Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
fast-paced
This was a quick read that I genuinely could not tell at times if this was written very self-aware and meant to be funny or if the author was trying to be serious and came off, totally unserious and got super tropey. Very predictable.
Enemies to Lovers, Family Feud, I loved the story and the building it's short and gives you enough to feel satisfied without leaving a bunch of unanswered questions or plots that could be finished. This book is not a world-building book and is character-centered. If you are a reader who seeks an intricate described world with a clear outline and explained magic or creature systems, this is not the book for you. This character-driven book has a unique world and magic system in the background.
Barrett, at a young age, watched his mother and father die. He was thrust into becoming king with no time to grieve or process his loss. The stress of the ruling with the loss led him down a dark path of hatred for those he blamed for his parent's death. He spent his life making those he ruled fearful of himself to keep everyone at a distance with two goals in mind protect his kingdom and destroy the Fawnies.
Hazel grew up isolated in a cabin that her mother left her at. One day Hazel's mother did not return, and Hazel was forced to take care of herself. Hazel is a Fawnie who seemingly has little understanding or interaction with the rest of the world, that is until she saves Barrett. Hazel and Barrett start off as enemies even after Hazel saves Barrett's life. Slowly they begin to bicker less as they both stop fighting the pull that brings them together, but can their new bond survive Hazel being the first Fawnie in years to be brought into the palace?
Barrett, at a young age, watched his mother and father die. He was thrust into becoming king with no time to grieve or process his loss. The stress of the ruling with the loss led him down a dark path of hatred for those he blamed for his parent's death. He spent his life making those he ruled fearful of himself to keep everyone at a distance with two goals in mind protect his kingdom and destroy the Fawnies.
Hazel grew up isolated in a cabin that her mother left her at. One day Hazel's mother did not return, and Hazel was forced to take care of herself. Hazel is a Fawnie who seemingly has little understanding or interaction with the rest of the world, that is until she saves Barrett. Hazel and Barrett start off as enemies even after Hazel saves Barrett's life. Slowly they begin to bicker less as they both stop fighting the pull that brings them together, but can their new bond survive Hazel being the first Fawnie in years to be brought into the palace?
ARC review
This is one of my favorite books of 2023! I loved that the POV was the man. I loved that the love interest, Hazel, was plus size. We plus size girlies need more rep in romance! There was also a NB character, which I did not expect one bit.
I loved the spice, I loved the characters, loved the plot, and that ending had me on the edge of my seat. This is the type of book you will wish was longer. Not because it felt too short, but because you will be sad to see the characters go.
This is one of my favorite books of 2023! I loved that the POV was the man. I loved that the love interest, Hazel, was plus size. We plus size girlies need more rep in romance! There was also a NB character, which I did not expect one bit.
I loved the spice, I loved the characters, loved the plot, and that ending had me on the edge of my seat. This is the type of book you will wish was longer. Not because it felt too short, but because you will be sad to see the characters go.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
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
An okay book. I would just label this book as a spicy fantasy romance and not just a fantasy romance as there a lot of spicy scenes within this story. I will warn future readers that the very first line may very well take you out; it is such a bold way to begin a book and caused me to laugh my ass off while red. I had to place the book down for a moment while I pondered over that first line. It then proceeds to take you on a rollarcoaster of emotions through the first chapter. The author does move relatively quickly with the romance and has made her protagonist overpowered to the point that there's realistically no reason for there to be any conflict in the tale. Which did irk me, especially when she switches up when his abilities and when they don't without a logical reason. However, I will say she writes grief and PTSD quite well, they never fully leave the characters but they do fade as they heal from their pain. She does have a typo in chapter twenty that says "Where are you doing?" instead of "Where are you going?"
The author chose a poor font for all the chapter titles. Even with me understanding cursive, it was highly difficult to read. I did, however, enjoy having a pronuoncation guide!
