JJ
3.5 stars
I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it did make me cry, and I always appreciate when a story can make me care enough about the characters to get emotional over their experiences. But at the same time, there were a few things I didn't like.
The time hops would have been ok if it didn't keep interrupting the current event to describe things that had happened during that gap in time. It made things very confusing and hard to follow on multiple occasions.
The biggest issue I had with the book was that I was completely unable to understand Antonio. This is probably why nearly all GFY books are at least partly written from the POV of the “straight” guy, because I couldn't figure out what motivated Antonio's actions. Everything he did seemed ridiculous to me. I wish I could've had a peek inside his head to see what the hell he was thinking sometimes.
All in all, I enjoyed reading this and it held my attention, but it I don't think it was as good as it could have been.
4.5 starsI had a really tough time putting this book down. It reminded me of one of my all-time favorites, [b: Protection 13181411 Protection S.A. Reid https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1334193106s/13181411.jpg 18361682], and I appreciated that it had one thing that book lacked - an extremely well-done transition from prison rapist and victim to lovers. It was very slow and gradual over the course of two years, which made it much more believable. I have no personal familiarity with prison life, but what was depicted in this book seemed realistic enough to me. I think not knowing much about where the story was headed made for a better reading experience, so I don't want to say anything about the latter parts of it. I will say this: it's really good, and part of the reason it wasn't a full 5 stars for me would probably be something that makes most other readers like it better, so yeah, just read it. Unless you hate dark prison stories that have plenty of rape (and not the sexy fantasy kind, though not particularly brutal either), in which case you definitely would not want to read it.
It's a shame that this will never be completed, but at least they wrote out the rest of the plot to let us know how it ends. It's still worth reading because of the fantastic artwork in the pages they did finish, even though they left us hanging at like the worst moment possible! I mean come on, they stopped just before a rimming scene between my favorite couple, damnit!
Oh well, CC posted the script for it so that helped ease my pain.
Anyway, I've only read two webcomics, but I'm guessing this is one of the better ones out there. I'm really glad I found it!
3.5 stars
This was better than I expected it to be. It's mostly PWP, but it was pretty well done. A couple of times, the POV switched without a break, but other than that, the writing wasn't bad. I think if you go into it with low expectations you'll be pleasantly surprised, but if you're expecting anything more than PWP you will probably be disappointed.
This fic had me hooked from beginning to end, despite the excessive length. It could do with some editing to cut it down a bit, and some scenes seemed out of place (fisting and golden shower - didn't seem like the right build-up to either of these, more like they were thrown in just for the hell of it), though the golden shower made slightly more sense after more was revealed about Derek and where Stiles fit in his life. Other than those things, their relationship had a nice build-up, and I liked watching their struggle to keep things professional when clearly their feelings for each other were anything but.
What really hit me in the gut was finding out Stiles' reason for running away, then discovering that it was all for nothing because his dad hadn't died. All that hooking for nothing. Ugh, I felt his shock and helpless anger over that realization. That would cause some major mental and emotional trauma if I were in that situation. But hey, he did get Derek, so that's something.
Lisa Henry is spoiling me with these fanfics! I usually don't like reading from Derek's POV as much, but it worked really well in this case. The plot was predictable, but not in a bad way. I saw the angst coming from a mile away, and knew I just had to weather it to get to the happy resolution. Both Stiles and Derek were to blame for their relationship crisis, which made it more realistic.
The glimpses of Peter made me even more excited about her upcoming Steter fic than I already was. I'm pretty sure there will be squeeing when it's finally posted.
This was cute, sweet, funny, and hot - an all around win! It lacked the mindfuckery I've come to expect from GuiltPleasure, but it was a nice surprise and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's better if you've read New York Minute to get the history between these guys, but it's not necessary. Only downside is that it was much too short!
I couldn't get into this one, mainly because of Spencer. He was just too “perfect”. I don't think anyone is that flawless, so it simply wasn't very believable, and made for a boring read for me due to the lack of real conflict in the relationship. The other problem is that since I don't like uber-submissives, his “perfectly submissive” nature drove me absolutely nuts. Ah well, this book clearly was not for me.
This was just what I needed to cheer me up after the brouhaha over fanfic on GR. The characterization was just right and Stiles had me giggling throughout. There were so many great lines I wanted to quote. Loved the bees and bees conversation with his dad!
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I can't wait to read future fics by this lovely author :)
This was precisely the type of book I was in the mood for, so I really enjoyed it. It was mature (i.e. serious) yet still had plenty of steamy scenes, and it was well written. The author did a wonderful job of demonstrating how grief affects the daily life of someone who has suffered such a profound loss. I do think this could have still been achieved with fewer/shorter flashbacks, and I'd have preferred to read less of Theo's monotonous day to day activities and more of his relationship development with Morgan. I wish I'd gotten to read more about Morgan and his past. I found the length of time it took Theo to connect the dots about what had happened to Morgan extremely hard to believe. You'd have to be beyond oblivious not to realize what was going on based on his behavior and the things he said. When you're writing from a single POV, in order for your MC's surprise to feel genuine, the reader should be surprised as well.
Anyway, despite those issues, I was pretty much glued to the pages until I finished. It was nice to read something quite different from my usual books. I'd like to read more from this author, but I'm not sure I want to continue this series, considering the fact I really didn't think much of Peter. He made me uncomfortable with his pushiness because he said one thing while doing the opposite. I'll probably give it a try just to see if he comes across differently in his book.
To put it simply, I hated the way this book was written. I didn't like the first person POVs from all three MCs, stereotypes were taken to such extremes that the story wasn't believable to me, and the way they spoke and behaved wasn't realistic either. It reads more like a story made up and written by a teenager than a recounting of something that actually happened to a teenager. I just couldn't buy a single aspect of it. I'd recommend reading the free sample before purchasing to see if the writing is an issue for you.
I wasn't very impressed with this to be honest. It felt like the story really dragged for over half of the book, and when things finally started happening, it still didn't hold my interest. I was also disappointed with how little Merq and Armise interacted. Since neither the plot nor the relationship has me intrigued, I don't see any reason to continue the ser
Seems I'm pretty lonely in my dislike of this book, but I'm ok with that. It didn't work for me for several reasons. The first problem was the characters. I couldn't stand Lucky and I didn't like Bo either. Their entire interactions for the first half of the book were constant childish bickering rather than entertaining banter. I like smartass characters, but Lucky was just an ass without the clever humor. Bo wasn't anything special either. After they hooked up, they didn't act like squabbling siblings quite as much, but the story dragged and bored me to tears. I wanted to DNF so many times while reading, and now I wish I had because the longer I read, the more I resented it and avoided reading altogether. Although the quality of writing wasn't bad, the fact this book made me not want to read in favor of pretty much any other activity for weeks means I cannot give it more than 1 star.
Pardon me while I fangirl for a moment here. Rorschach Blots was just what I needed to bring me out of my book slump. I began reading it fairly late at night and was completely unable to stop until I finished it. I'll admit I have somewhat unique reading tastes, and this hit the spot. It's got very flawed characters in a fucked up situation (student/teacher) with kink mixed in. When I say flawed, I mean these guys both make some really sketchy decisions, and neither treat the other very well. It's crazy and it's great.The story is told from Sev's POV, and most of his mistakes are due to the fact he's 18, and thus immature and inexperienced. It gets awkward and uncomfortable at times, but that lends realism to the story. There were so many times I wanted inside Caleb/Mr. Duarte's head to see what thoughts drove his actions.This book actually really reminded me of [b: Stockholm Syndome 9788080 Stockholm Syndrome (Stockholm Syndrome, #1) Richard Rider https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413748234s/9788080.jpg 14678106], one of my favorite books. There's just something about messed up relationships that make me simultaneously think, “that is soooo wrong, but also soooo hot.”The best part is that this book is free! I elected to pay a couple bucks for it, but that's entirely optional. Of course, as is common with free books, there are a few spelling and grammatical errors, but I was enjoying the story so much that I was able to forgive them. So to sum up, if you are more in the mood for kink and an unconventional relationship that isn't exactly ethical, check this one out!
I will start by saying that this book had so much potential. I mean, we've got a team of sexy highly trained government agents (half of them shifters) that's trying to recover from the loss of one of their own. Then we have an enemies to lovers setup between the human replacement and his Therian (shifter) partner. This is great!Except, it wasn't. For me, this book was ruined by three things:1. The details - the many, MANY details. I have never read a book so full of unnecessary information in my life. I really didn't need to know every street they turned on whenever they drove somewhere, or exactly how many people worked for the THIRDS in every division, or the entire setup of every room they entered, or a list of every single tool and weapon they wore along with an explanation of how they worked, etc. etc. Details can be good, but they need to be relevant and should be interwoven into the story so that the reader barely notices they're there because they're so engrossed in what is happening. This book completely failed in that respect.2. Dex's childish behavior. The whole man-child thing did not work for me. Don't get me wrong, I love smartass characters who like to push people's buttons (like Austin in [b:Shattered Glass 13420351 Shattered Glass (Shattered Glass, #1) Dani Alexander https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327194818s/13420351.jpg 18819996] and Izzy in the Troubleshooter Series), but I just did not find Dex funny most of the time. For instance, the whole running from the bear Therian with the cheese doodles thing - that's exactly something I would have done...when I was twelve years old! The image of a grown man on his first day as a special agent behaving that way just made me cringe rather than smile.3. The incompetence. The fact that no one in the entire agency figured out based on the evidence that their suspect was a human ruined any notion that they were in any way intelligent or highly trained individuals. It was immediately obvious, and at the first mention of Isaac's metalworking, it was easy enough to deduce that he likely created metal claws mimicking those of a shifted Therian in order to frame them for the murders.One minor niggle I had was that I couldn't for the life of me figure out how Sloane could have heard Dex while he was having his sex dream since he was in a sleeping bay with the door presumably closed, unless Therians have superhuman hearing, but I don't think that was ever mentioned. Plus, if that were the case, there's no way Dex would have been able to eavesdrop on the team without them knowing he was there.I'm giving one extra star for the potential and for the UST (though the dream sex annoyed me as it's one of my pet peeves), but as much as I wanted to, I can't honestly say I enjoyed the book as a whole. So, unless a trusted friend (ahem, Lo-Lo!) can read the next one and assure me it's better, I do not plan to continue the series.
Despite my general dislike of historical fiction, I really enjoyed reading this one. I loved Daniel's sharp wit, self-assurance, and waspish tongue. Once the plot got moving, it kept me hooked until the end. I look forward to reading the eventual sequel.
Side note: Now that I know the context, I love the title!
I haven't read a lot of steampunk, so I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed this story. It was quite hot, but I'd have preferred more sex and less sexual fantasy. I was thrown off a bit by the time errors, which I assume were a result of this originally being a shorter story that only spanned a couple of days rather than over a week. Besides those issues, I loved it - Benjamin's timidity, Cole's confidence, the descriptions, the thrill - it all made for a fun read.
I thoroughly enjoyed this enemies to lovers slave fic. I loved the dynamic between Mathais and Reve, and the plot was interesting enough that I had trouble putting this one down. The gradual development of their feelings for one another, particularly on Reve's part, was well done. The writing was top notch, especially considering it's free. It's quite similar to Captive Prince in several ways, but is by no means the same book (CP has a more clever plot IMO). The HFN ending left me wanting more, but I was grudgingly happy with it since I would have found a fully resolved HEA too unrealistic and disappointing in its own way.
So to sum up, if you enjoy strong-willed slaves and the enemies to lovers trope, and can handle a HFN ending, this is a must read.