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A review by purple_reads
When Wishes Bleed by Casey L. Bond
DNF at 74%
I really thought this book was going to be good. It began so well and I was interested in the magic system and the world the story takes place in.
However, it all went downhill once I got to 20%.
The MC constantly berates other females for what they wear and prides herself on being modest. This belief is supported by a side character, who just happens to have the MC’s back through everything even though the MC thought she hated her for all of her life. This small detail is mentioned and then barely talked about. Same goes for a lot of things in this book; there are some major events and barely any emotions or detailed answers are given. For example, yet expresses no inner turmoil towards all of what is happening.
Another thing I absolutely hated was the lack of consistency in characterisation. The love interest was sarcastic and witty when he is present in the first few chapters and then spirals into someone who has less of a personality than a cucumber. It made me cringe to read his scenes and to see all of his original characteristics thrown out of the window. Furthermore, the MC also lacks consistency having gone from disdaining females for what they wear to complimenting and wanting to communicate with them. All of her original thoughts are gone and replaced with a picture-perfect heroine.
Additionally, there is another male who the MC is not attracted to and when this male tries to kiss her without permission, the situation is never brought up again. No inner monologue that comes back to it, no conversation between the two of them. They act like it did not even happen and this isn’t some awkward situation in which you act as if nothing ever happened but the air around them shows something did. They literally just go back to how they were before he tried to kiss her.
The characters were annoying:
You have an MC who thinks she is better than everyone else yet tries to humble herself by saying everyone hates her.When she could just try talking to people as it is previously stated that nobody actually hated her.
A love interest who lacks consistency in character and has more concerns for a woman he just met than he does for the majority of people he has known for much longer, and has an actual relationship with.
A female side character whose only job is to swoon over the love interest, make dresses using powers that aren’t even connected to her affinity and be a messenger. The whole ordeal with witches being able to do things outside of their affinity undermines the whole point of the system that is put in place to separate them into groups. It seems like some cheap way of having the MC get what she needs.
Then there is the male side character who is in love with the MC and everything he does is out of jealousy and he’s just the most frustrating character to read. I wanted to smack him multiple times.
What caused the most disappointment was the way the world is set up and the main plot besides the romance is somewhat interesting. I would’ve stayed to read this but I could not cope with the characters any longer, the sheer boredom a good fifty percent of this book was (how did so many unneeded scenes get past editing?) and the random plots that were being thrown without any real substance.
This book was one big bowl of bad characterisation, random plot lines that weren’t developed and annoying characters all mixed together.
Stars ~ 0
I really thought this book was going to be good. It began so well and I was interested in the magic system and the world the story takes place in.
However, it all went downhill once I got to 20%.
The MC constantly berates other females for what they wear and prides herself on being modest. This belief is supported by a side character, who just happens to have the MC’s back through everything even though the MC thought she hated her for all of her life. This small detail is mentioned and then barely talked about. Same goes for a lot of things in this book; there are some major events and barely any emotions or detailed answers are given. For example,
Spoiler
her mother is raised from the dead and the MC’s first reaction is “I must destroy her” when she had only just been informed that her mother is supposedly evil,Another thing I absolutely hated was the lack of consistency in characterisation. The love interest was sarcastic and witty when he is present in the first few chapters and then spirals into someone who has less of a personality than a cucumber. It made me cringe to read his scenes and to see all of his original characteristics thrown out of the window. Furthermore, the MC also lacks consistency having gone from disdaining females for what they wear to complimenting and wanting to communicate with them. All of her original thoughts are gone and replaced with a picture-perfect heroine.
Additionally, there is another male who the MC is not attracted to and when this male tries to kiss her without permission, the situation is never brought up again. No inner monologue that comes back to it, no conversation between the two of them. They act like it did not even happen and this isn’t some awkward situation in which you act as if nothing ever happened but the air around them shows something did. They literally just go back to how they were before he tried to kiss her.
The characters were annoying:
You have an MC who thinks she is better than everyone else yet tries to humble herself by saying everyone hates her.
A love interest who lacks consistency in character and has more concerns for a woman he just met than he does for the majority of people he has known for much longer, and has an actual relationship with.
A female side character whose only job is to swoon over the love interest, make dresses using powers that aren’t even connected to her affinity and be a messenger. The whole ordeal with witches being able to do things outside of their affinity undermines the whole point of the system that is put in place to separate them into groups. It seems like some cheap way of having the MC get what she needs.
Then there is the male side character who is in love with the MC and everything he does is out of jealousy and he’s just the most frustrating character to read. I wanted to smack him multiple times.
What caused the most disappointment was the way the world is set up and the main plot besides the romance is somewhat interesting. I would’ve stayed to read this but I could not cope with the characters any longer, the sheer boredom a good fifty percent of this book was (how did so many unneeded scenes get past editing?) and the random plots that were being thrown without any real substance.
This book was one big bowl of bad characterisation, random plot lines that weren’t developed and annoying characters all mixed together.
Stars ~ 0