Lakesedge was a mixed reading experience for me. The author showed a lot of creativity in terms of the setting. I loved the eerie, atmospheric, isolated gothic mansion on a lake filled with spreading corruption, a secret garden and creepy woods. The dark magic was fascinating, and I would have loved more background on it.
The main characters felt flat to me and there was a lot of ruminating inner monologue from Violeta. Rowan was just brooding most of the time. Both had a heavy self-sacrifice trope. I really liked the side characters and wish they had been better developed. First person narration was not the best choice since we were inside Violeta's head instead of experiencing different perspectives.
The plot was repetitive and often stalled instead of moving along, making the book hard to get through.
My favorite parts were those involving the sinister Lord Under and his dark realm. He was reminiscent of Hades, and I could have read an entire book about him. There is a cliffhanger ending involving Lord Under and this makes me want to read the sequel as he will likely feature more prominently in it.
The main characters felt flat to me and there was a lot of ruminating inner monologue from Violeta. Rowan was just brooding most of the time. Both had a heavy self-sacrifice trope. I really liked the side characters and wish they had been better developed. First person narration was not the best choice since we were inside Violeta's head instead of experiencing different perspectives.
The plot was repetitive and often stalled instead of moving along, making the book hard to get through.
My favorite parts were those involving the sinister Lord Under and his dark realm. He was reminiscent of Hades, and I could have read an entire book about him. There is a cliffhanger ending involving Lord Under and this makes me want to read the sequel as he will likely feature more prominently in it.