As a major fan of pretty much all enemies-to-lovers tropes set in fictional worlds of fantasy, I started C.J, Sparrow’s Tolerant wanting to love it. But a series of takeaways made the book fall just short of that.

Things I liked:
- Tovey as a MC — to a point. She’s resilient and empathetic, which offsets her too-regular habit of walking right into dangerous situations and (naively and repeatedly) trusting all the wrong people. (Staying spoiler-free here very intentionally.)
- Tovey and Prince Cullus traveling to distant lands together alone for an extended period of time. Nothing like a shared campfire and days of solitude to bring two unlikely people together.
- Tovey discovering her own magic is pretty great, even though the extent of her powers are still in the emerging and discovery stages toward the end of the book.
- There’s subtext in this challenging the idea that the life we are born into should be the life we accept, along with a thorough condemnation of the caste system and how foolish it is to look down on someone based on their job or socioeconomic status. That particular messaging made this a vital read — poignantly told through a sometimes interesting but inconsistent storyline.

Things I didn’t like:
- Prince Cullus as a character leaves a lot to be desired. Sure, he’s good looking, and yes, he occasionally demonstrates compassion for Tovey, but also, the bar is pretty low for men to act decently and treat others equally in his kingdom, and despite that, he still barely tends to surpass it. (Not Cullus giving us absolutely nothing during the parts where we’re supposed to be rooting for him...)
- The whole Abolend vs. Silvis, looming war between kingdoms back-and-forth got repetitive fast and frankly, a bit dull at points. My eyes glazed over pretty instantaneously whenever that was brought up.
- The ending was a frenetic mashup of wild events — and I don’t mean that in a good way. A lot just didn’t add up or make a ton of sense, and too many plot points were left unresolved.
- This has big-time Handmaid’s Tale vibes, but is missing a lot of the scene-setting, plot nuances and character dimensions that made Margaret Atwood’s book such a smash hit.

While I didn’t exactly love Tolerant, I did enjoy parts of it — particularly the social commentary woven into the text. Areas of improvement could include further developed MCs, a new love interest (here’s hoping!) and added attention to detail in the world-building.

I really enjoyed this book! I flew through it on one afternoon and I am so sad that it's over. The author did a great job with the plot and keeping the story moving with no stagnant parts. The characters were very relatable and fun to learn. Great read!

I absolutely loved this book! I I instantly fell in love with the world and characters! It definitely exceeded my expectations!

I had trouble getting into the story as I felt it was moving too slow. But I did like the main character, it was fun to be on her journey.

Tolerant was such an interesting concept! YA fantasy romance where you're not sure who's the player, and who's being played.
Things I enjoyed about this book:
-I loved the 'try to stop prophecy, will they accidentally cause prophecy?' trope, and up until the end I was actually wondering if the main male character was going to morph into what he was trying to stop-- well, in a figurative way, maybe he did? (Frilliam? No, I'm kidding.)
-The world was written well, and the attitude of the whole serving class was portrayed quite well, too. The intricacies of the way they were conditioned to think and respond in was fascinating, in a horrific sort of way.
- I liked and hated the way Tovey was dragged into so much when she didn't want anything to start in the first place.

Things I found confusing were the constant switches between 'this is betrayal, this is not betrayal, is this betrayal?' that happened almost every two chapters. Don't get me wrong, I love the 'who's really trustworthy?' twist and turns that happen in stories, but by the end of the book I didn't know where a single person stood, and there was a lot of theories and conclusions and misunderstandings that see-sawed from side to side, and made it all a bit hard to keep up with. The only person I could reliably count on was Frilliam, and he was the faithful horse. Go Frilliam!
Tovey seemed to have a lot of practical reasoning whenever she got mad at Cullus and then changed her mind and threw away those reasons when they made up. I suppose she is a teenage girl (who is in love), but I would've liked a little more consistency for her independent thought.
The end asked a lot of questions, and I wish it had a bit more context so that the reader could tell how things got to where they now are. Hopefully these things are cleared up in the next book!

I really enjoyed this book!

First of all, Tovey is such a lovely character. I can’t really relate to her in the sense that she’s the subject of an ancient prophecy, but I understand her in many other ways. Tovey is not perfect, she’s not like the typical fantasy heroines that just seem to be incapable of doing much wrong. Instead, she makes mistakes, and stupid decisions, and she’s hard on herself— and I really admired seeing that in a strong female protagonist. I didn’t have a hard time connecting with her character because ultimately, she’s just doing her best! and it’s really hard not to admire her for it.

The story itself kept me so engaged throughout. Although there are some intense themes, it’s not a super heavy read. Basically, it offered a good sense of escapism, as the best fantasy books do. I found myself itching to read it at any chance I got. There were plenty of surprises and “what’s gonna happen next?” moments to be had, and it was fun to read it and wonder which turn the plot was going to take. That being said, I will absolutely be getting my hands on the next book in this series. I’m invested now.

There is also a romance subplot, which I really enjoy (even though I think Tovey deserves better)!!!

Overall, this was a really fun read. Also, the cover of this book is so nice.

C.J. Sparrow has a great writing style, I was invested in what was going on in this world. It had a great fantasy element going on and was what I was looking for from the description. The characters worked in this world and I loved the way it was written. I'm excited to read more from C.J. Sparrow.

"We should see the city by sundown.” His tone was solemn as he rolled the map, tucking it into the satchel. “We’ve moved quickly. Frilliam has been resilient, and we have only been pausing at night. I wasn’t expecting us to be here so soon.” His skin drained of all color. “Are you nervous?”