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.

"Many years ago, the magical Kingdom of Avalon was left desolate and encased in ice when the evil Snow Queen waged war on the powerful country. Its former citizens are now refugees in a world mostly devoid of magic. Which is why the crown prince and his protectors are stuck in…Arizona."


DNF alert. story was very slow going. I wanted to love this book because the description pulled me in, however the writing did not. Maybe I will pick it up some day soon,

First of all, let me just say that I am at a loss for words after reading this book. As a Filipino, I have accepted the fact that the chance of being represented in books and films are close to none. This book proved me wrong and gave me so much hope. You might look at this as a slight bias on the way I see the totality of the book, but I actually enjoyed reading this one.

I have 2 books of Rin Chupeco on my TBR mountain that I have not read yet, which means that this is my first time to fully experience her work. As much as fantasy is not my go-to genre, I have to say that I loved this one a lot.

But, before we go ahead, let me say this first: I had a slightly difficult time immersing myself with the world building. I don’t know if this is because I do not have the most active imagination and I always struggle to imagine fantasy-related stories. I felt a little lost with all the political system, magic, and history – so I took down some notes to make things much easier.

I should say, though, that finding pieces of the Filipino culture was still a fun easter-egg-hunting-ish experience for me. (If you are like me, though, I still hope that you give this book a chance because you will miss on something amazing!)

One key point of my loving this story is the characters. I love Tala and I cannot believe that we have a strong Filipina heroine like her! I love her family and the other support characters – especially when there is banter (which feels like the author is a master of!). The characters are very endearing and I find myself rooting more and more for them as the story dives much deeper.

The writing style also deserves all the stars! There is something about Rin’s writing that is easy to read, while being genuine and sincere. It is able to bring up various emotions that made me laugh, made me nervous, and tugged at my heartstrings.

A bonus point to like is the quirky chapter titles, which made reading this definitely much more fun!

Overall, this book made me fall for Rin Chupeco and I am now itching to read her other works! I know this book is the first that she had ever written and I am so happy to see how much she has changed and grown in her writing approach. (I am also very happy that this story was given a chance to be shared to the world!)

This book has all the elements to be a perfect read, but it falls short on execution in that it's hard to understand and the plot is not fast-paced, but rapid to an extent that it was hard for me to read and understand the plot.

It wasn't the right read for me because I love character-heavy Young Adult fantasy, and this one felt more like a string of plot points that should have been cut down on. The book would definitely be a lot more entertaining to a younger audience in the YA subgenre since it reads like a fairy tale adventure that I did like a lot when I was younger. It does also have a very relatable protagonist who seems real and just like any young teenager when faced with issues larger than themselves. So, if that is what you came looking for, then give this book a try!

I wanted to love this book because it had a unique magic system and a protagonist that offered a fresh breath of Asian culture, with a loving family dynamic involved. Those were the strongest points in the story and were the reason I read 3/4 of the book.

But the writing style was rapid and didn't flow as well as I hoped it would. There were too many characters and with most of them I could not identify or relate, their motives seemed too underdeveloped and I believe that if there was a lesser amount of characters with more focus, then this would have been a book I enjoyed.

I have to start by saying most of what I'll say below is going to be a matter of personal preference (as is almost always the case). I don't want to make it seem as though no one will enjoy this book - I think a lot of people really will. My biggest takeaway was that this is a deeply creative and interesting world - but the writing just wasn't for me. So take everything with a hefty pinch of 'this is just Judith's opinion'.

I found it exceedingly difficult to get into this book. I meant to read it in February and ended up relegating it to the March TBR because it was just so difficult. One of the biggest reasons for that was that I felt like it took the book a while to settle into what it was going to be. It throws a whole lot of different stories at you from Arthurian myth to Alice in Wonderland and beyond and it takes someone with a tighter focus than me to keep up. I think it's in part because I couldn't see why these things were being mixed up, was this a world where stories (from another world) all mixed together or was this a take on the real world that happened to include characters from the stories? I don't think I could tell you. 

Which is so frustrating because there were some great ideas within the jumble. I liked the idea of the banders being young heroes who fight creatures and basically kick butt - but I found there wasn't a focus on them - at least in the way I read the book - and I wanted more about how they all got together, how they were selected and so forth. 

I couldn't really relate to the main character Tala, though I think she will probably be an amazing role model for a different reader. I found I got frustrated by a perceived fixation on romance and a particular boy when there were so many other things going on (a problem I often have with YA...). I liked some of the side characters but since this book has so much focus on Tala I wasn't sold. 

As I say, I think this book has a lot of really creative worldbuilding and ideas, and I wish I had enjoyed it. Personally, the ideas and writing were just a bit too jumbled for my liking and I don't think it was for me. I have heard good things about some of this author's other books so I'll maybe check those out and see if they are a better fit!

My rating: 2/5 stars

I received a free digital review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own!

I was really excited about this book because I've been getting into YA books. I couldn't really get into this one though but would recommend for other YA lovers.

