Overall I was a bit underwhelmed by this title. The story took quite a while to pick up and I found the main character to be very similar to many I have read recently. The characters took longer than expected to flesh out. There were some interesting twists but I would rate this title around 3/5. I find the trope of traumatized angry heroine to be overdone recently.

Not for me, unfortunately. This book seemed like two books smushed together and I wasn't quite sure which one was the right direction.

1.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!!

For some reason it’s become a trend where I decide I don’t need to finish a book, but then I get bored and finish it anyway, only to be mildly surprised when it doesn’t get better.

Okay, that’s only happened twice in two days, but still.

I don’t like the main characters. Especially Gemma. So, being in her head for the entire book was really eugh. She starts out annoying and whiny and talks about how great her life is, but then also hates it, but also would rather have her life than her sister back from the Order of the Rose or her mother. See: “I was breathtaking and wealthy and beloved, and I wouldn’t have given up any of that, not even if it meant bringing Mother and Mara back.” Okay, Gemma, whose actual name is Imogen. (Why not just have her name be Gemma? Or Imogen? Why do we need two completely different names? I digress.)

The plot intrigued me, and then the more I found out, the less interested I became. I can barely tell you the answers to the questions in the beginning, because this book veers so off track. There was a switch with necromancer nature-y women and at that point I was just kinda like what.

Again, Gemma is annoying. But Gemma is even MORE annoying when she’s with Talan. Since he’s the love interest, this unfortunately annoyed me quite a bit. Their relationship was very instalove and lacking any type of development. They didn’t trust each other for good reason but I was supposed to believe they were in love. Talan screws up a few different times and every time Gemma forgives him instantly because he had some type of explanation. It made me grit my teeth and think “Talan go away you can’t leave and waltz your way back in” and considering I didn’t like Gemma, Talan was annoying indeed. Gemma is never mad at Talan no matter what, which actually took away from the angst.

The side characters were fine. I didn’t particularly like or connect with any of them.

Illaria, darling, you deserve so much better than being in this book stuck as Gemma’s best friend. (Gemma treats her like trash and she never leaves. Illaria, come be my friend instead.)

This book started off so strong. Immediately, I was drawn into the story of a noble family, in a world of magic, whose youngest daughter has no power of her own. A little more than halfway through the story seemed to lose quite a bit of momentum. The end was worth that little lull, and I'm interested in seeing what will befall the sisters in the next book.

this was a great start to a trilogy. i must admit, i was nervous to read it because i saw other peoples reviews saying it wasn’t their favorite, but this just shows that reading is so subjective because i had a great time! i thought it was an amazing fantasy read and loved the high society aspect of it also.

the blurb seemed very intriguing and I couldn't wait to read it. Unfortunately I didn't care for the character that I found a bit too juveniel.
The world building is well done
I want to read the next book as I'm curious if the characters will grew up.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Thank you for this ARC copy of this new series. I enjoyed this book - took me a while to get into because of my own little bump with reading.

Legrand’s book has an interesting plot and a complex structure based on lore. She eases the reader into her world building (fantasy world: gods gave some humans magical powers, a god chosen queen with infinite lifetime, a mist that creates a boundary between the human world and demon world), but there are just too many elements to the world that create mystery. They begin to feel almost ridiculous since known of the problems get resolved, just more are created.

Ultimately, the only redeeming aspects of the novels were the Basks and Farrin. I loved their mystery and it was so clear to me that Ryder was more important than anyone knows.

The writing was good- I wish I could put my finger in it- but the love between Gemma and Talan just wasn’t believable enough

This book really wasn't for me.

I struggled most with liking Gemma herself. She struggles with debilitating anxiety, guilt, self-hatred, and suicidal thoughts. These things should make her somewhat sympathetic, but unfortunately she mostly came off as prideful, selfish, insipid, and downright stupid at times. I took it upon myself to make some notes about her while I was in the middle of the story:

1. Lust, lust, and more lust
2. Freaking the Heck Out
3. "Guess I'll die"
4. She's a strong, independent woman...
5. ...who don't need no brain cells

I don't recall any other personality traits. She runs into situations without thinking, she uses her emotions and her senses to make decisions for her . She's entirely unrelatable also - she's gorgeous and rich, and most of her affirmations from the first half of the book consist of "I'm Gemma Ashbourne, everyone wants to be me." It got to be exhausting to read her inner thoughts, and I'm left feeling completely unsympathetic towards a character who has a lot to be sympathetic for.

