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A review by angeareads
Kiss the Fae by Natalia Jaster
2.0
Let it be known that this was a book I greatly wanted to like. I didn't go in with any expectations, other than knowing it had vivid purple prose.
Well, good god did this book have purple prose.
Now, let me be clear. I love purple prose. Give me a novel that is lyrical descriptions and poem made form, and I will eat that s*** up. For example, I adore Laini Taylor's books. I love it, therefore, I was expecting to survive this one just fine.
I was wrong.
The second I got to chapter 2, the book was almost indecipherable. I thought I was going insane. A book that I should've been able to crunch in under 2 days took a whole week because I had to keep rereading passages because I thought I was going crazy. English is my first language and yet I was so confused—I swear to you, words were being misused. I managed to push through to the end, and I'll be honest it was better near the end, but not by much. There were paragraphs that felt like the eye of the hurricane, where I forgot, briefly, how bad the rest of the prose was. And then I'd get slapped back to reality in the next paragraph.
Maybe the most insane part of this was the overuse of the word "digits". It was once used twice in a single paragraph. Digits was said more than fingers in the entire book, I promise you. Tragically, I have a physical copy and not a digital one, so I can't ctrl+f to figure out how many times it was used (If someone with the kindle edition could tell me, I'd love to know). Another wattpad favourite was also present, because "orbs" was volleyed a few times. I actually often like to keep a tally of how many times orbs was used in a book, but I didn't this go around. Regardless, it must have been at least 4 times.
Aside from the purple prose that was lacking in its lyricism, I despised whatever accent the fmc—Lark—was given. She was the only character with that accent, and it was very country-esque? But not in a charming way. Rural but like, more Tom Sawyer and less nice-lady-from-Georgia-who-bakes-you-a-pie. Fun fact: I've never cared for the word "panties", but Lark saying "knickers" made me appreciate it. This did not bode well for the two or so sex scenes.
If there's one thing that makes me feel guilty, it's giving an indie/self-pubbed author a low rating, but I cannot in good conscience score this higher than a 2 star read. By no means is it a 1 star, however, because I've rated a few books that low and I know I enjoyed this more than those.
Well, you might be asking, "Ange, what did you enjoy?"
To which I say, "Excellent question!"
I didn't hate the plot concept. It was neat, honestly. Just not as well done as it could have been. There were lots of cool ideas, but honestly, as the setting is Faerie, it's not like I can give too much credit for the whimsical nature of it. Faerie has existed for so long across various mythos, so it's not something Jaster created entirely herself. Therefore, I can only give so many points for it. I also didn't hate Cerulean (the love interest), I just felt he was a tad flat.
And, yes, I have the Fae Crate boxed set, so I will finish this series eventually. Fingers crossed it's better without Lark as the main character. Just...I don't know, keep me in your thoughts while I subject myself to this.
Well, good god did this book have purple prose.
Now, let me be clear. I love purple prose. Give me a novel that is lyrical descriptions and poem made form, and I will eat that s*** up. For example, I adore Laini Taylor's books. I love it, therefore, I was expecting to survive this one just fine.
I was wrong.
The second I got to chapter 2, the book was almost indecipherable. I thought I was going insane. A book that I should've been able to crunch in under 2 days took a whole week because I had to keep rereading passages because I thought I was going crazy. English is my first language and yet I was so confused—I swear to you, words were being misused. I managed to push through to the end, and I'll be honest it was better near the end, but not by much. There were paragraphs that felt like the eye of the hurricane, where I forgot, briefly, how bad the rest of the prose was. And then I'd get slapped back to reality in the next paragraph.
Maybe the most insane part of this was the overuse of the word "digits". It was once used twice in a single paragraph. Digits was said more than fingers in the entire book, I promise you. Tragically, I have a physical copy and not a digital one, so I can't ctrl+f to figure out how many times it was used (If someone with the kindle edition could tell me, I'd love to know). Another wattpad favourite was also present, because "orbs" was volleyed a few times. I actually often like to keep a tally of how many times orbs was used in a book, but I didn't this go around. Regardless, it must have been at least 4 times.
Aside from the purple prose that was lacking in its lyricism, I despised whatever accent the fmc—Lark—was given. She was the only character with that accent, and it was very country-esque? But not in a charming way. Rural but like, more Tom Sawyer and less nice-lady-from-Georgia-who-bakes-you-a-pie. Fun fact: I've never cared for the word "panties", but Lark saying "knickers" made me appreciate it. This did not bode well for the two or so sex scenes.
If there's one thing that makes me feel guilty, it's giving an indie/self-pubbed author a low rating, but I cannot in good conscience score this higher than a 2 star read. By no means is it a 1 star, however, because I've rated a few books that low and I know I enjoyed this more than those.
Well, you might be asking, "Ange, what did you enjoy?"
To which I say, "Excellent question!"
I didn't hate the plot concept. It was neat, honestly. Just not as well done as it could have been. There were lots of cool ideas, but honestly, as the setting is Faerie, it's not like I can give too much credit for the whimsical nature of it. Faerie has existed for so long across various mythos, so it's not something Jaster created entirely herself. Therefore, I can only give so many points for it. I also didn't hate Cerulean (the love interest), I just felt he was a tad flat.
And, yes, I have the Fae Crate boxed set, so I will finish this series eventually. Fingers crossed it's better without Lark as the main character. Just...I don't know, keep me in your thoughts while I subject myself to this.