A Crown of Ivy and Glass

Product Information

Lady Gemma Ashbourne seemingly has it all. She’s young, gorgeous, and rich. Her family was Anointed by the gods, blessed with incredible abilities. But underneath her glittering façade, Gemma is deeply sad. Years ago, her sister Mara was taken to the Middlemist to guard against treacherous magic. Her mother abandoned the family. Her father and eldest sister, Farrin - embroiled in a deadly blood feud with the mysterious Bask family - often forget Gemma exists. 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. 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. Now, to the characters. First, I think that Legrand did an excellent job of portraying the experiences and life of someone who lives with chronic pain. Gemma is very straight-forward with her struggles while also never becoming self-pitying. She is frustrated with her limitations, while also not belittling herself. I also really like the way this aspect of her character plays out over the entire arc of the book. Unfortunately, that was about all I liked about Gemma. I get that the author was very intentionally writing this character as rather frivolous and selfish; indeed, Gemma herself comments on these aspects of her personality. And I think the book used these traits to also do a great job of diving into self-loathing and self-harm. But over the course of the book, while Gemma does experience growth, I still struggled to really like her or feel invested in her story. Example six and probably the biggest issue I had with this book. The main character, Gemma is absolute WORST. She is annoying, spoiled and sometimes completely empty headed.

Finally, the plot of this book actually irritates me. In the synopsis, it seems simple and kind of silly, but something I could read and potentially enjoy, especially since I enjoyed Claire Legrand's other book called Furyborn. It just goes all over the place and as said earlier it's just not fluid. I understand this is Legrand's Adult debut, but it's not her first novel and I expected more! 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. I think the series has a very good chance of being very good, if the story were written a little more structured. As someone with a chronic, painful illness that has no known cure, I relate deeply to Imogen’s pain as she grapples with her place in the world and finds meaning in her oft-bedridden existence. True to life, Legrand describes Imogen’s aches and ailments with such consistency it’s impossible to forget. Lady Gemma Ashbourne seemingly has it all. She's young, gorgeous, and rich. Her family was Anointed by the gods, blessed with incredible abilities. But underneath her glittering façade, Gemma is deeply sad. Years ago, her sister Mara was taken to the Middlemist to guard against treacherous magic. Her mother abandoned the family. Her father and eldest sister, Farrin-embroiled in a deadly blood feud with the mysterious Bask family-often forget Gemma exists.The last third of the book couldn’t have been so much more if by the time I got there, all I wanted to do is be done already. Oh, wait. Talan. I loved this boy the very most. Eee. He was all kinds of precious. Beautiful, of course. But so sweet and giving off such vibes of innocence, haha. Which he was not. Well, he was. He was all kinds of complicated and I loved that. He had such a wild story and a wild life. I loved getting to know him. Sure, he did make some mistakes too. And there was some drama that I was not a big fan of. Hmph. But it was nothing that bad. And oh, how I loved him. Talan was the sweetest and he cared so so much for Gemma. 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.

I think this book isn´t going to be everyone’s taste and many will make too early decisions and judgements, however I hope that more people will fall in love with this book as much as I did. I cannot wait for this book to come out next year and for everyone to dive into this world and story. Meanwhile, I´m going to sit here in misery wondering how many human sacrifices it will take to get an ARC of the second book too. 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. I have so much to write about this book. And I have already written too much. And yet I'm not done, ha. But I will not say too much about the plot of this story. As it was all over the place. And I loved that. This book is all about Gemma. About her slowly learning more about why she has zero magic. And how she might have it anyway. It was a little creepy and all kinds of awesome to read about. This is a book about demons. A book about curses. A book about magical travelling through hedges, haha. A book about love.First, a huge thank you to Sophie from Sourcebooks International for sending me this ARC. I´ll treasure it forever. Gemma has grown up with a very priveleged existence: rich, beautiful, and a member of one of the most powerful families in the land. But, at the same time, Gemma has always felt herself to be on the outside looking in. Not only does she not possess any of the magical talent that her family is known for, and that both of her older sisters excel at in their own ways, but magic actively hurts Gemma, causing her to move through life in a very magical world experiencing constant levels of pain. When Gemma meets Talan, a young man who also feels that he exists outside the strictures of society, she finally begins to see a way forward, teaming up with him to hunt a powerful demon who may be the answer to her struggles with magic. But along the way, she begins to suspect that there is much more going on with Talan and the larger world as a whole. 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'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. 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.