A review by jeanay
The Phantom by Gena Showalter

3.0

idk why this author’s new books aren’t hitting as well as her older ones are like i still read them and am entertained but they don’t have that same charm it had but maybe it was because the whole series was out and i was able to read it back to back. and ofc these books aren’t well written masterpieces and are like trashy smutty fantasy books that give me a good little chuckle and it did it’s job. my main complaint is the ending being rushed bc the whole series is about the warlords completing their task and it gets brushed off until the very last chapter so it just felt rushed and unplanned especially w the solution to the task being figured out within that last chapter bc of this convenient thing happening. also i’m still confused bc i thought his whole thing was him being insane and hearing voices in his head and i thought his book was gonna be something resolving that but he don’t even hear them that much and the main girl supposedly makes it go away or idk i was kinda zoning out while reading but the end was just him in his head w the main girl and her kid talking to his conscious being like let’s move on from the past and focus on the future implying that his insanity arc is over like what. but i’ll give it to the book as i didn’t expect some of the plot twists like i predicted some but then there was more layers to it that got revealed at the end and i was like that’s good fr. but literally why does every task the main guys get assign having to do w killing the main girl like can they breathe fr. idk the ending made it feel like there’s a lot of unanswered question and unresolved conflicts like what happened w that wraith bitch is she just over w bc the main girl broke out of her collar like i want a more direct solution to that conflict. but i’m not gonna complain too much bc beggars can’t be choosers fr. the things i do like about this book is that the girlies are so me and funny and ngl i don’t know whether i should view it as a why are women always being painted as horny and villains but nah this shit was funny asf bc the task of the main guy is to kill the queen of this other dimension and the girlies they are sex deprived and can also speak modern slang bc of the wraith bitch giving them smut readings it’s so random but funny. like these girls were so excited when he came and were like dips on him i respect them fr i would be w them if i was in their situation. so humor is good as always and the little banter and tension between the main two is cute like the main girl calls her aggression w him foreplay lmao she’s so real for that but um do have to break the bad news and understand why she’s pissed at him bc he literally killed her consort and father to her child so she’s in the right for sure and main guy is supes sorry but also like that guy is alive at the end and is conveniently a terrible person so the main girl is gonna choose the main guy obviously. honestly i found that plot point interesting and i hate love triangles so i’ll take it. the tournament situation w the girlies fight for who gets to be queen and fuck the main guy reminds me of one of the lord of underworld books w the main girls cousin i think joining this harpy tournament like come one i love a little connection to the series. also main guy and the main girl’s daughter relationship is cute like she doesn’t even care he killed her dad LMAO and also she lowkey insane bc why she talking to her evil grandpa and was like yeah i can make portals it looks easy so i can do it like damn kids scare me but in an endearing way ig. erebus taking sm l’s he’s such a loser it’s really embarrassing. and it’s a good thing he made the main girl’s consort a puppet bc he wasn’t even that good of a partner anyways not supporting their ways as harpies kind of and tryna restrict her true nature like boo but at least he begged the main guy to kill him before he killed his daughter. also yas for the main girl trusting the main guy and there wasn’t any miscommunication drama like no third act break up w them is so slay but then again he also fell for that framing trick the wraith bitch did like girl you really believe the main girl is that dumb but she forgave him and was like omg you care about me sm asking questions about me and our relationship while torturing me like i love her she’s funny asf. i’ll wrap it up here i’m giving this a 7.5/10 or 8/10 idk it didn’t hook me in until a while.