Moonlit Books

This was a dreadful book. I appreciate what Renée was trying to do, but it just fell really really flat for me. Unlike 'Flame In The Mist', which despite all it's flaws was a quick and enjoyable read, this unfortunately still had all the flaws but none of the fun reading! In this book Mariko is still a dry and unbuttered piece of toast - tasteless. She's so exceptionally dumb and she doesn't really do much in this book - not that I can remember anyway. At the end of the last book she decides to go with her lover to the capitol to help save him and their whole crew by working from the inside or something - honestly my memory is a little rusty because I've tried to block that book from my mind. But really, she's fucking useless again . She does absolutely nothing that furthers the plot which is weird for the main protagonist? And I feel like all she does is wallow in her own misery and then be outsmarted by everyone again, no matter that she's meant...

This review is gonna be a bit of a mess, but my god am I having some internal struggles over just what I think of this book. I flew through this book in a day and whilst reading I noticed a few things, I should point at before this begins it was enjoyable, but in a trashy kind of way. However, the issue with this is when I read a book that fast it means it can be amazing, but more often that not it means it really isn't very good. Funnily enough, after I put it down some things just didn't sit right and that's real concerning to me.  Firstly we have the main character Mariko, who is supposed to be based off of/inspired by Disney's Mulan, which amazing because who doesn't love Mulan? And I really wanted to love Mariko! And I did at the start, the first chapter made me think we were going to have a smart, competent YA female lead, but I'm not sure we did get that. Mariko is established as a competent and inventive girl in the narrative, but we're unfor...