Jaime Leigh > Recent Status Updates

Finally going through and adding books to my 2023 Most Anticipated list but so many of these books sound exactly the same. Let me know if there are any standouts that you have on your list!

Really loving this so far!

This is what my soul needed, especially after the hot mess that Amari Book 2 was. Idk if it's the writing or the narrator but it is giving me the feeling of a Heros of Olympus book but completely unique and wonderful in it's own right.
It just feels very homey.

1. Ima really need this to be as good as it already feels and

2. Ima need a list of every book/movie that opens with angsty teens spray painting something. I feel like it could be it's own trope at this point. (Also the opening did make me think of the Santa Claus 2 😂)

Yeahhhh no. This doesn't feel like as much of a reveal as it is supposed to 😫

What the heck? We're just gonna throw all of Laura's character development out the window?

I haven't had any qualms with the narrator up until this point but her voice for Bane has 0 weight to it. It's not intimidating or creepy or anything more than a hardy whisper. This is the only time that I have wished each character had a different voice because the right actor would have made him as menacing as he needs to be for any of his intimidation to feel real.

For as much as this was pitched as a Great Game, we haven't actually scene much of that. It's more caught up in the politics of the time freeze. Feel like it might have bit off more than it can chew.

Honey baby sweetie child, when has the "keep them at a distance to keep them safe" plan ever worked?! 🤦‍♀️

Trials in the first book and a game in this one? Two of my favorite tropes. 😊

Jayden is a cinnamon roll and I'ma fight whoever tries to hurt him.

I realized yesterday that we're getting super close to 2023 and I have like 5 books on my TBR for next year. So here we go, looking at all the 2023 lists I can find.

Maybe it is because I'm currently functioning with one brain cell, but I feel like there was a lot of set up stuff in the first 5% that I totally missed and now I'm a little confused.

Dang Cosmo! Maybe *dont* give a 13 year old the freaking magic crown and league title? Instead give the her actual instructions on how to work your portal thing rather than assuming she'd figure it out before she drowned? My dude o.o

Why is it that the first think I think of with the name Watcher is Ryan and Shane and their supernatural investigations 🤣

Some notes:
-IDK why Fiona says Yehs sometimes and speaks normally others. It's really annoying, esp in the audiobook.
-I like that Amari does poorly on her first test and needs to work to learn about the world bc her "being the highest level badge and magical" comes off feeling a little too OP at the beginning
-The beginning felt longer than I remember.
-Entrapta from SheRa and Elsie would be besties. Love her.

July, August, and the beginning of September were really really hard for me, with my mental and physical health tanking. Audiobooks sped up the way I normally listen to them felt like nails on a chalk board to my brain, but I also didn't have the ability to focus on anything. Also Imaginary Mary put me in such a bad slump. Won't be upping my goal this year but glad I'm back to reading and listening again.

Rereading this before I jump into the sequel

Someone please kill Shelley please or whatever will remove him from the story the quickest.

I'm so sad. I've totally lost interest in this. It feels so disjointed and meandering and
the
freaking
"villain"
is honestly one of the worst I have ever read. No exaggeration. He's like a villain from a D grade Barbie movie.

I wonder if PAN escaping out the windows is another Peter Pan reference?

Not only does the introduction of Mr. Aldine feel like an extreme pivot in the plot (that really should have been flushed out more IMO), but he is such a cheezy mustache twisting villains. Also, who the heck thinks that simply showing back up at the door of the lady who just escaped you would be an effective method of capturing her again? I guess if it worked the first time....

It should be noted that there are brief lines referencing Ada's mother and her abuse of Ada. I haven't found it overly triggering, as it isn't the main plot, but it should be noted.

I just realized that they named him Peter Pan...because he's now a real boy...🤦‍♀️

The introduction of the villain at the half way mark, even having briefly met him earlier in the book, feels incredibly forced.
Reading back my review of the first Mary book, it seems like these books struggling with their villains is a unfortunate theme.

Enjoying this loads 😊

Um what in the Cinderella Narnia Nightmare Before Christmas nonsense is this?

YESSSS! Finally. It's alive!
I love these books and I was counting down the days till this installment came out.

Have already connected more dots in my life in these 10 pages than the last 10 years o.o