I really, really loved WICKED AS YOU WISH!

Chupeco's writing is absolutely breathtaking. Her world-building is phenomenal, and the magic system utilized throughout the story is so unique and well-developed! 

I loved the entire concept of fairy-tale characters existing in *our* world, and how legends such as Sleeping Beauty were woven into the alternative-world's history. I loved the diversity (diversity in sexuality, in race, in religion, in gender identity: everything was covered, and covered BEAUTIFULLY). The story was sharp and exciting, and I couldn't put it down!

WICKED AS YOU WISH is fantastic. ALL of Rin Chupeco's works are fantastic. DEFINITELY pick this story up - you'll love it!

This book is literally just all the fairytales and stories you can imagine combined and put into one book. It’s not just a retelling it’s all the retellings! I enjoyed this book but it was a little too much for me. It reminded me a lot of The Hazel Wood, since they are both really magical, so if you liked that I’d recommend this book for you. I don’t really know how I feel about retellings, my favorites are usually the ones that more have inspiration from the original story but don’t follow the exact storyline. It was nice that this took a spin on the whole concept and even though I didn’t love this book I’ll still read Rin Chupeco’s other books because I still really liked the writing of it.

The combination of fairy tale worlds/countries mixed in with modern countries sounded like an interesting premise, but being thrown into the deep end from the very beginning was overwhelming and not an entirely pleasant experience. It felt like an info dump and I wasn't able to catch my breath and understand the history of this world, much less where Tala, her family, her friends etc. were meant to stand in all of it. Events and titles that sound important lose their impact because we're scrambling to figure out who belongs where or what their relevance is.

It was/is slightly confusing to be thrown into the story which, one finds out, combines many classic elements of fairy stories (i.e. Avalon, Wonderland, etc.) and trying to keep track not only of what ones are present, but what of their original source material remains in this new work and how it interacts with all the others and WAYW original casting.

Normally a boat load of fairy tale references would be fun, like Once Upon a Time or something. I think the issue was that in this instance it felt overwhelming. There was so much in the first 10%, like I was expected to know lineages and war history and so forth already and felt nigh on incompetent for not getting what Tala & others were talking about. The overload killed me.

Rin's writing is normally engaging, but the excessive info dump in the beginning made WAYW disappointing.

This is the second book I've tried from this author and I think it's time to just call it quits as it's not meant to be. I tried to read this book several times and couldn't muster any interest in the characters or story. The world was interesting enough but I wasn't latching on to anything to make it more than a cool setting. After taking months to reach the 35% mark, I DNF-ed due to a lack of interest and investment.

For this reason I will not be sharing this review beyond this platform.

I was really looking for to reading Wicked as You Wish by Rin Chupeco! It checked all my boxes with heavy world-building, a new magical system, a little romance and a diverse cast of characters.
Unfortunately, for me, this book fell flat. The first 9 chapters of the book include a lot of character introductions, a brand-new world with a complicated magical and political system, and too many plot twists. I was hoping by chapter 10 the book would settle and the introduction of new characters and new magical elements would stop. Unfortunately, the book continues to pick up speed. 
I found the introduction of ICE and the comparison of magic in this world to undocumented immigrants in our world interesting, if not a little heavy handed.
I was desperate to like this book, but the continued clichés are wearing me down, murdered parents, frog prince, evil ice witch, double crossing evil love interest.
I might give this book a try again in the future but for right now I cannot dedicate anymore time to it.
DNF-didnotfinish

Wicked as You Wish is the first book in a series and its based around the Magical Kingdom of Avalon and the people of that kingdom who were stuck in Arizona after their Kingdom was set in ice after the Snow Queen waged war on the worlds. This is the story of a girl with secrets, a Prince in Hiding, a team of protectors and a firebird, all finding their way through a magical kingdom to save the land.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book (so much so that I've loaned it to a friend who is also enjoying it!) - it was a nice and easy read with a lot going on. The world building I enjoyed, it was well done and easy to understand for me. Starting in 'our' world and moving to the kingdom of Avalon the story build up well and I felt like it explained itself well. The teenager angst was written well and the nods to Disney were, for me, a very welcome addition. They really made the book for me and helped to add to the fantastical nature of some bits. The writing was well done although read quite young at times. From a little research it seems like this book was orignally written years ago by the author and shelved as it wasn't thought to be good enough to be published. It was her first book that she wrote, and although it was very good I do think that you can tell its a younger and 'first' book.

