Kristina Pérez

Martina Torres has always struggled to fit in, firstly at her private school in Manhattan and now as the ex-pat wife of her blue blood husband who has relocated to Hong Kong. Martina manages to get a job as a journalist and is sent to interview Veronica Hawkins, a wealthy 'Hong', who takes her under her wing. However, this is cut short when Veronica disappears. Four years later and Martina has written a best-selling memoir of this time but something still is not right.
This book has been show more sitting on my shelf for over a year until I finally got round to reading it and I can't believe I left it so long. I've been to Hong Kong a couple of times and so a lot of the settings were familiar. The plot itself is crazy but clever and suitably twisty. Martina is morally ambiguous in the best way and I really liked the repeated motif of outsiders trying to reinvent themselves. All in all it's a great read! show less

I received this book for free as part of BookSparks’ YA Summer Reading Challenge.

Omg this was so amazing! I don’t know why people aren’t talking about this book. This could have totally been one of those super hyped YA books.

This is a retelling of the popular Tristan and Iseult myth, which I have to admit, I’ve never even heard of. So going into this book I didn’t have any expectations about the retelling aspect since I knew nothing about the story. I went into the book completely show more blind as to what might happen. I wanted to be completely surprised by it.

What I got was a roller coaster of a story. This book took me on a wild ride and I loved every second of it. It was beautiful yet tragic.

For some reason, the book reminded me a lot of the CW show, Reign. The mood and atmosphere were somewhat similar, but mainly the sense of duty that Branwen had to her land reminded me a lot of the women on that show.

I loved the blend of fantasy and royalty. It was a very ethereal combination.

The writing style is wonderful. Kristina Perez spins a beautifully written tale that is just as magical as the story itself.

Since this is the first book in a trilogy, a lot of this book was set up, but it was still very enjoyable to read. I still found it to be very exciting and I was throughly engaged the entire time.

I loved the notes that the author included at the end about the language used and the source material. You can tell a lot of research went into writing this book so I appreciate that. The author even included a glossary and a list of the characters which made reading this book so easy. There is also a map but I had an ARC so mine didn’t have it but I’ve seen it in a preview and the map is gorgeous.

Overall, I was blown away by this book and will definitely be continuing the trilogy. If you’re looking for a new spellbinding YA fantasy series, then read this! show less

I might have loved this as a mid-teen. The things that set my eyes rolling now wouldn't have registered. I might have been all-in for the star-crossed enemies-to-lovers romance, the ominous threat of the covetous guardsman and the occasional Otherworldly magic. If these are your thing, you may love it too - it comes in a wrapper of a thinly-glossed French mediaeval version of a Celtic fantasy world complete with tournaments and favours and trysts and young women who insist no man will ever show more come between them even as they fight bitterly about unsuitable young men.

As an adult? If I had not been obliged to finish it as an awards nominee, I would have DNFed. It ticks every box for why I avoid YA fantasy romance (instalove, romantic triangles, repetitive brooding, toxic relationships) without ticking boxes that I enjoy (world-building, politics, plot/character complexity). It's incredibly slow, spinning a familiar legend out across a trilogy by going in tortured circles. While it had all the advantages going in for being a Celtic mythic retelling, in the end I can only say: not like this.

Very subjectively 2 stars, but I won't include that as a formal rating - I'm not the target audience. show less

I received an ARC of this book for free from BookSparks for promotional purposes.

I absolutely loved the first book in the trilogy but um okay wow this book was even more insane. It was a roller coaster of emotions. This book picks up right where the last book left off and from then on just continues all the craziness.

At first I was a little intimidated to read this because I saw the massive character list in the beginning and was a bit overwhelmed (there’s a ton of new characters show more compared to the first book). But it ended up being so easy to follow.

As for the new characters, they just added to the drama of the whole story and I loved it. I particularly liked the dynamics and politics between the characters.

Like the first book, the ending was just wild. What a cliffhanger. The author really outdid herself with that one.

I didn’t give this book a full 5 stars because it is on the slow side. Since this is the second book in the trilogy, I was expecting a little more excitement than what I got. Nevertheless, the book was still a page turner.

Overall, if you loved the first book, then you’ll love this one! Now the wait for the next book begins! show less