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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed the premise of the book but I think just something about the writing style did not connect with me! I enjoyed segments of the story namely Pogli and I didn’t see the twist at the end but I just unfortunately didn’t connect with the story enough to want to pick up book 2!
4.75 stars rounded up
I feel like I'm in the minority here, but I really loved it! Pogli alone earned it at least 3 stars. It was really well written, both stylistically and in terms of plot. I feel like you can enjoy it so much more when you know the traditional Greek myths and get to find all the little easter eggs paying homage to the originals.
The big twist was really creative and I never saw it coming. However, it is handled a little roughly, with a good 20-30 pages that just feel off-kilter. Maybe this was the author's intent? But for me that (and how one of the characters changes in personality after it) was what kept it from being a 5-star read.
Bottom line: it's definitely not for everyone, but I loved that it showed how love isn't just for the heroes who have it all together, but also for the monsters who are still figuring things out.
Big thank you to the publisher and Goodreads Giveaways for the ARE. Very sorry that my review is coming 2 months after the official release.
I feel like I'm in the minority here, but I really loved it! Pogli alone earned it at least 3 stars. It was really well written, both stylistically and in terms of plot. I feel like you can enjoy it so much more when you know the traditional Greek myths and get to find all the little easter eggs paying homage to the originals.
The big twist was really creative and I never saw it coming. However, it is handled a little roughly, with a good 20-30 pages that just feel off-kilter. Maybe this was the author's intent? But for me that (and how one of the characters changes in personality after it) was what kept it from being a 5-star read.
Bottom line: it's definitely not for everyone, but I loved that it showed how love isn't just for the heroes who have it all together, but also for the monsters who are still figuring things out.
Big thank you to the publisher and Goodreads Giveaways for the ARE. Very sorry that my review is coming 2 months after the official release.
Did not enjoy the first couple of chapters. I don’t think this book started in the right place
I received this book from the new Owlcrate romantasy sub and got to say it's bloody gorgeous. Based on the endpaper artwork and the fact it's a minotaur retelling I of course was moving it right up my TBR, in truth it skipped the queue entirely. When this begins it throws you straight into the confusion as Sadare wakes in the labyrinth without any of her memories but with a very angry Daemon who hates her for reasons currently unknown to her. Daesra makes no secret of his intense dislike of Sadare but informs her that the reason they are in this predicament is all of her doing and they need to reach the centre of this tangled nightmare of a maze together to fight the monster at its centre if they want any chance of escaping and surviving.
Sadare is a witch who assesses her power through pain and sacrifice and her history with Daesra is a complicated one which we gradually become aware of as they both traverse the labyrinth. I didn't find this that spicy despite the BDSM style elements and the majority of the encounters between these two were through flashback memories rather than in real time which didn't assist me in connecting and investing in them both as a couple.
I adored the premise but did find the execution and narration style quite hard to get along with. I didn't think it always was that coherent and it also felt somewhat repetitive in as such that the non-stop action felt like a rinse repeat and it began to get tedious. I persevered and at about thirty per cent it fortunately did get better for me.
I did find this imaginative and the core story was solid and felt fresh but I also found it hard to connect to either Sadare or Daesra maybe it was the lack of a deeper back story but I very much felt like an observer and wasn't invested in the romance portion of this. This was a problem because at its core it's a fantasy romance but I found myself very much detached.
There's a huge twist that caught me unaware but I'm not sure how I feel about it because I mostly found it confusing and somewhat ambiguous. It was clever I will grant you that but it then made it all overly complicated and I couldn't wrap my brain around the logistics, I do get the meaning and sentiment behind it though.
Throughout this, I thought this was going to be a two-star read for me but the final portion and the twist despite my ambivalent emotions dragged this up to a three-star. I probably won't read any more books in this series going forward as I don't think the narration style is a good fit for me but I still appreciated it for its uniqueness and how different it was.
Sadare is a witch who assesses her power through pain and sacrifice and her history with Daesra is a complicated one which we gradually become aware of as they both traverse the labyrinth. I didn't find this that spicy despite the BDSM style elements and the majority of the encounters between these two were through flashback memories rather than in real time which didn't assist me in connecting and investing in them both as a couple.
I adored the premise but did find the execution and narration style quite hard to get along with. I didn't think it always was that coherent and it also felt somewhat repetitive in as such that the non-stop action felt like a rinse repeat and it began to get tedious. I persevered and at about thirty per cent it fortunately did get better for me.
I did find this imaginative and the core story was solid and felt fresh but I also found it hard to connect to either Sadare or Daesra maybe it was the lack of a deeper back story but I very much felt like an observer and wasn't invested in the romance portion of this. This was a problem because at its core it's a fantasy romance but I found myself very much detached.
There's a huge twist that caught me unaware but I'm not sure how I feel about it because I mostly found it confusing and somewhat ambiguous. It was clever I will grant you that but it then made it all overly complicated and I couldn't wrap my brain around the logistics, I do get the meaning and sentiment behind it though.
Throughout this, I thought this was going to be a two-star read for me but the final portion and the twist despite my ambivalent emotions dragged this up to a three-star. I probably won't read any more books in this series going forward as I don't think the narration style is a good fit for me but I still appreciated it for its uniqueness and how different it was.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Exquisite Ruin and I did not vibe! I first tried to read it myself but kept falling asleep so I turned to audiobook for help but once more my mind would drift or I would fall asleep listening. Alas I had to admit to myself that this was not it. First and foremost, I am not often a fan of amnesia trope. And this was the very definition of amnesia trope with nonlinear plot points. We kept jumping to the past and back to the present which lead me to feel even more confused that the FMC. I have no idea what was truly going on, I felt like there was urgency and a sense of go go go but it all came off as mundane and flat. The characters were unengaging and there was absolutely no chemistry between them. Had to add this to the DNF pile.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m so confused how to rate this when the front half was slow and discordant but the back half actually pulled together a lot of strings quite nicely?
Potential Spoiler:
This is what happens when Ariadne’s story is Beauty and the Beast/A Christmas Carol with some dark monster romance flavor. 😂
Potential Spoiler:
This is what happens when Ariadne’s story is Beauty and the Beast/A Christmas Carol with some dark monster romance flavor. 😂
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood
Minor: Body horror, Rape