This simply wasn’t the year for me and cozy fantasy. I don’t think I was in quite the right headspace for it so I didn’t enjoy these types of novels nearly as much as in other years, even when it was authors I previously enjoyed.
It’s not that every novel needs to be gripping epic fantasy but even for my lighter reads, I just tended to want something that was a bit more fast paced.
For this reason, I was slightly dreading this novel even though I had been excited when it was announced, and it definitely continued the trend for me. Fern’s journey and dissatisfaction with her place in life were relatable as were her fears; the chaotic goblin was an amazingly fun character and yet I just wasn’t that into this novel. It never hit me to the point where I couldn’t put it down. In fact, I started and finished four other books while reading this one … which maybe if I had just stuck with it a bit more earlier, it would have grabbed me.
I really do think this is mostly/entirely a me thing and a case of bad timing. It did pick up for me a little during the last half and there are quite a few entertaining animals in this one (also, this really is the year for horses apparently – Bucket here, Legs in Godkiller and Sunbringer, and the horse in The Everlasting were all very much characters in their own right in their novels).
