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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
lighthearted
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
Oh my gosh I loved this book. I loved Orpheus, he is such a big scary looking cinnamon roll. I found myself feeling defensive for him more than once. This love story was beautifully told and the world was so wonderfully put together. I found myself feeling disappointed to leave this world behind and I am already getting ready to pick up the next book so that I don’t have to.
Should I be concerned that a smutty enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity MONSTER romance is where my reading tastes have ended up?
I started with Harry Potter, how did this happen?
I started with Harry Potter, how did this happen?
A Soul to Keep was my very first monster romance - and I'm torn between 'I like it a lot' and 'I should be concerned about my taste in books'...
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
5 starts for the first half, 4 stars for second half.
This is now one of my very favorite books. If I had read this at 16-18, I would have been absolutely obsessed with it. Dark monster romance meets fluffy cottagecore. The characters are well written and I enjoyed the story and scenes so much. The sheer amount of creativity and imagination put into the world and creatures overrides the “issues” with this book IMO. There are some grammar mistakes and an overuse of exclamation marks, but the author is Aussie, so the writing style is different. The last 200 pages drag on a bit. I will be reading the next one.
This is now one of my very favorite books. If I had read this at 16-18, I would have been absolutely obsessed with it. Dark monster romance meets fluffy cottagecore. The characters are well written and I enjoyed the story and scenes so much. The sheer amount of creativity and imagination put into the world and creatures overrides the “issues” with this book IMO. There are some grammar mistakes and an overuse of exclamation marks, but the author is Aussie, so the writing style is different. The last 200 pages drag on a bit. I will be reading the next one.
fast-paced
Almost 4 hours in an barely anything happened. It was drawn out and repetitive
I just couldn’t pretend to care anymore about the story or characters.
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Anachronisms up the wazoo from our basic, cliche, not-like-other-girls-but-somehow-like-every-other-girl FMC, very shallow, uninspired hurt/comfort romance that borrows a bit too heavily from the source material it was inspired by, 500 pages of characters doing nothing but chores with underdeveloped vestiges of what was supposed to be a plot, and me scratching my head while wondering why the fuck this book is so popular. Oh, and don't forget a side-dish of purity culture and victim-blaming.
This books is everything I hate about romance and its various subgenres. This is the kind of book you will love if you prefer to "turn your brain off." (no offense) Some people will call this book profound, deep, and philosophical, but--in my subjective opinion--they are wrong. It's only philosophical and deep if the last book you read was Fourth Wing or The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I went into this really wanting to like this book, but I'm starting to think the way most authors write monster romance is just not for me, sadly.
I want to read romance, I want to read about sexy monsters, but I also want stuff to actually happen and not characters doing chores and thinking about how hot the other person is for 200 pages straight. And no, an occasional sex scene or "what was that, could have been a demon, stay inside, no I don't want to" doesn't count as plot. Nor is it plot because at one point 3/4 into the book the author remembered she needed to set up a climax for the story.
The author has as her tagline "monster romance with a bite." But I fail to see the "bite." There is no "bite." Just shallow angst and hardly any substance in terms of trying to explore interesting themes. If you're one of those readers who just want wish-fulfillment and harmless enjoyment that won't make you have to think too much (and I don't mean this as an insult), this book might work for you. If you're looking for metaphors and allegory and plot structure and creativity, I suggest you look elsewhere. I ended up pivoting to literary fiction, which I thought I'd never do but here we are. It's the only kind of fiction that actually engages me anymore and doesn't feel like the 156th copy of every other romance in a subgenre out there.
I know opinions are subjective, so here is me subjectively saying how I subjectively hate how other readers subjectively say that this book is deep and philosophical when it absolutely isn't. Why do so many people seem to mistake angst and edginess for depth? No offense to said readers, but I just personally hate coming across reviews and pinions that call the McDonald's burger equivalent of a book a prime example of extraordinary flavor and world-class meat texture. You can enjoy a book, but that doesn't make that book well-written. But I don't blame or shame readers for enjoying what they enjoy (even if my words might come across that way sometimes). I just hate how they are in the majority and therefore within the capitalist system, they are the ones encouraging more writers and publishers to put out books that they like instead of the books I like. I wish I could find a monster romance out there that was actually literary in quality and had deep, interwoven metaphors and symbols and commentary on something in a way that's not cliche af.
TLDR; Substance? I don't even know her.
P.S. to the author: please google "head hopping"
This books is everything I hate about romance and its various subgenres. This is the kind of book you will love if you prefer to "turn your brain off." (no offense) Some people will call this book profound, deep, and philosophical, but--in my subjective opinion--they are wrong. It's only philosophical and deep if the last book you read was Fourth Wing or The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I went into this really wanting to like this book, but I'm starting to think the way most authors write monster romance is just not for me, sadly.
I want to read romance, I want to read about sexy monsters, but I also want stuff to actually happen and not characters doing chores and thinking about how hot the other person is for 200 pages straight. And no, an occasional sex scene or "what was that, could have been a demon, stay inside, no I don't want to" doesn't count as plot. Nor is it plot because at one point 3/4 into the book the author remembered she needed to set up a climax for the story.
The author has as her tagline "monster romance with a bite." But I fail to see the "bite." There is no "bite." Just shallow angst and hardly any substance in terms of trying to explore interesting themes. If you're one of those readers who just want wish-fulfillment and harmless enjoyment that won't make you have to think too much (and I don't mean this as an insult), this book might work for you. If you're looking for metaphors and allegory and plot structure and creativity, I suggest you look elsewhere. I ended up pivoting to literary fiction, which I thought I'd never do but here we are. It's the only kind of fiction that actually engages me anymore and doesn't feel like the 156th copy of every other romance in a subgenre out there.
I know opinions are subjective, so here is me subjectively saying how I subjectively hate how other readers subjectively say that this book is deep and philosophical when it absolutely isn't. Why do so many people seem to mistake angst and edginess for depth? No offense to said readers, but I just personally hate coming across reviews and pinions that call the McDonald's burger equivalent of a book a prime example of extraordinary flavor and world-class meat texture. You can enjoy a book, but that doesn't make that book well-written. But I don't blame or shame readers for enjoying what they enjoy (even if my words might come across that way sometimes). I just hate how they are in the majority and therefore within the capitalist system, they are the ones encouraging more writers and publishers to put out books that they like instead of the books I like. I wish I could find a monster romance out there that was actually literary in quality and had deep, interwoven metaphors and symbols and commentary on something in a way that's not cliche af.
TLDR; Substance? I don't even know her.
P.S. to the author: please google "head hopping"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content