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A review by katyanaish
Black Swan by Kel Carpenter, Aurelia Jane
3.0
I never really connected with this series, even though I continued through to the end because I liked the plot. Around the 2/3 mark of book 2, I realized why I wasn't engaging with it: I just didn't like the characters much.
I know that's a weird thing to realize so late in. It wasn't that I actively disliked them. I thought the guys were condescending douches, and ... I guess it took so long for me to realize I didn't like them because, well, in these types of books it isn't unusual to think that about the male leads until you get to know them more and that changes. It just never did. Like, we didn't get to spend a ton of time with any of them, and so I never honestly felt like I saw beyond the facade to the real guy that I could connect to. That feeling was cemented for me in this book, when I realized They were all just pretty 2-dimensional to me.
The FMC Fury was also pretty meh to me. I liked the attitude, but she definitely made some stupid choices - I mentioned that in my book 1 review - and that was hard to process. She's also this weird blend of tough chick and super sensitive chick, and had some personality quirks that I had a hard time reconciling. So my connection to her was lukewarm.
Even the secondary characters were kind of blah to me. Like, I thought Roxanne was overly bossy, and while there was lots in the narrative about her and Fury being insta-besties, I just didn't see it at all, honestly. How does this woman, who pretty much failed to connect to anyone (but Duke, who I did like) in her 103 years in Afterlife, suddenly insta-bff this chick who felt like she had the right to dictate how things were going to be after like an hour of meeting Fury? Given her baggage, for Fury to just bow to ... well, all of it - a new chick demanding she drop her life and move in with her cuz reasons, and mates demanding the same, and no one really allowing her input into it - it wasn't believable to me.
But I liked the story, the mythology of this world - the Afterlife, the jobs, etc. I liked it enough that I continued through and did enjoy the books despite not really connecting to the characters, which is super unusual to me - most of the time, if it is a super awesome plot but I can't love the characters, I DNF. So that says something, I think, about the story.
I know that's a weird thing to realize so late in. It wasn't that I actively disliked them. I thought the guys were condescending douches, and ... I guess it took so long for me to realize I didn't like them because, well, in these types of books it isn't unusual to think that about the male leads until you get to know them more and that changes. It just never did. Like, we didn't get to spend a ton of time with any of them, and so I never honestly felt like I saw beyond the facade to the real guy that I could connect to. That feeling was cemented for me in this book, when I realized
Spoiler
that I didn't know when Ezra changed, couldn't tell when he'd started acting different, and ... then realized I didn't care enough to examine it more fully.The FMC Fury was also pretty meh to me. I liked the attitude, but she definitely made some stupid choices - I mentioned that in my book 1 review - and that was hard to process. She's also this weird blend of tough chick and super sensitive chick, and had some personality quirks that I had a hard time reconciling. So my connection to her was lukewarm.
Even the secondary characters were kind of blah to me. Like, I thought Roxanne was overly bossy, and while there was lots in the narrative about her and Fury being insta-besties, I just didn't see it at all, honestly. How does this woman, who pretty much failed to connect to anyone (but Duke, who I did like) in her 103 years in Afterlife, suddenly insta-bff this chick who felt like she had the right to dictate how things were going to be after like an hour of meeting Fury? Given her baggage, for Fury to just bow to ... well, all of it - a new chick demanding she drop her life and move in with her cuz reasons, and mates demanding the same, and no one really allowing her input into it - it wasn't believable to me.
But I liked the story, the mythology of this world - the Afterlife, the jobs, etc. I liked it enough that I continued through and did enjoy the books despite not really connecting to the characters, which is super unusual to me - most of the time, if it is a super awesome plot but I can't love the characters, I DNF. So that says something, I think, about the story.