Trial By Fire: Love burns. Worlds collide. Magic reigns. Unabridged edition (The Worldwalker Trilogy, 1, Band 1)

Eine meiner Sub Leichen. Liegt da seit fast 10 Jahren auf meinem Kindle und wurde jetzt endlich mal gelesen. Mein jüngeres Ich wäre vermutlich total besessen gewesen. Grundlegend geht es hier um Hexen, verschiedene Realitäten, Magie und Wissenschaft - alles hängt mit einander zusammen, ist teilweise das Gleiche und heißt nur anders. Klingt verwirrend? War ich anfangs auch ein bisschen und ich muss gestehen, dass ich das World building auch nur bedingt gelungen fand. Zuerst wird alles wie im Mittelalter beschrieben, aber irgendwie wissen die Menschen dort von Elektrolyten, Mitochondrien und tiefergehenden chemischen und physikalischen Gesetzen. Gleichzeitig haben sie moderne Apartments, leuchtende Bäume statt Straßenlaternen, kämpfen jedoch wie im Mittelalter und reiten Pferde. Ich tat mir tatsächlich sehr schwer mir das vorzustellen, aber mit weiterem Verlauf wächst man rein. Kurzzeitig war ich auch ein bisschen genervt, weil sich ein Love Triangel anbahnte und u.a ein Kuss unter allen drei Beteiligten fällt, der dann nie wieder ansatzweise angesprochen wird, obwohls in der Situation durchaus unpassend wirkte? Das sind so Kleinigkeiten, über die ich immer mal wieder gestolpert bin, aber war jetzt nichts Gravierendes. Ich mag die Charaktere, es gibt unvorhergesehene Wendungen und Änderungen und der Plot schreitet angenehm voran. Bin jetzt tatsächlich doch neugierig geworden, die Reihe fortzusetzen, obwohl die Folgebände nicht auf meinem Sub liegen 😅

I loved the idea of this book, with the different worlds and all these magical plants in the parallel universe. But I felt like it was quite messy, I struggled to understand why and how things were connected and worked... the writing style was very young, so it was a quick read. I also didn't care for the love interest... As I own all three of the books, I will continue reading but I was seriously expecting a bit more from Josephine Angelini

The first time I read this book, I was pretty shocked. A medieval setting with modern undertones as a parallel world to ours? This was the exact setting I imagined for the novel I've been working on since I was a child! I always thought no one would read something like that but here was a great author with that exact setting and it was done BEAUTIFULLY. Were the some minor things that bothered me, like that ridiculous love-triangle thing with Tristan and Rowan and Lily? Sure. Did I sometimes think Lily was a bit OP? Sure. But what made this book great was that Lily faced consequences for her being OP, like being unconscious and basically burned down and barely alive. I loved all the characters. i loved that Lilian wasn't just some random villain/antagonist but a powerful woman who did some horrible things because of good intentions. I loved that Rowan wasn't just some abusive asshole who was instantly forgiven but a man who severely distrusted and underestimated a girl because she looked like the woman who killed his father but learned that she was different. Lily's sister was a great example for a not gifted but incredibly smart and lovable woman who doesn't need to be able to burn to be powerful. I didn't like Tristan at first because uuuuuurghs fuck off man stop whining about Lily choosing another man when you basically whored around (no shame, you do you) and pushed her away after KISSING HER but he had some development that made me tolerate him a bit more :D I love the concept of parallel worlds and another version of ourselves living in these worlds because it's something I myself like to believe exists. Josephine Angelini managed to work with that concept in an intriguing way. I understood their Salem and their society and sometimes wanted to live there myself. All-in-all, I really loved the novel and its sequels and I'm definitely not going to read them only once.