bumblebee's reviews
139 reviews

This is a spoiler-free review of this whole series.

These books are a guilty pleasure kind of read for me. The writing isn't very good (I daresay it gets worse as the series goes on, the first book or two are pretty decent but after that it goes downhill fast) and there are basic editing mistakes like the main character discovering something "for the first time" twice in two different scenes, which don't exactly call for a ringing endorsement. 

Then again, if you're in the market for a turn-off-your-brain-and-be-entertained power fantasy story, these will do a solid job at keeping you occupied for a week or two. It kind of reads like a harem-style fantasy anime in that way: the main character is quite stupid but also the most powerful wizard of his time, and basically every woman immediately falls in love with him (but he remains faithful to his one true love). He has plot armour up to the gills and despite being gravely injured rather frequently, is practically immortal due to various magics. 

It's a rather predictable and trashy series, but I can't help but be entertained by it, so I read it twice. Except the last book, which I procrastinated for two years. Make of that what you will.

I just couldn't super get into this and after almost a week of not listening further I figure I might as well officially give up. I kinda already didn't love it after the prologue and first chapter, but I really wanted to give it a fair chance because I did find the set-up intriguing. Maybe I'll give the print version a shot at some point. I just can't keep all the many characters straight in my head, because my attention keeps wandering away from the audiobook.

This book pulled off the unique feat of having multiple POVs in multiple locations, without ever making me feel disappointed to switch to any of them, and for that, I have to applaud it. I'm usually not a huge fan of these kinds of books, since I generally find at least one of the POVs much less interesting to read, but in King of Scars I loved every single character and the different plots going on at different locations all had me equally at the edge of my seat, especially near the end of the book.

The first half was a little slow-going for me. Coming straight from the Six of Crows duology — which I ADORED — it took me a while to get into this new adventure, especially since I really missed the characters and setting from the previous books (they are my new favourite books). However, I'm really glad I kept on reading, because once the second half of this book kicked the adventure into high gear, I was swept away by it and struggled to put the book down until I finished it. (I daresay I might enjoy the first half more on a reread, which I plan to do at some point. I just wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to the Crows cast when I started the book this time around.)

All-in-all, I really enjoyed King of Scars. I don't usually give star ratings except if it's 5 stars (and I've only given 5 books that rating), but I enjoyed this enough to give it a solid 4.5. I look forward to the sequel.

Eh. Not in the mood for this right now. I’m all for unlikable protagonists but ugh. Maybe it’s worse as an audiobook, having to listen to him blather on. 

I just kinda lost interest in this series. I'm gonna try the audiobook to finish the last book.

This is my comfort audiobook. The narrator is fantastic!

I haven’t had a great time with YA lately but wanted to give this a shot since I loved Tweet Cute when it came out.

I was super into the lost sibling plot but the book seems to be mainly focused on misunderstanding-based romantic drama and conflict between the sisters instead, which I just found tediously childish and can’t bear to listen to any longer. (Like, I’m begging the characters to attempt to communicate instead of assuming shit, y’know.)

All in all, this is not for me.