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Honestly, there was SO much wrong with this

Revisado: 08-18-23

The book opened with the FMC admitting she was sexually assaulted by a client at work the night before. It becomes a horrible shitshow because the dude is a politician, and the FMC doesn't want to go forward with an accusation - she knows it will be a mess of victim blaming, and bullying, because he's a pretty popular dude, and she just doesn't want to deal ... much less cause a problem for the non-profit she works for.

Boss agrees to follow her wishes, and then immediately goes behind her back giving the whole story to the media, who publish an article with her name. It blows up like literally every fucking woman on the planet knows it would, douche politician blames her, there is uproar, and boss apologizes but he's going to have to let her go.

And FMC is fine with it. Disappointed, but not mad, basically apologizes to them for the mess, tells her HR friend (who should be worried about getting fucking sued, some HR lady) not to cry, it is fine.

Thus revealing the kind of utter spineless dipshit she is going to be in this series. She has no agency, no spine, no fucking thought in her head.

That night - literally! - she goes out with her HR lady bestie, who springs a blind date on her. Her, the woman who was just sexually assaulted and is getting slammed in the media.

FMC again rolls with it. Hey, whatevs, right? And he's hot, so cool.

They have a great night, and she likes him (this is Remi). They hang out all the next day, make plans to go out that night. And that night ... HE FUCKING KIDNAPS HER WITH HIS BUDDIES. One is snarling and standing over her, telling her to fucking behave or he'll use this rope on her (Kai, the biggest bag of shit dude standing in for the RH trope of total asshole who finally comes around). She passes out in all the chaos and upset. Wakes up in the morning in some random bed, and Remi is there. She's kind of mad, but he's hot and she wants to get an explanation. Kai storms into the room and slams her to the wall to snarl about I don't even know, generic tough guy bullshit about doing what he says or whatever stupid shit. She rolls with all of it, and kind of likes them, even imagining getting in Kai's pants.

This chick who was just fucking sexually assaulted. It's okay because he's hot, I guess. Worst fucking trope in romance.

She has apparently been psychically connecting to their long-lost friend, and they want her help to find him. From there, over the course of like a single day of training, she develops super mage powers and apparently like every known mage ability, in the most appalling bit of Mary Sue run ever. I mean, a DAY?!

That night they tell her their grand plan is to go to this strip club the next day so they can spy on the mages there. And she's going to be their cover, giving them a lap dance so no one notices they are spying. And SHE AGREES! This recently sexually assaulted lady, kidnapped by these fucks a DAY ago, agrees to go to the strip club and dance for them, for this nonsense reason. Like, what? Why can't they just fucking go to the club like a normal fucking person attending? It is such contrived bullshit. And it predictably ends with sex in the fucking strip club.

Meanwhile, Kai keeps being an utter bag of shit. He makes the most horrible, cutting comments. Like, the next day he tells her that them kidnapping her was the best thing that ever happened to her in her pathetic life. My jaw was on the floor.

Look, I hate the romance thing where there is a complete asshole that the FMC for some reason adores, and just accepts all the abuse because she just wants to have sex with him. I hate it even more when she doesn't even stand up for herself, or give him any consequences for his shit. Eventually the dick always decides he wants her, and he crooks his finger and she flops on the floor with her legs spread. It is so fucking disgusting. And this is the WORST of that.

And the kicker (which actually made me laugh so hard I choked on my coffee)? Kai the enormous shitbag is apparently a trained fucking counselor. LOOOOOOOOOOL This motherfucker is the least well-adjusted person on the planet, constantly treating other people like shit as he takes out his pathetic man-child issues on them, and I'm supposed to believe he is a counselor? Hahahahahahaha!!

She has no personality. She's a Mary Sue blow up doll. I hated pretty much all of it.

So why did I finish it? I don't honestly know. Mostly I was curious to know more about the system of magic and the mage community. But it doesn't seem to have structure. Like ... there don't seem to be leaders in the community, and the powers just ... appear and work in whatever way the Mary Sue needs them to. She spontaneously develops them as a situation calls for it. So I think I'm looking for a system where none exists.

And quickly on the Mary Sue thing, look, I like a little Mary Sue to my FMC. I like them to be powerful, fierce, able to handle a situation. But if every situation ends with them spontaneously having a new ability that solves it - like when she's caught at the end of the book, and is suddenly able to explode the magic-nullifying cuffs off her ... with no explanation or elaboration - it is too much.

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disappointed

Revisado: 08-17-23

I'd give this 1.5 stars because there is the potential for things to improve. Right off the bat there is a serious lack of world-building. There are names of places, but zero explanation of where those places are - no state, province, country, region or even continent. NOTHING. There are also very few details about the land. There are vague and general descriptors about mountains or deserts, but readers don't even know if this novel takes place on the planet Earth or some other place entirely. (Update: about a third of the way through book 2, we learn this isn't Earth, and there are 2 suns and 27 hours in the day. OMG! Talk about things that should have been discussed earlier!!!!! Infuriating.) There were also plenty of editing errors to keep me riled.

So it's no surprise that the utterly ridiculous graphic sexual narration and scenes made me dislike these characters. Totally gratuitous, like the author really wanted to write erotica. For characters that had plenty of personal drama to be complex and substantial, they were shallow and flighty, following all the alpha shifter cliches of "mine" without having ANY info about the other person. I get sexual attraction, but Ransom's inner monologue was nearly all sex all the time, and she just goes with it when he makes his move. I also understand her wanting to take the opportunity that presents itself, but the whole "romance" just seems vapid and unrealistic. Kiema shifts between standing up for herself and letting him walk all over her. It doesn't work. There is no real connection or understanding between the two.

The plot is messy and unclear for most of the novel. Until OTIS is discussed, it seems like this is going to be one of those ho-hum romance novels that has NOTHING else besides the romance going on. Life isn't like that, and books that are like that are so far removed from reality that I cannot suspend my disbelief to read them.

I will read the next book to find out what happens to Kiema after the cliffhanger ending, but this series is on thin ice with me.

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What the eff is this?

Revisado: 08-16-23

This book is an editing nightmare. It switches between multiple tenses every other sentence. Random words are capitalized where they don't need to be (uncle, mother, or queen not being used as a name, birthday, etc). A crapload of punctuation is missing and there is an excessive amount of telling versus showing.

I've barely made it to 10% and I just don't think I can keep going. I like my romantic fantasy with an actual story, and it became obvious what kind of book this was when the FMC has graphic sex with her masseuse within the first 20 or so pages. I normally wouldn't care--I like my books with some steam--but it was blatantly gratuitous and offered absolutely nothing to the book. I haven't even made it to the MMC's POV--and probably won't. There just isn't enough here to keep me hooked. The only thing related to the plot I've discovered in 5 chapters is that Ellea has a recurring nightmare. Forty pages and that's *it*. No thanks

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

2.5 stars, rounded down.

Revisado: 08-15-23

Here we have Briallen Appletree, one of the lesser fae - a dryad, to be precise - who used to be a faerie courier. Unexpectedly, though she ends up working for Robin Goodfellow, personal assistant to Seelie Queen Titania. She also has a small romance going with Gwyn ap Nudd, a member of the Wild Hunt (reimagined here as an Unseelie motorcycle club, which is a cool concept we sadly don't see much of) and is developing a tiny connection with Jack Frost, personal assistant to the Unseelie Queen Nicnevin. Bri and Robin's primary mission was initially catching the Ghosthand Killer who leaves his victims in pieces, but it ends up trying to find the evidence to bust a human-female smuggling ring.

It's all very urban fantasy. The ideas are great, but I'm not really a fan of the romance; I feel absolutely no chemistry between Bri and any of the three heroes we've encountered. I was actually more interested in the mystery-solving angle of it, which is never a good sign. Descriptive powers weren't what I expected either. If you have a book about faeries, I want the writing to be LUSH, I want the adjectives to be dripping off the page - think Holly Black and Karen Marie Moning. The writing here is bone dry.

I may read the sequel, but no promises.

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Just not that good

Revisado: 08-12-23

The main female character is too angry for my liking. Constantly and irrationally angry over harmless comments. No conversation can progress without her flipping out and getting pissed. It's annoying and pointless and keeps the plot from progressing quickly

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this is a 5 star read however

Revisado: 08-11-23

this book really wrapped up 25% of the whole picture and was super frustrating. I know that every reader was wanting this to be a final series and it just felt so rushed. I don’t know if the readers pushed the author into rush writing to get it over with. If Blair’s storyline picks off like I know it will, it didn’t make sense to release a final charisma story without releasing a few of Blair’s and then finishing charisma.

Throughout this series there’s so much more of a bigger picture, so many things brought to light and introduced: the necromancers, the rebellion, the silverstorm’s fall from grace with possibility of losing their head status to a duel, the guys dynamics when all together and ect. The guys had never been all together at any point from a relationship perspective not all under the roof. No day to day living in this new house or day to day living while they were getting the house together for her. I missed the actual resignation of her position at AMIA- how her pseudo dad took it (yes he brought it up in the book but still it was only a thought and not an action at the time it was presented) - that was her life- a huge career in itself and it didn’t get a true end to it. This career led her to where she was in life and it didn’t even get a true closing.

This book brought all of these up and the author said there’d be no cliffhangers- while this wasn’t the emotional cliffhanger that authors do to signal a next book in the series, these unanswered questions felt like a cliffhanger in itself. The cliffhanger is if you want closure you have to read Blair’s book when book 2 finally comes out. And even then you’re not going to get Char’s POV. According to the author that’s the last book.

What I loved about this series was that it was equal parts steamy with depth, and solid characters- a real storyline not muddled with only steam and the steam didn’t take over the storyline when steam was finally introduced. It literally hurts me to say this but this was a super bitter ending to everything that was introduced. There was no closure.

Honestly I feel lied to by the author, she advertised this book on a Facebook readers site as the final book to Char’s happily ever after with no cliff hangers and a completed series. There’s nothing really complete about it. It felt like a rushed book that this author grew bored with writing about this character and completely shorted it.

This capped off the series and it was total let down. I’m a little regretful that I bought all the audiobooks only to have this end on such a craptastic note.

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Ok

Revisado: 07-23-23

Bad just bad. The protagonist thinks she's badass. Guyz like her bla bla there's not courting if you get me there was a lack of what makes the girl interesting.

I wont like there was potential. We were given an idea of a world but there was a lack of world building so we just try to put 2 and 2 together. Protagonist is bad ass but we don't even see much of the huntress and the action etc.

The guys are OK but not interesting. I literally tried soo hard to like this book because the cover looked good and the summary was good too. Thease 2 aspects reminds me of throne of glass but she is no Aelin. Even if her name is serena ... get it Celena and serena.

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This was the most BORING book I’ve read in a while

Revisado: 07-20-23

I don’t know what the problem is here! I’ve attempted to read this book THREE TIMES! I get a little bit farther each time, and finally stop because I’m so bored.

This book looks like it’s exactly the type of book I’d love. But for some reason it can’t keep my attention. I kept this book partly open and unfinished on my kindle for months, which is really unusual for me, and I kept attempting to finish it. But it’s just not happening.

At this point I think they’re all gonna petrify in that cabin, never leaving.

Nothing happens, they just stay in that damn cabin forever!

She occasionally calls her mom to make an excuse for being out of town, she kisses a monster once or twice. They eat cereal and ice cream. She bemoans being sick and weak. That’s it. BORING!

I know something must EVENTUALLY happen, but I can’t seem to make it to that point.

FMC also feel really really immature and childish to me. Even her mental thoughts feel juvenile. The monsters also feel really childish. They’re all really really immature and innocent in a way I can’t describe well. It’s off putting in a monster reverse harem romance.

Anyway, I’m done now. I’m not gonna try anymore. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the book…I dunno, but I give up.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Definitely not for me

Revisado: 07-16-23

I want to preface that BDSM is all well and good but this is...well, it just isn't, I guess.
I honestly knew where the plot was going from the beginning. There weren't any surprises though it was clear the author meant for there to be. Then there was the she just up and touched Fisher's hair. Without asking. Just touched it.

No.

I don't care that she acted like she knew she was being crazy after, the fact they all just laughed it off is a solid no for me. And the fact that it's written by a white woman screams racist. It honestly felt like a scene intending to say, "See, not all black people mind their hair being touched." and not all do. But you can't just blow it off like that.

Now the portrayal of a brat in this has me feeling some kind of way. Most people in the BDSM community will tell you that you set rules first and foremost. Especially if you are formerly abused. It keeps from tripping triggers and sending someone into a flashback. The fact that wasn't really touched on here upset me.

I just genuinely didn't like this book. I stuck with it, hoping it would change but instead it just got worse for me.

I mean, if you like it, fantastic. But I just couldn't.

Edit: a) you can be indian and black. One of my best friends is native, dominican, and black. I have a Puerto Rican friend who identifies as black. Whose hair is shoulder length. With thick, curly hair. But *even outside of that*, you don't touch someone's hair without permission. Someone is going to read this and think "well as long as my heart is in the right place". No. It's a violation of personal space and consent must be given. And it happens frequently to bipoc of all races. Including my indigenous ass.
Stop it.
b) calling someone racist isn't a slur. But let's say I went too far with my assessment. She didn't mean any harm hopefully. Unfortunately, it still feels extremely ignorant to me.
c) let me explain something: I don't speak for everyone. You may like this book. That's fine. But I didn't and don't for the reasons I specified above.

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A little let down, honestly. Didn`t enjoy is as mu

Revisado: 07-16-23

When I first read the description for this book, I was super intrigued and excited about the storyline. The slow descent into darkness? Magic and necromancy? Strong female characters? Sign me up! And this book started off so good, and I loved it in the beginning! And then things go confusing.... and then they got weird. We start off with Dawn entering the necromancy academy, and she comes face to face with the boy who she saw kill her brother. When she confronts him he acts confused as to why she is hostile towards him. Dawn continues to stew, isolating herself from her classmates. Then all of a sudden Ramsey, the boy who killed her brother, seeks out Dawn, begins attacking her, and is suddenly a member of a secret society that is protecting a magical stone (its never explained whether they are evil or not). Next thing we know all of the upperclassmen at the entire school hate Dawn and her roommate, simply because she was hostile to Ramsey? I'm not sure the reasoning for this because the book jumped forward so quickly. I actually put down the book and had to look up the page count online to make sure I hadn't accidentally acquired an advanced version of the book that had a section missing. Nope, that's the way the story was supposed to be written. I was surprised when looking at reviews that no one mentioned this sudden unexplained jump in storyline. After finishing the book I still have no idea what caused this sudden change.

There were also some weird sections of the book, with one that stands out in particular because I actually said what the hell after reading it. Dawn and her roommate have just evaded mysterious cloaked figures that are following them, and Dawn's roommate Seph talks about how this group of people are just a bunch of bullies. The following dialogue is the next two lines in the story:

'Damn princess. Glad I'm on your side.'
'Grinning, she hooked her arm through mine again. "And I wish you a happy sex life"'

......Like what? Its such a deviation from anything the characters have talked about before, or mentioned since. It doesn't even make sense in the dialogue or storyline, I have no idea why the author decided this should be in the story.

It was disappointing that this story started off so good, but crumbled quickly because it seems the author became bored with the storyline and rushed to finish it. I hope in the future the author continues to develop her storyline to create greater, in depth stories because I know she has the potential to be great.

If you're looking for a book about an independent young woman who goes to school for necromancy, I would recommend Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis, its amazing and everything I wanted from this book.

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