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faefaith 's review for:

Tenderly, I am Devoured by Lyndall Clipstone
3.0

i’ll start by saying the cover of this is so stunning, and when i first saw it i knew i wanted to read it from the gorgeous cover alone. (yes i judge books by their covers, we can’t all be perfect.)
THEN when i saw it marketed for fans of saltburn and a study in drowning, as well as being described as a “moody, monsterously gothic romantasy”, i was eagerly anticipating this release so i was thrilled to get an arc! but did it deliver? no!
i will say that the prose was haunting, lyrical and elegant without being purple. the writing in this was absolutely gorgeous. i LOVED it! i was enthralled by the setting (maybe it was the ocean, i’m in my merman era so i was all about that). but it was so vivid, descriptive, and raw. Verse was beautiful.
BUT it was honestly overall a little slow especially towards the middle/end? most of characters i found uninteresting, and i think the relationship in this book wasn’t perfectly fleshed out? it just felt a little all over the place, though interesting at first. which i understand due to the nature of their falling out or whatever. which is okay, it just didn’t flow in a way i would have liked to see. also camille didn’t have much of a personality in my opinion. i also feel like lark didn’t get the closure or completion she needed. the time jumps also seemed pointless to me.
my hopes were super high for this, though i didn’t hate it. my feelings are pretty mixed. but overall a good story and very stunning writing.