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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
The story was a little predictable and a little too long - not that I have a problem with long stories but I felt it took too long to get to the point.
That being said, I liked the story itself, the magic and world, and the characters, although the characters took a while to become more realistic rather than broad strokes of fantasy clichees.
That being said, I liked the story itself, the magic and world, and the characters, although the characters took a while to become more realistic rather than broad strokes of fantasy clichees.
slow-paced
Blehhhhhhhhh. Didn’t really capture my interest. By the end, I was just looking forward to finishing.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this for romantyathon.
I loved it. I never knew what was going to happen as I’ve not read lots with fae and the Gaelic world. Satisfying ending that leads nicely into the sequel.
I loved it. I never knew what was going to happen as I’ve not read lots with fae and the Gaelic world. Satisfying ending that leads nicely into the sequel.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
not sure if this book is actually good or if it just found me at the perfect time
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-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
adventurous
mysterious
slow-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
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Unfortunately, this book is going to be added to the pile of pretty forgettable reads. I’m honestly not sure if I’m going to remember much about it in a couple weeks.
At first, I was surprisingly intrigued by the story.
Around the halfway point, it just started blending together with every other generic fae shadow-daddy romantasy I’ve read.
Aside from the shadow-daddy love interest, there’s a childhood friend love interest. He’s not much more interesting, but you can definitely bet that both of them have the biggest dick you’ve ever seen. Naturally.
In general, none of the characters felt super interesting to me.
The main character felt like every other YA female mc out there, even though this is not supposed to be YA. Other than the sex scenes, there’s nothing in this book that made it feel like an adult fantasy novel, instead of YA, though. The way the characters behaved, the writing, the story, etc. felt like it was intended for a younger audience. Don’t get me wrong, I see no issue with YA books, but it wasn’t what I expected.
Furthermore, many of the intriguing plot points amounted to nothing. The concept of these girls being trapped in the faerie realm, being painfully transformed into swans every day, could’ve been executed in a really interesting manner. Instead, we don’t even get to know any of the swan maidens, aside from the two relevant to the plot, and their swan transformations don’t even seem to be much of a detriment. It’s barely an important part to the story. They could’ve just been trapped in the faerie realm without turning into swans during the day and it wouldn’t have changed ANYTHING about the plot.
Additionally, I never felt any sense of urgency, because the characters didn’t either. The main character and her childhood friend/lover could only enter the faerie realm once a month, during a full moon, for one night. The book spans the duration of a year. During the rest of the month, while they were waiting for the next full moon, they just hung out in a castle near the gate to the faerie realm. These passages got skipped for the most part, because they’re mostly irrelevant to the plot, but we still had to read about certain gardening sections here and there.
What bothers me most is that the characters should’ve felt some sense of urgency to complete their tasks, because they were literally running out of time, and only had 12 nights to accomplish what they set out to do. That’s not a lot of time. Instead, most of their nights were spent up pretty haphazardly. They were honestly quite lucky that the accomplishment of their goals pretty much just fell right into their laps.
Lastly, I have a bone to pick with the prose. For the most part, I didn’t have any issues with it, but the author loved to use metaphors and comparisons that didn’t make any sense at all, just for the sake of making the writing sound more lyrical. Comparisons are supposed to help the reader understand something more easily, because one thing is compared to another thing that the reader knows, to make it easier for the reader to imagine.
For example, describing something as the color of blood is quite helpful, because everyone knows that blood is pretty damn dark red. It helps the reader to create the image of the dark-red object that the reader is supposed to imagine. What isn’t helpful is comparing one thing to a random other thing that has nothing to do with the original thing.
Example 1: “She laughed, a sound like quicksilver.”
Now, can you please tell me what quicksilver sounds like? I have absolutely no idea what the laugh is supposed to sound like, because I don’t associate any sound with quicksilver. There’s other attributes I associate with quicksilver, e.g. its color, its toxicity, or the fact that it’s one of the only liquid elements at room temperature and standard pressure, but a comparison to quicksilver does not help in describing what her laugh sounds like because I don’t know what quicksilver is supposed to sound like! It’s so damn unnecessary!
Example 2: “He tasted like […] night at the edge of dawn.”
Now, can you please tell me what night is supposed to taste like? Especially night at the edge of dawn! How does the taste of midnight compare to the taste of night at the edge of dawn?! Can somebody please tell me, because I have absolutely no idea!
I know exactly why some authors do this, but I hate hate hate it with a passion! Some authors think it makes their prose sound more lyrical, beautiful, poetic - whatever word you want to use. A metaphor/comparison has to make sense, though! You can’t just throw in whatever word that came to mind first and that you thought would sound cool! If there’s no correlation between the attributes of the object/person which you’re trying to describe and the metaphor/comparison you’re trying to describe it with, it doesn’t make the prose sound better, it just upsets me soo much!
I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone that this is a personal pet peeve of mine. I’m sure you can tell by the dissertation-length part of the review I dedicated to this issue, but I see this so often, that I’m starting to feel like the only person who thinks this way, and I can’t take it anymore.
Despite my lengthy ranting, I didn’t actually hate this book. There were definitely a few entertaining parts as well, which is why I’m still giving it a solid middle-of-the-road rating. Sadly, nothing positive managed to stand out quite as much as the negative did.
