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falling_through_the_pages's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
In all honesty, I probably would have DNFed around 30-50%. It just so happened this was the only audiobook I had at the time, so I was willing to listen to it for longer. I am sort of glad I did, since it did pick up in the last quarter of the book. It was good enough that I will probably give the second book a chance.
But that first three quarters of the book was only just interesting enough to make me think it might get better soon. The plot moves pretty slowly and not much is happening. If you like Blood and Ash, you'll definitely like this one. There are striking similarities in the characters' personalities, the feel and rules of the world, and the rate at which things happen. I would argue the writing is better, since there isn't so much redundant thought process going on in the FMC.
I will say the romance is a bit cringe sometimes. The spice is good, but the possessiveness of the MMC is borderline. I believe this has been categorized as a dark romance, so that's probably why. The biggest thing you may need to get over in order to enjoy the romance is the pet name of "Little One." I don't know if this author has children, but this makes me think not. That term often is used to refer to kids, which did make this a little difficult for me to get through. Unfortunately, this pet name is used frequently, so if you can't get over it, don't bother reading it lol
The last quarter of the book was actually very good. Good pacing, edge of your seat tension, good character development, etc. I'm a little worried because there are a few books I've read like this where it starts so slow and finally gets good at the end. I almost always give the second book a chance, sometimes even pushing through the second book, only to DNF somewhere in the 3rd book. I'm definitely not giving this more than one more book to keep me reading.
Overall a very average read. Don't put this at the top of your TBR list. But if you have nothing else to do, it's not the worst.
But that first three quarters of the book was only just interesting enough to make me think it might get better soon. The plot moves pretty slowly and not much is happening. If you like Blood and Ash, you'll definitely like this one. There are striking similarities in the characters' personalities, the feel and rules of the world, and the rate at which things happen. I would argue the writing is better, since there isn't so much redundant thought process going on in the FMC.
I will say the romance is a bit cringe sometimes. The spice is good, but the possessiveness of the MMC is borderline. I believe this has been categorized as a dark romance, so that's probably why. The biggest thing you may need to get over in order to enjoy the romance is the pet name of "Little One." I don't know if this author has children, but this makes me think not. That term often is used to refer to kids, which did make this a little difficult for me to get through. Unfortunately, this pet name is used frequently, so if you can't get over it, don't bother reading it lol
The last quarter of the book was actually very good. Good pacing, edge of your seat tension, good character development, etc. I'm a little worried because there are a few books I've read like this where it starts so slow and finally gets good at the end. I almost always give the second book a chance, sometimes even pushing through the second book, only to DNF somewhere in the 3rd book. I'm definitely not giving this more than one more book to keep me reading.
Overall a very average read. Don't put this at the top of your TBR list. But if you have nothing else to do, it's not the worst.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Death, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Death of parent
daniparvu's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The storyline is intriuging; I genuinely wanted to know what would happen next, however: I think the amount of sex and the emphasis on the lust of the population in general made what was a really solid opportunity for killer world building fall flat. It was a bit disappointing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexism
Moderate: Child abuse and Rape
Minor: Grief and Death of parent
kat1105's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence
dovahkiin_freyja's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Cursing, and Sexual violence
Minor: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse
tashydashcb's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Grief, Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
elleclair's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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
3.0
I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t. Every time I’d get myself to look past an issue, something new would pop up that would put me off.
THE WRITING
In terms of format, I’m not a HUGE stickler when it comes to grammar or overall writing quality. Sometimes the best stories are wrapped up in the most chaotic packages. But this book had so many repetitive words phrases and poorly described actions that I just couldn’t keep myself immersed. It felt lazy and/or unedited. I was really interested in the story though, so I switched to the audiobook in hopes that I’d notice these things less.
PLOT & ROMANCE
When it comes to the actual content of the book, the plot and worldbuilding were really interesting. They kept me constantly wondering what would happen next. Unfortunately, the story predominantly centers around the main romance, and that part was BAD. Maybe it’s something that others could get into, but it made me physically uncomfortable in many parts.
It’s important to note that our main character (MC) comes from a religious purity culture that judges the value of a woman based on her virginity / sexual purity, her ability to please her husband, and whether or not she’s putting out children. There’s heavy emphasis on the fact that women here do not have a choice and are used and mistreated by the men around them all their lives. Not only that, but there’s also a focus on the abuse of the lower class in general. So you would think that the point of this would be to drive the MC down a path where she finds freedom and perhaps a love interest who opposes all of these things. Nope.
I should start by saying, the love interest calls the MC “Little One” right off the bat, which already threw me off. I’m well versed in kink and the concept of DD/lg, but this wasn’t written like that at all. To me, the context made it creepy and predatory, especially when he insists on using the name during intensely graphic sex scenes - some of which included very dubious consent. I get that this is supposed to be about their size difference, but it didn’t read that way, and there was never any discussion between them to prove otherwise. And some information we get much later makes this point even creepier.
The consent issues maybe could’ve bothered me less than they did. I’ve read much darker smut and been absolutely fine. But when you put a character through an intensely emotional journey revolving around their lack of consent and ability to choose anything for themself, then stick them in a sexual situation where they’re thinking “I’m uncomfortable. I don’t think I want this” and have the love interest ignoring her cues saying “I told you what would happen, now spread your legs” — that’s problematic. Especially when the language used to describe his actions emphasizes that his grip was bruising, he wasn’t gentle, he didn’t ease her into it and tore her open, etc, and then has him say that he’s going to claim his pleasure from her again later that night. And this isn’t just one scene. This undercurrent of pressuring her into doing what he wants is present in every aspect of their relationship - including pressuring her into telling him that she loves him before she’s ready.
