Review by Scribe After Five
Nov 10As someone who loved A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing, I have to say the comparisons to those series didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. The opening chapters were difficult to get through — while the world-building was easy to picture, I struggled with Saeris as a main character. I think the author intended her to be this sharp, sassy, badass heroine, but to me, she came across as immature, irritating, and a bit of a “pick-me.” I found myself rolling my eyes more often than rooting for her.
I almost DNF’d but decided to keep going after seeing reviews saying it gets better later. Unfortunately, it didn’t — at least not for me. Kingfisher didn’t win me over either. His immediate hatred toward Saeris felt baseless, making their enemies-to-lovers dynamic feel forced and rushed. Their banter read more like a high-school spat than clever tension, and by the midpoint, I was skimming dialogue just to get through it.
The prose also felt overly wordy — moments that could’ve been said in a sentence stretched into entire paragraphs. At over 600 pages, it dragged when it could’ve easily been trimmed down to 350–400 without losing substance. The editing didn’t help either. And a personal ick of mine: when fantasy or romantasy books use modern slang or phrasing. It happened several times here and kept pulling me out of the story.
The only saving grace for me was Carrion Swift — he brought some spark to an otherwise heavy read. Beyond that, I can’t say I’m invested enough to continue with book two, even with the cliffhanger ending.
Does Quicksilver have potential? Definitely. Was it overdone in places it didn’t need to be? Absolutely. While I can see why it appeals to many readers, this one just wasn’t for me.
As someone who loved A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing, I have to say the comparisons to those series didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. The opening chapters were difficult to get through — while the world-building was easy to picture, I struggled with Saeris as a main character. I think the author intended her to be this sharp, sassy, badass heroine, but to me, she came across as immature, irritating, and a bit of a “pick-me.” I found myself rolling my eyes more often than rooting for her.
I almost DNF’d but decided to keep going after seeing reviews saying it gets better later. Unfortunately, it didn’t — at least not for me. Kingfisher didn’t win me over either. His immediate hatred toward Saeris felt baseless, making their enemies-to-lovers dynamic feel forced and rushed. Their banter read more like a high-school spat than clever tension, and by the midpoint, I was skimming dialogue just to get through it.
The prose also felt overly wordy — moments that could’ve been said in a sentence stretched into entire paragraphs. At over 600 pages, it dragged when it could’ve easily been trimmed down to 350–400 without losing substance. The editing didn’t help either. And a personal ick of mine: when fantasy or romantasy books use modern slang or phrasing. It happened several times here and kept pulling me out of the story.
The only saving grace for me was Carrion Swift — he brought some spark to an otherwise heavy read. Beyond that, I can’t say I’m invested enough to continue with book two, even with the cliffhanger ending.
Does Quicksilver have potential? Definitely. Was it overdone in places it didn’t need to be? Absolutely. While I can see why it appeals to many readers, this one just wasn’t for me.
