Reviews

Against the Grain by Melanie Harding-Shaw

didij3's review

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5.0

I loved this book, as my husband said it was perfect for me, witchy and mountain biking. I loved that mtb was a priority to Trinity(MFC), the little bike humor that was in there was perfect. It was such a quick read that I had done in just a few hours Friday night to Saturday morning. Cute kind of meet cute, witchy with a sassy little companion, a little drama, a little bit of crazy, some relatable coeliac (gluten intolerance) and riding bikes with her kicking butt and not struggling. I love that the ending didnt rush things for the story line too. I would def recommend this one.

psyckers's review

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5.0

A fantastic 'authentically' New Zealand set story full of magic and well developed and thought of characters.
I certainly felt compelled to read this from beginning to end, as it was very hard to put down.
Excellent writing style.

cottageannotations's review

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fast-paced

5.0

taaya's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I don't get it...
I'm missing so much world building. How are the magical people organised? There is an old witches retirement home, so there must be a witch community. Where there is a community, there have to be laws or at least rules. So how can it be that Trinity has to hide from other magical folk? That they
killed her grandma
and nobody cared? 

And if she only has to hide from magical folk and has a cursed love life - but seems to not be bisexual or pansexual - why doesn't she have any female non-witchy friends? Why does she have to do this "Oh no, I'm all alone in the world except for my pet demon" thing?

And also, gosh, girl, buy yourself a sex toy! If every man you ever see immediately makes you think of oh no, you can't get together with him, because of your curse, there really is something wrong with you. But not the way you think. (And darling, that's not your heart. Love takes 6-8 months to form.)

Finally,
did I miss any revelation of Dante putting her under a love spell? Because she's ALWAYS annoyed of him - rightfully so, I have seldomly grimaced in disgust about a guy that often BEFORE he's revealed to be the villain - and then she almost jumps him anyway. Without a love spell that doesn't make any sense and makes her seem even more desperate to just get laid. Yuck!


In the end a book that solely focuses on men. There's not a single female character apart from the protagonist. Even the male demon familiar is bossing her around. And most of it has an undertone of "romance". I don't get where the reviews claiming that this was a fantasy with only a romance subplot came from. The book focuses on little other than which guy will get the girl in the end.
And as a good damsel in distress she was saved by a guy in the end, too. Oh, right, she could free another guy when there were no stakes left and she had all the time in the world, that has to be worth something, I guess.


There was potential in there to be an enjoyable story (for me), but unfortunately it always steered away from where the plot would have had to go to get me to like it. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

nicolefrailedits's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

deadlybabybug's review

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

catread2023's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

tessisreading2's review

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3.0

Cute but unsurprising to the point of being predictable; the romance was more of a side plot than an actual plot (which is difficult because the page count was so short).

needleclicker's review

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hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

jmmd's review

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emotional hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0