And if all that wasn’t an issue, these two have no chemistry. There’s no sense of love or genuine care for one another. Any time the MC talks about his affection or her feelings for him, it’s always in the context of simply having never had that thing before. The sex is good because she was never allowed to have it freely before. The cuddling is nice because she’d never been able to lay next to someone like that before. There were no redeeming qualities to this man, even through her eyes - apart from his determination to protect her from harm at all costs.
Now, I get that the point of some of this is that it’s supposed to lead up to him not being such a great guy. We’re supposed to be conflicted and want the MC to fight back and learn how to set boundaries. We’re supposed to feel like things don’t add up and grow to be scared of the love interest. But it doesn’t seem like this is a situation where she’s going to eventually leave him and end up with someone else. Right now, it definitely seems like he’s it. So, I guess to me the biggest dealbreaker of all here is… if you really want to write a compelling bad guy / love interest who’d destroy all but the woman he loves, that bad guy can’t aggressively embody the very thing that the MC is trying to escape. He needs to represent, in some part, what we want the MC to work towards, and there needs to be real, palpable chemistry between them. The love interest in this book is toxic and rapey, and I was incredibly disappointed when I found out that this wasn’t because we were building up to her leaving him.
Anyway, if none of this is an issue to you, you might really like the book. There are a lot of redeeming qualities in terms of the worldbuilding and pacing. For me personally, it was just hard to notice those things as much when I was busy gritting my teeth through all of the other parts LOL
THE WRITING
In terms of format, I’m not a HUGE stickler when it comes to grammar or overall writing quality. Sometimes the best stories are wrapped up in the most chaotic packages. But this book had so many repetitive words phrases and poorly described actions that I just couldn’t keep myself immersed. It felt lazy and/or unedited. I was really interested in the story though, so I switched to the audiobook in hopes that I’d notice these things less.
PLOT & ROMANCE
When it comes to the actual content of the book, the plot and worldbuilding were really interesting. They kept me constantly wondering what would happen next. Unfortunately, the story predominantly centers around the main romance, and that part was BAD. Maybe it’s something that others could get into, but it made me physically uncomfortable in many parts.
It’s important to note that our main character (MC) comes from a religious purity culture that judges the value of a woman based on her virginity / sexual purity, her ability to please her husband, and whether or not she’s putting out children. There’s heavy emphasis on the fact that women here do not have a choice and are used and mistreated by the men around them all their lives. Not only that, but there’s also a focus on the abuse of the lower class in general. So you would think that the point of this would be to drive the MC down a path where she finds freedom and perhaps a love interest who opposes all of these things. Nope.
I should start by saying, the love interest calls the MC “Little One” right off the bat, which already threw me off. I’m well versed in kink and the concept of DD/lg, but this wasn’t written like that at all. To me, the context made it creepy and predatory, especially when he insists on using the name during intensely graphic sex scenes - some of which included very dubious consent. I get that this is supposed to be about their size difference, but it didn’t read that way, and there was never any discussion between them to prove otherwise. And some information we get much later makes this point even creepier.
The consent issues maybe could’ve bothered me less than they did. I’ve read much darker smut and been absolutely fine. But when you put a character through an intensely emotional journey revolving around their lack of consent and ability to choose anything for themself, then stick them in a sexual situation where they’re thinking “I’m uncomfortable. I don’t think I want this” and have the love interest ignoring her cues saying “I told you what would happen, now spread your legs” — that’s problematic. Especially when the language used to describe his actions emphasizes that his grip was bruising, he wasn’t gentle, he didn’t ease her into it and tore her open, etc, and then has him say that he’s going to claim his pleasure from her again later that night. And this isn’t just one scene. This undercurrent of pressuring her into doing what he wants is present in every aspect of their relationship - including pressuring her into telling him that she loves him before she’s ready.
And if all that wasn’t an issue, these two have no chemistry. There’s no sense of love or genuine care for one another. Any time the MC talks about his affection or her feelings for him, it’s always in the context of simply having never had that thing before. The sex is good because she was never allowed to have it freely before. The cuddling is nice because she’d never been able to lay next to someone like that before. There were no redeeming qualities to this man, even through her eyes - apart from his determination to protect her from harm at all costs.
Now, I get that the point of some of this is that it’s supposed to lead up to him not being such a great guy. We’re supposed to be conflicted and want the MC to fight back and learn how to set boundaries. We’re supposed to feel like things don’t add up and grow to be scared of the love interest. But it doesn’t seem like this is a situation where she’s going to eventually leave him and end up with someone else. Right now, it definitely seems like he’s it. So, I guess to me the biggest dealbreaker of all here is… if you really want to write a compelling bad guy / love interest who’d destroy all but the woman he loves, that bad guy can’t aggressively embody the very thing that the MC is trying to escape. He needs to represent, in some part, what we want the MC to work towards, and there needs to be real, palpable chemistry between them. The love interest in this book is toxic and rapey, and I was incredibly disappointed when I found out that this wasn’t because we were building up to her leaving him.
Anyway, if none of this is an issue to you, you might really like the book. There are a lot of redeeming qualities in terms of the worldbuilding and pacing. For me personally, it was just hard to notice those things as much when I was busy gritting my teeth through all of the other parts LOL
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Classism, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Blood, Terminal illness, and Bullying
Minor: Incest
taylortome's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
ivymaew's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
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? It's complicated
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Death, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Grief, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
lucyslays's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
SO SMUTTY OH MY GOD
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual content, War, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Violence, Body horror, Death, and Misogyny
grassygale's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Torture, and Misogyny
Minor: Suicide, Infertility, and Grief
Exhibitionism and other bdsm themes