip Girl in my hands. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case …