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A review by imskylow
How does it feel? by Jeneane O'Riley
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.5
This is purely speculation, but methinks someone is paying for reviews because it is beyond me how many people have rated this book above 3 stars. Honestly, it's wild. This book is very poorly written and under-edited. It feels as though Jeneane had absolutely no beta readers or legitimate editors. After I realized fairly soon into the book that this belongs somewhere in the deep, dark depths of kindle unlimited, I decided to take a red pen to the book. I circled, marked, and crossed out miss spellings and redundancies, circled anything that was worded in a confusing unclear way, and marked up ever moment the story was at all unbelievable or disturbing, which was quite a bit even though I am a connoisseur of smut and fantasy. This book feels like a raw dream journal that never went through the creative process of making sense, which, in turn, made the story structure and dynamics hard to consume as a reader.
The introduction of the story takes a good 90 pages and the entire book isn't even 400 pages long! The characters are incredibly difficult to enjoy. The female main character is as flimsy and as fluid as water. You cannot get me to believe that a biologist, no matter how scatter-brained, would forget a high-end microscope (it's mentioned that it costs as much as a car) in the woods. You additionally cannot get me to believe that she would then not spare a second to change out of her "going out" clothes but instead wears a little black dress (that hardly covers her assets) and HEELS to go search the woods. Not only is Callie, the main character, ditsy but she morphs into different characters as the story proceeds suddenly having a "dark side" or suddenly having her one wish be that she find love, when initially, all this girl wanted was to swear off love and a personal life and join a society of wildlife biologists. Then we have Mendax, the Prince, who to be completely honest has no redeeming qualities. I understand that he's not meant to have any as a dark/villainous character but there should be SOMETHING that attracts the reader and FMC. Alas, there isn't. We don't even really get to know what Mendax looks like aside from dark hair and blue eyes. You don't even learn he has pointed ears even until page 216. Additionally, the way Jeneane describes his "smoke wings" causes me to believe she doesn't know what wings are. I struggle to imagine wings you can grab and choke someone with. There is no build up in the romance of the story.
With the love story, Mendax flips like a coin. He goes from hating Callie and all humankind to not being able to live without her and waxing embarrassingly poetic. It's cringey and riddled with cliches that belong on 2014 Wattpad. However, their first "romantic" interaction isn't even all that romantic. He eats her out pushing her face into a blanket and the consent is very, very dubious. For the rest of the novel, Callie battles her 'feelings' for Mendax even though he is objectively awful and has subjected her to multiple types of abuse including maiming and the attempted r*pe from a forest bog. Within the love scenes between the two main characters, Jeneane seems to lose all sense of anatomy. I spent time rereading multiple instances in which Mendax would need at least three hands to maneuver as described.
I understand what Jeneane was trying to accomplish here. I do. The short synopsis actually drew me in! I love bad boys and magical bad boys are even better. However, this book needed several more drafts and professional eyes before publishing.
Lastly, the next time Jeneane O'Riley writes the word 'amber' will be much, much to soon.
The introduction of the story takes a good 90 pages and the entire book isn't even 400 pages long! The characters are incredibly difficult to enjoy. The female main character is as flimsy and as fluid as water. You cannot get me to believe that a biologist, no matter how scatter-brained, would forget a high-end microscope (it's mentioned that it costs as much as a car) in the woods. You additionally cannot get me to believe that she would then not spare a second to change out of her "going out" clothes but instead wears a little black dress (that hardly covers her assets) and HEELS to go search the woods. Not only is Callie, the main character, ditsy but she morphs into different characters as the story proceeds suddenly having a "dark side" or suddenly having her one wish be that she find love, when initially, all this girl wanted was to swear off love and a personal life and join a society of wildlife biologists. Then we have Mendax, the Prince, who to be completely honest has no redeeming qualities. I understand that he's not meant to have any as a dark/villainous character but there should be SOMETHING that attracts the reader and FMC. Alas, there isn't. We don't even really get to know what Mendax looks like aside from dark hair and blue eyes. You don't even learn he has pointed ears even until page 216. Additionally, the way Jeneane describes his "smoke wings" causes me to believe she doesn't know what wings are. I struggle to imagine wings you can grab and choke someone with. There is no build up in the romance of the story.
With the love story, Mendax flips like a coin. He goes from hating Callie and all humankind to not being able to live without her and waxing embarrassingly poetic. It's cringey and riddled with cliches that belong on 2014 Wattpad. However, their first "romantic" interaction isn't even all that romantic. He eats her out pushing her face into a blanket and the consent is very, very dubious. For the rest of the novel, Callie battles her 'feelings' for Mendax even though he is objectively awful and has subjected her to multiple types of abuse including maiming and the attempted r*pe from a forest bog. Within the love scenes between the two main characters, Jeneane seems to lose all sense of anatomy. I spent time rereading multiple instances in which Mendax would need at least three hands to maneuver as described.
I understand what Jeneane was trying to accomplish here. I do. The short synopsis actually drew me in! I love bad boys and magical bad boys are even better. However, this book needed several more drafts and professional eyes before publishing.
Lastly, the next time Jeneane O'Riley writes the word 'amber' will be much, much to soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Blood, and Torture
Minor: Rape