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annettebooksofhopeanddreams's review
4.0
I love happy endings. I love reading a book, leaning back and knowing that in the end all will be well, one way or another. However, it also takes some of the emotional drama away. When a character that's not supposed to die, dies I know they're gonna bring them back somehow. So, once in a while I like my romances a little more dramatic. And luckily Butterdragons Publishing had me covered and published six romantic stories with tragic ends.
Just like with every collection there were stories I liked a little more than others, however, this time there was actually not one story I didn't like that much. I loved how all the authors wrote about couples where you really felt the love. I loved how, despite the fact that all those stories are short stories, I got invested in all those relationships. I also loved that each in their own way those stories broke my heart in the end.
My favorite story in this collection was the story by Victoria Larque. The publisher already told me that I would absolutely love her books and way of writing and they were absolutely right! This story was the longest story in the collection, but I flew through it, enjoyed each and every second of it and I most of all fell in love with the world in this story! It was so well thought out and despite it not being a full novel it was so vivid! I immediately wanted more of this!
Every story in the collection starts with a poem. Poetry is always a hit and miss, but in this case I think the poem really adds to the story. The poem already sets the atmosphere, gives an idea of what kind of story we'll be reading and the emotions the characters will go through. In a way the poems are therefore also a little spoiler-y, but since we all know that the story will end badly anyway it's not much of an issue for me.
I will certainly check out the other story collections by the publisher too! They're really great and I love how different all the stories in each collection are!
Just like with every collection there were stories I liked a little more than others, however, this time there was actually not one story I didn't like that much. I loved how all the authors wrote about couples where you really felt the love. I loved how, despite the fact that all those stories are short stories, I got invested in all those relationships. I also loved that each in their own way those stories broke my heart in the end.
My favorite story in this collection was the story by Victoria Larque. The publisher already told me that I would absolutely love her books and way of writing and they were absolutely right! This story was the longest story in the collection, but I flew through it, enjoyed each and every second of it and I most of all fell in love with the world in this story! It was so well thought out and despite it not being a full novel it was so vivid! I immediately wanted more of this!
Every story in the collection starts with a poem. Poetry is always a hit and miss, but in this case I think the poem really adds to the story. The poem already sets the atmosphere, gives an idea of what kind of story we'll be reading and the emotions the characters will go through. In a way the poems are therefore also a little spoiler-y, but since we all know that the story will end badly anyway it's not much of an issue for me.
I will certainly check out the other story collections by the publisher too! They're really great and I love how different all the stories in each collection are!
charlisbookbox's review
4.0
So I know my last post indicated that I don’t generally read romance, but what am I reviewing? A romance anthology. Allow me to explain – I don’t generally read romance. There are some authors I read1, but for the most part, I don’t read books that are strictly romance genre. Now… about Beautiful Tragedy.
As a general rule, I will peruse the “read now” section of the romance genre on NetGalley if I’m in a reading slump and I’m really interested in getting out. Why? Because most romance novels are cute, fluffy, and easy to breeze through. While the anthology that is Beautiful Tragedy is easy to breeze through, it’s anything but cute and fluffy. Oh, it has its moments, but… the general gist of these stories is anything but cute and fluffy.
This anthology of romance stories contains six stories of romance that involve the macabre. There’s a story about demons and angels, another one about a zombie apocalypse, another about ancient vampires, one about an accidental (or is it?) murder, one about a type of Nazi camp, and finally one about a dream. I have to say, the demon/angel one and the one about the accidental murder were my favorites of the six stories. I also enjoyed the one about the dream and zombie apocalypse.
Some of the stories in this book are just snippets from full-length novels. As I recall, the story about the demon/angel and the one about the dream are for certain excerpts from full length novels. But they give you enough of an idea of the full length novels to make you decide if you want to continue the story. I know I definitely want to continue the story for the demon/angel book.
I found the writing of all six authors to be easy to read. It didn’t take me long to actually read the book – I could have finished in one sitting if I’d had time to just sit and read. But of course, I had other things I needed to do, so I had to stop reading every so often. I finished the book in 24 hours though, if that says anything.
I loved the poems written by Helle Gade at the beginning of each story. I felt that she wrote the poems after reading the stories or perhaps wrote the poems, then asked the other authors to write stories based on them. The poems added just that little extra something to the stories.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes romance, but also likes the macabre.
As a general rule, I will peruse the “read now” section of the romance genre on NetGalley if I’m in a reading slump and I’m really interested in getting out. Why? Because most romance novels are cute, fluffy, and easy to breeze through. While the anthology that is Beautiful Tragedy is easy to breeze through, it’s anything but cute and fluffy. Oh, it has its moments, but… the general gist of these stories is anything but cute and fluffy.
This anthology of romance stories contains six stories of romance that involve the macabre. There’s a story about demons and angels, another one about a zombie apocalypse, another about ancient vampires, one about an accidental (or is it?) murder, one about a type of Nazi camp, and finally one about a dream. I have to say, the demon/angel one and the one about the accidental murder were my favorites of the six stories. I also enjoyed the one about the dream and zombie apocalypse.
Some of the stories in this book are just snippets from full-length novels. As I recall, the story about the demon/angel and the one about the dream are for certain excerpts from full length novels. But they give you enough of an idea of the full length novels to make you decide if you want to continue the story. I know I definitely want to continue the story for the demon/angel book.
I found the writing of all six authors to be easy to read. It didn’t take me long to actually read the book – I could have finished in one sitting if I’d had time to just sit and read. But of course, I had other things I needed to do, so I had to stop reading every so often. I finished the book in 24 hours though, if that says anything.
I loved the poems written by Helle Gade at the beginning of each story. I felt that she wrote the poems after reading the stories or perhaps wrote the poems, then asked the other authors to write stories based on them. The poems added just that little extra something to the stories.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes romance, but also likes the macabre.
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