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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
Oh this was gooooood. But can we stop with the stuttering please?
It’s giving WattPad and NOT in a good way.
I gave this story a VERY generous two stars only for the obvious potential that this world has.
I’ll start with the positives because it’s the easiest, there aren’t many. The beginning started off strong. The premise did as well. I did feel as if it was a believable world, and it was nice hearing about the lore when you got fed teaspoons of it. It’s clear the author DID spend some time developing the world itself and the myths surrounding it, but more energy should have been put into characterization which is where my negatives begin.
Let’s start off with Saffron, our main character. He’s supposed to be 19/20, but he reads like a middle schooler or a high school freshman at best. He reads painfully immature and childish. The amount of times the word “giggling” or “laughing” is used is absolutely criminal, but not as criminal as the usage of stuttering. It’s nearly every single sentence when he talks to Cylvan. I’m not even kidding. If I really wanted to torture myself, I’d go back and mark each page and sentence he does so just to prove a point of how ridiculous it gets. Seriously, it’s absolutely absurd. You can make someone flustered without them stuttering every other word and sentence, I promise you can. The way Saffron becomes so enamored with Cylvan is unbelievable at best, and lazy writing at worst. Every single waking minute becomes clouded with just Cylvan. Oh, Saffron’s friends—the only ones who truly like and accept him—are dying under mysterious circumstances? Doesn’t matter, he won’t help them uncover anything, he DESPERATELY needs to go hang out with Cylvan in the library. One of the more glaring issues is at the beginning, Saffron has actual ambitions. He wants to learn. He wants to stay with the fey people and become educated and get sponsored for an education, and in the span of maybe a few chapters, his entire personality becomes single handedly just about Cylvan.
Speaking of Cylvan, what an asshole, seriously. He goes from being discriminatory towards Saffron to being empathetic to his plight as a human. Saffron gets seriously ill from an infection and STILL wants to go to the library and Cylvan spends most of it demanding Saffron to keep going. It’s only when Saffron literally PASSES OUT that Cylvan takes Saffron home. Magically, seeing someone faint will apparently immediately stir on feelings. You’re telling me the cold, distant, and antagonistic person who legitimately threatened to kill Saffron and tear out his tongue suddenly wants to dote on Saffron hand and foot just because Saffron got a little sick? That the cold prince now wants to go on dates, share dinners and breakfast? It was as if he got a different personality entirely, legitimately switched on a dime. Cylvan becomes this blushing bride whereas he was only cold and brooding and borderline cruel to Saffron only a chapter beforehand.
Besides my issues with the characters, there are grammatical and structural errors galore. I’m the LAST person to complain about specific grammar and dialogistic choices, but even I couldn’t stand them anymore. There’s weird metaphors and similes galore. There’s far too many examples for me to even begin listing, but oh they are there, and oh how they take you out of the story. There are multiple punctuations used in terms of exclamation points and question marks. Why? Legitimately, why? You don’t need to add an extra one to emphasize a point, the punctuation is there to serve that purpose from the beginning. You don’t need to add “Put me down!!” or “Why??” with two in a row, it reads unpolished and immature. It’s creative writing 101, you learn this sort of stuff in HIGH SCHOOL creative writing. The use of ellipses is so distracting and unnecessary. It’s a jailable offense at how often it’s used, and oh, did I mention that “~” is used UNIRONICALLY in dialogue? Straight to solitary confinement for that. Holy hell, it’s like reading a tumblr or ao3 fanfic. That is NOT proper punctuation in any sort of way, and that only adds to just how immature all of this reads. It’s so strange to me that there’s so many basic mistakes done and yet the writing reads outdated as hell.
This book could’ve gone with SEVERAL more months of intense editing and being well flushed out. I read the author had a beta reader and editor, and how these weren’t caught were beyond my understanding. Such simple mistakes. I almost wonder if the editor was just simply a friend of the author’s who didn’t read through the way they should of and simply gassed their friend up in blind encouragements, the same for the beta reader.
This HAD potential, but there were so many glaring issues that should have and could have been caught with even a basic read through. I don’t know which is worse: it wasn’t caught, which means it wasn’t thoroughly vetted and read through by the author, beta reader, AND editor, or that these were stylistic choices by the author who refused to change them.
