justjeanettelee_reads's reviews
606 reviews

20 days to read a basically 400 paged book. This is a very VERY rare thing for me. I usually churn these books over in 2-4 days, depending on how much reading time I have and how good the book is. 20 days to read this book really only demonstrates one thing: I didn't enjoy it. It was beginning to become a chore to read. It wasn't until like just before 300 pages that I actually began to remotely enjoy this book. I don't think I'll be moving on to the sequel straight away, but I might come back around to it. Eventually. Maybe. The last roughly 100 pages did the premise of this story justice, so it might be enough to redeem the trilogy. I think it was just how the story was written. I honestly like the idea of it all. It was just written in a way that made reading it seem agonising.

It's not very often that I give a low review to a book. Normally, a 3 star rating will be my lowest, because somehow it managed to redeem itself entirely. . . "The Fire Sermon" didn't do that.

It took me just under 200 pages to actually believe in this book. That was 200 pages of absolute nightmarishly boring narrating, world building, character and plot development, to get through, before I could even marginally enjoy this story. What came after those 200 pages was enough to redeem "The Fire Sermon" from a 1 star rating. The foundation of this story is an interesting premise, but its execution was terrible to say the least. Firstly, let's start with my first problem, an almost overused cliche: a seer/prophet/Sybil/whatever whose name is Cassandra. Problem number two: Cassandra as a character - EXTREMELY one dimensional. She cares only for her selfish desires to remain with Zach, unsplit and with her family, avoiding the Omega brand at all costs. Even after she's taken to the Keeping Rooms, Cass just wants to be with Zach. I get twins are supposed to be close, but this level of dependency is bullshit. Add to the fact that she is the WORST narrator I have ever come across (I hate to say it but, at times, she's worse than Bella Swan from "Twilight"). Then Kip comes into the picture. Right from the beginning I had this undeniable feeling that something wasn't right about him, and when his true identity and history was revealed, it wasn't that much of a shock to me: what surprised me was who his twin was. To be perfectly honestly, I felt no emotional investment in this book whatsoever - didn't even feel anything at the suicide/murder at the end.

This story had such promise, such potential, yet bad execution and God-awful narration murdered this brilliant concept.

I wouldn't call this book a huge success. Sure the plot got interesting and actually enjoyable, but the writing and character development was a little subpar. There was just something that made me want to finish to know how it ended, and something in me that dreaded reading it cos of the writing.
It's a take on Little Red Riding Hood that I didn't overly enjoy.

3.5/5 stars, so I've rounded up to 4 (rather than rounding down to 3)

While I love Greek and Roman mythology, as well as classical fairytales more than anything, I feel that "Cruel Beauty" wasn't the most perfectly blended piece of literature that combined the two. Although, I did find the storyline fascinating, I did find that it could have been executed better, especially the ending (which I understood, much to I'm sure the amazement of other readers). I grew to like Ignifex more than Nyx, and Astraia made me want to turn around and punch something. She's passed off as this all-loving and beautiful thing but she is just as equally spiteful and selfish as Nyx, who I at least can admire because she's true to herself and doesn't deny who or what she is. Their father is also and absolute ass, and Nyx certainly has some mummy/daddy issues. I would recommend this book for people to read, but I don't think I would read it again. The hype has let me down.

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

I went into this book with two thoughts in mind:

1. Based off what I got with "Cruel Beauty", I knew this would be a re-telling like no other
2. I thought that although it was a different series, that "Crimson Bound" would still be set in the same world as "Cruel Beauty". Perhaps it is, and that Nyx and Arcadia are held separately as was described in "Cruel Beauty", and the world of "Crimson Bound" is a parallel France.

What I didn't expect when I picked up this book:

A very, VERY dark story.
An anti-heroine who I loved so much.
A boy with no hands.
A devil in disguise.
A love triangle I could actually tolerate.
A plot with extreme intrigue.

Each character was memorable.
Rachelle. Erec. Armand. Amélie. The Bishop. Justine. King Philippe-Auguste II. La Fontaine. Aunt Léonie. Zisa. Tyr. Vincent. Raoul.

I fell in love with Erec, I'm not going to deny that, and I wish that the fate he encountered wasn't so.

I like Armand and Rachelle together.

I adore Amélie and her friendship with Rachelle.

"Crimson Bound" is most definitely my favourite of the two novels of Hodge's that I've read.