Paige M. (onthesamepaige) reviewed on
There were no negative reviews for me to upvote on here, so I felt compelled to provide one. I almost threw this book across the room many times. 16 pages into the book, the main character Xandra is seriously poisoned by her mother and left to vomit, hallucinate, and cry in pain for hours. The mother thinks that her child is "disabled" (by not being able to do magic) and will do anything and everything to "fix" her "stubborn" daughter who "doesn't want to get better"... When Xandra recovers, she is angry, but immediately forgives her mother, who instantly continues her fixes. This is how Xandra is with everyone. She is an angry little doormat.
Another thing, everyone is constantly doing stupid things so that she is left alone and can be attacked (Your best friend is fighting for her life and being targeted by a killer, and you go on a date? You have a headache, so you go for a walk by yourself? You have to go to lunch without the person you are guarding?) Xandra also cannot read a clue to save her life. The killer is VERY obvious, and she can't put any little bit of it together, which I get, it's a mystery, but it makes her look foolish. She makes the silliest assumptions when she gets hints from the Goddess while flipping through books of magic. No real spoilers, but she is literally TOLD why her magic is messed up, seems to promptly forget it, and tell none of the people who are also threatened by this. At the end, she inexplicable expects to be saved at one point by the thing that she was told ruined her life.... and is told again, that no, that is the thing that ruined her life. She is surprised. WHAT??
Also, the world building leaves a LOT to be desired. Why are cowboy boots the only magical garment/accessory? They also introduce the idea 15 pages before the end of the book that you can identify a magician by the color of magical threads they leave behind... What? Why didn't that come up at ANY of the other murder scenes? She also makes dummy assumptions in this scene that I wont spoil.
Overall, I only finished reading this so that I could read parts out loud to my husband and laugh over how ridiculous it was.
Another thing, everyone is constantly doing stupid things so that she is left alone and can be attacked (Your best friend is fighting for her life and being targeted by a killer, and you go on a date? You have a headache, so you go for a walk by yourself? You have to go to lunch without the person you are guarding?) Xandra also cannot read a clue to save her life. The killer is VERY obvious, and she can't put any little bit of it together, which I get, it's a mystery, but it makes her look foolish. She makes the silliest assumptions when she gets hints from the Goddess while flipping through books of magic. No real spoilers, but she is literally TOLD why her magic is messed up, seems to promptly forget it, and tell none of the people who are also threatened by this. At the end, she inexplicable expects to be saved at one point by the thing that she was told ruined her life.... and is told again, that no, that is the thing that ruined her life. She is surprised. WHAT??
Also, the world building leaves a LOT to be desired. Why are cowboy boots the only magical garment/accessory? They also introduce the idea 15 pages before the end of the book that you can identify a magician by the color of magical threads they leave behind... What? Why didn't that come up at ANY of the other murder scenes? She also makes dummy assumptions in this scene that I wont spoil.
Overall, I only finished reading this so that I could read parts out loud to my husband and laugh over how ridiculous it was.
