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smakinde's reviews
151 reviews
Hooked by Emily McIntire
2.0
Alright alright alright… let’s talk about it.
I’m still new to dark romance/thriller-whatever this is considered, so you may take this with a grain of salt.
Things I liked:
The MMC is Hook(Captain Hook)
The FMC is Wendy, her dad is Peter-his assistant is Tina Belle(lol). Peter’s business is called NevAirLand and the group that Hook runs with is called Lost Boys. That was all cute and it wasn’t as cheesy as I anticipated it to be.
Now. The first part of the book was a little slow and really be expected. Obviously getting to know the characters is always a little slow, but it didn’t really pick up alot until the middle/end of the book.
Wendy is pretty naive and it’s cool to see her come into her own by the end. She kills her dad… oh and she kills Tina Belle too, so I thought that was a little different than what we were lead to believe. I love that she lovers her brother so much, spoiler alert—her and Hook share the brother(she has the same mom as her brother and Hook has the same dad as the brother), so that felt strange HAHA.
Hook or James, is fine. He reminds me a bit of the MMC in Haunting Adeline and I hated that book series, so I was turned off right away. He’s obviously got a lot of trauma and while his mission has been to kill anyone who has hurt him or his family(they all died in a plane crash set off my Peter) he’s pretty much an idiot. Okay maybe that’s harsh… but like he finds out that someone is trying to ruin his business, kills his business partner and so he freaks. When he finds out that a woman has been a part of it… he just thinks it’s Wendy?? Like you didn’t think to ask what the woman LOOKED LIKE?? Men… I digress.
Peter is straight up awful. He is never home and while we learn that his Jon, isn’t his son, but really his dead’s wife’s child with their best friend(yes this is hooks daddy), he basically has Wendy raise him. And when push comes to shove, Peter does nothing to defend his daughter, but does everything to control her.
Was it fun to read? Yes. I needed something different than what I normally do, but I just couldn’t get over some of the ick lines and Hook just annoyed me half the time. 2.5 3⭐️⭐️ it is.
I’m still new to dark romance/thriller-whatever this is considered, so you may take this with a grain of salt.
Things I liked:
The MMC is Hook(Captain Hook)
The FMC is Wendy, her dad is Peter-his assistant is Tina Belle(lol). Peter’s business is called NevAirLand and the group that Hook runs with is called Lost Boys. That was all cute and it wasn’t as cheesy as I anticipated it to be.
Now. The first part of the book was a little slow and really be expected. Obviously getting to know the characters is always a little slow, but it didn’t really pick up alot until the middle/end of the book.
Wendy is pretty naive and it’s cool to see her come into her own by the end. She kills her dad… oh and she kills Tina Belle too, so I thought that was a little different than what we were lead to believe. I love that she lovers her brother so much, spoiler alert—her and Hook share the brother(she has the same mom as her brother and Hook has the same dad as the brother), so that felt strange HAHA.
Hook or James, is fine. He reminds me a bit of the MMC in Haunting Adeline and I hated that book series, so I was turned off right away. He’s obviously got a lot of trauma and while his mission has been to kill anyone who has hurt him or his family(they all died in a plane crash set off my Peter) he’s pretty much an idiot. Okay maybe that’s harsh… but like he finds out that someone is trying to ruin his business, kills his business partner and so he freaks. When he finds out that a woman has been a part of it… he just thinks it’s Wendy?? Like you didn’t think to ask what the woman LOOKED LIKE?? Men… I digress.
Peter is straight up awful. He is never home and while we learn that his Jon, isn’t his son, but really his dead’s wife’s child with their best friend(yes this is hooks daddy), he basically has Wendy raise him. And when push comes to shove, Peter does nothing to defend his daughter, but does everything to control her.
Was it fun to read? Yes. I needed something different than what I normally do, but I just couldn’t get over some of the ick lines and Hook just annoyed me half the time. 2.5 3⭐️⭐️ it is.
Scarred by Emily McIntire
4.0
I just loved reading this book. It was so much fun and I do love a villain.
Was there some cringe? Yep, but I enjoyed Sara and Tristan a lot.
Was there some cringe? Yep, but I enjoyed Sara and Tristan a lot.
Return to Love by Leonor Soliz
2.0
It’s a cute little novella. I’m not the biggest fan of friends to lovers, but it was still cute.
Dark City Omega by Elizabeth Stephens
2.0
I have learned that an Omegaverse is just not my thing. This has nothing to do with author at all. I just cannot get into "nesting" "knotting" or the Alphaholes haha
Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
3.0
Okay let's talk about it.