I had so much fun with this book ! I'm a fan of Rin Chupeco and i'm alays surprised as how much i love her stories. The world building was a bit confusing but i think it was necessary to build the story for the sequel. Overall i really loved that book

Everything Rin Chupeco discusses thematically, I find very important. Immigration, refugee policies, etc. are all explained well in this novel, you can really tell that effort was put into the worldbuilding. I also like the concept of the novel as a whole - fantasy with real life ideas. It kind of reminded me of the show Supergirl in terms of the political commentary. (Basically, themes that were on the nose but interesting enough to continue binge watching.)

What I didn't like was the flow of the novel. The characters felt aimless. Everything that gets thrown at them is really the only reason they act at all. It just felt very deus ex-machina. Constantly.

I was very excited for this book but was left disappointed as I read, finally ending on a satisfying note. Overall, good concept, ended well, everything in the middle felt like a blurry blob.

No one is more upset about this than I am, trust me.

Wicked As You Wish was one of my most anticipated fantasy releases of 2020, and getting approved for the ARC was a dream come true. Unfortunately this book was simply not for me.

Lets start with the positives, and there are a lot of them. The writing was funny and the characters lovable. The author had incorporated all kinds of fairy tales and myths, which made the book detailed and magical. The book was a lot of fun to read, especially at first.

The main issue? World dumping. About 6 pages in, there was a huge amount of information about the socio-political alliances in the fantasy world. A plethora of names were mentioned, different histories given and explanations of who was right and who was wrong. I tried to wade past it, and keep it all in my mind, but this pattern continued for the first 50 or so pages. I was so confused by all the info that it was impossible to keep track of everything when the story actually began.

I'm very glad I got a chance to read this book, and want to thank Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS fire for this ARC. I'll definitely be reading other books by the author, as I really enjoyed the writing style.

"Wicked As You Wish" is a book about a girl in Arizona who was born into a magical family. She and her relatives (Filipino aunts and uncles who are fierce hidden warriors) are charged with protecting the very last prince of Avalon against the Snow Queen who has frozen over his kingdom and threatens the balance of the world.

Tala, with her curse inherited from her mother allows her to break and interrupt magic, along with a band of misfit teenagers, she travels across portals and kingdoms to save a sinister force from destroying all they hold dear.

Some things I really appreciated about this book are the magic system (called "spelltech" that demands sacrifice of the caster proportional to the power of the spell), the inclusion Filipino culture and food, and presence of non-binary characters. There is a massive amount of world-building and characters introduced, which makes me excited for the future of this series.

The reason I'm rating this book 3.5 stars is I feel that much of the dialogue felt stilted, and it often felt like the world-building too precedence over developing the characters. There are some really incredible concepts and things to love about this book, but I feel like like an early draft.

That being said, I will read the next book(s) in the series because I think with some polishing, this could become something incredible.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for gifting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book started off very slow for me, and I was honestly extremely confused by the magic system. There was so much to take in and wrap my head around at first, and all of the characters and their “magic” was getting confusing to me.

Plus, the writing style wasn’t my favorite- some parts felt awkward, and forced.

I almost DNF’d it multiple times.

However, it took until about 60% in for me to feel like I actually understood what was happening, and I was able to start enjoying the story. I actually really liked the ending, and I’m most likely going to continue on with this series (once it’s actually out).

It was a decent read, especially for a debut book. I have a feeling that the other books following this one will be even stronger, and I look forward to reading them.

Sadly, Wicked As You Wish didn't work for me. In the past, I've found Rin Chupeco's writing to be charming and engaging and I've usually found that I get attached to the characters but Wicked As You Wish held none of that for me. In fact, the farther I made it into the book, the more I wanted to DNF it.

The premise was an extremely interesting concept that blended a bunch of elements that I normally love; the Arthurian mythos, urban fantasy, magical realism. But I found that they really seemed like too much, especially as I continued on in the book. But I think if I had connected with the characters more, I would have been able to overlook the pieces of the story that were clunky or just didn't make sense. Alas, I found the characters lackluster as well.

I'm really disappointed by this but I do look forward to more from Rin Chupeco in the future. I loved the Bone Witch series so I think if she goes back into epic fantasy, I'll enjoy that a lot more.

A fantastic book that incorporated current events happening in America, classic fairy tales, and Filipino mythology.

Wow! This book took me for a ride. I did not know much about it other than everyone wanted to get their hands in it. So when I had the opportunity to read an ARC copy from NetGalley, I jumped on it. After I started this book it made me very intimidated as I am not a fantasy reader and this clearly had a world of it's own. However, it was heavily based in the real world, so it was not too hard to wrap my head around once I was able to really dedicate my mind to this book. There are a lot of cultures represented in this book, which made it fun to read opposed to a white washed cast of characters.

The pacing was fast and furious. The author was able to do a quick time lapses to carry on the story without interrupting the flow, which I greatly appreciate. However, there was just so much going that it wasn't a pleasant read for me. I had to reread certain chapters because I missed some key information and things stopped making sense. A quick reread of a chapter or two got me right back in track. I will be transparent and say that this could be due to my lack of fantasy experience. I am more of a psychological thriller reader.

So all in all, I would give this 4 stars. While it is not a home run of a book for me and can see a lot of people really enjoying this book. The storyline is creative and interesting and I look forward to reading future books in this series. but will wait for it to come out