There's a big plot twist about midway through the novel, but I was largely unsurprised. The parts that were unexpected were so not because they were surprising per se, but because they were unbelievable. No person is as transparent as Talan is. It made me so suspicious of him, even (especially?) after the plot twist, that it made it difficult to get behind their romance. There is an attempt at making love "the answer all along," but it didn't land for me, mostly because I wasn't entirely sure why they were so in love. They're definitely attracted to each other, and I suppose they share a struggle with suicidal thoughts, but otherwise I don't see how their personalities mesh. What do they have in common, aside from being rich, gorgeous, and traumatized? I'm old and bitter and have never been in love, so maybe this is accurate and my expectations are whack.

Some of the writing was really lovely, and it's clear Legrand knows what she's doing as far as execution is concerned. There were some descriptions of buildings in particular that stood out to me, and I don't recall having any issues with the dialogue. I think my biggest complaints stem from flaws in the planning stage. The plot feels disjointed and unevenly paced, the characters are one-note and entirely too obvious, and the worldbuilding feels haphazard. I imagine the next two books in the proposed trilogy will focus more on the main antagonist, but he was introduced so late, and I was so convinced that Talan was evil, that I feel ambivalent about him.

*I just saw that this is marketed as an adult fantasy, and I have to say this does not come through. The characters are adults, but behave like teenagers. The situations and their reactions were childish.

I have mixed feelings about this book. There were times I really enjoyed the characters and moments where they made me mad. The plot seemed everywhere, but I did enjoyed the action scenes. Gemma and Talan started out good but towards the end I'm not sure how I really felt about the them.

A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand is a story of Gemma and her sisters. They are members of the anointed- individuals anointed with power from the Gods, except that Gemma doesn't have any power, and in fact being in the very vacinity of magic makes her ill and weak. Gemma must work together with a mysterious stranger to save the family from a strange prophecy, fighting with her sisters to save what matters most.

A crown of ivy and glass's world is so easy to get lost in. It's easy to visualize the world of Edyn and the people therein, and the characters are so well explained and developed. I do wish that there was a little bit more world-building, I just felt like there were some unanswered questions and concepts that could have been explained better, and I think that the author is setting it up for a big reveal later, but it instead of it being intriguing it came across as more annoying and confusing.

While the setting of the book is great, and the scenes are mostly well explained, this book overall just left a lot to be desired from it. To be honest there was so much potential and I was so excited to read this book, and it just fell a little flat. Gemma struggled a lot with chronic illness, and it was so interesting to read about her struggle with it and I really wanted to root for her. But by the end of the book I was physically facepalming at some of her choices! She had the worst timing and priorities, and she comes off as exceedingly selfish whereas the author tried to write her to appear as this 'selfless hero'. For example, all of the intimate scenes are at the LITERAL WORST TIMES possible. Like instead of being sucked into the story and so happy for her in those scenes, I was just cringing and felt so so much anxiety the whole time.

Overall this book was a hit and miss for me, but an interesting world to be in, I could see it being made into a potential movie, and if it is, I hope that its better executed. Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Going to be a bit generous and give it a 4 star rating when it's about a 3.5 star book. I like the premise, characters, the spice, and the world the author is building but I was hoping for more. While it always takes time to world-build in a series I feel like we could have enjoyed a more fleshed-out version of this world with a better explanation of the gods who were unmade and a bit about how/when the mists became what they are. It took me quite a bit of the book to appreciate Gemma for who she is and why.

I'm willing to stick around and hope we learn more in the next book, especially if we can learn more about the queen, Gemma's mother (ancestors), Talan, and the Roses. I'm looking forward to learning more about Gemma's sisters and the Bask family who I hope will be tied into them by past events.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest opinion.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, and there were some parts that I definitely did, but it took a while for me to get in the groove of it. Honestly there was a lot of info dumping within the first chapters and it felt like I was tripping over myself trying to catch up to what everything meant.

For some reason it was also quite hard to distinguish the characters from one another for me. It could be that I found them too similar to one another. Overall I do think it's a good read for individuals who love ACOTAR in the sense that this book deals with fae as well, but be prepared to dislike the MC for a while.

Good book, well written. I struggled relating to the FMC and immediately hated Gemma in the beginning but could already see the character growth and development by chapter 3. The world is introduced throughout the reading, without inundating the reader with details to try to figure out. It's always a relief with a fantasy book to get the details without having to read chapter after chapter to understand. Nicely done!

I want to first say thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for a copy of this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I tell you I literally was so excited when I saw this book on Netgalley. I read Legrand’s other series last summer and have seriously not stopped thinking about it since. Since then, she’s become a “buy on sight” author for me, and this book did not disappoint.

My rating: 4.5 (rounded up)

This book is the first in Legrand’s new trilogy, and I must say, I am so excited to see where the series goes. It is a strong start that has me invested in this incredibly complex world and these characters in a way I haven’t been since I read her previous trilogy. Perfect for those who want a mixture of regency era social structures with a high stakes fantasy vibe, this book has so much going for it. Despite a bit of a slow start, I can honestly say that I literally read 75% of this book in one day. I thoroughly enjoyed Legrand’s talent for world building, creating immense and well developed worlds that felt incredibly real. Despite the complexity of them and the intense magic system developed, there is no real tendency to info dumping, and it is clear that while some things are not explained, they are intentionally done so. This was one of those books that kept me turning the pages, reveling as the world and story expanded and having no clue what was coming next.

Legrand’s characters are all well-rounded, dynamic personalities who feel incredibly real. As someone who suffers from chronic pain myself, I loved seeing it represented in a fantasy novel, and seeing how the main character comes to terms with it. Legrand’s talent shines through not just in her characters but also her character relationships, with toe curling romantic scenes and sob worthy sweet family ones, and they were the real standout of this book.

Some things I could critique/didn’t like may be more personal opinion than anything else, but some of the twists were a bit too unexplained for me, leaving me confused. The main love interest, Talan, remained a bit too mysterious for me, and I couldn’t quite get a hold on who he was as a character, although that may have been intentional. Some minor plot lines felt a bit dropped or placed in late in a way that disjointed me a bit, but didn’t detract from the overall experience of reading.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I look forward to seeing what comes next for Legrand and for this trilogy.

Thanks again to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for this E-ARC.

Being a fan of Claire Legrand, I had such high hopes for this book. Who wouldn't be excited about an adult fantasy romance with spice? But, unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations.

Overall, I think the book could've done with a bit more world building and less of the main character looking at herself in the mirror. The most irritating thing about this novel was Imogen, the mc. She was insufferable and the reason why I rated this novel only 3 stars.

She only cared about her looks, how others saw her, and would do things she was explicitly told not to do and then wonder why a "bad thing" would happen. I do think that Imogen would act this way to hide from past trauma. It was most likely a coping mechanism for her but I still could not get past it.

The writing was fine, I actually quite enjoy Claire Legrand's writing. However, the characters were not it.

There is insta-love in this story so fair warning, but if you are okay with childish characters and insta love, I would give this book a shot. It is literally Bridgerton meets A Court of Thorns and Roses. Plus the spicy scenes were entertaining as all get out.

I was expecting a bit more from this book since I love the author’s other books. But while I enjoyed the world building, I felt like the characters were a little juvenile for an adult fantasy, and the pacing was really inconsistent. I’ll read the second book in the hopes the series gets better. *I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

5 star romance. 3.5 star fantasy.

For me this was a no think-y romance book with a fantasy subplot.

Firmly NA. TW: anxiety, self-harm, physical abuse

I enjoyed this a lot more than Furyborn. The plot was much easier to follow even if it was maybe less fantastically complex. It's a very engaging read with likable characters.

Some of the plot points were a little convenient, but I was really just reading it for the romance.

Overall, I recommend it as a pallet-cleansing book. It got me out of my reading slump.

Huge thanks to Source Books and Netgalley for this eARC. I have only read one book by this author, but with just that, I loved that book so much. I am beyond grateful to have the chance to read her latest book. I honestly enjoyed the book. I flew through it as if I am not reading a fantasy book. I love the writing style and how everything just made sense. I can see the Bridgerton and ACOTAR aspect of this book, which really made the reading process enjoyable. I cannot help but feel so much emotions reading this book. And of course, I cannot help but feel annoyed with Gemma, which is typical for every MC I enjoy reading. Nonetheless, I enjoyed her story and how hard she fought so hard for her family and everyone that meant so much to her.

Full review will be posted and linked on a later date.

I've been a huge fan of Claire Legrand since Furyborn and so I was definitely thrilled at this big ole adult fantasy coming out! I was thoroughly brought into this new world with the lavish world building, unique magic system and fantastic plot line. The characters were wonderfully developed and you really start to feel very invested in their various predicaments. Gemma, with no magic but stunning in her beauty and charm. Farrin, gifted with the magic of song, has been tasked with running the powerful Ashborne estate for her father who is embedded in a long standing feud with the Bask family, and finally Mara, sent to be one of the "Roses", a defender at the border of the Middlemist, where the ancient magic of the Olden gods threatens to breakthrough into their own world.
The only thing that I didn't think was needed was some of the terminology for lady bits when "dirty talk" was part of the scene. It cheapened it for me and maybe that's part of the reason it was classified as an adult fantasy. Believe me, I enjoy me some spicy fantasy p#rn as much as the next person but it just didn't work in this situation. Other than that I really loved the book and will absolutely be reading and recommending this series.