My Rating: 3 hearts
Thoughts
on the Novel: Although I haven’t had much luck with faerie novels in the past, I was hoping that All That Glows by Ryan
Graudin would break that trend. Unfortunately, while it wasn’t a bad read, All
That Glows could have been better with some changes. I therefore thought a pros
and cons list would best highlight what I enjoyed about the novel and what I
didn’t.
Pros:
- I liked the mix of fantasy with contemporary elements.
- I always love reading books that have foreign settings – in this case, London.
- I thought the plot was decent, and remained curious throughout the novel about who could be behind the attacks on Richard.
- For a faery who is supposed to be centuries old, Emrys acted very much like a teenage girl.
- The romance was an insta-love romance.
- Richard wasn’t a very memorable character so I didn’t really understand what made him stand out in Emrys’ mind from all the other mortals she has ever seen.
- I hate when couples give each other cutesy nicknames! Repeatedly having to read Emrys be called Embers by Prince Richard was very annoying!
Comments About the Cover: It’s so pretty! I love the colour scheme and the font that was used for the title. I also think whoever was responsible for makeup did a good job of making the model’s face kind of look fae-like.
In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (HarperCollins) for free via Edelweiss.
Hmm..I've never heard of this one and it doesn't seem interesting enough for me to pick it up either. Have you tried reading Stiefvater's faerie books: Lament and Ballad? They are more of your dark fey stories but also have the contemporary mixed in. I also liked the first 3 of the Wicked Lovely series by Marr but haven't gone back and finished the last book in the series.
ReplyDeleteI did notice the same thing about Emrys that she acts very much like a teenager. I really liked Richard once he grew up and I ended up really loving this one. I also thought about the love situation, but to me it was more of instant attraction that turned into love after they spent so much time together. I think what made me love this book was the combo of fantasy set in England and Embrys guarding Richard. I also liked that it wasn't all dark like most of the books about fairies are.
ReplyDeleteGreat review! I'm off to read you review of Dark Triumph, which I have been meaning to read...
I agree with pretty much everything you've said here, both the pros and cons--I didn't hate this as much as so many other people seem to, but ti definitely could have, should have been a lot better.
ReplyDeleteOh, the nicknames. PEEVED, SO PEEVED.
Wendy @ The Midnight Garden
Your list on cons is literally my list of cons too! Therefore, I agree ;) I feel like if the book had focused less on the romance and more on Faeries and the Guard, it would have been so much better!
ReplyDeleteIts my first time hearing about this book but I've never been a big fan of faerie reads so probably wont be reading this anytime soon. Have you read the Wondrous Strange series by Lesley Livingston...I think its the only faerie series I've read that I really loved.
ReplyDeleteEhhhh? I thought this was contemporary. =w= I didn't read the summary before marking it as to-read. The cover was pretty enough to be included in my TBR, lol. I don't think I'd get along well with Emrys here and I also don't like it when people give their special someone petnames especially if it's corny. And there's also the dreaded insta-love. Ugh, I might have to rethink this book. :(
ReplyDelete