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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
OH MY GOD THIS BOOK IS SO BAD I’M FUMING
I normally attempt to make my reviews insightful (and coherent) but I don’t think that is possible for this book so I apologize in advance.
Every single aspect of this book was torn straight from the pages of another, with absolutely no attempt at hiding it. I can’t wholly complain about this though; I did read it due to its likeness to ACOTAR and FBAA. However, this book crossed the line of inspiration, and I found myself constantly appalled that the author did not use in text citation.
The dialogue was so forced and unnatural, seeming as if its only purpose was info dumping. It felt lazy and poorly written. The narrative was overly specific yet simultaneously hollow, including details that just felt unnecessary (like describing how she threw something in the bin or the size and sturdiness of a table???). Maybe I’m just dumb and completely missed the intellectual integrity of this book, but a lot of it felt juvenile and as if it was simply added to meet a word count. It was just so poorly written, I’m not entirely sure how I managed to finish it.
And the love interest, oh my goodness. I hate him, which is confusing since he is literally (a Walmart version of) Rhysand, Azriel and Casteel (…and Tamlin). And the MC… she’s actually an idiot. There were so many decisions made that just didn’t make sense and were obviously just tools to progress the plot (I use the word plot lightly, since there was NONE).
The end was SO infuriating. The book just randomly ended at the FIRST sign of conflict. I wasted hours of my life and feel like I only read the first quarter of a (very badly written) book. NOTHING HAPPENED. There was no world building or character development, no plot or conflict; I’m genuinely confused how this book is 300 pages.
I want to say DON'T READ THIS, but I think for my own sanity it would be beneficial to discuss this book with someone (maybe a therapist, but I'm not picky).
Read at your own risk!!!
I normally attempt to make my reviews insightful (and coherent) but I don’t think that is possible for this book so I apologize in advance.
Every single aspect of this book was torn straight from the pages of another, with absolutely no attempt at hiding it. I can’t wholly complain about this though; I did read it due to its likeness to ACOTAR and FBAA. However, this book crossed the line of inspiration, and I found myself constantly appalled that the author did not use in text citation.
The dialogue was so forced and unnatural, seeming as if its only purpose was info dumping. It felt lazy and poorly written. The narrative was overly specific yet simultaneously hollow, including details that just felt unnecessary (like describing how she threw something in the bin or the size and sturdiness of a table???). Maybe I’m just dumb and completely missed the intellectual integrity of this book, but a lot of it felt juvenile and as if it was simply added to meet a word count. It was just so poorly written, I’m not entirely sure how I managed to finish it.
And the love interest, oh my goodness. I hate him, which is confusing since he is literally (a Walmart version of) Rhysand, Azriel and Casteel (…and Tamlin). And the MC… she’s actually an idiot. There were so many decisions made that just didn’t make sense and were obviously just tools to progress the plot (I use the word plot lightly, since there was NONE).
The end was SO infuriating. The book just randomly ended at the FIRST sign of conflict. I wasted hours of my life and feel like I only read the first quarter of a (very badly written) book. NOTHING HAPPENED. There was no world building or character development, no plot or conflict; I’m genuinely confused how this book is 300 pages.
I want to say DON'T READ THIS, but I think for my own sanity it would be beneficial to discuss this book with someone (maybe a therapist, but I'm not picky).
Read at your own risk!!!
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
It’s just straight up plagiarism and wished it was ACOTAR
Won’t lie to you, I expected a bit better of this when I saw people say the main guy was essentially a mix of Rhys, Cas and Az.
Oh, how wrong I was for having hope.
The MC, Alys, literally just accepted everything. She didn’t stop to question anything, she always did as she was told and tried to add snarky remarks which just did not hit home. Alys was just such a bland character, no personality, nothing remotely interesting about her at all.
Asher goes from being an asshole who doesn’t care whether he’s hurting her to immediately being affectionate? There was no building whatsoever in my opinion, it felt like it went from one extreme to the other. Again, there was no attachment to this character. There was nothing that made me like nor dislike him, just an average meh.
The writing itself gave me more Wattpad vibes (not in a good way) and it was a struggle to get through. Despite its flaws, I found that I couldn’t just DNF it, I had to see it through to the end.
Oh, how wrong I was for having hope.
The MC, Alys, literally just accepted everything. She didn’t stop to question anything, she always did as she was told and tried to add snarky remarks which just did not hit home. Alys was just such a bland character, no personality, nothing remotely interesting about her at all.
Asher goes from being an asshole who doesn’t care whether he’s hurting her to immediately being affectionate? There was no building whatsoever in my opinion, it felt like it went from one extreme to the other. Again, there was no attachment to this character. There was nothing that made me like nor dislike him, just an average meh.
The writing itself gave me more Wattpad vibes (not in a good way) and it was a struggle to get through. Despite its flaws, I found that I couldn’t just DNF it, I had to see it through to the end.
This was a fun quick read, at right around 300 pages. I enjoyed the characters and plot. It’s similar to other books in this genre, but I don’t view that as a negative. I think it is unique in its own right and am interested in seeing where the story goes with book two in this series.
I almost DNF'd this a couple times; the writing was abrupt, choppy, and inconsistent. Everything happened incredibly fast. Getting kidnapped and sent into the faerie realm? Of course, why wouldn't that happen? Not given any explanation, just told that you have to train and that you're wanted dead by a High Lord of a faerie court? For sure, why question it?
And the similarities to ACOTAR and FBAA were glaringly obvious. I'm always looking for things that are similar, just not blatantly copied...
I struggle giving even semi-harsh reviews but I wasn't a huge fan of this one.
And the similarities to ACOTAR and FBAA were glaringly obvious. I'm always looking for things that are similar, just not blatantly copied...
I struggle giving even semi-harsh reviews but I wasn't a huge fan of this one.
This book gave me "little sister trying too hard to be big sister" vibes. The author (Isaly) clearly tried to capitalize on the craze of ACOTAR because the similarities are too many. The characters fall flat regardless, but you also can't help but compare them to ACOTAR characters...and there's zero competition if you do that.
What differences there are between F&S and ACOTAR, are good. The author has some really good ideas of her own, she just needs some practice at flushing out her plot and character development. I really liked that the MC struggled with anxiety and the descriptions of it were good and relatable. On the other hand, the love interest had very little personality. The book started off with a nice slow burn & enemies to lovers trope, but towards the end the love interest completely flipped script and seemed like a different character all together. The plot also had too many direction changes. I'm holding off on criticizing that too much since there's clearly going to be more books in this series. But if I were to look at this book as a standalone, the plot is very disorganized. I will read the second book when it comes out in February (if I remember) and see if I continue this series or not.
And since we're still comparing this author to SJM, I will say that Isaly doesn't do a lot of the repeating of phrases and adjectives that SJM does. I really appreciate that, so point 1 for Isaly.
What differences there are between F&S and ACOTAR, are good. The author has some really good ideas of her own, she just needs some practice at flushing out her plot and character development. I really liked that the MC struggled with anxiety and the descriptions of it were good and relatable. On the other hand, the love interest had very little personality. The book started off with a nice slow burn & enemies to lovers trope, but towards the end the love interest completely flipped script and seemed like a different character all together. The plot also had too many direction changes. I'm holding off on criticizing that too much since there's clearly going to be more books in this series. But if I were to look at this book as a standalone, the plot is very disorganized. I will read the second book when it comes out in February (if I remember) and see if I continue this series or not.
And since we're still comparing this author to SJM, I will say that Isaly doesn't do a lot of the repeating of phrases and adjectives that SJM does. I really appreciate that, so point 1 for Isaly.
fast-paced
This wasn’t bad but it heavily gave ACOTAR vibes. It picks up a bit more into the 2nd half of the book but it almost ended up on my DNF list because the beginning really drags.
1. It lacks world building
2. It was a VERY VERY fast enemy-lovers burn. Almost like the enemy part was a blip on the radar.
3. By the end of the book, I’m still confused on some of the main plot points
Will I still read the next one that comes out? Yes because I need to know what happens in this chaotic world.
1. It lacks world building
2. It was a VERY VERY fast enemy-lovers burn. Almost like the enemy part was a blip on the radar.
3. By the end of the book, I’m still confused on some of the main plot points
Will I still read the next one that comes out? Yes because I need to know what happens in this chaotic world.