Overall this was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to picking up book 2! 3 out of 5* for me!

Unfortunately, I didn't love this book. The premise was strong, and I had high hopes for the author after hearing so many wonderful things about The Bone Witch and it's follow ups.

The story revolves around a world where magic exists, but has been blocked and destroyed. A lost prince tries to return to his kingdom with the help of a young magician and a rag tag group of allies. Sadly, I found the characters predictable and the story far too contrived. Great idea, poor execution.

I enjoyed this book the more I got into it. I felt lost at first, because there are a LOT of details. There is also a lot of name-dropping, like the author tried to put every magical being known to man in her universe history. I still don't know if all of it was necessary in the first book, or if it could have been dispersed throughout the story.

However, when the action kicked in... I was ALL IN! The magical obstacles that the group have to overcome are delightful and imaginative. I really enjoyed living this quest with them. And the ending is pure dynamite. We can be assured that the second book will be awesome.

Many thanks to Sourcebook Fire for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Unfortunately this book was a DNF for me at about 40%. The world building was extremely confusing and I just couldn't figure out what was going on with any of the magic system, despite the multiple information dumps that occurred. But probably the biggest problem I had with this book was I just couldn't relate to any of the characters. I really, really wanted to relate to them, especially Tala who sounds like an amazing character, but I just could not connect. I really enjoyed that the characters were very diverse but that was where the enjoyment ended. They felt very one dimensional and didn't feel like they had any substance to them. I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't push myself to even finish it. I have not rated this on goodreads because I did not finish it (I think it is unfair to give a rating to a book you do not finish) but NetGalley makes me select a rating so I had to pick something.

DNF 50%

I thought the idea was good, and the world-building was pretty cool, but I was unable to make a connection with the characters. I found myself thoughts wondering through the pages and at that point I realized I probably wasn't going to enjoy it any longer. This is a shame because I was really looking forward to this book. Will still give the author another chance.

I stopped reading this book at the halfway point. I think the premise is really cool, and I love all the culture throughout the story. However, there is so much going on that I found it hard to keep up. I didn't connect with the characters and found myself just not caring about what happened to them. I might try this again in the future because I do like the way the author writes, but this book just isn't for me at this time.

DNF @ 10%

Man, I pride myself on loving and enjoying fantasy--and I've read some that were quite dense--but Wicked As You Wish was extremely difficult to fall into and understand. I kept waiting for that moment where I could read it without having to concentrate and think so hard, where I could be taken along for the ride, but it never came. And the blurb and cover really drew me in, too, which made it even more disappointing when I couldn't enjoy it. I gave it some time after trying it prior to publication, but at this point I'm going to have to hang it up for good. It's just not for me sadly.

DNF @ 25%

I was so excited to read this book because it highlights my culture. But maybe this is not the time to read it. I think I need to get used to the author's writing style. Because I am actually having difficulties getting into it right now. But maybe it's just me.

But I will get to this once I am in the right state of mind and I have prepared myself to really invest myself into this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

DNF @ 20%

When I saw that "Wicked as you Wish" was a read now title on NetGalley I instantly downloaded. I've been wanting to read something by Rin Chupeco for a while now and I thought this would be a great opportunity. Unfortunately, this novel wasn't my cup of tea. The premise was intriguing but the world-building was way too confusing for me and there was just too much info-dumping. I really liked the characters, especially Tala and Alex, but too many characters were introduced at once and I couldn't keep track of everyone and everything that was happening. 

Overall, I'm super happy I decided to give this book a go and while it wasn't for me, I can definitely see why other reviewers love it and I won't hesitate to pick up more by this author in the future! I'm planning to read The Bone Witch on Audible this month.

I could not get into this book at this time but I am going to give it a try at a later date. This was my first Rin Chupeco book and I feel like I need to go and read some of her other work before I dive into this one. I was to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this opportunity!

I received an e-ARC of Wicked as You Wish by Rin Chupeco from Edelweiss and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This novel follows our heroine Tala as she and the lost prince of Avalon, Alexei, return to their homeland to break the curse that's sealed the country away. 

