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silver_ethereal 's review for:
The Ever King
by LJ Andrews
adventurous
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
The first 30% of this book was fairly good, but went down hill pretty quickly and I almost DNF'd at 90%, which feels like when the book should be most exciting.
I was intrigued by things I'd seen on social media - namely a pirate king, viking inspired vibes, and a morally grey MMC who makes the FMC a necklace from the bones of someone who harmed her. I was immediately pulled in by the Pirates of the Carribean-esque story of the children of enemies bonding and then reuniting in adulthood.
However, this strong start felt entirely wasted by the end. Spoilers below for more specific feedback.
Things that I liked:
- The characters have interesting magic - especially Gavyn, Erik, and Livia.
- I loved the relationship of Livia and her family, I was immediately attached to the twins + Aleksi + Mira + aunts/uncles/parents. (Wish we got more of them)
- I loved Sewell
- Celine and Livia's friendship was nice
- The sea witches seem cool
- The anxiety disorder rep was decent
Things I didn't like:
- The way the author describes action, even just how people are standing felt so weird and jumbled. I had a wild time trying to picture how things were playing out, in both normal conversation, fighting, and during spicy scenes. I had to keep re-reading and often that didn't even help. There's one scene in particular where Livia has her arms around Erik's neck, but then Erik is also whispering to Celine?! And Livia doesn't hear what they say? There are many examples similar to that.
- I genuinely felt like the author has never had sex before, based on how the scenes were written. Not to mention the virgin trope was strong here, and I tend to dislike that. People with vaginas please listen carefully - your first time should not be crazy painful and you should not bleed a lot. If that happens, there wasn't enough foreplay and proper precautions weren't taken! I wish authors would stop perpetuating this harmful myth.
- It felt like so many interactions with Livia/Erik were born from the author trying to get good snippets to use for social media marketing. The lines felt so dramatic and baseless and repetitive.
- Livia kept referring to Erik as "black hearted" and being a "monster" but these titles were not backed up with any actions from Erik. He was barely even morally grey, let alone a monster.
- Livia accepted being kidnapped and didn't even try to escape once. She was just like "yeah sure I'll work in the ktichen"??? What!! She had no backbone whatsoever. She was raised by a family of warriors and wasn't even taught how to hold a sword?
- The prose felt convoluted and repetitive. EVERYTHING was described like a storm, rain, clouds, glass, and sand.
- The plot entirely lost me and I didn't care what was happening after 70% of the way through. I don't think I'll read the sequel unfortunately.
I was intrigued by things I'd seen on social media - namely a pirate king, viking inspired vibes, and a morally grey MMC who makes the FMC a necklace from the bones of someone who harmed her. I was immediately pulled in by the Pirates of the Carribean-esque story of the children of enemies bonding and then reuniting in adulthood.
However, this strong start felt entirely wasted by the end. Spoilers below for more specific feedback.
- The characters have interesting magic - especially Gavyn, Erik, and Livia.
- I loved the relationship of Livia and her family, I was immediately attached to the twins + Aleksi + Mira + aunts/uncles/parents. (Wish we got more of them)
- I loved Sewell
- Celine and Livia's friendship was nice
- The sea witches seem cool
- The anxiety disorder rep was decent
Things I didn't like:
- The way the author describes action, even just how people are standing felt so weird and jumbled. I had a wild time trying to picture how things were playing out, in both normal conversation, fighting, and during spicy scenes. I had to keep re-reading and often that didn't even help. There's one scene in particular where Livia has her arms around Erik's neck, but then Erik is also whispering to Celine?! And Livia doesn't hear what they say? There are many examples similar to that.
- I genuinely felt like the author has never had sex before, based on how the scenes were written. Not to mention the virgin trope was strong here, and I tend to dislike that. People with vaginas please listen carefully - your first time should not be crazy painful and you should not bleed a lot. If that happens, there wasn't enough foreplay and proper precautions weren't taken! I wish authors would stop perpetuating this harmful myth.
- It felt like so many interactions with Livia/Erik were born from the author trying to get good snippets to use for social media marketing. The lines felt so dramatic and baseless and repetitive.
- Livia kept referring to Erik as "black hearted" and being a "monster" but these titles were not backed up with any actions from Erik. He was barely even morally grey, let alone a monster.
- Livia accepted being kidnapped and didn't even try to escape once. She was just like "yeah sure I'll work in the ktichen"??? What!! She had no backbone whatsoever. She was raised by a family of warriors and wasn't even taught how to hold a sword?
- The prose felt convoluted and repetitive. EVERYTHING was described like a storm, rain, clouds, glass, and sand.
- The plot entirely lost me and I didn't care what was happening after 70% of the way through. I don't think I'll read the sequel unfortunately.