"A Crown of Ivy and Glass" is smutty high-ish fantasy with strong fairy tale vibes. Crown of Ivy and Glass follows Gemma Ashbourne, the youngest of three sisters and member of an Anointed family tasked with protecting Gallinor against evil magic. Due to her sickness around Magic and being the only family member not in possession of some magic herself, Gemma’s sister Mara is taken in her place at a young age by the Warden to become a Rose warrior, one of the protectors of the Middlemist. For years, Gemma grapples with the guilt she has carried that her sister was taken and not her, as tradition dictates. After a particularly harrowing attack while visiting Mara, Gemma decides to lift everyone’s spirits with a party, using the occasion to also serve as a distraction for the Rose warriors to do their protective work. At the party, Gemma meets Talan, a handsome stranger from another land, and embarks on a new journey of bargains, family feuds, lies, demons, magic, and romance.

⭐️: 2.5/5

Lady Gemma Ashbourne has it all. She is rich, young, and born into a powerful family, caught up in a famous and well known blood feud with another family, the Basks. However, Gemma is the first Ashbourne to possess no magic herself. Instead, her body rejects it, causing her physical pain when she’s around it. When she meets the mysterious Talan d’Astier, the only survivor of a family plagued and dishonored by a demon, she makes a deal with him: she’ll help him navigate high society and redeem his family name if he helps her defeat the Basks for her family. As she and Talan get closer, their passion grows, and the stakes of their bargain start to get higher.

I’ll start by saying that I think it’s hard to write a compelling fantasy story when the heroine starts out as a “somebody.” I think we prefer to see her come from nothing and gain her power, but still keep her grounded and level head and her passion for the little guy. Gemma has none of these qualities, and on top of it, does not seem to respect logic, and thus makes errant and rash decisions that continually make her more and more unlikeable. I’m not really sure what the intent was, but the result was a narrator and main character that did not excite me and did not make me want to come back to continue following her story, one who was written to be insufferable and think she was the one best equipped to fix everything, when none of her traits lead the reader to believe it at all. Her preoccupation with looks and social standing was also off-putting, because it made her staggeringly difficult to commiserate with when her plans went awry. Overall, I didn’t find the plot or characters compelling, and the plans made throughout the book were ill-formed and abrupt, even by fantasy book standards. I’m not particularly interested in continuing on with the characters, or learning the remaining mysteries present at the end of this book, which is a problem, considering that this is supposed to be the first in a trilogy. This one ended up just being another on a long list of fantasy series of which I read the first one and will not continue.

Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I found it so difficult to connect to this book. The 1st person voice was frustrating and I wasn't keen on the character of Gemma. There were enough questions raised early on that I pushed through and finished, but this really wasn't a book that I enjoyed, and getting to the end was a struggle!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

After loving Furyborn and Kingsbane, and highly anticipating this book, I feel a little disappointed in this read.

I was not fond of the narrative and while I enjoyed the beginning of the story it started to feel like it was dragging down the line and the story was becoming more jumbled and incoherent to what it was described as.

At some points throughout the book I was even considering DNF-ing it because of how juvenile it felt even though this is supposted to be an adult novel.

Needless to say I was very disappointed because the synopsis for the book sounded so fun and intruiging!

*thank you to NetGalley, Claire Legrand and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this e-arc of A Crown of Glass and Ivy. It is much appreciated

While I do love Claire Legrand, I own all of the Empirium trilogy, this one didn’t perform as well for me as the previous mention series. I had a hard time finishing this one. I will give the next book a try.

I am giving this title a Three Star Review. That's only because I myself did not enjoy the book and did not finish it. But, as a librarian, I can definitely see my patron's reading this title. I was interested in reading the book based on the description. Unfortunately, I did not make a connection to the characters or the storyline enough to enjoy reading it. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

I did not finish this book.

Touted as an adult debut, it sounded really interesting, but it read incredibly YA. THe MC was insufferable, and spent the first part of the book going on and on about the looks of D'Astier.

I loved the idea of magic making someone sick, but all she wanted to use her magic for was to be pretty? Gross.

All DNFs get 3 stars.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I did enjoy this book, but I honestly don’t have much to say I don’t want to give any spoilers.

This was my first book by the author. I was very excited to read this book, because it’s promoted as Bridgerton meets ACOTAR. The premise sounded so good, but during reading I was quite bored. The story and characters are all over the place. There was no flow of the story. It didn’t feel organic.

The beginning was intriguing. I was curious about the characters and their journey. However, the plot just didn’t hit the mark. Everything just unravels without any real peaks. I was bored. The book felt unnecessary long and dragged out.

Gemma seemed like an interesting character at the beginning. I liked that she suffered a chronic pain illness. That was something unique. She isn’t whiny about her condition, which I enjoyed. But somehow she was annoying nonetheless. She is the youngest of three sisters and it shows. She is shallow and selfish. She focused so much on looks, which made me roll my eyes multiple times. It’s ok that she isn’t the most likable character at the beginning because I guess that leaves room for her personal growth and character development but I still couldn’t understand her. I just couldn’t bring myself to care about her, which made it really hard to read this book. Her sisters seem way more interesting. I wanted to be in their head and not Gemma’s.

Well at some point I started skipping pages and skimming the text. I really wanted to like this book but the plot and characters were just so messy and not likeable or really deep. If it wasn’t an arc, I would definitely have DNF this book. It’s a shame because many seem to love this author but I definitely didn’t like the writing.

Thank you to Claire Legrand and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for this review.

