A Crown of Ivy and Glass

Product Information

The result is a genuine and exciting character arc that puts disability and mental illness in the spotlight for an honest, earnest evaluation. Three and a half seems mean because I really enjoyed the second half of this book but because it took me two goes to get into it I feel that’s fair Each book will follow one of the Ashbourne sisters, and in this first novel, we are introduced to Lady Imogen “Gemma” Ashbourne…. a young, rich and beautiful woman of a family, which was Anointed by the gods and blessed with incredible abilities, she seemingly has it all. Her bestselling Empirium Trilogy consists of epic fantasy novels FURYBORN, KINGSBANE, and LIGHTBRINGER.

But where do I even begin with this book? There is so much to write about. So much to say. And I am going to try not to share everything about it. But oh, I have many thoughts. And I simply must share most of them. The writing was absolutely stunning. As always, with a Claire book. I fully fell in love with everything. Example one. This book is marketed as adult. But the characters and the writing is VERY YA. Cursing and bad cringy sex scenes do not make book an adult fantasy.I just finished this book and can say that I think I have a new favorite! The Empirium Trilogy is one of my all time favorites, so I was highly anticipating this book! I am so intrigued that it will be told as three connected stand-alone stories following each of the three sisters of the Ashbourne family, in a fully fantasy setting. I love the combination of conventions from the different genres. Gemma Ashbourne stammt aus einer der einflussreichsten Familien mit der stärksten Magie, doch sie selbst hat nicht nur keine magischen Kräfte, allein die Nähe zu Magie kann bei ihr starke Schmerzen auslösen.

Then she meets the devastatingly handsome Talan d’Astier. His family destroyed themselves, seduced by a demon, and Talan, the only survivor, is determined to redeem their honor. Intrigued and enchanted, Gemma proposes a bargain: She’ll help Talan navigate high society if he helps her destroy the Basks. According to popular legend, a demon called The Man With the Three-Eyed Crown is behind the families’ blood feud—slay the demon, end the feud. This story is a high fantasy about a selfish anxiety riddled young adult woman. I absolutely loved it. Rating 7: A very mixed bag for this book specifically, but I was definitely sold on the concept and anxiously await the next entry in the trilogy! As a result, the story is sometimes difficult to understand or follow the narration. Because many descriptions are missing or it is simply unclear what the author meant writing some things. New York Times bestselling author of Furyborn, Claire Legrand, makes her stunning adult debut with A Crown of Ivy and Glass, a lush, sweeping fantasy-romance series starter that's perfect for fans of Bridgerton and A Court of Thorns and Roses.This is the first adult book by Claire, which I loved. Felt a little young to me, and that is what I like. So I did not mind that at all. This trilogy will be told from three different sisters. In this one, it was about Gemma, the youngest. Gemma was twenty years old. Mara was the middle one, twenty-two. Farrin the oldest sister, at twenty-four. I cannot wait to read their books as well. Although I very much hate waiting. Hmph. Anyway. It is an adult series, but I felt like it was very much like her Furyborn books in tone and such, which I loved. Gemma felt so young at times. Yet older too. Of course, biggest difference with this book being for adults was the very steamy romance. Sigh. There was a lot of it, haha. And it was perfect. I loved how steamy it was, yet sweet too. Was the story a bit chaotic and muddled? 100%, but it was still incredibly fascinating, engaging, and exciting. There is so much I want to say about the plot of this book. So many spoilers. But I'm not going to mention any of them. This is a book about Gemma and Talan. It's filled with magic and danger. All of the twists. So many secrets. So much pain too. But also hope and love. And I adored every part of this book. I so loved how Gemma and Talan fit together. I loved reading about Gemma and her sisters together. And oh, I did love the ending. But gosh. There are so many things I need answers to. I must have the next book now. Honestly, I question why Gemma had to be the first character to focus on for this series. What I liked most about her was the chronic pain rep Legrand invested in her. For some reason, Gemma not only doesn't have magic of her own like the rest of her family, but the magic around her actively harms her. She has to limit where and who she spends time with to avoid being on bedrest for several days. But she is not weak or whiny, and that is what makes it so wonderfully and respectfully done. She is a strong individual even on her worst days. But personality-wise, the girl was not pleasant. Gemma is the youngest of three sisters, and it kind of shows in how she behaves. She is rather vain, somewhat selfish and dismissive of others if it doesn't suit her, and is often focused on appearances, and not just of her own. Normally, I wouldn't have an issue with an unlikeable character like this, especially when part of their arc is to turn those traits to good, but there was something about her that felt off and made me not want to be with her. The whole time, I wanted to be in her sisters' heads instead.

So, I’ll be honest, I’ve had this post started for a few weeks now and every time I pull it up to actually write my review, I become super intimidated and find excuses to do other things. Mostly this is because I’m still not quite sure how I feel about this book! I have some extremely opposing feelings about almost every part of it. But one thing I think I can confidently start with is one of the things I referred to in my introduction: this author knows how to write. I immediately felt drawn into this world and these characters. As the story progressed, the magic and world itself felt as if it was unrolling before me, presenting more and more insights into the world-building that was on a much more grandiose scale than I had originally thought. Regardless of anything else in this review, the appeal of Legrand’s prose is enough to keep me reading this trilogy going forward. First off, Lady Gemma Ashbourne, our main character, is INSUFFERABLE. She cares so much about her vanity and how LONELY she is. Yeah, okay she's neglected, but for VALID REASONS. Her sister is protecting the Middlemist, and her eldest sister and her father are at work dealing with a DEADLY blood feud. I get that being lonely is sad and depressing, especially considering she is lowkey dying, but GIRL think about someone besides yourself for once! She's also always bragging about how her family is so rich and how privileged they are. SHUT. UP. Oh. And a book filled with incredible characters. Like the queen of this place. She was ancient, I think. Yet young. And all kinds of interesting to read about. Though we only got to know a little about her. I want to know more. Then there was Illaria and Gareth. Both characters whom I adored. And Ryder with his sister. They were a little crazy but I grew to like them too, haha. I loved Una the dog. There was so much about this book that I loved. The different types of magic. The twists in the story. All of it interesting and exciting. It really does feel like Bridgerton meets magic and demons, but with mental health and chronic illness rep. The writing felt so rich and well crafted, and I'm itching to unravel more of the mysteries of Middlemist. There were a few things I noticed, like how the first and second halves felt almost like separate books, and how the pacing got a little messy in the later, but I honestly didn't mind. I think the series has a very good chance of being very good, if the story were written a little more structured.First, a huge thank you to Sophie from Sourcebooks International for sending me this ARC. I´ll treasure it forever. The only reason I didn’t DNF it was because I was listening to the audiobook while commuting and doing chores, otherwise I don’t think I’d have been able to finish it. But even though this was a huge disappointment for me and I won’t be continuing this series, I’ll still keep an eye out for Legrand’s future works. If you haven’t read anything by this author yet but you want to, I recommend starting with her Empirium trilogy. First off, this is apparently an adult novel but reads like horrible YA- from the awful lead character who is the worst kind of spoiled brat, to the tragically boring love at first sight with the bad boy leading male. None of the characters seem to grow, the characters that you're actually interested in barely get any time in the novel, and I still can't even tell you what happened because literally nothing happens for most of the book.