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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
slow-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Alcohol, Infertility, Confinement, Death of parent, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Bullying, Cursing, Dysphoria, Kidnapping, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Torture, Animal death, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: War, Miscarriage, and Child death
kgreer's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book is the love child of Twilight and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries. It is the intersection between academia and vampires.
As a STEM girly, I enjoyed the way the author explained magic with “science” (even though it was a little ridiculous and the non-magical science parts weren’t always correct - but it’s a fantasy book so I let that go)!
The beginning was slow but then picked up once the romantic interest started becoming relevant. At some points, I felt like the main character lost parts of who she was (independent, precautious, studious) as the story continued. Part of this change was ~character growth and development~ but part of her changes felt like it was just to fit the romance. And to me, without the romance, the plot wouldn’t have been as interesting.
It should be said that the main character had to confront suppressed parts of herself and deal with some hefty trauma - so who am I to critique how the author envisioned/wrote about how the character reacts to all that. In the end does it really matter that the character seemed whishy-washy at times? I did not read this book for a world based in reality or for a main character that would react like I would - so all and all, I did not hate the book but it’s not my favorite.
I may try reading the next book and I am hoping it picks up and gets straight to the action and drama!
As a STEM girly, I enjoyed the way the author explained magic with “science” (even though it was a little ridiculous and the non-magical science parts weren’t always correct - but it’s a fantasy book so I let that go)!
The beginning was slow but then picked up once the romantic interest started becoming relevant. At some points, I felt like the main character lost parts of who she was (independent, precautious, studious) as the story continued. Part of this change was ~character growth and development~ but part of her changes felt like it was just to fit the romance. And to me, without the romance, the plot wouldn’t have been as interesting.
It should be said that the main character had to confront suppressed parts of herself and deal with some hefty trauma - so who am I to critique how the author envisioned/wrote about how the character reacts to all that. In the end does it really matter that the character seemed whishy-washy at times? I did not read this book for a world based in reality or for a main character that would react like I would - so all and all, I did not hate the book but it’s not my favorite.
I may try reading the next book and I am hoping it picks up and gets straight to the action and drama!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Blood, and Confinement
Minor: Death of parent
abby_can_read's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
📖
I went back and forth on what I wanted to rate this. I have mixed feeling about this book.
Based on the blurb, I was excited. I thought this sounded great. I think this book had a great start and based on the summary, I knew the love story of Diana and Matthew was coming. I liked that Diana was older and she had life experience before meeting Matthew and them getting involved.
I started to lose interested around the time Matthew watched her sleeping, but I stuck with the book. I lost more interest as the relationship between Diana and Matthew developed.
I went into this book hoping it was a more mature and developed version of Twilight -- mainly featuring a better female character and a better romance. I don't think I had unreasonable hopes/expectations. But neither of those panned out for me.
The plot wasn't horrible, though I found to be predictable. The writing style was okay. The characters, mainly Diana, had me going back and forth and I still can't really decide how I feel beyond I think they were flat and some of the character development went backwards. I'm not really sure what I think about the relationships, mainly the one between Matthew and Diana. I can't decide if it's better or worse than Edward and Bella.
Despite my mixed feelings, overall I did enjoy reading this book. I plan to read the sequel. I have low exceptions and I'm curious how this series will compare to Twilight.
I went back and forth on what I wanted to rate this. I have mixed feeling about this book.
Based on the blurb, I was excited. I thought this sounded great. I think this book had a great start and based on the summary, I knew the love story of Diana and Matthew was coming. I liked that Diana was older and she had life experience before meeting Matthew and them getting involved.
I started to lose interested around the time Matthew watched her sleeping, but I stuck with the book. I lost more interest as the relationship between Diana and Matthew developed.
I went into this book hoping it was a more mature and developed version of Twilight -- mainly featuring a better female character and a better romance. I don't think I had unreasonable hopes/expectations. But neither of those panned out for me.
The plot wasn't horrible, though I found to be predictable. The writing style was okay. The characters, mainly Diana, had me going back and forth and I still can't really decide how I feel beyond I think they were flat and some of the character development went backwards. I'm not really sure what I think about the relationships, mainly the one between Matthew and Diana. I can't decide if it's better or worse than Edward and Bella.