I stuck this one out to the bitter end only because I don’t like DNFing books.
I gave this story a VERY generous two stars only for the obvious potential that this world has.
I’ll start with the positives because it’s the easiest, there aren’t many. The beginning started off strong. The premise did as well. I did feel as if it was a believable world, and it was nice hearing about the lore when you got fed teaspoons of it. It’s clear the author DID spend some time developing the world itself and the myths surrounding it, but more energy should have been put into characterization which is where my negatives begin.
Let’s start off with Saffron, our main character. He’s supposed to be 19/20, but he reads like a middle schooler or a high school freshman at best. He reads painfully immature and childish. The amount of times the word “giggling” or “laughing” is used is absolutely criminal, but not as criminal as the usage of stuttering. It’s nearly every single sentence when he talks to Cylvan. I’m not even kidding. If I really wanted to torture myself, I’d go back and mark each page and sentence he does so just to prove a point of how ridiculous it gets. Seriously, it’s absolutely absurd. You can make someone flustered without them stuttering every other word and sentence, I promise you can. The way Saffron becomes so enamored with Cylvan is unbelievable at best, and lazy writing at worst. Every single waking minute becomes clouded with just Cylvan. Oh, Saffron’s friends—the only ones who truly like and accept him—are dying under mysterious circumstances? Doesn’t matter, he won’t help them uncover anything, he DESPERATELY needs to go hang out with Cylvan in the library. One of the more glaring issues is at the beginning, Saffron has actual ambitions. He wants to learn. He wants to stay with the fey people and become educated and get sponsored for an education, and in the span of maybe a few chapters, his entire personality becomes single handedly just about Cylvan.
Speaking of Cylvan, what an asshole, seriously. He goes from being discriminatory towards Saffron to being empathetic to his plight as a human. Saffron gets seriously ill from an infection and STILL wants to go to the library and Cylvan spends most of it demanding Saffron to keep going. It’s only when Saffron literally PASSES OUT that Cylvan takes Saffron home. Magically, seeing someone faint will apparently immediately stir on feelings. You’re telling me the cold, distant, and antagonistic person who legitimately threatened to kill Saffron and tear out his tongue suddenly wants to dote on Saffron hand and foot just because Saffron got a little sick? That the cold prince now wants to go on dates, share dinners and breakfast? It was as if he got a different personality entirely, legitimately switched on a dime. Cylvan becomes this blushing bride whereas he was only cold and brooding and borderline cruel to Saffron only a chapter beforehand.
Besides my issues with the characters, there are grammatical and structural errors galore. I’m the LAST person to complain about specific grammar and dialogistic choices, but even I couldn’t stand them anymore. There’s weird metaphors and similes galore. There’s far too many examples for me to even begin listing, but oh they are there, and oh how they take you out of the story. There are multiple punctuations used in terms of exclamation points and question marks. Why? Legitimately, why? You don’t need to add an extra one to emphasize a point, the punctuation is there to serve that purpose from the beginning. You don’t need to add “Put me down!!” or “Why??” with two in a row, it reads unpolished and immature. It’s creative writing 101, you learn this sort of stuff in HIGH SCHOOL creative writing. The use of ellipses is so distracting and unnecessary. It’s a jailable offense at how often it’s used, and oh, did I mention that “~” is used UNIRONICALLY in dialogue? Straight to solitary confinement for that. Holy hell, it’s like reading a tumblr or ao3 fanfic. That is NOT proper punctuation in any sort of way, and that only adds to just how immature all of this reads. It’s so strange to me that there’s so many basic mistakes done and yet the writing reads outdated as hell.
This book could’ve gone with SEVERAL more months of intense editing and being well flushed out. I read the author had a beta reader and editor, and how these weren’t caught were beyond my understanding. Such simple mistakes. I almost wonder if the editor was just simply a friend of the author’s who didn’t read through the way they should of and simply gassed their friend up in blind encouragements, the same for the beta reader.
This HAD potential, but there were so many glaring issues that should have and could have been caught with even a basic read through. I don’t know which is worse: it wasn’t caught, which means it wasn’t thoroughly vetted and read through by the author, beta reader, AND editor, or that these were stylistic choices by the author who refused to change them.
I stuck this one out to the bitter end only because I don’t like DNFing books.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
The misplaced modifiers, the lack of depth to all supporting characters, the complete lack of any like-ability of the main characters…. It was ultimately too much for me and I had to break up with this book.
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
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
I love the characters and the world they live in but the plot was a little bland to me. The ending was really good so I’m excited to read the rest of the series.
This was AMAZING! I loved the world and the relationships and the conflict omg, so much. I love them!
DNF at almost halfway through. I gave it that long to suck me in, and it didn’t. The writing is just not good. It’s so cluttered and confusing. Normally I love stories about the fey, and they’re one of my favorite subjects to explore in fantasy fiction. This could’ve been great- the concept was there and the world was there, which is why I’m giving it 2 stars, but I just could not get into it because the writing wasn’t a style that worked for me. Maybe I’ll come back to it eventually, but I don’t know.
Yells incoherently (will update with full review soon)
edit:
alright i guess i should preface this with the fact I'm not usually one to read romance centric novels so excuse me if i sound like an absolute novice here lol
i saw this book on a rec list on twitter before its release and as a queer man who loves fae i of course was immediately interested
i want to start with the fact i loved how it just jumps into the world there is no baby steps of trying to explain things and trusts the reader to just keep going and learn things along the way.
One of my worries was it being too trope heavy which is usually why i don't read romance because so many plots seem to hinge on just fulfilling specific tropes Prince of the Sorrows actually lets the story unravel with a plot outside the romance and while there are tropes in it it doesn't overwhelm the overall story.
There is tension beneath the surface not only for the plot involving the murder of beantighe but the relationship itself where it left me trying to figure out the secrets that lay hidden between Saffron and Cylvan and which one it would be that would cause matters to spiral. The ending of course is an absolutely lovely amount of angst that has left me wanting the next book immediately and excited to see where the politics and drama of the story will lead. Will the King get involved? what of the other beantighe and henmothers? will they get to remain after Saffron is accused of the murders even if his friends very much know it wasn't him? Just how long will it take for Cylvan to remember Saffron after the memories are removed?
Even all the background characters we see briefly are entertaining and each bring their own point of light within the story making the world believable.
I have been pestering my co workers to read the book (i work in a book store aha) and probably wont stop until they do.
overall if you like antagonistic pretty men who are hiding sadness and stupidly brave humans who chase them this is a book for you
edit:
alright i guess i should preface this with the fact I'm not usually one to read romance centric novels so excuse me if i sound like an absolute novice here lol
i saw this book on a rec list on twitter before its release and as a queer man who loves fae i of course was immediately interested
i want to start with the fact i loved how it just jumps into the world there is no baby steps of trying to explain things and trusts the reader to just keep going and learn things along the way.
One of my worries was it being too trope heavy which is usually why i don't read romance because so many plots seem to hinge on just fulfilling specific tropes Prince of the Sorrows actually lets the story unravel with a plot outside the romance and while there are tropes in it it doesn't overwhelm the overall story.
There is tension beneath the surface not only for the plot involving the murder of beantighe but the relationship itself where it left me trying to figure out the secrets that lay hidden between Saffron and Cylvan and which one it would be that would cause matters to spiral. The ending of course is an absolutely lovely amount of angst that has left me wanting the next book immediately and excited to see where the politics and drama of the story will lead. Will the King get involved? what of the other beantighe and henmothers? will they get to remain after Saffron is accused of the murders even if his friends very much know it wasn't him? Just how long will it take for Cylvan to remember Saffron after the memories are removed?
Even all the background characters we see briefly are entertaining and each bring their own point of light within the story making the world believable.
I have been pestering my co workers to read the book (i work in a book store aha) and probably wont stop until they do.
overall if you like antagonistic pretty men who are hiding sadness and stupidly brave humans who chase them this is a book for you
Dnf bei Seite 79.
Der Schreibstil und ich werden einfach keine Freunde:/
Der Schreibstil und ich werden einfach keine Freunde:/