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A review by difficultwomanreads
Exquisite Ruin by AdriAnne May
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The Vibes:
—the minotaur (original mythology flavor)
—amnesia
—lovers to enemis to WHAT ARE WE
—kind of hardcore stuff (think CNC plus plain and degradation) handles in a fairly soft way)
Heat Index: 7.5/10
The Basics:
Waking up in the labyrinth, Sadare knows only that she's a powerful witch—and her only companion and help is the demonic Daesra, who hates her. With no choice but to work together, they move towards the center of the maze and the monster that lies in wait, troubled—and tempted—by memories of a shared past as passionate as it was complex...
The Review:
A lot of things should work for me here, and to an extent some things truly did.
There's kink!
There's second chance with a heavy dose of "FUCK YOU FOR LIFE" (the only second chance I truly want). There are so, so many feelings left unsaid.
But I do feel that what made this work for me more than it should have was a classic issue: This was almost entirely from Sadare's perspective. While she's a compelling heroine (delightfully amoral, we might say at points) it's just hard to sell me a romance where I spend most of the time in one person's head and not the other's.
I mean, listen—it can be done. But here, I kept thinking of how much more I wanted to know about Daesra and his feelings for Sadare. I get that a lot of secrets were being intentionally withheld from the reader, but. Come on! I want feelings. I want emotion.
So while I loved a lot of the world, and I found the leads compelling on an individual level, the emotion didn't quite hit for me. I also found that the writing sort of held them at arm's length in that sense. Perhaps that was intentional, perhaps it was a side effect of the POV choices. Either way, it threw me off.
The Sex:
OH, the sex is hot though. And creative. The author is very transparent about the CWs ahead of the story beginning, and please pay attention. You have some really intense pain and blood play, plus CNC, general role playing, and so on. The sex? Not an issue for this book.
While this wasn't a hit for me, I appreciate the creativity, and I would try another book of May's. I'd just love to see her dig deeper into separate POVs.
Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
—the minotaur (original mythology flavor)
—amnesia
—lovers to enemis to WHAT ARE WE
—kind of hardcore stuff (think CNC plus plain and degradation) handles in a fairly soft way)
Heat Index: 7.5/10
The Basics:
Waking up in the labyrinth, Sadare knows only that she's a powerful witch—and her only companion and help is the demonic Daesra, who hates her. With no choice but to work together, they move towards the center of the maze and the monster that lies in wait, troubled—and tempted—by memories of a shared past as passionate as it was complex...
The Review:
A lot of things should work for me here, and to an extent some things truly did.
There's kink!
There's second chance with a heavy dose of "FUCK YOU FOR LIFE" (the only second chance I truly want). There are so, so many feelings left unsaid.
But I do feel that what made this work for me more than it should have was a classic issue: This was almost entirely from Sadare's perspective. While she's a compelling heroine (delightfully amoral, we might say at points) it's just hard to sell me a romance where I spend most of the time in one person's head and not the other's.
I mean, listen—it can be done. But here, I kept thinking of how much more I wanted to know about Daesra and his feelings for Sadare. I get that a lot of secrets were being intentionally withheld from the reader, but. Come on! I want feelings. I want emotion.
So while I loved a lot of the world, and I found the leads compelling on an individual level, the emotion didn't quite hit for me. I also found that the writing sort of held them at arm's length in that sense. Perhaps that was intentional, perhaps it was a side effect of the POV choices. Either way, it threw me off.
The Sex:
OH, the sex is hot though. And creative. The author is very transparent about the CWs ahead of the story beginning, and please pay attention. You have some really intense pain and blood play, plus CNC, general role playing, and so on. The sex? Not an issue for this book.
While this wasn't a hit for me, I appreciate the creativity, and I would try another book of May's. I'd just love to see her dig deeper into separate POVs.
Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.