At first, I was surprisingly intrigued by the story.
Around the halfway point, it just started blending together with every other generic fae shadow-daddy romantasy I’ve read.
Aside from the shadow-daddy love interest, there’s a childhood friend love interest. He’s not much more interesting, but you can definitely bet that both of them have the biggest dick you’ve ever seen. Naturally.
In general, none of the characters felt super interesting to me.
The main character felt like every other YA female mc out there, even though this is not supposed to be YA. Other than the sex scenes, there’s nothing in this book that made it feel like an adult fantasy novel, instead of YA, though. The way the characters behaved, the writing, the story, etc. felt like it was intended for a younger audience. Don’t get me wrong, I see no issue with YA books, but it wasn’t what I expected.
Furthermore, many of the intriguing plot points amounted to nothing. The concept of these girls being trapped in the faerie realm, being painfully transformed into swans every day, could’ve been executed in a really interesting manner. Instead, we don’t even get to know any of the swan maidens, aside from the two relevant to the plot, and their swan transformations don’t even seem to be much of a detriment. It’s barely an important part to the story. They could’ve just been trapped in the faerie realm without turning into swans during the day and it wouldn’t have changed ANYTHING about the plot.
Additionally, I never felt any sense of urgency, because the characters didn’t either. The main character and her childhood friend/lover could only enter the faerie realm once a month, during a full moon, for one night. The book spans the duration of a year. During the rest of the month, while they were waiting for the next full moon, they just hung out in a castle near the gate to the faerie realm. These passages got skipped for the most part, because they’re mostly irrelevant to the plot, but we still had to read about certain gardening sections here and there.
What bothers me most is that the characters should’ve felt some sense of urgency to complete their tasks, because they were literally running out of time, and only had 12 nights to accomplish what they set out to do. That’s not a lot of time. Instead, most of their nights were spent up pretty haphazardly. They were honestly quite lucky that the accomplishment of their goals pretty much just fell right into their laps.
Lastly, I have a bone to pick with the prose. For the most part, I didn’t have any issues with it, but the author loved to use metaphors and comparisons that didn’t make any sense at all, just for the sake of making the writing sound more lyrical. Comparisons are supposed to help the reader understand something more easily, because one thing is compared to another thing that the reader knows, to make it easier for the reader to imagine.
For example, describing something as the color of blood is quite helpful, because everyone knows that blood is pretty damn dark red. It helps the reader to create the image of the dark-red object that the reader is supposed to imagine. What isn’t helpful is comparing one thing to a random other thing that has nothing to do with the original thing.
Example 1: “She laughed, a sound like quicksilver.”
Now, can you please tell me what quicksilver sounds like? I have absolutely no idea what the laugh is supposed to sound like, because I don’t associate any sound with quicksilver. There’s other attributes I associate with quicksilver, e.g. its color, its toxicity, or the fact that it’s one of the only liquid elements at room temperature and standard pressure, but a comparison to quicksilver does not help in describing what her laugh sounds like because I don’t know what quicksilver is supposed to sound like! It’s so damn unnecessary!
Example 2: “He tasted like […] night at the edge of dawn.”
Now, can you please tell me what night is supposed to taste like? Especially night at the edge of dawn! How does the taste of midnight compare to the taste of night at the edge of dawn?! Can somebody please tell me, because I have absolutely no idea!
I know exactly why some authors do this, but I hate hate hate it with a passion! Some authors think it makes their prose sound more lyrical, beautiful, poetic - whatever word you want to use. A metaphor/comparison has to make sense, though! You can’t just throw in whatever word that came to mind first and that you thought would sound cool! If there’s no correlation between the attributes of the object/person which you’re trying to describe and the metaphor/comparison you’re trying to describe it with, it doesn’t make the prose sound better, it just upsets me soo much!
I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone that this is a personal pet peeve of mine. I’m sure you can tell by the dissertation-length part of the review I dedicated to this issue, but I see this so often, that I’m starting to feel like the only person who thinks this way, and I can’t take it anymore.
Despite my lengthy ranting, I didn’t actually hate this book. There were definitely a few entertaining parts as well, which is why I’m still giving it a solid middle-of-the-road rating. Sadly, nothing positive managed to stand out quite as much as the negative did.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
I need to stop reading Goodreads Reviews before a book. The reviews I saw here almost stopped me from picking this book up, but I’m so glad I gave it a chance. Know that the pace is slower and it has a more floral prose style, but it’s a truly beautiful ride I enjoyed every moment of.
This book at its core has the message of finding yourself amidst a world trying to influence you at every turn, and that not everything is good and bad - just balanced.
The prose is elegant, the storytelling rich, and the world beautiful.
While I do feel this story could have felt complete and satisfactory in one book, I’ll certainly pick up the second to see where the series will take our main characters.
This book at its core has the message of finding yourself amidst a world trying to influence you at every turn, and that not everything is good and bad - just balanced.
The prose is elegant, the storytelling rich, and the world beautiful.
While I do feel this story could have felt complete and satisfactory in one book, I’ll certainly pick up the second to see where the series will take our main characters.