Pitched as A Court of Thorns and Roses meets Bridgerton- Legrand's new book only slightly meets those expectations. Still a fun little YA fantasy, but not great.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the narration of this book! Her accent was perfect to fit with the characters and I always knew exactly who was speaking. The story itself is very well written but can be a little confusing at times. The biggest issue I had was a connection to the main characters. I didn’t feel like I fully invested in them because they weren’t very likable to me. The story itself takes you on a fantastical epic journey of discovery for Imogen and her family. I don’t want to leave any spoilers since this is the first book in the series, but it you’re into fantasy, you should check this book out!

This book was a huge disappointment to me. I was initially captivated by the fresh and interesting world-creation work of the author. It was unlike anything I had come across. It is an intersting world of possibilities. At the destruction and death of the gods, magical abilities rained down on everyone, granting magical abilities in different degrees and with different powers. Only Imogene, or Gemma as she is known, has no such power. In fact, she in allergic to magic and becomes violently ill when exposed to it. As a result she has an extremely tenuous relationship with her father and sister.

I was anxious to dig deeper into the book. Then the letdown happened. Enter the dashing hero: Talon D’Astier. Gemma and Talon have the stereotypical instant romance where they are deeply in love—until they are not, or until Gemma is certain that they are not, or cannot, or should not be in love. The reader is whiplashed between “he loves me” and “I can’t possibly trust him”, from “he’s my greatest ally” and “he’s out to get me”, from “I feel beautiful around him” and “I am totally ugly”. That whiplash made the first half of the book nearly intolerable.

Every time Gemma is convinced that she and Talon together would set all things to rights, something happens to upset that. That in turn shoved Gemma out on her own to make some bold decisions but also some foolish mistakes. In a world filled with almost Gothic horrors—demons, undead, evil magicians—Gemma’s life all too frequently seems to dangle by a thread, and often because of her own brash behavior.

I wanted to love this book, but did not. Sadly, I cannot give it the positive review I had anticipated.

I loved Claire Legrand's Furyborn series so when I saw this available I knew I had to request it.
Gemma was an interesting main character to read from. In the beginning she felt shallow and scared and I was worried she wouldn't grow enough for me to like her. She changed my mind though as she found her love for her sisters and her magic.
The magic and world in this book really had me hooked as I was reading, I want to know more about what was going on and how things would go. I definitely can't wait for the second book to see how this world and magic will expand.
Though the relationship was rocky to say the least I do think Talan and Gemma were a cute pair. I also have another ship I can't wait to see if it happened in the future.
As someone who is close to there sister but can fight with them as well I liked the sister relationship that was built throughout this book and the memories they shared even though they grew about and back together again.
I think Claire did a great job with her first adult daubt, though her Furyborn books felt new adult more than YA anyways and I can't wait to see what she comes up with in the next books.

I love the idea behind this book. The plot kept me intrigued but the characters were so childish and it made it so hard for me to continue reading. The story and magic were amazing. I loved the idea and the world but the FMC was so hard to related and bond with that it really ruined the book for me

I DNFED this book so I retail sits I won’t be putting a star rating. This book just isn’t what I thought it was going to be. I didn’t like the writing style or the characters very much. I just felt bleh to the things happening in this book and it didn’t reel me in.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC to review!

I'm a huge Claire Legrand fan- but I will say, I enjoyed the Empirium Trilogy immediately a lot more than ACOIAG. I found the love interest and characters far more compelling and dynamic to read. Right off the bat, the main love interest gave me red flag vibes and they didn't really go away after the (without spoiling anything) big reveals.... I did enjoy how much of a morally grey character Gemma was- living for her chaotic messiness.

The world building is quite beautiful and thorough, but sometimes hard to keep track of because the lore is so immense. A chart or something visual at the front or back would be helpful.

I found Legrand's discussion of mental health through Gemma and other characters to be quite powerful and touching.

I have really high hopes for book #2! ACOIAG left us on a pretty good cliff hanger that still provided a sense of closure.

I really hate to be that person but I kept loosing my focus with this book. I really did try several times to continue it. I feel like it had a good thing going on and then it would loose me randomly here and there and I would have to focus again. I feel at the end this book was just not for me but others could have really enjoy it! So please give it a try.

I loved the Empirium trilogy, so when I saw Claire Legrand had another book coming out I was ecstatic. The premise of the book is super interesting, but I will say it was pretty hard to get into it at first. The pacing was a little slow at the beginning and, frankly, the main character was super unlikeable. She’s selfish and super focused on looks, not just her own but others as well. I definitely felt she seems naive as well, which felt slightly YA. However, the second part of the book does pick up and once it does you want to keep turning the pages and not stop.

I liked the side characters quite a lot as well, especially Ferrin, Mara, and the Basks. Also, I’m excited to learn more about the big bad and what we can expect for Gemma in the next book. Overall, this was a good book with an interesting plot, but the pacing was a little off at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me an eARC to review!

After quite enjoying Furyborn when I read it a couple years ago, and being interested in Legrand's other books, I was looking forward to picking this one up. A little worried by the ACOTAR comparison, but I liked the idea of following a main character with chronic pain and that these books will all be based on ballets.

While I did find Imogen interesting, I found myself wishing we were following her cool shapeshifter nun sister Mara instead. Imogen's storyline was giving aesthetic - ivy-clad atriums, Reign-esque dresses - and the chronic pain rep was something you don't see often, but other than that I didn't really care about her journey. And then when you throw in the love interest who is giving male manipulator vibes (cough Tamlin)...no thanks. From what I skimmed of the rest of the book, it also seems it goes a little off the rails and the romance doesn't go in the direction I'd like, so I just don't think this was for me.

I'd say this was kind of ACOTAR meets Kingdom of the Wicked - so maybe if you like those franchises you'd like this? But ultimately I think your enjoyment hinges on how you feel about the line "I've never wanted anything more than I want to f*** your perfect sweet little c***." Be still my fade-to-black-loving heart...

"Losing you would feel like tearing off my own skin."
"That's disgusting," I whispered, feeling quite undone by the use of his endearment for me, "and yet bizarrely romantic."

Okay, okay, listen. I applied for this book on NetGalley bc BB is supposed to send it out in their May box I believe, but you know that means I’ll probably get it in December. 💀 anyway, I wanted to check it out and so I applied, got approved, and tbh the current reviews made me a little nervous. But I dove in anyway.

So my honest thoughts? I am so glad I didn’t DNF this book. I thought about it. The beginning was pretty rough my dude. It was also slow, but not the good world building slow - just like tons of filler and fluff to the point I was gonna start skimming or put it down.

But somewhere around the halfway point I was like, “oh… OH… Whaaaaa this book is actually really GOOD!” And it STAYED that level until the end!!

🌱 TROPES & THEMES 🌱
✔️ magic
✔️ humans, monsters and demons
✔️ FMC dealing with chronic pain
✔️ slight Bridgerton vibes
✔️ plot twists, and GOOD ones
✔️ character growth that is 🤌🏽
✔️ chemistry between the two MCs and spice
⚠️ self harm and unaliving self thoughts, PLEASE proceed with caution/check TW

Now our FMC, Imogen aka Gemma. Bless her bones. She was a LOT to deal with. Tbh still was by the end. But I’m ngl, she grew on me. Her seemingly shallow, materialistic self was all a mask she wore to hide the debilitating pain she was under from being around magic, and to learn information to store for later. Court is truly a battle in itself, and she prides herself on being a cunning lady after all.

Talan is our MMC, and I just loved him. He had slight soft boy energy- and while a lot of times I don’t really care for that in my books, with him, I really loved it. He was broken, he had flaws, but his story was so layered that I just wanted to keep digging and peeling them off to find out what was going on.

Listen, if you’re on the fence about this book - give it a shot. At least until you reach that halfway point. The last chunk was SO good, and I was invested the rest of the time. I wish the beginning had more Mist info and lore than it did - it may have been more interesting to stay focused on. But gosh, when it got good it got GOOD.

The ending was a cliffhanger, sort of. I hope we get some answers and problems solved in the next book because I’m not okay with how it ended PLEASE. 🥲🥲

Claire did an awesome job on her first NA book. The beginning did feel a little YA - but I was sold by 50% and it kept getting better. Looking forward to the next book!!

