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tkatt20's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Yeah so I have thoughts about this book. First off I want to apologize to the girls in my book club for recommending this as our book for this month, I promise I have better taste in books than this. With that being said, let's get into the many reasons why I didn't like this book. Full warning, this will not be a nice review.
To start off, the pacing was horrendous. A good 75% of this book is fluffy filler of the main characters agonizing over one another with not an ounce of communication in sight. The other 25% had the potential for some plot with a good storyline, but was so overshadowed by the googly eyes between the two. Like if we had spent a little more time on world development and filling out the characters this could have been a solid romantasy novel, I mean the idea is there, the execution not so much.
Speaking of characters, these characters were so cliché. I mean, a broody fae king who's hundreds of years old and rules the "dark" side of the fae relm and a 23ish year old girl (also 16 through half of it but ill talk about that later) with magical powers and a tortured past. I think we've read this before, no? We had the makings for such a badass main lead but did we get that? No. Instead we got a girl who's so codependent on the mmc she couldn't have any other successful relationships for 7 YEARS while he was gone. Which by the way, they met when she was 16 where she took one look at him and become obsessed and he didn't have enough will power and morality to tell her how inappropriate it was, and actually fed into her obsession with him by teasing and making suggestive comments to her for the next year as we're told by the far too many flashbacks. If that doesn't smell like grooming I don't know what does.
By the time I got to the end I was so over everything I actually laughed at the speed of which the fmc actually put together the clues and found out who the villain is. For being a PI she certainly doesn't pick up on much and that so just so disappointing. Dont act like a strong female lead if youre just going to lay there and play damsel in distress. The ending was so sloppy and thrown together I felt like I blinked and it was all resolved. Im sure that there are more answers in the later books but im not even sure I care to keep reading im so disappointing by this. It gets 2 stars for the very few things I did like in this book, I mean it wasn't the worst I've read, but I'm just so frustrated by everything that I can't even come up with something I like right now.
Also, I have also decided that I can't do Urban Fantasy because if I read another half baked Harry Potter reference I'm going to scream.
To start off, the pacing was horrendous. A good 75% of this book is fluffy filler of the main characters agonizing over one another with not an ounce of communication in sight. The other 25% had the potential for some plot with a good storyline, but was so overshadowed by the googly eyes between the two. Like if we had spent a little more time on world development and filling out the characters this could have been a solid romantasy novel, I mean the idea is there, the execution not so much.
Speaking of characters, these characters were so cliché. I mean, a broody fae king who's hundreds of years old and rules the "dark" side of the fae relm and a 23ish year old girl (also 16 through half of it but ill talk about that later) with magical powers and a tortured past. I think we've read this before, no? We had the makings for such a badass main lead but did we get that? No. Instead we got a girl who's so codependent on the mmc she couldn't have any other successful relationships for 7 YEARS while he was gone. Which by the way, they met when she was 16 where she took one look at him and become obsessed and he didn't have enough will power and morality to tell her how inappropriate it was, and actually fed into her obsession with him by teasing and making suggestive comments to her for the next year as we're told by the far too many flashbacks. If that doesn't smell like grooming I don't know what does.
By the time I got to the end I was so over everything I actually laughed at the speed of which the fmc actually put together the clues and found out who the villain is. For being a PI she certainly doesn't pick up on much and that so just so disappointing. Dont act like a strong female lead if youre just going to lay there and play damsel in distress. The ending was so sloppy and thrown together I felt like I blinked and it was all resolved. Im sure that there are more answers in the later books but im not even sure I care to keep reading im so disappointing by this. It gets 2 stars for the very few things I did like in this book, I mean it wasn't the worst I've read, but I'm just so frustrated by everything that I can't even come up with something I like right now.
Also, I have also decided that I can't do Urban Fantasy because if I read another half baked Harry Potter reference I'm going to scream.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content
Moderate: Mental illness, Gore, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Alcoholism, and Death of parent
septi's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Gore, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Vomit
Minor: Slavery, Abandonment, Body horror, Addiction, and Alcoholism
graxtle's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Slavery, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Adult/minor relationship
m_underhill47's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Violence, and Rape
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
borkreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
Oof ok, yall. I found this through BookTok, but it wasn't really my cup of tea. Now I absolutely adore fantasy-romance with spice, I've read some strange sh*t ok. But I found it really hard to get through this one. I enjoyed the characters, especially Callie's Siren, but the whole adult man falling for a teenage assault victim really creepy. I got absolutely nothing against age gaps (hell, you could make that gap 1000 yrs idc), but it has got to be between 2 consenting adults for me. Idk yall, I have to draw my line of comfortability even in fantasy fiction when it's fantastical creatures with fairy wings or d*cks for eyes. If you want to read a fictional romance with an underage character and a much older person/creature/whatever, by all means go ahead and read to your heart's content. I rather enjoyed the banter and spice in this novel between the MC's as adults and the lore/otherworld, so if your not turned away from the underage thing, go ahead, but I'm going to peace out after this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Adult/minor relationship
delaneybull's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
0.25
Bad vibes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Sexual assault
bookkatbaddie's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
My first 5 star book of the year and I’m SO excited to get the next one! This story has SO much potential to go so many places and I just love love love Callie and Des.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, Rape, Murder, Death of parent, Child death, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Death
gabburrit0's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
the cast was fun n interesting. i think that this idea is very reminiscent of the year that it was published which was peak angst Tumblr because this book transported me the hell back to 2016 with the mention of the "keep calm" poster. I think that the inclusion of Caly being SIXTEEN while Des is like at least 2000 years old is also v reminiscent of what time this was written in. I can appreciate that Des was like "we can't do anything sexual" when Caly was 16 but if we're setting boundaries like that, why are we dating this girl n bringing her all over the world on mini dates??? it's all or nothing, dude, you can't pick n choose.
it also got really dark at the end of the book which I didn't super love because it felt like I was reading a completely different book in the last quarter. I went ahead n looked at the next books in the series n I just know I'll never be in the right headspace to read the rest of it cause the SA/implied r*pe was tooooo much
it also got really dark at the end of the book which I didn't super love because it felt like I was reading a completely different book in the last quarter. I went ahead n looked at the next books in the series n I just know I'll never be in the right headspace to read the rest of it cause the SA/implied r*pe was tooooo much
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
shyalien's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, and Murder
dollyreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Rape