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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was an entertaining slow burn romantasy, and I got pretty sucked into the story quickly. The book is LONG, but does feel like the characters are fleshed out enough to have strong, consistent personalities along with interesting plot/worldbuilding. There is a relatively easy magic system of runes, soulbonding, and of course, vampires.
Jules and Luc are both actually villains that do bad things rather than just talk about how they are mean and tough. They did things that were actually uncomfortable to read. But they were fun and had some witty banter. Since this is MMF, I was afraid that I would end up liking one way more than the other, but I felt like both got the same amount of page time where it made sense that they were all together and had feelings for each other.
I liked Nessa and didn’t find her annoying until the very end where a lot of her thoughts felt repetitive and didn’t really go anywhere. Yeah, she talks about being boring/unimportant a lot as her biggest insecurity, but she still had some fight in her to not just roll over every time she was told to do something. She constantly says she doesn’t want to like the kings but the bond makes her need them. She talks about being trapped a lot. I did actually enjoy there were a handful of times I had to put the book down and just laugh at the dialogue or Nessa’s inner thoughts. She had some good one liners.
I’m trying to give the book credit since I think it is legitimately trying to be a big romantasy 4 book series, but I don’t think I can take it super seriously because it really lost the logic of the story about 80% in where it just leaned on the spice so heavily. It felt like a ton of action was happening in the plot in terms of new info and betrayals, but then it’s like the characters forgot how they felt betrayed and untrusting of each other the next minute. One minute they are almost complete enemies, the next minute they are chasing each other in the forest because they can’t resist each other. It was so good in the first part of the book when the story was building up, but the logic behind the interpersonal relationships was lost for me at the end which is such a shame.
At the end of the day, I think I might consider reading the next book. It just felt like it could have been edited down or changed slightly to have character actions make sense in comparison to current interpersonnel dynamics. It felt like the book was just so close to being amazing, but ended up missing the mark.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh my god. This was so good, it is absolutely worth its pages. I didn’t realize it was the first in a series, so I don’t know how I’m going to wait for the next book.
The world building is incredible.
This is dark romance with a lot of spice.
The MMCs (there are two) definitely pissed me off by the end of the book, but I assume there will be reconciliation and lots of groveling in the next book.
The twist at the end was shocking but in hindsight was set up so well from the beginning.
The world building is incredible.
This is dark romance with a lot of spice.
The MMCs (there are two) definitely pissed me off by the end of the book, but I assume there will be reconciliation and lots of groveling in the next book.
The twist at the end was shocking but in hindsight was set up so well from the beginning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Gore, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Torture, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, War
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
dark
Honestly, getting through this book was a total struggle. I thought I'd love it, but after the halfway point, I was done. I'm so confused about all the accusations flying around. They're soulbound, they can literally tell if someone's lying, AND they gave her a truth rune... so why did breaking her fingers even need to happen because they found out she was a witch? Nothing changed after that. And then they brush it off like it's no big deal, like that's not even torture.
The world building was actually kinda interesting, but it feels like it was totally wasted on these characters. It gave me a headache, tbh. The story was so repetitive: they're weirdly attracted to her, they adore her, they hate her, don't trust her, torture her, save her, protect her, punish her, humiliate her... rinse and repeat. IT'S INFURIATING
The world building was actually kinda interesting, but it feels like it was totally wasted on these characters. It gave me a headache, tbh. The story was so repetitive: they're weirdly attracted to her, they adore her, they hate her, don't trust her, torture her, save her, protect her, punish her, humiliate her... rinse and repeat. IT'S INFURIATING
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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
dark
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book needs serious editing. Nessa is two syllables, not one lol this book needs to be 300 pages and not almost 750. Half of it didn’t make sense, there were plot holes everywhere. Interlude 5 was repeated 2x, there were spelling mistakes, etc.
Also the shift from the fmcs pov to when she was in her bonds’ heads made no sense, no one thinks in book prose. I really had to skim to get through the last 200 pages.
The idea and dynamic was interesting b/t the 3 mcs but executed poorly
Also when they think she’s Allegra, it literally made no sense since that one vampire said she was likely a great granddaughter of Ilaura and Allegra was the child. No sense, literally made no sense
Also the shift from the fmcs pov to when she was in her bonds’ heads made no sense, no one thinks in book prose. I really had to skim to get through the last 200 pages.
The idea and dynamic was interesting b/t the 3 mcs but executed poorly
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am going to talk like I hate this book, even though I kind if loved it. Well. Parts of it. If this book fixed some major flaws it would probably be one of my favourite books ever.
That being said, the mmcs are my all time favourites. I adore Jules. Vicious but flighty. I love poly books with MMF and this has some of the best spice I have ever read.
Now for everything I did not like.
The first 10% was rough to get thru and I almost DNF’d it. The world building was clunky and confusing. As a result the rest of the book was hard to follow. The last, 20% was also pretty rough because it got very repetitive.
All the fmc does the entire book is whine… oh I’m so pathetic and fat and weak and in pain and trapped. Ok let’s fuck. Oh no. I’m so fat, so weak…. blah blah blah. The fmc had nothing and I mean NOTHING to do. No role except be a flesh-light door mat. I really don’t like door mat fmcs. She tries once or twice but never gets a win. Nessa needed to be more fully developed, she was flat and boring.
Fmc romantacy characters almost always exist solely as a way to validate male archetypes and Nessa is another boring cookie cut out of this.
The author needs a thesaurus. Badly. “My damp curls. My illness. Fuck”. Not sure how many times these showed up but it was 74 times too many. At least.
As someone with endometriosis I appreciated its representation. I did not liked how it was portrayed. My illness my illness my illness. Nessa could have been much more than a reproductive disease. But she wasn’t. Also. Find another word for illness or don’t bring it up so much. Ugh. It was annoying.
That being said, the mmcs are my all time favourites. I adore Jules. Vicious but flighty. I love poly books with MMF and this has some of the best spice I have ever read.
Now for everything I did not like.
The first 10% was rough to get thru and I almost DNF’d it. The world building was clunky and confusing. As a result the rest of the book was hard to follow. The last, 20% was also pretty rough because it got very repetitive.
All the fmc does the entire book is whine… oh I’m so pathetic and fat and weak and in pain and trapped. Ok let’s fuck. Oh no. I’m so fat, so weak…. blah blah blah. The fmc had nothing and I mean NOTHING to do. No role except be a flesh-light door mat. I really don’t like door mat fmcs. She tries once or twice but never gets a win. Nessa needed to be more fully developed, she was flat and boring.
Fmc romantacy characters almost always exist solely as a way to validate male archetypes and Nessa is another boring cookie cut out of this.
The author needs a thesaurus. Badly. “My damp curls. My illness. Fuck”. Not sure how many times these showed up but it was 74 times too many. At least.
As someone with endometriosis I appreciated its representation. I did not liked how it was portrayed. My illness my illness my illness. Nessa could have been much more than a reproductive disease. But she wasn’t. Also. Find another word for illness or don’t bring it up so much. Ugh. It was annoying.