The Book To Fill The Six of Crow Size Hole in My Heart
Rating: 4.5 stars
Thank you to Bookish First and Wednesday Books for providing me a copy to review! This in no way affected my opinion.
This was my first experience with Chokshi’s writing and I can’t believe what I have been missing! This story was everything that I love. Found Family! Friendship! Lovable Characters! Heists and Treasure Hunts!
The shining jewel of the book is the characters. They are diverse, quirky, and Chokshi made me really care for them. Severin is basically the MC though all of the characters get there own POV and side not they are all amazing. I never groaned because it was *that* character’s chapter. He is the last descendant of the lost Vanth House and his end goal is to gain the position of Patriarch that has been denied to him. Thus in his quest to regain his title he has collected an eclectic group of friends. Severin’s brother, Tristan, is uses Forging (magic? misunderstood science?) techniques to create these amazing gardens and owns a huge tarantula, Goliath. There is Lalia, an amazing baker and dancer, looking for an ancient book that will help her understand her existence. Oh, and she can touch items and read the memories tied to them. Then there is Enrique, who is a historian who you are never sure if he is sarcastic or serious. Zofia is my favorite character. She is an engineer/chemist/mad scientist who sucks at anything social, so basically me. Oh and she loves to set things on fire and can strike a match using her teeth which I would still like an explanation on how she can do that! And then there is Hypnos, who is the Patriarch of House Nyx and he tricks Severin into helping him find the Horus Eye. I was wary of him as he seemed like he would be quick to stab them in the back but I slowly warmed up to him.
The story moves quickly and there were many times when I did not want to stop reading, even though I had to because responsibilities. It is largely a treasure hunt with heists and confusing clues. I loved how Chokshi included these little bits of facts like Fibonacci’s sequence and Ortolans. It really helped to bring the book to life.
There were three things that made me annoyed and this would have been a five star read for me if it was not for these points. First, what was with Severin and his Seven-Deadly-Sins fathers. I kind of get what Chokshi was doing with it but I don’t understand it. I know that she wanted to add to Severin’s backstory but I felt like the book could have done without it.
This is a bit of a spoiler but I hated the ending with Severin and Lalia. THEY BOTH ARE IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER SO WHY WON'T THEY JUST SAY IT. I understand that Severin was not in a good place (I am trying to limit the spoilers here) and pushed her away because he was in pain. But why did she have to propose to become his mistress to be welcomed back in his life??? I understand that Lalia does benefit by having a lover as it adds to the drama of her life as a dancer but it felt cheap for Chokshi to do this. I think that Lalia and Severin should have made up in a different way.
Lastly, the whole bit with the villain was confusing. I don’t know if I was me but I found it hard to follow what was going on with them, especially during the boss fight at the end.
Thank you to Bookish First and Wednesday Books for providing me a copy to review! This in no way affected my opinion.
This was my first experience with Chokshi’s writing and I can’t believe what I have been missing! This story was everything that I love. Found Family! Friendship! Lovable Characters! Heists and Treasure Hunts!
The shining jewel of the book is the characters. They are diverse, quirky, and Chokshi made me really care for them. Severin is basically the MC though all of the characters get there own POV and side not they are all amazing. I never groaned because it was *that* character’s chapter. He is the last descendant of the lost Vanth House and his end goal is to gain the position of Patriarch that has been denied to him. Thus in his quest to regain his title he has collected an eclectic group of friends. Severin’s brother, Tristan, is uses Forging (magic? misunderstood science?) techniques to create these amazing gardens and owns a huge tarantula, Goliath. There is Lalia, an amazing baker and dancer, looking for an ancient book that will help her understand her existence. Oh, and she can touch items and read the memories tied to them. Then there is Enrique, who is a historian who you are never sure if he is sarcastic or serious. Zofia is my favorite character. She is an engineer/chemist/mad scientist who sucks at anything social, so basically me. Oh and she loves to set things on fire and can strike a match using her teeth which I would still like an explanation on how she can do that! And then there is Hypnos, who is the Patriarch of House Nyx and he tricks Severin into helping him find the Horus Eye. I was wary of him as he seemed like he would be quick to stab them in the back but I slowly warmed up to him.
The story moves quickly and there were many times when I did not want to stop reading, even though I had to because responsibilities. It is largely a treasure hunt with heists and confusing clues. I loved how Chokshi included these little bits of facts like Fibonacci’s sequence and Ortolans. It really helped to bring the book to life.
There were three things that made me annoyed and this would have been a five star read for me if it was not for these points. First, what was with Severin and his Seven-Deadly-Sins fathers. I kind of get what Chokshi was doing with it but I don’t understand it. I know that she wanted to add to Severin’s backstory but I felt like the book could have done without it.
This is a bit of a spoiler but I hated the ending with Severin and Lalia. THEY BOTH ARE IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER SO WHY WON'T THEY JUST SAY IT. I understand that Severin was not in a good place (I am trying to limit the spoilers here) and pushed her away because he was in pain. But why did she have to propose to become his mistress to be welcomed back in his life??? I understand that Lalia does benefit by having a lover as it adds to the drama of her life as a dancer but it felt cheap for Chokshi to do this. I think that Lalia and Severin should have made up in a different way.
Lastly, the whole bit with the villain was confusing. I don’t know if I was me but I found it hard to follow what was going on with them, especially during the boss fight at the end.