I have never seen a book with so many DNF early reviews. Yikes! First of all I have to agree with 99% of the other reviews that this is not an adult novel. This is YA. The writing is completely juvenile. The girl is supposed to be 20 but she might as well be 17. Yes there is sex but everything about this book is YA. The toxic relationship. I love you after one week. I can't trust you any more! A week later they are making out. I can't trust you any more. A week later they are having sex. The "we can't tell any of the adults what we are doing." I was very excited about this Adult debut fantasy but it is definitely not. The guy is supposedly her age and he says to her, "I've been alone for so long." (Dude you are 20!) I do think YA readers will like this but not me. I quit reading YA for a reason and this book had all of those reasons.

-"I could not save my own family. But maybe if we work together, I can save yours."

This was just an interesting read. If you enjoyed the Blood and Ash series and others like that, then I think you should like this as well. It has some issues like the female main character is hard to like at first but the story grabbed me and I was invested in finding out what was going to happen.

A Crown of Ivy and Glass really wasn’t the Fantasy book for me. My main problem with it was the writing style and how it fit more with a YA novel than an Adult one. It was very difficult to suspend my disbelief in regard to Gemma as a main character and narrator when she sounded like a young teenager most of the time.

The world-building was a interesting, even more so when it came to people’s individual magic, but some of the infodumps throughout put me off it. This also took a turn in the second half that made me understand the ACOTAR comparison and I don’t think it was that well developed.

Which leads me to another point: this book was over 500 pages and the pace was so odd? Some elements, like the romance, were so rushed. Others dragged on and on and went nowhere. And then there were some points that could have been addressed and more well developed throughout that didn’t come up until it was convenient for them to do so.

I’m disappointed. I had high expectations for this one and, sadly, the book didn’t meet them. The ending did bring up some intriguing questions on Gemma and her family, though, but I won’t be continuing the series to figure out those answers.

First off, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an e-ARC copy of this book. I first picked up this book because I was intrigued by how its description pitched it as an intersection between Bridgerton and ACOTAR. The premise of the book also seemed interesting, and at the very beginning, I was immediately pulled by the idea that this would be a story of three sisters, each living different lives and fates, but all caring deeply about one another. And although I really tried my best to see the positives in this book — which there are definitely a few — I share the overall sentiment with many other early readers of this book.

Although I do see elements of Bridgerton, Gemma and Talan’s love story is definitely insta-love, and I’ve personally never been a fan of this because it makes it so difficult to believe that they truly have feelings for one another — especially when they’ve literally just met. And the fact that their love story is introduced from the get-go just makes the story even more difficult to read because the bulk of events that occur is based on a relationship that I can’t feel is real. Their longing for each other seem much too sudden and out of nowhere, and oftentimes seems out of place. Talan’s words to Gemma are sometimes really cheesy, and I’m not sure if I’m the biggest fan of that either.

The book is also extremely slow in the first half. There were moments where I was ready to just give up reading it. But since it’s an extremely anticipated book, I knew that there must be some value in reading it, so I pushed on. But I admit, it was rather hard. A saving grace may be Farrin’s character, whose relationships and abilities with music were so interesting, and I hoped the book had a lot more of. I do understand that Gemma’s character is meant to be flawed. Meant to be broken. Because of her “allergy” to magic, she becomes someone who thirsts for attention, and brim full with jealousy. She is meant to make greedy decisions because of her upbringing. I could see the attempts to make Gemma be the “character that is difficult to love”, but for some reason, I find myself having difficulties sympathizing with her. Her greediness and shallowness oftentimes overshadows her unfortunate situation, and I question whether or not she’s actually trying to be better.

While the first half of the book or so is much more slow-paced, later on we can start seeing things spiral out of control. It was rather hard to keep track of what’s going on and how the world actually operates, and it is quite unfortunate because the book has such a promising and interesting premise! So overall, I think what is needed more in this book is balance. Some of the plot lines and relationships seemed so rushed, while others seemed to come from nowhere and continued to drag. There needs to be more balance in the world and character building as well, and a more balanced pacing of the entire story. I’ll probably stick around to see what the second book is like, but I hope I’ll get more of the three sisters in the sequel (especially Farrin)!

