Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley

12 reviews

amy_in_the_city's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-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

4.0

This was a cute book. I loved Oz, the cinnamon roll demon. I would have liked for the timeline to have been stretched out a bit as I find falling in love to the point that you'll give up everything to be together in the span of about 2 weeks (I think?) to be unbelievable. The

third-act breakup

, while annoying, was understandable as it fit with the characterization. I think

Mariel

should have apologized more at the end. I appreciated Mariel's character journey dealing with her narcissistic mother and finding her own sense of self worth after years of being told she wasn't good enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Animal death, Sexual content, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood

direguard's review

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Bullying, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Cursing

Minor: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

jessthanthree's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Violence, Animal cruelty, Police brutality, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Blood

art_books_chemistry's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Cursing, Bullying, and Sexual content

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Drug use, Classism, Blood, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

blissofalife's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Loved the start, Mariel was a delight and the banter was fun. The about halfway through

they have sex and all the romantic tension disappears

and it got progressively less interesting and harder to suspend my disbelief. The whole book takes place over a few days, but the characters experience massive changes, I wish more time had passed in the book so it didn’t feel so rushed.

It felt like after the first sex scene the author didn’t have anywhere else to go so there was just more sex and innuendos. I also didn’t love that everyone who wasn’t Mariel’s family members were constantly telling her to stand up for herself. It felt monotonous.

Satisfying ending though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

katelynnelawson's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a sweet, fun, and steamy read if imperfect. Mariel is a witch who struggles with magic despite being prophesized as powerful. While she excels at earth magic, her family looks down on it and subsequently her. During a spell gone wrong, she summons Ozroth, a demon. Oz's goal is to make a soul bargain with Mariel. However, bargaining her soul would mean losing her magic and emotions, and as the two grow closer that's not something either of them wants.

Oz is a peculiar demon in that he has a soul after a previous soul bargain gone wrong, meaning he experiences human emotion, something demons look down on. Given this and his community's need for a powerful soul like Mariel's, there is just as much incentive for him to bargain for her soul as there is top keep her safe. Meanwhile, Mariel's beloved forest is rapidly decaying while her mother and the major of Glimmer Falls plot to build a spa there, two things Mariel and her friends desperately want to stop.

This is an enjoyable read, though the toxic relationship between Mariel and her mother - a major plot point - is a bit harrowing. Some of the language used not just by Mariel's mother but her friend regarding Mariel's "dry spell" feels reductive - cleaning cobwebs from the vagina, good dick being motivation. It's frustrating in the third act how quickly Mariel believes Oz, whom she loves, could be duping her, but also makes sense given her frustrating relationship with her family. Ultimately it's a fun and sexy love story, and the world-building is whimsical and interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Blood

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

simplyammee's review against another edition

hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Blood

wilybooklover's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

2.0

This was an intriguing premise that had a lot of potential, but sadly fell a bit flat for me.

Both of the main characters felt quite two-dimensional and lacking in depth. Mariel even reminded me of a teenager at times. The secondary characters were even more shallow and felt like caricatures or cardboard cut-outs. I found myself unable to become immersed in the story because it just felt noticeably fake, especially with respect to the dialogue. The humour was more cringe and juvenile than actually funny and the third-act breakup was incredibly unnecessary given the conflict and drama already happening in the last third of the book. There were also a lot of editing mistakes (like, several per chapter) — things like missing punctuation, words smashed together, and uncapitalised names/places. I expect better editing from a traditionally published book. [This is for the UK digital version.] 

There were a few plus points, however. I enjoyed the world-building, which was fun and detailed without being overexplained. The plant magic/affinity was especially nice; I loved how Mariel’s plants would comfort her. I loved that Mariel was plus-size but there was no plot point or issues surrounding it; she just was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal death, Death, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Cancer, and Classism

chaoticace's review against another edition

FMC is too naive and doesn’t seems to have the brain capacity  or the critical thinking of a 28yo.

Would have been ok with discovering every little mystery thanks to a good build up but it was more of a obvious kinda things and the result weren’t that important.

Maybe the whole « electric power came from the soul you ingested » had been developed after 80% but it seems little worthless considering the main mystery -rotting forest- is from the unresolved bargain and most likely didn’t need more power from Oz

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Sexual content

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death and Blood