A review by kori_krc
A Venom Dark and Sweet by Judy I. Lin

2.0

It ended up being a big struggle for me to get through, and had I not been so dedicated to finishing it, it would have been a DNF. I think that the ideas were solid and interesting, it's just the actual execution fell flat. Ning and Kang had little to no romantic chemistry, and even though their relationship was a sub-plot, it was off enough for me that it kind of ruined any nuance they had built up. They felt much more sibling/friend oriented than lovers. The storyline dragged until about the last 100 pages, which felt kind of like a fever dream at this point considering how much was mushed into them. Everything that was actually interesting about the continuation of this story was mashed into the last 100 pages and unfortunately didn't get the landing it deserved because it did feel so rushed. Lin definitely could have spent way more time flushing out those ideas rather than build up this long "journey" at the beginning. If this was a trilogy that might passed as filler, but since it's only a duology, it ended up dragging (insufferably) and then going into a full sprint at the climax.