Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen (Villain Tales #1)

Release Date: August 18, 2009
Author: Serena Valentino
Publisher: Disney Press
Length: 250 pages
Source: Purchased Book

The tale of the young princess and her evil stepmother, the Wicked Queen, is widely known. Despite a few variations from telling to telling, the story remains the same—the Queen was jealous of the girl’s beauty, and this jealousy culminated in the Queen’s attempt on the sweet, naive girl’s life.

Another tale far less often spoken of is the one that explains what caused the Queen to become so contemptuously vile. Still, some have attempted to guess at the reason. Perhaps the Queen’s true nature was that of a wicked hag and her beautiful, regal appearance a disguise used to fool the King. Others claim that the Queen might have hated the girl for her resemblance to the King’s first wife. Mostly, the Queen is painted as a morally abhorrent woman who never loved another being during the course of her miserable life.

In fact, the theories about exactly what cause the Queen’s obsessive vanity and jealous rage are too numerous to catalog. This book recounts a version of the story that has remained untold until now. It is a tragic tale of love and loss, and it contains a bit of magic. It is a tale of the Wicked Queen…

    

Review:

Protagonist: With this being a story about how the queen in Snow White becomes the deplorable envious woman she is, it's no surprise that nearly all of this book focuses on that queen. One of my biggest problems with this book is that the Queen is never given a proper name, only being called "the Queen." Now I know she doesn't have a name that's officially canonical, but if the author did, or was allowed to, give her a name it would have added a sense of realness to the story since everyone from her husband, her stepdaughter, to the friend she viewed as a sister, called her anything but a given name and that kind of bothered me quite a bit. As to her characterization, by the end of the book I understand why she's as horrible as she is, I can even see how the catalyst that drove her into her jealousy did so, but considering how sweet and loving she was for most of this book it's really hard to fit that with the character we know from the movie and the person she is by the end of this story.

World-Building: Speaking of not being able to fit two pieces together, the book and the movie were really hard for me to connect with so much of this story. There are only two major characters in this book that are also in the movie, the Queen and Snow White, however for most of the movie the Queen is a kind soul who only seeks love in her life and Snow is a small child holding no real personality traits other than being sweet and innocent. That being said for so much of this book it felt as though this could easily be another story completely if Snow White's name was changed and that story wouldn't bee all that compelling, unfortunately. The story was okay for the most part but other than learning more about the Queen's background and the circumstances that made her who she was, this world was never really fleshed out. The Queen had a husband who was constantly off defending his kingdom, but from who? Barely any of this book takes place somewhere not seen in the movie and I just wish I could feel this world more wholly. That there wasn't this vague sense of a kingdom that was barely held together by nostalgic memories of the movie.

Predictability: Another aspect of the story that I wasn't a huge fan of was how predictable it was. After a certain point, it was easy to see where the story was going and that was long before the aspects of the movie started to bleed into this story. That's not to say that there weren't some interesting surprises, there were connections to other classic Disney stories that I rather enjoyed and certain aspects of the movie were expanded upon to give it a much more realistic feeling, There was even a twist in the end that I did not see coming.

Ending: I'm not sure what to say about this ending that will give this review more substance. The ending of this book is basically the Queen's role in the Snow White movie. There are some embellishments here and there that go with this expanded story and universe, but it's not as if there was some magical twist that changed everything forever. There is an epilogue, and other than one surprising, although idealistic, twist it wasn't necessary. In fact, I almost feel as though the story would hold more power without that. Where that last official chapter ended wrapped up the moral of this story so well and really hit everything home rather well.

Rating:

This book isn't a total waste of time, in fact, if you're someone who's a huge fan of the Disney Snow White movie you may even love this, but for me, it was too hard to connect with the movie and I'm sure that the author was restricted by Disney from expanding this world but I wish that she would have/could have given this world the depth and vitality that it needed.

Book Review: Chasing Impossible (Pushing the Limits #5)

Release Date: July 1, 2016
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Length: 298 pages
Source: Nowhere But Here Pre-Order Bonus

Tough and independent, 17-year-old Abby lets very few people into her inner circle. It’s common knowledge in her Kentucky town that she deals drugs, but not even her closest friends know why. But when a deal goes south and Abby’s suddenly in danger, she finds herself reluctantly forced to lean on daredevil Logan—a boy whose restless spirit matches her own.

Logan has his own reasons for wanting to keep Abby at arms’ length. But he never expected to find in her the one person who might help him face the demons he’s tried so hard to run from.

Together, Abby and Logan will have to make a decision: let their current circumstances weigh them down forever…or fight for the future they both thought was impossible.

    

Review:

Protagonists: Abby sells drugs, it's the way things have to be and she can see no way out. There are reasons she does what she does, and until recently she's been very closed off, only allowing one friend, and even then the relationship has been strained. Now her attempt at a normal life has interfered with her darker side and those she's come to care about are in danger by being near her. Logan is a daredevil who won't back down from a challenge, but he has something to hide, something he's kept secret from even his best friends, something that may just kill him. Together they navigate their lives as well as Abby's difficult situation. I love these characters. I've loved these characters since we first met them. They're the type of broken that make you want to hug and hold them tight and to tell them that everything's going to be okay. I love that they had great development, both separately as well as together. Every character that McGarry writes has so many layers, secrets they keep from the world, from themselves, and they are characters that you just grow to love if you don't already love them right away.

Romance: This is something that hasn't been done in a McGarry book yet. We have two characters that we already know, normally at most we know one character from previous books, not this time though. The chemistry between Abby and Logan is electric, it begins with flirtation, nothing they take seriously because neither of them "do feelings," however when you play with fire you're going to get burned, and this romance was smoking hot. Besides the crazy chemistry physically they also have a deep emotional connection. I've said this before, but Katie McGarry can write some of the best romances I've ever read. Everything just fits so perfectly, even if it doesn't look like it will from the start. I loved this romance and loved these characters together. At first I thought Abby and Ethan might be a thing but after reading this I can't see Abby with anyone else but Logan.

World-Building: The hook for this book is learning about Abby's past and present. There's a lot in the third and fourth PTL books that have remained mysterious surrounding Abby and in this book the walls come down and the mystery is revealed. We learn why Abby sells drugs, and why she can't easily stop. We learn why she keeps her walls up, and where she comes from. Going into this book I knew that while future PTL books aren't ruled out, that this would be the last one for a while and it really felt like a finale. There are so many characters we see again, and really see how large this group has grown since the beginning. These books are extremely character driven and since it's a contemporary there's not too much world building in the sense of being introduced to a new world. This world is ever expanding however, and seeing all these stories, these friendships and romances that have survived for so long is just spectacular.

Predictability: On the whole this book wasn't all that predictable. As always McGarry plays the foreshadowing game well. She gives enough of a hint at what's to come so that nothing will blindside you or feel forced, but still keep quite a few surprises up her sleeves. There are some great twists in this book, things I didn't see coming and things that I had only toyed with being true. Even the stuff I could predict was fine by me because it felt orchestrated that way, as if you were supposed to know all along.

Ending: One of my favorite things McGarry does is make sure the ending is realistic and not too idealistic. An ending with happy joy and rainbows and no consequences can really kill a good story. Don't get me wrong I love a happy ending, I just don't like when it comes too easily or without a cost. I won't say if this book ends happily, but if you've read a Katie McGarry book before you won't be disappointed. As I said, this felt like a final book to this companion novel series, everything wraps up nice and neatly, and while I could live in this world for years on end just watching these characters interact, I'm satisfied with how everything ended and don't feel a deep ache for more.

Rating:

Oh My God! I loved this book so much, I can't even properly put into words how much. This is most definitely both my favorite Katie McGarry book (Sorry Dare You To) and so far my favorite book I read this year. Seriously I'm so bummed that I can't get a physical hardcover of this book to put with the rest of the series because to me this book is an essential read for any Katie McGarry fan. P.S. if Katie does write more PTL books seriously all I need is for Ethan to find his HEA, and as long as she doesn't introduce any more super compelling characters I'd be good with her putting this world to bed on the full length novel front at least.

Book Review: Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin #2)

Release Date: April 2, 2013
Author: Robin LaFevers
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Length: 385 pages
Source: eGalley via NetGalley

When Sybella arrived at the doorstep of St Mortain half mad with grief and despair the convent were only too happy to offer her refuge - but at a price. The sisters of this convent serve Death, and with Sybella naturally skilled in both the arts of death and seduction, she could become one of their most dangerous weapons.

But her assassin's skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to the life that nearly drove her mad. Her father's rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother's love is equally monstrous. But when Sybella discovers an unexpected ally she discovers that a daughter of Death may find something other than vengeance to live for...

    

Review:

Protagonist: When we first met Sybella in Grave Mercy she was broken and from what I remember rather cold. In this book we learn so much about her and what went into shaping who she is. At the beginning of this installment Sybella is trying to warn Ismae about the ambush on the duchess from Count D'albret that we saw near the end of the previous installment. She's still a cold and calculating character, but she has a softer side that we see in the first few chapters. As this story goes on she begins to soften up more, while still keeping her killer instinct and sharp edges. I really liked the character of Sybella, she's such a complex and intriguing character, none of which I truly realized until this book.

Romance: Much like the romance in Grave Mercy, the romance in this installment is rather slow burning as well. In fact it's not until the latter half of this book that things start to happen. The romantic tension and quick witted repartee between Beast and Sybella was fantastic. Both these characters have know similar pain in their lives and as they get to know each other, it becomes obvious that they just fit together. They aren't complete opposites, nor are they exactly alike, and because of who they are I could never even conceive of a way that they would not be right for each other. They just work so well together.

World-Building: So Grave Mercy, while still Ismae's story had much more of a historical context to it. This story however deals very personally with Sybella's life and her experience. It's still set against a historical backdrop, it's just that the historical points in this book are much more sub-plotted. What I found really interesting is that while there is a lot of historical basis for this book, it seems that there is also a bit of fairy-tale inspiration as well. At first I thought that there would be a great Beauty and the Beast parallel but other than the fact that the love interest for Sybella is nicknamed Beast there really wasn't any, but there were parallels to the Bluebeard fairy-tale threaded into the plot. They're very slight and at first I thought I was just imagining things, but well, read the author's note at the end for yourself. Anyway, even though we didn't get a wider scope of this world, or a greater historical context as it's background, I was never bored learning about Sybella and her life.

Predictability: LaFevers is a master at foreshadowing. As the story progresses there are little crums of information, things that at first seem unimportant, but will eventually come into play later. There are of course the less subtle pieces of foreshadowing that will point to some of the smaller twists in this book. However, even with all the foreshadowing this book has, there are still some twists that come completely out of left field. I mean things that no matter how you analyze the foreshadowing you're never going to see coming. I loved every twist, turn, and surprise this book had even the ones I could predict because everything just fit into place so well.

Ending: So if I have one complaint from this book it's the ending. I mean the story's chugging along and the final climax happens. The final climax by the way is pretty epic. There's a lot that goes on during it and it's super intense and drawn out well. Then, just as we get to what I like to call the cool down phase where things quiet down and loose end are tied up this book just ends. It doesn't even end in a cliffhanger, I mean most everything is tied up well, but with the ending being that close to the final climax of the story without some sort of buffer I was really feeling that something was missing.

Rating:

This book is fantastic and I wish that whole ending thing didn't bother me so much because I really wanted to give this book five stars, I mean this book is probably better than the first one and I can't wait to read the next and final installment. Gah! That end though!

Book Review: The Glittering Court (The Glittering Court #1)

Release Date: April 5, 2016
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Length: 416 pages
Source: Gifted ARC

For a select group of girls, the Glittering Court offers a shot at a life they’ve only ever dreamed of, one of luxury, glamour, and leisure. To high-born Adelaide, whose wealthy family is forcing her into a loveless marriage, the Glittering Court represents something else: the chance to chart her own destiny, and adventure in an unspoiled, prosperous new land across the sea.

After a chance meeting with the dazzling Cedric Thorn, Adelaide poses as a servant to join the crop of impoverished girls he promises to transform into proper ladies. But her familiarity with upper class life comes with a price: she must hide her identity from her new friends, mysterious refugee Mira and fiery former laundress Tamsin, and most importantly, from Cedric himself—even though she’s falling in love with him.

Everything begins to crumble when Cedric discovers Adelaide’s ruse, and she catches the eye of a powerful young governor, who wants her for a wife. She didn’t leave the gilded cage of her old life behind just to become someone else's property. But nothing is as daunting—or as wonderful—as the potent, forbidden attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. One that, if acted on, would make them both outcasts in a wild, dangerous, uncharted world, and possibly lead them to their deaths.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Adelaide seemingly has everything, power, money, a title, however most of that is just a ruse. The truth is that her family is going broke and in hopes of rectifying that her grandmother has set her up to marry a rather boring man. With her future feeling more like a noose around her neck, Adelaide makes a rash decision and takes her maid's place at the Glittering Court in hopes of having some say over her future. All in all I really like Adelaide, she's stubborn, strong, and at times a rather witty and sarcastic person. Her development over the course of the book was also handled well, as the story goes on, not only does she change both internally and externally, but some of her qualities are heightened and become a lot more dominant as she comes into her own.

Romance: So if there's one thing Richelle Mead knows how to do it's write romance, and for the most part I liked the romance in this book. The chemistry between Adelaide and Cedric is rather apparent and the tension between them goes on for a good long while before anything really happens, but by the time it does I really began to root for them. The pacing of the romance felt a bit off, though I'll get to that later, but after kind of processing I felt like Mead did a fantastic job at creating a romance between these two well balanced characters.

World-Building: So there are some synopses of this book that describe it as a fantasy, and while that's not entirely wrong let me clear up a few things. First off, this is more of a realistic fantasy, meaning that it takes place in an alternate world from ours, laid out differently and based on some historical period from our world, in this case Elizabethan England for Osfrid and Colonial America for Adoria, with some minor alterations here and there, but there's no actual magic or really anything that would classify this as a high or epic fantasy. As this world grew I fell more and more in love with it. At first I just imagined this world laid out much like out own except with different names and titles, however as things developed I began to notice things that I had initially classified as a substitute for one thing actually turned out to be for something entirely different which I liked. This world is richly described and there's a lot to it that it felt almost like this one book was actually three.

Pacing: So normally I don't add this type of section into my reviews but I soon realized I needed to talk about it and didn't have a good enough place to sneak it in. While this book is a standalone, it feels like, in many ways, a trilogy that has been trimmed down and stuck into one book. At first I thought that it was a fluke and that I just found a great place for a first installment to end, but when I found a second one, coupled with how it's really easy to divide the plot of this book into three, more or less equal, portions it was impossible not to mention it. The pacing isn't bad it's just not quite what I expected, the story keeps evolving and things didn't really go the way I expected them to.

Predictability: So yeah, I kind of was in standalone mode when reading this, so all of my theories about what would happen and the twists this story would take were more for a fairly straight laced and traditional standalone. Instead since this book feels more like a mashed up trilogy, things are constantly changing and thus the twists felt like more like ones that would come from a series. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't like where this book went. the twists and turns while normally very unexpected, were really enjoyable and there are still a lot of lingering questions, those secrets will no doubt come out in the two upcoming companion novels.

Ending: So this ending had a lot of things. I mean there was quite a bit that went down in the final climax, which I'm not entirely sure where the boundary for that would go as there was a lot of tension for the last five chapters of the book or so, minus the very last one. I won't go completely into what happens, but it's definitely one of those things that I didn't expect, especially the closer we got to the end. The final chapter is very much a cool down period to wrap up all the loose ends of Adelaide's story, and torture us with what we don't know about the other two girls' stories. I'd say all in all I felt that the story wrapped up nicely and while I would sort of love to know more, like a bonus scene or two, I was very happy with how much this story wrapped up.

Rating:

Okay, so this was very hard to rate. On the one hand I really enjoyed this book, but because of it's odd pacing it was hard to just sort of melt into the story and get swept away. However I am looking forward to the two companion novels coming up, hopefully Tamsin's novel is first since that's currently the one I'm most intrigued by.

Book Review: Once Upon a Dream (Twisted Tales #2)

Release Date: April 5, 2016
Author: Liz Braswell
Publisher: Disney Press
Length: 448 pages
Source: eGalley via NetGalley

What if the sleeping beauty never woke up? Once Upon a Dream marks the second book in a new YA line that reimagines classic Disney stories in surprising new ways.

It should be simple--a dragon defeated, a slumbering maiden, a prince poised to wake her. But when said prince falls asleep as soon as his lips meet the princess's, it is clear that this fairy tale is far from over.

With a desperate fairy's last curse infiltrating her mind, Princess Aurora will have to navigate a dangerous and magical landscape deep in the depths of her dreams. Soon she stumbles upon Phillip, a charming prince eager to join her quest. But with Maleficent's agents following her every move, Aurora struggles to discover who her true allies are, and moreover, who she truly is. Time is running out. Will the sleeping beauty be able to wake herself up?

    

Review:

Protagonist: So Aurora is by all accounts a quintessential Disney Princess. There wasn't much substance to her in the movie and very little character building beyond "beautiful" and "a good singer." However in this twist on the classic tale we see Aurora make a similar discovery and grapples with trying to figure out who she is. I really enjoyed the character development of Aurora in this book, instead of seeing a girl who is in such utter despair because she can't ever see "that guy she met in the forest that one time", we see a confident, smart, fierce, and brave princess who will do whatever it takes to escape her dreamworld and take down Maleficent once and for all.

Romance: So when Aurora sees Phillip for the first time in this dream world, due to the magic that Maleficent has cast, she doesn't recognize him, though he does recognize her. This time though, luckily there's no love at first sight, and through their journey towards the truth and their hope for freedom they get to really know each other. This time around the love seemed genuine, though granted love at first sight doesn't really feel real unless you're a small child. It took a little time but eventually I even started to root for them.

World-Building: So the world building in this book is weird. I'm going to try and explain it as best I can without spoilers, but essentially the author managed to change both one thing and everything. In this book as soon as Phillip kisses Aurora he too falls asleep and enters Aurora's dream world. In this dreamworld events transpired differently it's in this messed up mirror world that we first see Aurora, with a new set of memories, trapped inside her parents' castle. I'm very split on how I feel about the world-building, on the one hand it does make for a fun and fantastic fantasy adventure, on the other hand it's so off base of the Disney movie that while there are callbacks to the film here and there, the source material gets lost among the world-building and doesn't hold the same magic as A Whole New World did.

Predictability: So for the most part I expected this book to be pretty predictable. It was easy to see where certain storylines were going to go and where foreshadowing would lead our characters. That being said there are a few twists in this story. They aren't all that many, but there are some moments where either something came completely out of the blue or that the author had led me to believe a lie.

Ending: Okay so the ending I felt was done pretty well, Like the first installment in this twisted series, the final climax of the book, in a lot of ways, mirrored the movie, albeit with some rather obvious changes. However, it's the calm after the storm that I liked best. This moment is where everything comes to fruition the battle has concluded and for good or bad, it's time to sweep up the mess and move on, so to speak. Since this is a series of standalone twisted tales there is a very conclusive ending to this tale, and in fact one that up until the last sentence or two I didn't quite think we'd get enough closure on.

Rating:

So, I think if the introduction into this world wasn't so jarring, or if it didn't change so drastically it would have been easier to connect this story with the movie and tale it twists, but since the twist comes so late in the story, it really wouldn't have been prudent to add the same amount of set up as the first book in this series.

Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (WOW #10)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that everyone’s excited about!

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

Hanna Donnelly is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik Malikov the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy's most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion. 

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station's wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own surivival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They've totally got this. They hope.

Gemina releases on October 18, 2016 from Knopf Books for Young Readers

YAAASSSS! I loved Illuminae so much and while I kind of expected book 2 to be a direct sequel, but I'm actually kind of more excited that it's a companion novel. The storytelling of this series is fantastic and if this installment is even half as good as the first I'm going to be sooooo happy, but hopefully it's better!

