Meg

The book starts with some interesting concepts, especially with the worldbuilding, and really hooked me at first, but it really falls off by the midway point. By the midway point, the book starts to read like a fan fiction. You start to get some fluff chapters that feel like they were put in just to remind the reader that this is a romance. Speaking of which, this book is not a romance or at least not a sapphic one. The description of the book claims that it is a "sapphic enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance," but it is such a slow burn that romance for the main character does not even happen in the book. It does not even check off the enemies part of that claim, either, in my opinion.

The dialogue is also very strange often, and characters act in ways that seem very illogical for the moment. There were many times I audibly said to myself, "Why are they saying this?" The book also has five different POVs, but I think it should have been condensed to one or two. I especially did not enjoy jumping POVs mid-chapter. The book also skips time a lot. With weeks going by at a time, and nothing happens. Just like, "three weeks went by," and given the context of the scene, *something* should have happened during that time, but a single sentence sends you hurtling through time mid-page. Also, the book does quite a lot of telling. With sentences like, "she felt EMOTION because he said THING to her which reminded her of EVENT". Sometimes it even takes place over multiple sentences, just telling the reader.

Now, after saying all of this, I did not hate it. I think it really picks up towards the end, but even by the ending, I was left feeling like "really?" I also think it's something that the whole series came out within three months of the previous book. (April, July, October). As of writing, I have not read the rest of the series, but seeing how soon the other books released, it just leaves me feeling like maybe it was rushed or that the whole series was already written and the author did not want to go back and change things.

Maybe I am just looking too much into what is quite clear a smut book, but overall I was just glad once the book was finished.

First, the main character’s magic felt like a major cop-out. Instead of having clear rules, her powers just conveniently did whatever the plot needed at any given moment. It made any tension or stakes meaningless because you knew she’d just magic her way out of it.

On top of that, the main character seemed to randomly know things she absolutely shouldn’t. At one point, she somehow understood monster traditions with no prior exposure or explanation.

The characters themselves didn’t help matters either. One relationship in particular jumped from dislike to love interest in the span of two short chapters, with no real development. It made the romance feel rushed and unbelievable.

And for a book that promised monsters, I was left disappointed. Instead, most of the "monsters" were basically just muscled men with a monster feature slapped on. It was disappointing as I was promised monsters.