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A review by ebonwilde
Phantasma by Kaylie Smith
2.0
2.84 ★
neither mind-blowing nor awful. it was mostly kind of whatever. but one thing that's genuinely funny to me is that his true name is blackwell. like hello? imagine a god named tommy. a fairy king named kyle. subhanallah, what happened to whimsy?
i did get what i came for (caraval), and while it was far better written (hence the extra half star), it was also far less creative, plot and worldbuilding wise. which is expected when half the trials are based on the seven deadly sins, i guess. also a very generic deal with the devil + instalove romance. she doesn't know him, he doesn't remember her, and they fall in love within three days of their first meeting, tra la la. however, going through the same trauma would probably make people closer, so they're slightly more believable than other instalove plots. and the curse and the ending do add a little more substance to their relationship. the erotica was nice enough, so people into dark fantasy romance will enjoy this, i believe.
as for the characters, they were very caraval coded indeed. ophelia is a domineering older sister and has an extremely rigid view of genevieve (and unlike tella, she's done nothing to be characterized the way ophelia thinks of her). genevieve is impulsive and independent and loves her sister, and these her only three personality traits. blackwell is the most generic romantasy mmc to walk the planet: hot, secretive, deep dark traumatic past, overconfident, good at fucking. all in all, i wasn't wowed by anyone, and i hated blackwell more than i hated julian and dante combined, especially with the twist at the end. (this is a normal occurrence for me with romantasy mmcs, so the rating is still three stars. or close enough.)
thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy.
neither mind-blowing nor awful. it was mostly kind of whatever. but one thing that's genuinely funny to me is that his true name is blackwell. like hello? imagine a god named tommy. a fairy king named kyle. subhanallah, what happened to whimsy?
i did get what i came for (caraval), and while it was far better written (hence the extra half star), it was also far less creative, plot and worldbuilding wise. which is expected when half the trials are based on the seven deadly sins, i guess. also a very generic deal with the devil + instalove romance. she doesn't know him, he doesn't remember her, and they fall in love within three days of their first meeting, tra la la. however, going through the same trauma would probably make people closer, so they're slightly more believable than other instalove plots. and the curse and the ending do add a little more substance to their relationship. the erotica was nice enough, so people into dark fantasy romance will enjoy this, i believe.
as for the characters, they were very caraval coded indeed. ophelia is a domineering older sister and has an extremely rigid view of genevieve (and unlike tella, she's done nothing to be characterized the way ophelia thinks of her). genevieve is impulsive and independent and loves her sister, and these her only three personality traits. blackwell is the most generic romantasy mmc to walk the planet: hot, secretive, deep dark traumatic past, overconfident, good at fucking. all in all, i wasn't wowed by anyone, and i hated blackwell more than i hated julian and dante combined, especially with the twist at the end. (this is a normal occurrence for me with romantasy mmcs, so the rating is still three stars. or close enough.)
thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy.