Lori

I really liked the story and premiss of this book but it was long. Like really long. Cut out a good two hundred pages and it would be a great book. The parts I would cut would be where the female lead says she isn’t interested in her ex and the male lead refuses to believe her. I did also wish that the book had more spicier moments. Besides this I loved the side characters and world building.

For this book I would recommend reading The Kingpin of Camelot as it does have a lot of background for one of the characters. This one was disappointing for me as it’s the first M/M story with two very interesting characters but they were so forced that it wasn’t any fun to read. Based on the description I could see this romance working out but what actually came out wasn’t what was promised.

The book is way to long with tons of dialog and a main focus on the quest. I found I was often checking how many pages I had left.

So far, I would say that this is my favorite book of the series. I say this being only three books in. The romance was more believable than the last book over a longer period of time. Meaning they actually got time to build up their connection. Once more you don’t have to read the other books to get into this one.

Again, fun is the operative word here to describe this book. This series has shown itself to be a truly fun read that takes itself seriously enough to deliver a good plot and romance but not to serious as to add some of the weirdest world building and side characters.

The scarecrow was so built up in the book that I was sad we didn’t get more evil from him. There is so much more that could have been done with his character. That’s really the only thing that detracts form this book. Well, that and maybe it can be a little long.

I wouldn’t say I liked this as much as the first book but its still pretty good on its own. You don’t have to know too much about the first book to get into this one so you could read it as a standalone.

The enemies’ part of the romance is based on a misunderstanding as children the developed into a rivalry as adults. I will give credit that the misunderstanding is well done and that it’s not something incredibly stupid. What I didn’t like in this book was that the story take place over basically one day and that is not enough time to build a connection for a good romance. I get that the characters have known each other since childhood but one day to forgive all that fighting kind of pushes it. Having the book take place over more time would have easily solved this issue.

I really like this book. I have recently read a few romances re-makes of fairy tales and this was by far the best. The main set of charters were unique and well developed, the world building was creative, and Cinderella was greatly messed up. The book is not a slow burn romance but a fun adventure. It was nice mix from standard romance books.

The only reason this is not higher rated was that I wish there was a little more time spent on building the romance.

Ok this is on me at this point. I am sorry smut club but I can’t take any more much like the main female lead. I was behind on my book club reading and although I started this book I skipped ahead to the next one before coming back to finish this. I really wish I didn’t bother with this one at all. It’s more of the same terrible orc males forcing their customs on to woman who don’t understand. The whole book is the male lead “breaking” her until she gives in. There is nothing romantic or kinky about this.

Again, I like that the female in the book wants to help the orcs and is caring but the male lead in this was trash. He constantly used her for his own gain, withheld information from her, and manipulated her. It was a constant cycle of him pushing her into things she didn’t want and her learning to be ok with it.

If it wasn’t for all the male leads manipulations this could have been a better book.

I liked this better then the first two books. Both main leads use each other to get what they want but at least it made sense. She wants to become a full librarian and has also been manipulated by her former boss and lover. The orc wants to use her to save his people. It was kind of weird to have a romance where both people were kind of bad but for somewhat understandable reasons.

I did like that the female lead in this one makes an effort to understand the orc and ends up contributing to their history by translating and making copies of books. The romance wasn’t too bad as they did at least try to understand each other despite holding things back. There is at least some good world building in this book. The orcs are interesting to learn about and we get a new faction with this story.

The book is very similar to the first in behaviours and it’s the constant fighting. There was nothing that I really liked about this book and I found it added nothing to the world building.

Another smut club pick and I wouldn’t say this is something I would have picked up on my own as the kinks are not really my type. The world building is pretty good and the whole orc vs human war is well thought out.

On the other hand, the romance is ok as there is a lot of back and forth. Its can be good at time and slightly annoying at others. I didn’t like the betrayal near the end of the book after all that talk of caring for the female lead and the honor of the orcs. This story heavily relies on species and cultural barriers. The book feels like an older romance where thing we use to accept thing that we now don’t like toxic masculinity. If you can ignore this it’s an ok book.

This book started of great with a new beginning for the female lead and what seemed like a nice enough male lead but almost halfway through the book takes a turn. The last half was brutal to get through and the male lead becomes almost as bad as her ex.

This book is really the opposite of the last book. I liked the romance better but the sense of community and world building was lacking. The romance was verry sweet and I thought there would be more prey play as the book somewhat goes for but there is never any tension or edge to it. It’s not a bad thing and it’s great to have a nice male lead for once.