Despite my mixed feelings, overall I did enjoy reading this book. I plan to read the sequel. I have low exceptions and I'm curious how this series will compare to Twilight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Torture
Moderate: Kidnapping, Death of parent, Stalking, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Gore, Sexism, Xenophobia, Medical content, and Misogyny
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I was expecting a fast-paced, plot-focused fantasy novel. What I got was a very cozy paranormal romance. This book was filled with so many scenes of dining together, going for long walks, family bonding, and dark academia (my favourite). I wasn’t a fan of the insta-love & slow burn, which I’m hoping will ramp up more in the next book, which I do plan to read. Overall, a nice read that I’d recommend to anyone who likes cozy fantasy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Death of parent, Alcohol, Confinement, and Blood
arsrose's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Moderate: Kidnapping, Torture, and Confinement
jaynovara's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
slow-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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Blood, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Confinement
Minor: Kidnapping, Medical content, and Pregnancy
maggies's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Started reading the series primarily because I want to watch the show, and now I'm even more excited to keep reading the series! I think it might have benefitted from some editing down—lots of repetition of the same sentiment or even sentence in just a few paragraphs, for example—but overall a really engaging fantasy story. The world of the witches, vampires, and daemons is laid out for readers as Diana learns the details, which is a simple and effective trick for this kind of world-building. Docked a star because it's just not believable to me that the entire book takes place over less than two months.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Stalking
Minor: Xenophobia and War
bookishchef's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
This book is like Twilight.
But without the love triangle.
And somehow even more toxic.
You thought Edward stalking Bella was creepy?
Meet Matthew Clermont! He is actually mentally and physically abusive to our bland Mary Sue protagonist named Diana.
If you're Matthew, life is easy.
Diana has a panic attack? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling scared? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling horny? Threaten her life.
Why? Because you just cannot help yourself of course. After all, it is sooooo hot when men treat women like
A. fragile objects they're supposed to control and protect.
B. things to literally kill.
This book perpetrates the idea that men cannot help themselves from abusing, controling, and commanding women.
Worst thing is, that every time Diana goes against Matthew's wishes, she is immediately punished by the plot. Which only confirms that women are supposed to listen to the men in their lives according to this book.
I have no clue how I, the reader, was supposed to find any of this romantic. All of the scenes were either highly uncomfortable or straight up abusive.
The excuse of "he just can't help himself" is as old as time and has been used time and time again to excuse shitty behaviour from men.
And Diana, the MC, decides that this excuse is not an excuse at all. She seems to think this is actually the way the world works. She doesn't even take the horrible "I can fix him" attitude that so many romance MCs take. Instead she just completely accepts Matthew as the toxic asshole he is and gives up every part of her life to listen to him and conform to his ideas of an ideal wife.
So yeah this book stole the toxicity from Twilight and made it 10x worse.
You know what else it stole?
THE WEIRD BABY PLOTLINE
Yup, you heard me correctly.
This author really looked at Renesmee and went "wow that's such a cool plot point".
Remember how Bella wasn't supposed to be able to get pregnant because Ed was a vampire? Well, same goes for Diana in this story. For a solid 80% of the book, we hear nothing about pregnancy rates between witches and vampires. (Diana is a witch and Matthew is a vampire)
Matthew refuses to have penetrative sex because of *plot*, and Diana gets frustrated because of this. And then suddenly out of NOWHERE it is revealed that witches and vampires can't have babies together BUT Diana has *special* DNA which means she is able to conceive with Matthew. Matthew supposedly didn't know this, so his aversion to penetrative sex was completely unrelated.
Even so, this entire plotpoint seems to exist to make Matthew right once again, and to rip off Twilight.
Truly do not understand why this gets 4+ stars on Goodreads.
ALSO OMG WINE GETS MENTIONED MORE THAN THE MC'S NAME I STG
But without the love triangle.
And somehow even more toxic.
You thought Edward stalking Bella was creepy?
Meet Matthew Clermont! He is actually mentally and physically abusive to our bland Mary Sue protagonist named Diana.
If you're Matthew, life is easy.
Diana has a panic attack? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling scared? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling horny? Threaten her life.
Why? Because you just cannot help yourself of course. After all, it is sooooo hot when men treat women like
A. fragile objects they're supposed to control and protect.
B. things to literally kill.
This book perpetrates the idea that men cannot help themselves from abusing, controling, and commanding women.
Worst thing is, that every time Diana goes against Matthew's wishes, she is immediately punished by the plot. Which only confirms that women are supposed to listen to the men in their lives according to this book.
I have no clue how I, the reader, was supposed to find any of this romantic. All of the scenes were either highly uncomfortable or straight up abusive.
The excuse of "he just can't help himself" is as old as time and has been used time and time again to excuse shitty behaviour from men.
And Diana, the MC, decides that this excuse is not an excuse at all. She seems to think this is actually the way the world works. She doesn't even take the horrible "I can fix him" attitude that so many romance MCs take. Instead she just completely accepts Matthew as the toxic asshole he is and gives up every part of her life to listen to him and conform to his ideas of an ideal wife.
So yeah this book stole the toxicity from Twilight and made it 10x worse.
You know what else it stole?
THE WEIRD BABY PLOTLINE
Yup, you heard me correctly.