There was sex and death in the first two pages. It left me unsure of how to feel. And I'm unsure she should've used all of the rebel force so early into the book. She mixes up descriptions to make the scene confusing to read. Like she says it is early spring, but mentions the air being that of winter. It is confusing and will make me unable to discern whether it is winter or spring. I would suggest finding a different way to describe the cold, such as "crisp spring air" or "crisp spring wind," to make people understand that it is spring and not winter.
I cannot tell if she meant "rotten shifter goose egg" instead of "rotten goose shifter egg"
I do not agree with the placement of random descriptions. I'd personally move the description of the general to where she mentions his accent. Her descriptions are very choppy and sound like she just wanted to get it over with.
It seems to interupt the story to randomly tell us how the people look.
The protagonist zooms past where he's supposed to find the enemy and this leaves a plot hole that doesn't make sense. It didn't make any sense to lead him in the completely wrong direction.
I also feel like this is supposed to be a Hades and Persephone retelling.
The author constantly contradicts her own facts in the story which was frustrating.
She briefly has an out of the blue lgbtq rep that makes no sense and the main characters seem to NEVER interact outside of each other so the development seems a little off.
The author does struggle with portraying emotions building within characters even as their writing improves throughout the book. Each chapter is better than the last. Overall a good book about a vampire boy and a fae girl. I enjoyed reading this.
The author chose a poor font for all the chapter titles. Even with me understanding cursive, it was highly difficult to read. I did, however, enjoy having a pronuoncation guide!
There was sex and death in the first two pages. It left me unsure of how to feel. And I'm unsure she should've used all of the rebel force so early into the book. She mixes up descriptions to make the scene confusing to read. Like she says it is early spring, but mentions the air being that of winter. It is confusing and will make me unable to discern whether it is winter or spring. I would suggest finding a different way to describe the cold, such as "crisp spring air" or "crisp spring wind," to make people understand that it is spring and not winter.
I cannot tell if she meant "rotten shifter goose egg" instead of "rotten goose shifter egg"
I do not agree with the placement of random descriptions. I'd personally move the description of the general to where she mentions his accent. Her descriptions are very choppy and sound like she just wanted to get it over with.
It seems to interupt the story to randomly tell us how the people look.
The protagonist zooms past where he's supposed to find the enemy and this leaves a plot hole that doesn't make sense. It didn't make any sense to lead him in the completely wrong direction.
I also feel like this is supposed to be a Hades and Persephone retelling.
The author constantly contradicts her own facts in the story which was frustrating.
She briefly has an out of the blue lgbtq rep that makes no sense and the main characters seem to NEVER interact outside of each other so the development seems a little off.
The author does struggle with portraying emotions building within characters even as their writing improves throughout the book. Each chapter is better than the last. Overall a good book about a vampire boy and a fae girl. I enjoyed reading this.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
1.5☆
I went into this book with low expectations and sadly I have to admit that my initial feelings were right in this case. I really appreciate that we all got the chance to get this book for free during one of the stuff your kindle days - I love reading books by less known authors and I know it's a great way for them also to reach new readers - but I will most likely not pick up another book by this author.
The cover already threw me off - hence the low expectations - but I decided to still give this book a chance. As much as I wanted to, I really didn't enjoy this read. The world building was lacking for me as were the characters. The romance progressed way too quickly - yes I know this is a novella but still - and didn't feel real whatsoever. I really couldn't feel a connection between these two characters. The writing was a bit odd. It didn't really "flow" that well for me. Maybe I just didn't vibe with author's writing style and that's totally ok. Someone else might find it great. It just wasn't for me personally.
I would have liked more details about the different fae species. We get a rough outline about them but I would have loved exploring this whole world a bit more. Hence why I said the world building was lacking in my eyes. Some things also didn't really make sense. I feel like there were quite a few plot holes or just things that didn't really make sense or fit into this whole fantasy setting. Again, maybe just personal preferences. Another thing that bothered me was how predictable everything was. It obvious right from the start who the "enemy" is and what's going to happen.
I went into this book with low expectations and sadly I have to admit that my initial feelings were right in this case. I really appreciate that we all got the chance to get this book for free during one of the stuff your kindle days - I love reading books by less known authors and I know it's a great way for them also to reach new readers - but I will most likely not pick up another book by this author.
The cover already threw me off - hence the low expectations - but I decided to still give this book a chance. As much as I wanted to, I really didn't enjoy this read. The world building was lacking for me as were the characters. The romance progressed way too quickly - yes I know this is a novella but still - and didn't feel real whatsoever. I really couldn't feel a connection between these two characters. The writing was a bit odd. It didn't really "flow" that well for me. Maybe I just didn't vibe with author's writing style and that's totally ok. Someone else might find it great. It just wasn't for me personally.
I would have liked more details about the different fae species. We get a rough outline about them but I would have loved exploring this whole world a bit more. Hence why I said the world building was lacking in my eyes. Some things also didn't really make sense. I feel like there were quite a few plot holes or just things that didn't really make sense or fit into this whole fantasy setting. Again, maybe just personal preferences. Another thing that bothered me was how predictable everything was. It obvious right from the start who the "enemy" is and what's going to happen.
Not great, not terrible
Just gonna get this out of the way first: it was weird that the female fawn/doe shifter fae had antlers. And she only has them in her fae form, and they’re apparently an erogenous zone? Idc that it’s fantasy, I just couldn’t get past it. Female. Antlers.
This book is long for a novella, and covers so much political ground with the fae kingdoms and the history of the MCs parents that it felt like an exposition infodump in the beginning.
The book feels disjointed, like it was rewritten from an earlier version which had a different ending. The MMC is written as kind of a psycho in the beginning, and then had to redeem himself by the end of the book, but it was hard to come back from. FMC comes off as totally innocent and ignorant of the entire world around her, with zero hints of any misdirection, which makes no sense when we get her backstory. She is apparently the world’s best liar, but MMC forgives her anyway because she later saves him from a problem that she also created.
The MMC’s reason for sticking around after FMC rescues him was kind of nonexistent, and the FMC’s reason for helping him is equally nonsensical. Then fated mates get thrown in toward the end and MMC says “sure yeah i knew that all along, just wasn’t admitting it to myself” when there was nothing like that up til that point, like nooooo you have to drop hints in the narrative or it does not work!
The spice was lackluster, with a hint of the ever-present praise kink and random breathplay, but nothing that really surprised me or intrigued me. It felt like it was thrown in there to fulfill a spice quota, idk.
Just gonna get this out of the way first: it was weird that the female fawn/doe shifter fae had antlers. And she only has them in her fae form, and they’re apparently an erogenous zone? Idc that it’s fantasy, I just couldn’t get past it. Female. Antlers.
This book is long for a novella, and covers so much political ground with the fae kingdoms and the history of the MCs parents that it felt like an exposition infodump in the beginning.
The book feels disjointed, like it was rewritten from an earlier version which had a different ending. The MMC is written as kind of a psycho in the beginning, and then had to redeem himself by the end of the book, but it was hard to come back from. FMC comes off as totally innocent and ignorant of the entire world around her, with zero hints of any misdirection, which makes no sense when we get her backstory. She is apparently the world’s best liar, but MMC forgives her anyway because she later saves him from a problem that she also created.
The MMC’s reason for sticking around after FMC rescues him was kind of nonexistent, and the FMC’s reason for helping him is equally nonsensical. Then fated mates get thrown in toward the end and MMC says “sure yeah i knew that all along, just wasn’t admitting it to myself” when there was nothing like that up til that point, like nooooo you have to drop hints in the narrative or it does not work!
The spice was lackluster, with a hint of the ever-present praise kink and random breathplay, but nothing that really surprised me or intrigued me. It felt like it was thrown in there to fulfill a spice quota, idk.
medium-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
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I guessed the plot twist but still adored it