I had such high hopes for this book. I loved the description of Bridgerton meets ACOTAR (two series I really like!)
I have never read a book by this author before so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the writing style. The world building was a little hard to follow because I felt like it lacked detail, but at the same time I felt there was too much going on.
I did not like the main character at all, she came across as spoiled and selfish, to the point I almost didn’t want to finish the book because of it.
Overall the book was just okay; it wasn’t horrible but it’s not something I would ever reread or read a sequel of.

I really wish I liked this book more. I was excited because of the author, but when I went to read the book description I found it a bit all over the place, and unfortunately the book followed the same path. Initially, the FMC, Gemma, is somewhat unlikable, but that does get better with further reading. I felt that the world building was a bit weak, and unfortunately a lot of the plot was rather obvious.

Honestly, I'm struggling to review this book. I have many mixed feelings and thoughts. But, let's jump into it.

In A Crown of Ivy and Glass, our heroine is Gemma (Imogen) Ashbourne, she's the youngest daughter of a wealthy Anointed family, beautiful, but also a little vapid at first presentation. She's allergic to magic and struggles with chronic pain and associated mental health issues as well. The book jumps right into the plot, opening with her and her oldest sister, Ferrin, and father visiting her middle sister, Mara, at an order sworn to protect their country from invading "Olden" magic creatures.

Thus brings me to my first point of contention. The world building was all over the place. There are so many fantasy and magic elements. Old Gods, Annointed ones with magic, a mysterious Mist that borders their country from the Old Country. These various elements are introduced and briefly explored at best. There's just a lot going on, it got messy and difficult to keep track of, honestly I had a hard time visualizing what I was reading due to the lack of information given.

The main plot of the book is Gemma trying to help a mysterious visitor, Talan, clear his family name, while also assisting her to further the blood feud her family has against the Bask's. Gemma and Talan fall into instant attraction and there's a lot of random kissing and caressing, and honestly no suspense whatsoever on IF they will get together, but more WHEN. Gemma is quite sexual, and her internal monologue discusses her previous lovers as an aside so that one understands that she's no pure shrinking maiden. Somehow, despite a lack of details on their relationship, Talan and Gemma are IN LOVE, and again, I struggled with the lack of details and development given to their relationship.

The book changes about halfway into something almost completely different, and contrary to a lot of the reviews I'm seeing here, I actually enjoyed it more than the first half. Once I got halfway, I flew through the book. Which leads me to my difficulty with giving a proper rating and review.

The writing lacked overall. The book just didn't feel like a novel intended for adults, except that the main characters have explicitly written sex scenes. That said, the character development of both Talan and Gemma in the second half of the novel was enjoyable. The world building was slightly better, and like I said, I found it more interesting overall than the first half.

I'm going to rate this one 3 stars. I read it, I enjoyed it, but I have reservations with recommending it, and honestly, I am unsure if I will pick up the future installments.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

I was really excited about this one, but unfortunately it fell flat and I couldn't get into it. I would still recommend it to some readers I think - I can see some people enjoying this for sure. It felt very Bridgerton-like to me, but with magic. My main issue was with the main character - I'm sure if I kept reading character growth was coming for her, but I read 30% of the book and she felt so juvenile and self centered I couldn't read more about her.

A darkly unique magical caste system, with a heroine that doesn't quite fit it but won't let that stop her from climbing society's ladder--until she discovers some important things about her world and herself. Thoroughly engrossing.

I’m sorry but…this was bad. I expected better from this author but it’s as if she smushed two different books together without the flawless transitioning. It felt choppy and messy. And I found it jarring that the MC goes through something pretty traumatic in the beginning yet she brushes it off as if nothing happened? Say what!!?

Don’t get me started on the Insta love.

This was wonderful! I loved the Empirium trilogy, so I was really excited to see what Claire was going to do with her adult fantasy. It was just what I was looking for. I cannot wait to share with all of my fantasy romance readers!

Overall, I did enjoy reading this story.

It did start off with a little more exposition than I thought was necessary. I think the exposition in the beginning could have been spread out a bit more in between certain moments and scenes in the book but I do appreciate Legrand trying to ground us in this world.

There were also times I had a hard time empathizing with the main character, Gemma, as I felt there were a lot of “woe is me” moments that just carried on for too long. However, I do think the way mental health issues like anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm were addressed in a way that was genuinely empathetic.

All in all, the book did pick up towards the end I’m terms of pace I was fascinated by this world and the setting. I would like to see where these characters go next and maybe see if we get to know the other characters a little more.

I disliked the main character right from the beginning, which I couldn't get over. She was too selfish and came across as spoiled, even though she suffered ailments and alienation. I could not empathize with her to give her the benefit of the doubt because she was too horrible of a character. I'm assuming she changes for the better at some point, but I couldn't get there and had to DNF at about 20%. There was also too many sexual references without emotion tied to them and too much ogling of the male lead where she had to restrain herself. Too immature for my taste. At first I thought this was a YA book, and thought there was way too much sexual talk for that. Then I realized it was an adult fantasy, but it read too much like YA and didn't feel right. I'm sure others will enjoy this book, it was just not for me. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

This fantasy has an interesting magic system and convincing world building. The main character was confusing and erratic, but by the end she seemed to have herself sorted out a bit better. I found it difficult at times to empathize with her - she would talk about how difficult and distant her family was, and then she’d make completely selfish and irresponsible choices that hurt or endangered the people she loved. And each time they would patch her back up, That said, I’m invested enough that I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next in the series.

I tried; I reallly tried to like this novel. It seemed to have everything I love about fantasy novels. But I just couldn't keep getting over what a whiny b*thcy character Gemma was and what a stick-up-the-butt Talon was (borrowed that name from another author, did we???).

This book reads more like a young teenager novel, but then sex gets involved.

I could NOT finish this book and keep my sanity.

*ARC supplied by the publisher.