This author really looked at Renesmee and went "wow that's such a cool plot point".
Remember how Bella wasn't supposed to be able to get pregnant because Ed was a vampire? Well, same goes for Diana in this story. For a solid 80% of the book, we hear nothing about pregnancy rates between witches and vampires. (Diana is a witch and Matthew is a vampire)
Matthew refuses to have penetrative sex because of *plot*, and Diana gets frustrated because of this. And then suddenly out of NOWHERE it is revealed that witches and vampires can't have babies together BUT Diana has *special* DNA which means she is able to conceive with Matthew. Matthew supposedly didn't know this, so his aversion to penetrative sex was completely unrelated.
Even so, this entire plotpoint seems to exist to make Matthew right once again, and to rip off Twilight.
Truly do not understand why this gets 4+ stars on Goodreads.
ALSO OMG WINE GETS MENTIONED MORE THAN THE MC'S NAME I STG
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Mental illness, Blood, Death, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Murder, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief, Confinement, Torture, Pregnancy, Animal death, and Misogyny
Minor: Child death
12dejamoo's review against another edition
dark
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Don't think I've ever written such a long review but here goes...
I found this book pretty hard to form a clear opinion. I think that's because I didn't know by what metric to judge it. Like, is it a crummy romance? Is it a YA Twilight-esque book? Is it one of those ostensibly 'higher quality' romances that everyone on the internet loves? It's kind of all three and so it's really difficult to judge the correct level of belief suspension needed. The book opens on an interesting fantasy premise, with library girl doing library things. We love a library girl. Then we are introduced to Matthew and it's like yeah I like this guy, he's got that Edward vibe with less creepiness and more nuance. Great, now we're doing some library stuff, we're having brunch, we're doing yoga (btw what a fucking funny idea that's genius). But now, BOOM, we're deeply in love, we're running off to France, you're my wife lol. Now you've almost died 20 million times. It's like the story was both nicely slow and too quick. It was moving at a very believable pace and then all hell broke loose.
There are lots of good points to this! I like many of the characters, I like the concept of the three creatures, I like the library scenes. I like the alchemy stuff (mostly). I like the idea of many of Diana's powers and I really enjoyed reading many of the scenes of her using them. It's major Twilight vibes but Deborah Harkness clearly did more research than Smeyer so it's refreshing whilst still being comforting and familiar. Definitely a lot of good in here but there was also a lot of crap.
Diana herself is pretty likable at first. As I said, we love a library girl. There are hints that she's not like other girls, but to me it seemed like she was authentically sporty, non-makeup-wearing, and bookish rather than your classic Bella figure who reads Jane Austen because she's ~different~. However I felt like that authenticity started to chip away the further into the book we got. The place where I had to put the book down and be like no fuck that was when she suddenly announces that she has always loved horses and it's like a major part of her personality???? . Genuinely comes out of nowhere and it's so irritating. You also have your classic Bella-esque 'oh I don't care that you're a vampire because you won't hurt ME' blah blah blah. She goes out to prove this on so many occasions and like there's just no need. My least favourite scene of this is her sitting completely still on horseback for literally two hours in absolute silence whilst he prepares to hunt. No human has ever had that kind of patience I'm sorry. Her obsessive love for Matthew seems really out of character with her very no-nonsense attitude at the start. The way she's ready to just spout crap about feeling alive for the first time. Have more respect for yourself than that please. I know it's like destiny or whatever but that doesn't mean your character should do a 180 when you meet the guy. This becomes especially a problem when she starts half dying every five seconds. Like can we not write women who are just damsels in distress all the time. Like even when she does amazing power stuff and saves Matthew she STILL is the one lying in bed for hours and fainting. I also think that we as a society have moved past chosen one who has every power and ability ever trope. Like she can be special without being that special. Give her some weaknesses beyond just needing to refine her powers. Make her rely on others in a way that's more depthful than she can't breathe or whatever when Matthew is gone.
Matthew was also likable at first. Mysterious vampire love interest. This is why we're here. We also love a hint of danger which at first Diana seems to genuinely feel. What did get very old was him knowing literally every historical figure of note. Like he did not need to do that. How boring. Also can we STOP describing how love interests smell in terms of some complex selection of herbs, spices, and flowers. Nobody smells like those things unless they are wearing aritificial fragrances or they've just walked out of a rose garden like seriously stop describing Matthew's smell as 'spicy' it drives me insane.I also hate his secretive blah vampire blah knights crap. Just stop it's boring he does not need to have his finger in every pie.
