Reviews - Phantom and Rook

153 reviews for:

Phantom and Rook

Aelina Isaacs

4.08 AVERAGE

babybasil's review

3.0

I loved the character work and the writing but this needed a few more drafts, I’m sad to say.

bookspinesandroses's review

DID NOT FINISH: 38%

DNF. I just couldn’t stick to it, it felt like a chore. I might revisit this at a later date

z_george's review

4.25

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad 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: Complicated

leslieannelevine's review

5.0

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

artmajorese's review

3.5

hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

On the better end of self-published work I’ve read. Some cool new ideas, the well-worn tropes all romance readers expect (and probably most love - they tend not to work for me personally), good representation, fine world-building. I’m just marking it below a 4 because of some bad sentence-level writing (too many commas, for example. The characters say “fuck!” A lot and while I know real people talk that way it slowed down the dialogue in an annoying way. A few paragraphs where I couldn’t really tell what was actually happening. Etc.)

Open-door romance, fated mates trope, trigger warnings for mental health issues, self-harm, abusive relationships.

Content Warnings

burntotears's review against another edition

2.5

It's too bloody long. There's so much superfluous description in this that it gets exhausting. This definitely feels like a fanfiction where they just didn't know when to stop writing or where to edit things down. For fanfic it makes sense, but for a book it's just way too much.

The characters are nice, but it feels like they are all just carbon copies of one another--everyone is edgy and hipster rather than people having their own thing going on. And while Arlo isn't a bad character, he's also a HUGE Gary Stu who seems to be good at everything and everyone's lives revolve around him. Everyone is in love with him at one point or another and everyone is only worried about him.

I skimmed through the last of this because it just wouldn't stop going.

la_mia's review against another edition

3.75

hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mythandmagic's review against another edition

5.0

If I had to describe this book in one word, I'd say 'vivid'. I picked this up because of its beautiful cover and I'm pleased to say the content matches. Levena is a feast for the senses. From Thitwhistle's cafe/bookstore to Arlo's room to the Kitchen at Garren castle, it was all so vivid and made me want to live there 100%. I loved seeing all the races and genders living together in harmony. I'm not big on romance and felt like there was just the right amount of it, the majority of the book being high-fantasy-centric. My favourite character would have to be Arlo, but Thatch was pretty interesting as well.

lazareen's review against another edition

4.0

emotional mysterious 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: Yes

mbs76's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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