Rating: 3

Well, the progression of this reread was too good to be true. After the high of the fourth book that had me in tears for being so perfect, this one left me rather disappointed. It might be my least favourite of the series (though I haven’t reread the sixth yet and never read the seventh, so I might be wrong) …

This has been on my tbr since 2008, which is a little weird considering that’s the year I fell in love with all things Irish. It took me a very long time to finally get to it. And what I found is a weird book I’m pretty sure I would’ve utterly disliked if I had read it as a child or in my early teens. And here is why …

If you read The Night Circus, you might want to give this a pass, because The Crown’s Game is its watered-down YA version that unfortunately doesn’t come close to the original. I really truly wished I had read these two in reverse, because then I might have enjoyed The Crown’s Game much more. It does have its merits, but overlooking the similarities is next to impossible …

Wow, this was a wild ride. I feel like I only understood about 10% of what I read. Still, I enjoyed reading this collection a lot – at least in the beginning. The last couple of stories unfortunately didn’t connect with me quite as well as some of the previous. But the writing is very beautiful, incredibly intricate and complex and there’s more happening between the lines then what’s on the page …

Although Fairest is set before The Lunar Chronicles, I highly recommend reading the books in publication order. Many of the characters we came to know and love throughout the first three novels are mentioned here and since they appear in the context of their backstory, it might spoil the revelations in the series. Furthermore, I don’t know whether skipping is a good idea because it contains Winter’s backstory and gives an insight into her relationship with her cousin, which appears to be an important point, hinted at when reading the first three chapters of Winter …

Third time’s a charm? In this case, not really. With each read, I’m deducting one star from the rating: the first time, I giggled myself through an otherwise sleepless, anxiety-ridden night; the second time, I still enjoyed it, but it lost a little; the third time – this time – I listened to the audiobook and was almost a little disappointed. It might not hold up for me, but if you’re looking for a fun fluffy contemporary fantasy read with a very chaste dash of horror, this might just be it – but don’t expect this one to be big on character development and thrill …

I wasn’t a fan of the first book in this series but since I already owned the sequels, I decided to give The Sleeping Prince a chance – and was pleasantly surprised although not blown away. All it took to get me on board was a more likable protagonist, a more engaging plot without love triangles, and a deep dive into the wonderful lore of this high fantasy world!