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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
So annoying
It took me a minute to remember that the main characters name is Alice just now...that's how boring she is. Charles/Julian is a jerk. The most interesting thing about the story is the house and sadly it doesn't have any lines in the book.
It took me a minute to remember that the main characters name is Alice just now...that's how boring she is. Charles/Julian is a jerk. The most interesting thing about the story is the house and sadly it doesn't have any lines in the book.
1.5 stars
This book was like reading from the perspective of that one dumb person in a horror movie who makes all the stupid and obvious mistakes.
Illusions of Grandeur... honestly, I'm not a fan.
I was really looking forward to this book as Kathryn Ann Kingsley writes some ~truly~ villainous characters who double as (maybe?) love interests. So I'm all over that. But to be honest the characterization in this one was pretty painful. It was a quick read though so there's that to go on.
This book features Alice, an unemployed job-seeker who finds a job at Julian Strande's 100+ year old mansion working under Julian's nephew, Charles. Way back when, Julian was an infamous magician and now his house has been turned into a sort of tourist destination, and Charles puts on magic shows like his uncle once did. The only thing is creepy shenanigans are said to have happened in the house and some believe that Julian isn't really dead.
So I liked the idea of this book but, as is often the case, the execution fell flat. Alice is a super boring, dumb, and weirdly eccentric main character (and not in the good way.) She IS that dumb bitch from a horror movie. There are SO MANY red flags thrown her way and she just goes against her better judgement for... what? sex? mystery? I don't even know. Her job at the mansion is as a sort of nighttime groundskeeper (lol) and then she tinkers with things in the house and has a passion for automatons? She's strangely antisocial and her whirlwind romance with Charles wasn't only not believable, but just straight up WEIRD (again– NOT in the good way.) I honestly have never read a book with a romance that I would describe as weird but here we are. Alice is constantly swearing at herself like she knows that the things she's about to do are a bad idea but she can't help herself, which honestly makes it all worse.
I get the vibe that the author is trying to make Alice intrigued by the shenanigans at the house. But wow the amount of stuff that Alice puts up with not only crosses every line but crosses into another dimension of wack. Look, I like villain romances and possessive people, but even I was done with all the antics that Charles and Julian put her through.
Anyway, basically upon meeting her, her boss Charles really starts laying it on thick in very cringey and over the top ways. I wasn't a fan of Charles' character either. His personality was such a mixed bag of almost infantile humor, a sex obsession, a violent streak, and a giddy happiness that gave me whiplash. He had no boundaries and was just so WEIRD (see a pattern?) And I guess he's supposed to be a bit out there but it made me wonder why the heck Alice was into him. Charles' flirtations crossed the line from endearing to creepy, blatant and cringey in about 5 seconds flat. So by the end of the book I was really not feeling it whatsoever.
Julian, as our more villainous character, was an okay-ish villain. He was more just a creepy possessive stalker than anything, but because Charles took up so much screen time, we really didn't get much from Julian. I wasn't a huge fan of the decision to have two love interests (even if it is a bit explained later on in the book.)
I really wish this duology was just one book. I felt like there was so much setup in this book just for the "main event" of the second book. There really was no need to separate the two books.
Overall, I liked the idea of a creepy ghost haunting a house and the mystery of it all, but unfortunately the characters were so out of left field that I was left pretty disappointed.
Just a heads up there is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end and this is a 2-book series.
CW:
This book was like reading from the perspective of that one dumb person in a horror movie who makes all the stupid and obvious mistakes.
Illusions of Grandeur... honestly, I'm not a fan.
I was really looking forward to this book as Kathryn Ann Kingsley writes some ~truly~ villainous characters who double as (maybe?) love interests. So I'm all over that. But to be honest the characterization in this one was pretty painful. It was a quick read though so there's that to go on.
This book features Alice, an unemployed job-seeker who finds a job at Julian Strande's 100+ year old mansion working under Julian's nephew, Charles. Way back when, Julian was an infamous magician and now his house has been turned into a sort of tourist destination, and Charles puts on magic shows like his uncle once did. The only thing is creepy shenanigans are said to have happened in the house and some believe that Julian isn't really dead.
So I liked the idea of this book but, as is often the case, the execution fell flat. Alice is a super boring, dumb, and weirdly eccentric main character (and not in the good way.) She IS that dumb bitch from a horror movie. There are SO MANY red flags thrown her way and she just goes against her better judgement for... what? sex? mystery? I don't even know. Her job at the mansion is as a sort of nighttime groundskeeper (lol) and then she tinkers with things in the house and has a passion for automatons? She's strangely antisocial and her whirlwind romance with Charles wasn't only not believable, but just straight up WEIRD (again– NOT in the good way.) I honestly have never read a book with a romance that I would describe as weird but here we are. Alice is constantly swearing at herself like she knows that the things she's about to do are a bad idea but she can't help herself, which honestly makes it all worse.
I get the vibe that the author is trying to make Alice intrigued by the shenanigans at the house. But wow the amount of stuff that Alice puts up with not only crosses every line but crosses into another dimension of wack. Look, I like villain romances and possessive people, but even I was done with all the antics that Charles and Julian put her through.
Anyway, basically upon meeting her, her boss Charles really starts laying it on thick in very cringey and over the top ways. I wasn't a fan of Charles' character either. His personality was such a mixed bag of almost infantile humor, a sex obsession, a violent streak, and a giddy happiness that gave me whiplash. He had no boundaries and was just so WEIRD (see a pattern?) And I guess he's supposed to be a bit out there but it made me wonder why the heck Alice was into him. Charles' flirtations crossed the line from endearing to creepy, blatant and cringey in about 5 seconds flat. So by the end of the book I was really not feeling it whatsoever.
Julian, as our more villainous character, was an okay-ish villain. He was more just a creepy possessive stalker than anything, but because Charles took up so much screen time, we really didn't get much from Julian. I wasn't a huge fan of the decision to have two love interests (even if it is a bit explained later on in the book.)
I really wish this duology was just one book. I felt like there was so much setup in this book just for the "main event" of the second book. There really was no need to separate the two books.
Spoiler
Also wow that ending really solidified my dislike for Alice's dumbass character. How could she not have guessed Julian/Charles did what he did?Overall, I liked the idea of a creepy ghost haunting a house and the mystery of it all, but unfortunately the characters were so out of left field that I was left pretty disappointed.
Just a heads up there is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end and this is a 2-book series.
CW:
Spoiler
violence, sexual harassment
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
adventurous
dark
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
i love you kathryn ann kingsley. this fuckin slapped
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Suicide
dark
mysterious
If you watched Phantom of the Opera and think Christine should have ended up with Phantom this one's for you. Similarly if you watched Batman and Wolverine in The Prestige and was like hell yeah give me some of that problematic magician boyfriend. Equal parts spooky and sexy, steamy and mysterious.
I really love Kathryn Ann Kingsley's books. They are SUPER great if you're all in on ACTUALLY morally grey villain romances. This book ended up being more about the spice than I anticipated based on other books of hers I read and like..that's not a bad thing but I do wish it was more spooky/story focused PERSONALLY. I'm still reading the second one, I'm still into it I'm just not that in a spicy book mood these days.
TLDR; Kathryn Ann Kingsley is great if you want villain romances and this is no exception.
TLDR; Kathryn Ann Kingsley is great if you want villain romances and this is no exception.
TW: non-con, dub-con, suicide, depression
A paranormal romance with horror aspects sprinkled throughout.
The concept of this to me was utterly fascinating. A woman becoming a caretaker to an estate that is said to be haunted by a famous magician.
This had spooks, this had mystery, this had some steam.
There are some unanswered questions going into the second book, however having figured out how things would play out early on didn’t deter me from wanting to continue it.
Alice as a character was a little too demure for my liking. I wish she was a little more confident in herself instead of the whole “I can’t believe he would pick me” vibes she gave off. She was also incredibly boring :/
A paranormal romance with horror aspects sprinkled throughout.
The concept of this to me was utterly fascinating. A woman becoming a caretaker to an estate that is said to be haunted by a famous magician.
This had spooks, this had mystery, this had some steam.
There are some unanswered questions going into the second book, however having figured out how things would play out early on didn’t deter me from wanting to continue it.
Alice as a character was a little too demure for my liking. I wish she was a little more confident in herself instead of the whole “I can’t believe he would pick me” vibes she gave off. She was also incredibly boring :/
I don't know how to feel about this book, to be pretty honest.
I thought I wanted to read something a bit dark, but either I went too dark right away or maybe I'm just not a dark romance reader. I thought the vibe of the book didn't fit what I wanted to read. I really disliked the fact that the heroine got close to the great nephew of the ghost and also getting close to the ghost.
Yeah, I'm just left really confused, but the writing was good and the story was good as well, just not to my taste so I can't give it less than 3 stars
I thought I wanted to read something a bit dark, but either I went too dark right away or maybe I'm just not a dark romance reader. I thought the vibe of the book didn't fit what I wanted to read. I really disliked the fact that the heroine got close to the great nephew of the ghost and also getting close to the ghost.
Yeah, I'm just left really confused, but the writing was good and the story was good as well, just not to my taste so I can't give it less than 3 stars