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silver_ethereal's Reviews (205)
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
DNF @ 60%
I wanted to love this book. I even preordered the physical copy despite reading almost exclusively on a kindle.
I was sooo excited for enby rep and gender exploration, and I love a lot of the tropes - fated mates, shifters, fairytale retellings, etc. But everything just fell flat for me. The whole thing ended up feeling really shallow, and everything was told with very little showing.
So many things made no sense to me:
- Calla and Briar were raised for their entire 20 years by their faery godmother, and then she just... Essentially died?? And neither of them seemed upset about it? That was basically their Mom ceasing to exist and Briar didn't even watch her turn into faery dust, and Calla only watched our of the carriage window. What???
- How did Calla and Briar know so much about city life? If they'd grown up sheltered in the forest and only ever visited the tiny town a few times, why didn't they have major culture shock fitting into city life? For example Calla describes seeing townhouses... How do they even know what those are? It felt like a missed moment to deepen their character by describing it all through the eyes of someone who had never seen a city before.
- Why is there this weird hatred between wolves and humans? The concept never seemed very fleshed out and made me wonder what the point even was.
- Calla's character seemed so disjointed - a hardened warrior but making the silliest most impulsive decisions? I kept saying "why would you do that??" out loud.
I am all for the gender exploration plot thread, and did enjoy that. Ora was great and said some really insightful and helpful things that struck true to me as someone who is an enby myself.
Unfortunately, this whole thing just wasn't for me.
I wanted to love this book. I even preordered the physical copy despite reading almost exclusively on a kindle.
I was sooo excited for enby rep and gender exploration, and I love a lot of the tropes - fated mates, shifters, fairytale retellings, etc. But everything just fell flat for me. The whole thing ended up feeling really shallow, and everything was told with very little showing.
- Calla and Briar were raised for their entire 20 years by their faery godmother, and then she just... Essentially died?? And neither of them seemed upset about it? That was basically their Mom ceasing to exist and Briar didn't even watch her turn into faery dust, and Calla only watched our of the carriage window. What???
- How did Calla and Briar know so much about city life? If they'd grown up sheltered in the forest and only ever visited the tiny town a few times, why didn't they have major culture shock fitting into city life? For example Calla describes seeing townhouses... How do they even know what those are? It felt like a missed moment to deepen their character by describing it all through the eyes of someone who had never seen a city before.
- Why is there this weird hatred between wolves and humans? The concept never seemed very fleshed out and made me wonder what the point even was.
- Calla's character seemed so disjointed - a hardened warrior but making the silliest most impulsive decisions? I kept saying "why would you do that??" out loud.
I am all for the gender exploration plot thread, and did enjoy that. Ora was great and said some really insightful and helpful things that struck true to me as someone who is an enby myself.
Unfortunately, this whole thing just wasn't for me.
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm
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.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated