I read the first book in this series, House of Salt & Sorrows, a couple years ago and I LOVED IT. So I cannot explain how excited I was when I heard that we were getting a sequel.
I curled up on my couch, turned on some cozy music, and plunged into what I thought was a twisty gothic romance but . . .
Um . . .
I hated this?
Erin A. Craig, I really do love you. I think your first book was a masterpiece. So if you’re reading this, don’t read any farther. But this novel represents everything that’s wrong about the YA fiction world.
But first off, let me give you some background.
A SHORT & ENTERTAINING ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY
Verity is tired of her quiet life with her sister so when she receives an opportunity to travel to another country and paint a portrait she’s like um of course yes but the only problem is she’s a little crazy in the membrane, she sees ghosts and stuff like that and her sister’s like if anyone knows about this it’ll ruin our family reputation but Verity goes anyway and she falls in love with the handsome heir to the estate but something’s kinda off there’s screaming peacocks and more ghosts and the guy’s parents are sus so yeah.
MY RATING
Maybe 1 star
I would’ve DNFed but I’ve been having trouble finishing books so I was determined to finish this
OVERALL THOUGHTS
- The characters were so one-dimensional. I never quite got a good idea of what anyone looked like, and they all had maybe one defining trait. Verity herself, the main character, took so long to realize what was happening (and by then it was super obvious to the reader).
- The romance was weird. It happened so quickly that, to be honest, I thought the plot twist would be that Alex was actually a villain. I didn’t trust him the whole book. And then most of the book, Verity seemed kinda grossed out by him. *SPOILER*: Then we meet his secret brother, who’s like super attractive or whatever and she’s fighting attraction for this man that she knows nothing about? Idk, it was gross to me. And so weird that he would be coming onto her like that.
- I hated the plot twists. I cannot even explain it. They were so random and the pacing was totally off, the end seemed like a soap opera, just throwing secrets and family members at my face like POW AREN’T YOU SURPRISED?! And i was like…no I’m numb. I just want it to be over.
- SMUT. I cannot explain how much I dislike smut. It has no place in Young Adult fiction. There were multiple very explicit passages that I had to skip over. Sure, gimme a nice kissing scene or two. But there’s a line somewhere, and I think it’s pretty obvious where. This was p*rn level. I might take a Sharpie marker and black out those portions bc I’m embarrassed to have it on my shelf. The middle of the book takes a totally different turn; I had hope until I got to the lusty middle, then I was like I’m sorry what am I reading??
- The world could’ve been so cool, but fell flat. I was sure in House of Salt and Sorrows, the writing was so prose-y and like a magnificent painting. But this one just lost its way, getting stuck on cliches.
Overall, I’m very disappointed. I don’t remember disliking a book this much, but this is the reason I stopped reading for a couple years. I felt like I would start reading a book and hope hope hope it was good, but I was ending up with so many DNFs.
I will prevail on, however! I believe there are good books out here. And I’m hoping Erin A. Craig will learn from this one and make the next book in the series more like her first Sisters of the Salt novel.
Wallflower Garden 
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