Reviews

Dark Fae by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

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first_edition's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

2.0

THOUGHTS

Ruthless Boys? WHERE?! Certainly not in THIS book. VERY underwhelming “Kings"🙄
ALL the characters were so overhyped, and all were woefully disappointing. They're all talk—and appearances—but no bite.🙄 Very one-dimensional.
Ryder is a stereotypical “bad boy"🙄, Dante is...flat😐, Gabriel is an indecisive emo (not the good kind)🤦🏻‍♀️, and Leon is lazy and useless BUT funny.😏
Gareth is a BORING, flat character. His POVs were a waste! I don't care about solving how he died and who did it, nor does Elise since she keeps kissing and screwing the potential murderers of her “truest love"🤦🏻‍♀️
I got through the first 50% of the book fairly quickly, but the second half was so boring and slow.
Smut > Plot 👎🏻 No slow-burn, no romance, no chemistry in this book, no logic, no character development, and barely even a plot.
I read this for Lance Orion crumbs and got none (Grr😠) BUT I'm now thankful for it because this mediocre book does not deserve the perfection that is Lance!
Zodiac Academy is SO MUCH better in every way! How is this book by the same sisters?!

CHARACTERS
🧛🏻‍♀️ELISE:

Stupid and annoying. I'm disappointed in her—she falls so easily for hot guys who treat her badly. She is NOT a strong FMC.
Bad attitude ≠ badass! Also, for someone who claims to love her brother so much that she feels her whole life is destroyed and meaningless now, she gets easily distracted by her lust for the 4 Kings, while in supposed pursuit of her brother's killer—which the 4 Kings are suspects of! Doesn't stop her from kissing and fucking them, though.🤦🏻‍♀️ She acts like a horny teenager rather than the traumatized sister suffering the complete loss of her beloved brother, whom she was willing to do anything for. Lies..

“Because you don't seem to be getting the message," he snarled. “The moment I show a bit of interest in you, you're back to panting like a bitch in heat and I need to make sure you understand the fact that you need to keep away."—Gabriel

🪽GABRIEL:

So, first he does things—like getting the tattoos he has, or flying after Elise in the rain—for no other reason other than “it's fate," BUT then he tells Elise to stay away from him after he glimpses into the future that she is his Elysian mate and says that he does everything he can to fight AGAINST fate?! AND THEN he goes right back to obeying fate again ("Why delay fate?")?! Omg, he is not a mysterious guy, just an indecisive, confusing, mopey one! He's not as deep or mysterious as he's trying to be. His character is lacking the depth that it had in ZA.

🐍RYDER:
He's not a bad boy—he's a murderer and psycho. Oh, but he has childhood trauma, so his actions are excused.🤦🏻‍♀️ NO!🚫 Wasted potential with him.

🐲DANTE:
He has potential to be great but currently, he's just... there. He's like a mature, Italian version of Diego from ZA but with more power—in name only, since he has yet to display any of that incredible power of his rare Storm Dragon Order. And the fact that he can't see past Cindy Lou's innocent act is just stupid. I'm seriously questioning his IQ level.

🦁LEON:
Leon the Lion shifter, who's sign is Leo...🤦🏻‍♀️ Ay. Well, at least he's friendly and silly. He's the Aurora equivalent of Seth from ZA but not as well-developed. Leon is laaaaazy and pretty useless. All he provides to the story so far is humor to ease the... lust? Certainly not the tension because this book doesn't have any of that either! Just smut and thoughts of smut.

CONCLUSION
This book did not live up to the hype. Every single thing and person in this book was underwhelming and poorly developed.
I'm not a fan of reverse-harem tropes to begin with, and unfortunately this book is another good example of how it's executed poorly. There is ONE plot—to find Gareth's murderer—and in 535 pages, Elise barely makes any progress towards that because she is too distracted taking up 80% of the book by thinking or doing sexual acts with the 4 Kings. But there is no progression or development to the characters or the plot! If you like empty smut with dense characters, then this book is for you! If you need anything more than that, then I implore you to read (or reread) Zodiac Academy instead!

izzyrose1980's review against another edition

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Writing was juvenile. Too much toxic/ fragile masculinity.

issy15005's review against another edition

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I really thought I could get through this, but I'm just not as invested as I thought I was. I like the characters, sure, but on the side, and not enough to read through all 5 books. I think I am becoming tired of the multiverse of the zodiac academy. I don't want to read or continue on with the other worlds. So I'm just gonna finish ZA and move on to another series because I feel it's too necessarily long and this is good to those who don't get bored and can invest their time into learning it all.