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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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:
Complicated
This book had a lot going for it. But ultimately, it didn’t deliver on its most interesting elements.
Ordinarily, I would give a mediocre book like this 2 stars, but this is a rare instance where I found the author’s writing voice charming enough to momentarily distract me from the messy plot and world building.
You see, it’s hard to take a story that seems out of the realm of realistic given its plot of a game for thieves where people have the risk of dying and a kidnapped mother seriously when, on the first page, K-Dramas on Netflix are referenced.
Not that there’s anything wrong with K-Dramas, it just felt out of place and this repeated throughout the whole book. I can see that the goal was to appeal to Gen-Z (which is a condition that a lot of books are guilty of these days) through the less than sophisticated writing style and pop culture references with a strong female main character (actually, the main character was one of the things I liked the most about this book, her inner monologue was fun to read) but, to me, it comes off as kind of tacky and inauthentic.
Like I said, I enjoyed the main character, who I did not enjoy was her love interest. Starting with his name, Devroe? Seriously? That sounds like I just made it up on the fly!
That’s like saying:
Introducing the fun BFF characters, Glipglorp and Rascal!
Do you see my point?
Anyway back to Devroe or whatever, he was such a cookie cutter “bad boy enemies to lovers” option that I half hoped he was meant to be a satirical caricature. Alas, he wasn’t. He’s so…what’s the word?
I got it!
“BookTok-y”
I’ll bet you ten dollars that if I walk into Barnes and Nobles right now, I’ll find this book on one of those stupid specially designated “BookTok” shelves with a bunch of meaningless tropes listed.
those are my main gripes with this book.
Other than those, it’s not all that bad.
Ordinarily, I would give a mediocre book like this 2 stars, but this is a rare instance where I found the author’s writing voice charming enough to momentarily distract me from the messy plot and world building.
You see, it’s hard to take a story that seems out of the realm of realistic given its plot of a game for thieves where people have the risk of dying and a kidnapped mother seriously when, on the first page, K-Dramas on Netflix are referenced.
Not that there’s anything wrong with K-Dramas, it just felt out of place and this repeated throughout the whole book. I can see that the goal was to appeal to Gen-Z (which is a condition that a lot of books are guilty of these days) through the less than sophisticated writing style and pop culture references with a strong female main character (actually, the main character was one of the things I liked the most about this book, her inner monologue was fun to read) but, to me, it comes off as kind of tacky and inauthentic.
Like I said, I enjoyed the main character, who I did not enjoy was her love interest. Starting with his name, Devroe? Seriously? That sounds like I just made it up on the fly!
That’s like saying:
Introducing the fun BFF characters, Glipglorp and Rascal!
Do you see my point?
Anyway back to Devroe or whatever, he was such a cookie cutter “bad boy enemies to lovers” option that I half hoped he was meant to be a satirical caricature. Alas, he wasn’t. He’s so…what’s the word?
I got it!
“BookTok-y”
I’ll bet you ten dollars that if I walk into Barnes and Nobles right now, I’ll find this book on one of those stupid specially designated “BookTok” shelves with a bunch of meaningless tropes listed.
those are my main gripes with this book.
Other than those, it’s not all that bad.
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious