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2.88 AVERAGE
2.88 AVERAGE
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After the Incident four months ago, Pen has been unable to get inspiration to write, so she agrees to join her friend Laszlo on a writing retreat in Scotland to try and get inspiration. However, when she arrives, her worst enemy Neil is there too after Laszlo said he wouldn’t be. And now Pen has to suffer a week with Neil there and attempt to gain inspiration to write her next book.
Neil has been unable to write since the Incident with Pen in the last four months, being filled with doubt after her words, and now has to spend a week with her in Scotland while trying to gain inspiration for his next book.
And all of this done in a castle that is supposedly haunted. What could go wrong?
This is an okay book. I have mixed feelings. It seemed to start off pretty good, it hooked me, and then kind of just suddenly went downhill from there.
There’s a lot of repetition, especially about the two of them being uninspired and having difficulty writing a new book. The repetition got annoying after a few chapters.
Their animosity towards each other was so strong that when they suddenly seemed to just after each other and want each other, it felt like whiplash and was too sudden for it be believable or even considered as “love”. It’s more like they needed to get together and just get it out of their system, but I guess we’re calling this love 🤷🏼♀️
I didn’t particularly like any of the characters except for Laszlo. He was more of the comedic side of this story and helped break up the repetition in this book. Pen would say hurtful things at unnecessary times and you know it was just put in there to help us remember that her and Neil were enemies, but it felt unnecessary and made her come off as rather mean. Neil was just okay, rather sad and seemed to really allow Pen and others get under his skin too easily and came off as a coward and I don’t know what he saw in Pen. She was rather mean and he could do better.
There were spooky moments in this book, and to be honest, I was confused about why we were in a haunted castle with these authors who hate each other and they’re trying to write. It seemed two completely different stories being turned into one, or attempted to. I think this could have just been a contemporary romance without the spookiness since that seemed to take away from the main story and I don’t know what the link was aside from them working together.
Overall, an okay book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Neil has been unable to write since the Incident with Pen in the last four months, being filled with doubt after her words, and now has to spend a week with her in Scotland while trying to gain inspiration for his next book.
And all of this done in a castle that is supposedly haunted. What could go wrong?
This is an okay book. I have mixed feelings. It seemed to start off pretty good, it hooked me, and then kind of just suddenly went downhill from there.
There’s a lot of repetition, especially about the two of them being uninspired and having difficulty writing a new book. The repetition got annoying after a few chapters.
Their animosity towards each other was so strong that when they suddenly seemed to just after each other and want each other, it felt like whiplash and was too sudden for it be believable or even considered as “love”. It’s more like they needed to get together and just get it out of their system, but I guess we’re calling this love 🤷🏼♀️
I didn’t particularly like any of the characters except for Laszlo. He was more of the comedic side of this story and helped break up the repetition in this book. Pen would say hurtful things at unnecessary times and you know it was just put in there to help us remember that her and Neil were enemies, but it felt unnecessary and made her come off as rather mean. Neil was just okay, rather sad and seemed to really allow Pen and others get under his skin too easily and came off as a coward and I don’t know what he saw in Pen. She was rather mean and he could do better.
There were spooky moments in this book, and to be honest, I was confused about why we were in a haunted castle with these authors who hate each other and they’re trying to write. It seemed two completely different stories being turned into one, or attempted to. I think this could have just been a contemporary romance without the spookiness since that seemed to take away from the main story and I don’t know what the link was aside from them working together.
Overall, an okay book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
slow-paced
Played myself and read the negative reviews— they all said about the same thing, which turned me off from carrying on. I know better, but, I have a feeling I might’ve come to the same conclusion on my own.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
SO disappointing. I was excited to read a cute spooky romance with a diverse cast of characters and got none of that.
Neil and Penelope had all the chemistry of a block of wood and their enemies to lovers journey was over-the-top and underwhelming at the same time. The spice was also horribly bland, which makes sense because these two had zero chemistry. The two side characters were so forgettable and served no purpose. I was intrigued at the beginning when Neil and Penelope‘s indigenous heritages were brought up, but then there was no follow-through on their back stories, which would’ve been a great tie into the Native stories they were writing.
Plot-wise, this story moved so fast and yet nothing happened. The ghost story part of the plot was more shotty mystery than horror and the wrapup and “discoveries“ they made were so flat and anticlimactic. Also “ghost jizz“ is not a phrase I ever need to see written in a published book ever again. If you want to read this book, don’t waste your time. This tried be a romance, a horror, and diverse representation all at once and didn’t really succeed at any of them.
Neil and Penelope had all the chemistry of a block of wood and their enemies to lovers journey was over-the-top and underwhelming at the same time. The spice was also horribly bland, which makes sense because these two had zero chemistry. The two side characters were so forgettable and served no purpose. I was intrigued at the beginning when Neil and Penelope‘s indigenous heritages were brought up, but then there was no follow-through on their back stories, which would’ve been a great tie into the Native stories they were writing.
Plot-wise, this story moved so fast and yet nothing happened. The ghost story part of the plot was more shotty mystery than horror and the wrapup and “discoveries“ they made were so flat and anticlimactic. Also “ghost jizz“ is not a phrase I ever need to see written in a published book ever again. If you want to read this book, don’t waste your time. This tried be a romance, a horror, and diverse representation all at once and didn’t really succeed at any of them.
GHOST JIZZ???
the enemies to lovers felt very rushed as did the ending of the plot with Georgina
good for spooky season though
the enemies to lovers felt very rushed as did the ending of the plot with Georgina
good for spooky season though
She stole the identity of native peoples. That’s not okay. Also just sucked.
It's never a good sign when you have to force yourself to finish a book. The writing was so-so and the story seemed all over the place. I'm giving it 2 stars because it's an interesting concept but the execution fell short.