So, what are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Book Review: Walk the Edge (Thunder Road #2)

Release Date: March 29, 2016
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Length: 384 pages
Source: eGalley via NetGalley

One moment of recklessness will change their worlds

Smart. Responsible. That's seventeen-year-old Breanna's role in her large family, and heaven forbid she put a toe out of line. Until one night of shockingly un-Breanna-like behavior puts her into a vicious cyber-bully's line of fire—and brings fellow senior Thomas "Razor" Turner into her life.

Razor lives for the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, and good girls like Breanna just don't belong. But when he learns she's being blackmailed over a compromising picture of the two of them—a picture that turns one unexpected and beautiful moment into ugliness—he knows it's time to step outside the rules.

And so they make a pact: he'll help her track down her blackmailer, and in return she'll help him seek answers to the mystery that's haunted him—one that not even his club brothers have been willing to discuss. But the more time they spend together, the more their feelings grow. And suddenly they're both walking the edge of discovering who they really are, what they want, and where they're going from here.

    

Review:

Protagonists:This book focuses on Razor from the Reign of Terror Motorcycle Club and his love interest Breanna. Razor is a live wire, he's impulsive, it's hard for him to trust people, and he can go off at a moment's notice. This has caused him to be labeled as crazy and the most dangerous member of the Terror. Breanna has a brain that works a bit differently, she can remember random bits of information, things that seem trivial to someone else, this has led to her being labeled as freak among even her siblings. She's shy and reserved and likes to stay hidden and inconspicuous. After these two characters meet, even before they begin their romance they begin to change, slowly at first, but as the story goes on they begin to really bring out the best in each other. Some things that they previously thought were their flaws become their strengths and while they are in some ways still flawed they grow into fantastic characters who it's hard not to root for.

Romance: I've said it before and I'll say it again, Katie McGarry knows how to write romance well. The funny thing is that this story takes place over just a few months, and during some of that time these characters are just flirting or basking in the romantic tension before actually doing something about it. Everything that happened in this romance felt natural, when the "I love you"s eventually came out it didn't feel too soon or too crazy, it felt earned and deserved. The way these two characters fit is fantastic. Another thing I love about this author is that she can take two characters who don't seem like they belong together, two characters from different worlds and find a way for them to fall in love.

World-Building: So, if I had one criticism for this book it's that I wasn't as compelled by the story as I was for the first book in this series. The first book had this crazy mystery and I felt a pull to continue reading to see where everything went. In this book though while the central mystery was interesting, I just wasn't as invested in it as I wanted to be. I liked the idea of seeing a resident of Snowflake, unaffiliated with the Terror, fall for one of their members and learning more about how the people of Snowflake see the motorcycle club, but that's it really. The cyber-bullying and blackmail story line was at times intense and aggravating (in a good way), but in the end it was just way too easy to see a way through.

Predictability: I'll admit while there were a few great twists in this book, some that really revved up the suspense and added great layers to this story and world, for the most part it was easy to see how things would go. Not everything was obvious, but it was easy to tell what was going through characters' heads and to see the choices or similar choices they'd make. The central mystery of how Razor's mom died, left me in the dark for quite a while, but unlike the previous installment there weren't all these little clues that led up to the big reveal it was sort of once one big clue was revealed everything just sort of made sense.

Ending: Like all of Katie McGarry's other books this book can be read as a standalone and because of that it provides a lot of closure for this duo and their adventure. Let's start with the final climax though, holy crap was it intense, I was genuinely surprised at where things ended up going. The cool down period of this book was longer than I expected but again was done nicely and tied things up rather neatly. While a part of me is sad to see Breanna and Razor's story go, a much larger part of me can't wait for Violet's story!

Rating:

So this was really hard for me because in a lot of ways I loved this book and it's another fantastic Katie McGarry read, but since I was able to very easily put it down for as long as I did, I wouldn't feel comfortable giving it 5 stars, though in the end it really pays off!