There were definitely some weird writing moments. Exposition was delivered so weirdly at times. Special mention goes to when Baldwin and Matthew explain to each other the history of their father as if they both don't know it. Like they're both adding details like they're explaining it to someone else but no they're literally just recounting the events to each other. Also, you can definitely tell this was written by an American. Like the definition of the word 'fresher' as a Cambridge term for freshmen. It's literally just a British term, Cambridge isn't special. This is also evident when Diana describes a British intensive care hospital wing. Are they different in America? I've only ever seen them on American TV and ngl they look exactly like what you're describing I'm so confused. Definition of a person who did their year abroad/gap year/placement etc in another country and takes it on as their entire personality.
I really hate the trope in any media where their family is just this annoying burden who they seem to hate? Like your aunts aren't stopping you from being with this man they are just giving you very sensible thinking points and trying to have a discussion and you just have to act like they're so annoying and stupid and 'just don't get it'. Diana has no reason to dislike her aunts but her descriptions of them are often so dismissive and subtly cruel I never get why media insists on doing this.
Further important points are: we love Ysabeau. She gives me Rosalie vibes and this can only be a good thing. Also the way I cringe so hard every time Matthew and Diana refer to each other as 'husband' or 'wife' ewwww. It's not marriage that's a problem it's the way the relationship went from 0 to 1 to 2 to 3 to 100 and it's like what where why when?
"Matthew swung me onto his back like a child and walked through the twilight' SORRY nooo that HAS to be a reference
I found this book pretty hard to form a clear opinion. I think that's because I didn't know by what metric to judge it. Like, is it a crummy romance? Is it a YA Twilight-esque book? Is it one of those ostensibly 'higher quality' romances that everyone on the internet loves? It's kind of all three and so it's really difficult to judge the correct level of belief suspension needed. The book opens on an interesting fantasy premise, with library girl doing library things. We love a library girl. Then we are introduced to Matthew and it's like yeah I like this guy, he's got that Edward vibe with less creepiness and more nuance. Great, now we're doing some library stuff, we're having brunch, we're doing yoga (btw what a fucking funny idea that's genius). But now,
There are lots of good points to this! I like many of the characters, I like the concept of the three creatures, I like the library scenes. I like the alchemy stuff (mostly). I like the idea of many of Diana's powers and I really enjoyed reading many of the scenes of her using them. It's major Twilight vibes but Deborah Harkness clearly did more research than Smeyer so it's refreshing whilst still being comforting and familiar. Definitely a lot of good in here but there was also a lot of crap.
Diana herself is pretty likable at first. As I said, we love a library girl. There are hints that she's not like other girls, but to me it seemed like she was authentically sporty, non-makeup-wearing, and bookish rather than your classic Bella figure who reads Jane Austen because she's ~different~. However I felt like that authenticity started to chip away the further into the book we got. The place where I had to put the book down and be like no fuck that was when she suddenly announces that she
Matthew was also likable at first. Mysterious vampire love interest. This is why we're here. We also love a hint of danger which at first Diana seems to genuinely feel. What did get very old was him knowing literally every historical figure of note. Like he did not need to do that. How boring. Also can we STOP describing how love interests smell in terms of some complex selection of herbs, spices, and flowers. Nobody smells like those things unless they are wearing aritificial fragrances or they've just walked out of a rose garden like seriously stop describing Matthew's smell as 'spicy' it drives me insane.
There were definitely some weird writing moments. Exposition was delivered so weirdly at times. Special mention goes to when Baldwin and Matthew explain to each other the history of their father as if they both don't know it. Like they're both adding details like they're explaining it to someone else but no they're literally just recounting the events to each other. Also, you can definitely tell this was written by an American. Like the definition of the word 'fresher' as a Cambridge term for freshmen. It's literally just a British term, Cambridge isn't special. This is also evident when Diana describes a British intensive care hospital wing. Are they different in America? I've only ever seen them on American TV and ngl they look exactly like what you're describing I'm so confused. Definition of a person who did their year abroad/gap year/placement etc in another country and takes it on as their entire personality.
I really hate the trope in any media where their family is just this annoying burden who they seem to hate? Like your aunts aren't stopping you from being with this man they are just giving you very sensible thinking points and trying to have a discussion and you just have to act like they're so annoying and stupid and 'just don't get it'. Diana has no reason to dislike her aunts but her descriptions of them are often so dismissive and subtly cruel I never get why media insists on doing this.
Further important points are: we love Ysabeau. She gives me Rosalie vibes and this can only be a good thing. Also
"Matthew swung me onto his back like a child and walked through the twilight' SORRY nooo that HAS to be a reference
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Violence, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Confinement, and Alcohol
Minor: Pregnancy, Abortion, War, and Sexual content
elizlizabeth's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book's pacing is all over the place and it's long. I would recommend it if you're a fan of romance, but definitely not for anyone else, as the plot doesn't even resolve by the end of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Torture, Confinement, Body horror, and Panic attacks/disorders