The world building of the vampires was interesting but there is so much brought up that the book doesn’t full cover it. I was left with so many questions especially when the werewolves were brought in at the end.

I really liked the community and the authors take on werewolves but I didn’t like the male lead as much as the rest of the book.

The main character is smart although she does easy dismiss some happenings around town. I didn’t mind this though as it was nice that she didn’t immediately think werewolf. The sense of community that she is slowly brought into along with the partially isolated setting was refreshing. It wasn’t immediately a, you are now one of us, but an actual slow burn mystery. The side characters even feel fully flushed out. I had no confusion to who was talking or what was happening.

The romance was ok but the male lead was very back and forth on how friendly he was with the female lead. There is no real justification for this as well. The book could have been so great if the made him either more understandable why he was yo-yoing or just made him nicer.

I don’t even know why I continued with this series. This was such a boring addition but was at least a little less problematic then the last two book. The two main characters absolutely lust over each other but are so boring that I really didn’t want to finish this book.

This could have been a better book as there are parts of it that I liked, Butt… there is no getting around the fact that in the last book he abducted one of her friends and threatened to rape her. At the beginning of this book this issue is brought up and his response is that he didn’t actually follow though with the rape threat. Why! If you took that out this book could have been decent.

The rest of the book I actually enjoyed. I did find the MMCs ethical turnaround highly improbable but the romance was at least sweet in the last half of the book.

You don’t need to read the first book to read this one as it can stand alone without missing any needed history. I was looking forward to this book as I really like the female lead in this book when I met her in the first book the male lead in this one is pretty trash. He constantly says he doesn’t want her but also tries to seduce her, sometimes against her will.

Rape is a part of this story in two ways. first is that the MMC sleeps with the FMC when she’s drunk and she thinks it’s a dream. Secondly the ending has a female side character abducted and threatened with rape. It really ruins what’s left of the book.

This was a great romance to read about. The connection and passion between the love interests lasts from beginning to end of the book. Even the friendship of the wallflowers is great as their conversations were a fun to read.

One issue that causes me not to mark the book higher is that for some time the male lead is just waiting for the female lead to run out of time and be poor so that she will accept becoming his mistress. I really didn’t like this as a plot point. Same with the female desperate need for money but unwilling to accept anyone with out a title.

I had to drag myself to get through this book. I always thought that older folk tales usually had a point to them and were used to teach people. These stories though are non-sensical, boring, sexist, racist, or a mix of them. The woman especially when set as a wife are often dumb and the Jews of the books are some of the worst caricatures of greed.

Now I get that this was written in a different time but that is not enough to make me like this anymore. Even the well-known tales were a disappointment to read and there were a lot of repeat tales with only slight differences.

I understand that the characters are mostly collage age but man do they make incredibly stupid mistakes. The whole setup is hard to take like what do you mean you are running out to a place not on the maps with someone you just met and went drinking with. Now you are involved in finding this rando’s brother? Getting past this I guess the stupid decisions make more sense but its pretty bad.

The characters are flat and are caricatures of collage kids. The woman are written the worst. They are the most useless self absorbed women you could write. The jerk off scene is the worst. In what world is that soothing to woman. The males take charge and lead them right into ruin. They focus on the dark heavy subjects of the book and make all the hardest decisions.

There are some good scenes with tension and building horror but its obliterated with terrible writing. I did listen to this as an audiobook and that was a huge mistake. The narrator was monotone and tried the worst accents for some of the characters. The women’s voices were especially horrid.

I liked this just as much as the first. It’s another charming story but with a much tighter cast for most of the book. This story also has some heavy subjects about family, reaching out, and forgiveness.

I did like the main character better in this book as she was just so positive without forcing it on others. The book focuses on the failing greenhouses and we kind of just ignore what happened to the main charter. I.e. she was turned into a statue for quite a few years. There is closure on her story by the end of her book but not much is discussed before that. Although I loved the green houses and the magic involved and could have been content with more of the story talking about the day to day life managing them.

The greenhouses are a major problem in the story but it isn’t until the last quarter of the book do they figure out that they were approaching the problem wrong. It was a little waste of story time to have this change happen. I know this does connect the greenhouse problem with the male leads family issues but it was kind of annoying. The family issues also are worked out quickly and more time to work them out would have made the story more rounded.

The male lead is not as grumpy as I thought based on the description but is more just hesitant to connect with others. It was pretty endearing, plus he bakes. There is more focus on the romance in this book and its ok. I did like the first books take where the romance was secondary and not in tandem with the main story.

Over all I really like the book and look forward to the next one.