I feel this story went super slow and incredibly drawn out. I found myself wanting to create some hype. Kept saying people will love this so I need to find my excitement too. I then saw a special edition with sprayed edges in the works and gave myself a pep talk. I could not find it. It’s dark and demonic and a love story.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This is an exciting magical mystery that tells the story of a girl who feels she will never amount to anything.

Claire Legrand is a fantastic author who explores deep, painful topics that many readers will find relatable. But many other readers might not understand them at all. What I had found while reading this book is to not expect a high fantasy world but a curious adventure with sprinkles of fluttering magic, yearning romance, and a new understanding of a world where you are not anyone special.

Gemma Ashbourne, the main protagonist, is a high society woman who cares about nothing else other than to make herself the center. Born without any gifts, she does her best to be a worthy daughter in a family who society has put on a high pedestal. She is rash, stubborn, and extremely privileged with her Ashbourne name. Many of the choices she makes can make readers angry and scratch their heads. She can be aggravating but slowly starts to open up about why she is the way she is. Despite being surrounded by magic, she is constantly harmed by it. Her own growth throughout the book shows her initiative to be a stronger individual not just for herself but to everyone she cares around her.

Her romance with Talan d'Astier is an adventure of its own. Reading about two hopelessly in love individuals pine after one another is enjoyable. Talan's assistance in Gemma's mystery helps unravel much of what the world of "A Crown of Ivy and Glass" is about. I adored their interactions and they bond they share.

The love Gemma shares for her sisters is also notable. Farrin and Mara are just as important to the plot of the story. They are good individuals who hold no ill intentions to their sister. All three of them care for eachother deeply and will do whatever it takes to keep eachother safe.

"A Crown of Ivy and Glass" is a beautiful introduction to Claire Legrand's Middlemist trilogy. There is a lot to take in and while at times the story can move slower than other parts, it allows the reader to digest the facts and events that are happening. If you do not pay close attention you will fall off and into the dangerous "Mist".

If you are someone looking for a slower paced fantasy this a great book to pick up. Take your time with this story. How it starts is different to how it ends.

3 ⭐️

I can see why this book has been compared to Bridgerton and ACOTAR because it does have similar plot elements, but it falls far short of the hype.

"A Crown of Ivy and Glass" is unnecessarily long, very slow for the majority of the book, and doesn’t do a good job of balancing plot with character development. This is supposed to be an adult fantasy romance and while it does have adult romantic content, the fantasy and the writing are not adult. There are a number of YA tropes, the world is not developed enough, and there are multiple plot holes. It annoyed me to no end that for a large portion of the book, the MC was just blatantly ignoring an obviously important detail.

This really was like reading two very different books that have been mashed together. The tone and plot have a drastic shift partway through and a major plot element from the beginning is just completely dropped in the second half. It really felt like the plot and the romance got written separately and then had to be combined without changing anything.

The premise of this book was really interesting and I enjoyed the beginning, but it turned into a bit of a slog in the middle and towards the end. There were some promising hints about what might happen in book 2, but I really don’t know if the execution will ruin it for me.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.4 ⭐
𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚛. 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚝𝚘𝚘.
The premise of this book was definitely interesting, a very Pride & Prejudice-esque high fantasy. I love a good period piece with a pretty aesthetic. It was a fun read, I was a little skeptical after reading some of the reviews so I was glad it wasn't horrid.
It feels more YA even though it's marketed as an Adult Fantasy so I'd encourage readers to be mindful of that.

tw: self-harm, suicide

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧 & 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙂𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠.

It *hurts* me to rate this one so low, but I cannot give it any higher than 2.5 stars. I had such high expectations after loving the Furyborn series, but this book was just a mess. In complete honesty, I spent over a week on it and ended up DNF'ing it at 81% because I was unmotivated, confused, and dreading picking this book up. I really wanted to love it because the premise is so promising, but there were so many plot lines and not one of them deserved a 500+ page arc in the FIRST. BOOK. Our characters seemed lifeless and bland, constantly making the same mistakes; the drama dragged on and on and I legitimately didn't understand how any of the (too many) conflicts led to the characters' actions. I was bored and couldn't bring myself to finish the book even after a week wasted on 81% of it. I would love to say I'd come back to this book/series, but I probably won't. The romance was probably the only rewarding part of the book, and even it was seriously lackluster and insta-lovey.