A review by spicycronereads
Vines of the Underworld by Jessica Griffin

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I honestly do not know how I feel about this book. For the first third I thought it was shaping up to be a 5-star read. An interesting story… An FMC with mental health representation and generational trauma…Fairly unobtrusive world building…Schmexy fae protagonists and a why choose situation… I was really enjoying it.

When a major crux of the plot was revealed, I just…it’s either brilliant or absurd. I can’t decide.
Magical, world-saving orgasms? Really? And it’s not a campy narrative. It’s just a little too on the nose
. The editing is less tight in the latter part of the book. More grammatical errors but also things in the story that don’t quite add up or are underdeveloped.
Celeste knows things and recognizes things in the underworld that there is no way she could know... All the teasing about Tarcyll’s beast form that goes nowhere… An elder council appearing seemingly out of nowhere… The details about Celeste’s mom are shared but not fully connected to Celeste’s present nor her magic…
There is a fair amount of foreshadowing about the ending but I don’t really have a sense of why it went that way. It doesn’t seem to add up. So it didn’t feel like the gut wrenching twist it could have been.

There are a few swoony moments and the spice is pretty okay. It started off really good but it seemed to get a little repetitive. But maybe that is because I read it really quickly in just a couple of sittings. Though there are a few things that seem improbable or ill-advised
Backdoor with no preparation? Straight into front door? This is urban fantasy so lube and UTIs definitely exist in this world!
🌶️🌶️🌶️

Will I read the next one? Not right now but maybe someday. I already own it because I pre-ordered to support the author, not realizing it wasn’t the first book. 


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