First off, I love how the author changed Cinderella's story from this damsel in distress to her wanting to kill the King(who surprise is actually Prince Charming), but he has some magical evil powers that are connected to (surprise) his mom who is the "fairy godmother", really a witch. So he is able to live a lonnnnnng time. He killed her parents and then had his mom aka the witch aka the fairy godmother give her this potion that would make her fall in love with him, but it wore off and she found herself married to him and hating him. I also really liked that Sophia at 16 living in this world where women were treated as property, decided that she did not want that life. She wanted to be the Knight, not married to one. I love that she was in love with her bestie Erin and while that didn't work out, they had a cute story.
I liked that the message was about breaking down the world construct that is put on women and being who you are. The message was awesome and I would encourage any woman to read it for that sole purpose.
Her goal is to take down the king and while she does accomplish that(after meeting Constance who is the last surviving family member of Cinderella), the story was lacking in the world building that it so desperately needed. We see little glimpses of Sophia's life, but nothing to really connects us to her in a way that would have made this story 10x better. It was also really hard to connect her and Constance. While they have cute little moments and they obviously like each other, there wasn't IMO any real connection in their journey to find the fairy godmother.
It was also really hard to enjoy the second half of the book because of the random scenes with the King. He showed up randomly and killed a woman that was connected to Sophia in front of a large crowd in the market...while that was awful, it didn't really make sense to me to place that moment there. Then he showed up at the fairy godmothers house just out of the blue and it just kept taking me out of the story.
First off, I love how the author changed Cinderella's story from this damsel in distress to her wanting to kill the King(who surprise is actually Prince Charming), but he has some magical evil powers that are connected to (surprise) his mom who is the "fairy godmother", really a witch. So he is able to live a lonnnnnng time. He killed her parents and then had his mom aka the witch aka the fairy godmother give her this potion that would make her fall in love with him, but it wore off and she found herself married to him and hating him. I also really liked that Sophia at 16 living in this world where women were treated as property, decided that she did not want that life. She wanted to be the Knight, not married to one. I love that she was in love with her bestie Erin and while that didn't work out, they had a cute story.
I liked that the message was about breaking down the world construct that is put on women and being who you are. The message was awesome and I would encourage any woman to read it for that sole purpose.
Her goal is to take down the king and while she does accomplish that(after meeting Constance who is the last surviving family member of Cinderella), the story was lacking in the world building that it so desperately needed. We see little glimpses of Sophia's life, but nothing to really connects us to her in a way that would have made this story 10x better. It was also really hard to connect her and Constance. While they have cute little moments and they obviously like each other, there wasn't IMO any real connection in their journey to find the fairy godmother.
It was also really hard to enjoy the second half of the book because of the random scenes with the King. He showed up randomly and killed a woman that was connected to Sophia in front of a large crowd in the market...while that was awful, it didn't really make sense to me to place that moment there. Then he showed up at the fairy godmothers house just out of the blue and it just kept taking me out of the story.
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
5.0
This is a true enemies to lovers. If you want a happy ending, you won't get it here.
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
5.0
This is easily a 5 stars from me. While I have seen a lot people talk about the world building and info dump..it’s for those reasons that I love it. I do think you need to be in a space to be able to really take your time with this book because there is a lot happening. The author also put a guide in the back of the book(I didn’t know that until I was done with the book), but that is super for helpful for anyone who is reading this. I like the twist at the end and while it wasn’t surprising, it was really fun to read about and see it come to life.
I’m a 31 year old woman and I got lost in the world that was built(in the best way possible) and I could see any teenager who loves to read doing the same. I am looking forward to reading the next book. ✨
I’m a 31 year old woman and I got lost in the world that was built(in the best way possible) and I could see any teenager who loves to read doing the same. I am looking forward to reading the next book. ✨
King of Wrath by Ana Huang
3.0
This is a great little palette cleanser in-between intense books. Was it a cute read? Yes. Was it anything crazy? No.
Arranged marriage.
Blackmail
Billionares
The social elite
Check. Check. Check.
I will be reading book #2, because Kai had me from the get go and I can't wait to see what happens. I hope it lives up to what I think it could be.
Arranged marriage.
Blackmail
Billionares
The social elite
Check. Check. Check.
I will be reading book #2, because Kai had me from the get go and I can't wait to see what happens. I hope it lives up to what I think it could be.