Rin Chupeco has always been a hit or miss author for me. I loved her writing in The Bone Witch trilogy, but her other novel, The Ever Tilting World was a little confusing for me. This, however, I enjoyed. I'm a massive sucker for world building and the author wove well known literary locations like Wonderland and Avalon into the fabric of the world we know in a relatively believable way. The author was also a bit satirical when describing the greed of the ruler of the US, which I found hilarious...yet also remarkable believable? I mean, let's be real, if magic were real and every other country had it but the US, I think the ruling government would be pretty greedy/underhanded in trying to get their hands on it, but I digress. Chupeco also, in this beautifully crafted world, started a discussion (at least I thought) on how refugees of war were treated, especially in today's climate. I thought it was very powerful to have it written into a novel, let alone a fantasy novel, and felt it was tackled pretty well (coming from someone who's only read about these issues, mind you). 

I felt like there were parts of the novel that dragged, but I usually find that to be the case in the first novels in a new series. It's a lot of world building and lore spilling that takes up a majority of the novel. I would have enjoyed to see more interaction between some of the other characters on the team because near the end it felt as though relationships were established, but we didn't get to see when they were established if that makes sense. 

There were moments that we saw the characters bond, especially our main characters Tala and Alexei. Their friendship was pretty well established in the beginning. Another relationship established early on was the one between Tala and her parents. Rarely do we see both parents make it through fantasy novels alive, let alone have a decent relationship with their children. Tala is very close with both of her parents, but the relationship we got to see a lot of (both the good and the bad) is the one she has with her father. Now, I won't go into spoilers, but she learns a truth about her father and is pretty angry at him for it. The way he handles it is what I liked about the whole thing. He's remorseful, apologizes, and gives her space to process it instead of it just being instantly okay. 

It's the little things in this novel that I find really beautiful. The way the author wove other stories into the main one, like there were mentions of Robin Hood (essentially, I can't remember the real names of the characters from that story off the top of my head), Rapunzel, and a TON of other folklore from different countries. 

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable read! The author took great care to make this novel fun, but also to weave social/political issues into the narrative. I think if anyone enjoys folklore, character driven stories, and strong family bonds then they should definitely pick up this novel!

This isn't going to be my usual style of review, because to be honest, I didn't finish this book.  I really wanted to like this because I really like Rin Chupeco's Bone Witch series, but there was something about this particular book that I just couldn't get into.  Therefore I'm DNFing it.  I don't do this lightly and I feel bad about it, but it's just not for me.  I'm sure lots of other people will love it.

Unfortunately this book just didn’t work for me. The premise and the writing itself has some great potential, but the world building was very confusing. I had a hard time figuring out how this fantasy world was similar and different from our real world and understanding the magic system. Ultimately this lead to me reading more and more pages without actually comprehending what was going on. On a positive note, I did appreciate the political commentaries about ICE and immigration and the overall representation in this story. Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I will admit, I read this book slowly because the world building was a lot to wrap my head around. Also, I had to read this one book format which my eyes are not thanking me for. I attest this slow reading to the fact that my overall enjoyment of this book is higher than most peoples. 

This book dumps a lot of information on you and it is a bunch of fairy tales wrapped up / layered together and that can be confusing at time. I read a lot of retellings and this was still a lot for me to wrap my mind around. 

A lot of what others didn’t like, I did not mind. I was okay with the character development only because I know we will get to know more about them in coming books. I will admit there was a lot of narratives to follow and that became confusing at times. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to what the rest of this series will do in the future.

The reason I finished this book was that I don't like leaving ARCs halfway. The reason this isn't just one star is that that rating is reserved for the absolutely worst, borderline offensive books I have the misfortune of reading.

That said, I didn't enjoy this book. Not even a little.

I didn't care about the overly dense worldbuilding or any of the extensive infodumps. I didn't care for the large cast of characters or the magic system. I didn't care about anything that happened. I would constantly zone out while reading and had to get myself back into focus. It made the book feel longer than it was, like it was never going to finally end.

I was afraid this was going to throw me into a reading slump.

I felt like the book was predictable and yet, all over the place. The characters were one dimensional and bland. The world was needlessly complex and hard to get into. The writing was OK at best.