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saradp's review against another edition
4.0
Molto carino, niente di troppo pretenzioso abbastanza scorrevole, mi è sembrato un po’ un romanzo di introduzione a questo mondo, è un po’ breve forse ma comunque non mi è dispiaciuto leggerlo.
P.s. Seb e A che cute ❤️
P.s. Seb e A che cute ❤️
teresab78's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 - while parts were a little cheesy read out loud, I still loved the feel of this book. There’s magic and action, love and humour. I look forward to the next book.
kady_cordova's review against another edition
5.0
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5 stars
🔥🔥🔥 Heat Level: 3.5
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 Narration: 5 awesome headphones!
Just fantastic! I loved it!!
This story has the perfect balance of intrigue, magic, and mystery with great characters and a good bit of lust and adventure thrown in. I loved both Ailin and Sebastian and their chemistry flies off the page. They have a great love/lust/hate thing going on and the antics within this connection are hilarious!
Ailin is such a little spitfire and such a great character. I loved his sass and snark, humor and crypticness when it comes to what he can tell Sebastian. Sebastian, on the other hand, is a great detective, witty and just plain loveable! He’s thrown into an unusual partnership with Ailin to solve some mysterious murders. In doing so Sebastian is introduced to Ailin’s world and subsequently thrown into the path of a demon hell-bent on destruction and power.
Michelle has created an awesome world that I just want to drive into. I loved every aspect of this book and look forward to the other in this series.
The book ends on a BANG that leaves you begging for more. Wonderful work by Michelle and add in Kenneth’s naration and is just fantstic!! Kenneth elevated this book to the next level and with his compelling narration and different dialects and tones for each character is just adds to the mystery and mayhem!! I loved it!!!!
Thanks for reading! For great stories, reviews and more please visit https://bookstattoosandtea.wordpress.com 📚
🔥🔥🔥 Heat Level: 3.5
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 Narration: 5 awesome headphones!
Just fantastic! I loved it!!
This story has the perfect balance of intrigue, magic, and mystery with great characters and a good bit of lust and adventure thrown in. I loved both Ailin and Sebastian and their chemistry flies off the page. They have a great love/lust/hate thing going on and the antics within this connection are hilarious!
Ailin is such a little spitfire and such a great character. I loved his sass and snark, humor and crypticness when it comes to what he can tell Sebastian. Sebastian, on the other hand, is a great detective, witty and just plain loveable! He’s thrown into an unusual partnership with Ailin to solve some mysterious murders. In doing so Sebastian is introduced to Ailin’s world and subsequently thrown into the path of a demon hell-bent on destruction and power.
Michelle has created an awesome world that I just want to drive into. I loved every aspect of this book and look forward to the other in this series.
The book ends on a BANG that leaves you begging for more. Wonderful work by Michelle and add in Kenneth’s naration and is just fantstic!! Kenneth elevated this book to the next level and with his compelling narration and different dialects and tones for each character is just adds to the mystery and mayhem!! I loved it!!!!
Thanks for reading! For great stories, reviews and more please visit https://bookstattoosandtea.wordpress.com 📚
jennifox's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Good start to a series. Interesting world with lots of side characters to dig into, but didn't really feel like we got to know the main characters very well. The POV was mostly locked to Sebastian, which I thought was a real missed opportunity. It kept the magic mysterious (more so than it needed to, really), but meant the relationship came out of nowhere and Aislin just seemed like a jerk for pretty much the entire book. Also, there were some issues with consent, namely binding them together without any conversation , that might have seemed less icky if we'd gotten Aislin's POV. I was also annoyed that the itching in Seb's wrist tattoo never came back after the first few chapters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Gore, Confinement, Murder, Torture, and Violence
write_of_passages's review against another edition
3.0
(Disclaimer: I read this book after finishing book 4 of Michele’s Magi Series, so it possibly is coloring my perception). I found many similarities between the two series that I enjoyed, although I think my rating on this one has to do with the intensity more than anything. The world in this one is not quite so dangerous/dark and the world building is slightly less. Having mostly only two characters also narrows down the intensity in my opinion. Perhaps all of these things will ramp up as the series goes on.
Ultimately, it’s a fun supernatural read with all the makings of what I truly enjoyed from Michele’s Magi Series. The characters are not quite as complex and 3D yet, but it’s a promising start that hopefully will only get better with the next book.
Would I go back in time and still read this book, knowing what I know now?
Sure. This is a good one for when I’m looking for less intensity. I think I was expecting higher intensity because I’ve read her other work, but it’s good to know where this one falls.
See below for the four criteria I use to decide whether and when to read a book
CHARACTERS: Sebastian and Ailin both feel slightly underdeveloped to me. There are places where some of Sebastian’s actions don’t make any sense, both in terms of his history and his common sense, but he’s likeable enough to want to follow. And I got so excited when Seb, Ailin, Basil, Thayer, and Emrys got described! That is a huge plus and one that definitely made me super happy. Ultimately, they have the makings for being characters I could truly come to love, so hopefully this is just a book one sort of ‘we’re just meeting them and don’t know them super well yet’.
PLOT: The plot to this one relies far more on a mystery whodunit than actual action. Because Seb gets kept in the dark a lot about what’s going on, it ends up falling back that way on the reader. So I ended up not as fully invested because it was clear that more was going on. Being left in the dark meant that a large portion of the plot felt just in the dark and not allowing me to connect to it. That being said, it did, for the most part, maintain a consistent pace, which is good.
EMOTIONAL INTENSITY: There is no good/bad here. Sometimes I just want a low-investment entertainment read whereas other times a high-stakes 'I need a therapist to recover' is what I need.
1 out of 5/low. Not a bad thing, just good to know. I wasn’t super emotionally invested because we were kept at a divide from what was going on on the deepest levels. So ultimately it was a fun read for getting out of my head and into a different world with magic.
CATHARTIC FULFILLMENT: Is the emotional journey worth it? Do I finish this book feeling that I've crested the wave of the climactic moment and everything has been settled, leaving me settled and fulfilled?
75%. For the most part everything is wrapped up. The ‘twist’ at the end I saw coming, though it is right at the end. The aftermath of the main conflict and the main conflict itself all occurred too fast, so there really wasn’t enough time to feel into either moment, but I’m not frustrated, so that’s the biggest thing. It just felt underwhelming overall. I’m still willing to give the rest of the series a chance though!
Ultimately, it’s a fun supernatural read with all the makings of what I truly enjoyed from Michele’s Magi Series. The characters are not quite as complex and 3D yet, but it’s a promising start that hopefully will only get better with the next book.
Would I go back in time and still read this book, knowing what I know now?
Sure. This is a good one for when I’m looking for less intensity. I think I was expecting higher intensity because I’ve read her other work, but it’s good to know where this one falls.
See below for the four criteria I use to decide whether and when to read a book
CHARACTERS: Sebastian and Ailin both feel slightly underdeveloped to me. There are places where some of Sebastian’s actions don’t make any sense, both in terms of his history and his common sense, but he’s likeable enough to want to follow. And I got so excited when Seb, Ailin, Basil, Thayer, and Emrys got described! That is a huge plus and one that definitely made me super happy. Ultimately, they have the makings for being characters I could truly come to love, so hopefully this is just a book one sort of ‘we’re just meeting them and don’t know them super well yet’.
PLOT: The plot to this one relies far more on a mystery whodunit than actual action. Because Seb gets kept in the dark a lot about what’s going on, it ends up falling back that way on the reader. So I ended up not as fully invested because it was clear that more was going on. Being left in the dark meant that a large portion of the plot felt just in the dark and not allowing me to connect to it. That being said, it did, for the most part, maintain a consistent pace, which is good.
EMOTIONAL INTENSITY: There is no good/bad here. Sometimes I just want a low-investment entertainment read whereas other times a high-stakes 'I need a therapist to recover' is what I need.
1 out of 5/low. Not a bad thing, just good to know. I wasn’t super emotionally invested because we were kept at a divide from what was going on on the deepest levels. So ultimately it was a fun read for getting out of my head and into a different world with magic.
CATHARTIC FULFILLMENT: Is the emotional journey worth it? Do I finish this book feeling that I've crested the wave of the climactic moment and everything has been settled, leaving me settled and fulfilled?
75%. For the most part everything is wrapped up. The ‘twist’ at the end I saw coming, though it is right at the end. The aftermath of the main conflict and the main conflict itself all occurred too fast, so there really wasn’t enough time to feel into either moment, but I’m not frustrated, so that’s the biggest thing. It just felt underwhelming overall. I’m still willing to give the rest of the series a chance though!
jadesarah's review against another edition
Ailin is beyond unlikable.
I hate anything that feels like a gross invasion of privacy and that's exactly what the mind reading felt like here as well as a cheap plot device. Ailin is being depicted as this "bad boy" type who does what he wants and I guess that's supposed to cover him being nothing but a prick. The whole thing with the snake which was not cute or funny was where I gave up. Also with having Sebastian not being informed of what's going on played against him and him ignoring what was right in front of him became real annoying real quick.
Anyways this book managed to piss me off within 50 pages so there's that I guess 😂
I hate anything that feels like a gross invasion of privacy and that's exactly what the mind reading felt like here as well as a cheap plot device. Ailin is being depicted as this "bad boy" type who does what he wants and I guess that's supposed to cover him being nothing but a prick. The whole thing with the snake which was not cute or funny was where I gave up. Also with having Sebastian not being informed of what's going on played against him and him ignoring what was right in front of him became real annoying real quick.
Anyways this book managed to piss me off within 50 pages so there's that I guess 😂
palvi00's review
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
shinson_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
inmydreams's review against another edition
2.0
Not gonna lie, this book isn't the best one out there for a lot of reasons, but I didn't spend a bad time reading it. I was thinking of dropping it at the very beginning because the writting style wasn't doing it for me and the world building was pretty weak honestly, but something about it just kept me going. I guess I just needed a light reading without thinking about it too much or taking it too seriously.
I also have to admit that I laughed through almost every chapter, because sometimes it either got too ridiculous or there were interactions I considered genuinely funny. The second hand enbarrassment was real all the time, too.
Either way, this was the first book I managed to finish after months of not being able to pick up anything for too long, and I even did it in one go. I do think it had potentional, because it had a few interesting elements. Does that make it a good book for me? No, but I'm glad I am finally out of my reader's block.
I also have to admit that I laughed through almost every chapter, because sometimes it either got too ridiculous or there were interactions I considered genuinely funny. The second hand enbarrassment was real all the time, too.
Either way, this was the first book I managed to finish after months of not being able to pick up anything for too long, and I even did it in one go. I do think it had potentional, because it had a few interesting elements. Does that make it a good book for me? No, but I'm glad I am finally out of my reader's block.
haljonesy's review against another edition
4.0
found family wins the day
Notaro is excellent at writing found family, and man do I just want to snuggle something now. Fascinating world as well, as usual.
Notaro is excellent at writing found family, and man do I just want to snuggle something now. Fascinating world as well, as usual.