Janee
DNF@ 47%. It's just soooo slow. And although I like Enna and she has some decent character motivation (she wants to be a scholar who studies the creatures of the magic forest) she spent the entire book making dumb choices. And keeping secrets from people who could help her get out the mess she's put herself in. At halfway into the book our two main characters only kind of start to like each other and they have made literally zero progress in solving the conflict that is introduced in the very first part of the story. It's just a bit too boring for me so I'll drop this one.
I was in the trenches reading this one. Fighting for my life! I was not having a good time but it wasn't long so I decided to finish it. It's poorly written, was too descriptive with the spicy scenes for my tastes, there was blood play, and exhibitionism. Not to mention I found the insta lust/ love uninteresting. When they started using blood as lube I mentally checked out. These two where dating literally two days and all of a sudden we're licking blood each other and using it as lube? Excuse me sirs!!? Do y'all even know anything substantial about each other because it's not looking like it. Would not recommend. There are better written dark romances out there.
A perfectly fine werewolf/ warlock romance. At some points I felt that there was backstory we were missing but it didn't affect my understanding of the overall plot. And there was some miscommunication that I didn't love. 3 stars overall. Honestly, I picked this up because it said it had knotting as a trope. I'm preparing to buddy read Bride by Ali Hazelwood and I know that book has knotting as well. I wanted to get a feel for it and I've I gotta say...it's not my thing.
DNF @ 11%. It's not that the book wasn't well written or interesting. It's just that I wanted something more light hearted. The description makes it sound like Eleanor is just a girl who's a little antisocial and she finds friends and learns that life is worth living. I was excepting something feel good like Hallmark movie. This book is not that. Eleanor is pretty unlikable, very odd, and she's got some TRAUMA to overcome. I'm sure it's a wonderful story but...I just wanted to listen to a low stakes audiobook while I'm at work.
It's supposed to be a darker romance but I think the author spent too much time making the prince unlikeable. I didn't agree with his mindset about humans, I thought he was too vengeful and sadistic, I REALLY didn't like the things he did to Ren and Kormac. So when he starts to get his character arc at the end I really didn't care to support him. And I also only feel lukewarm to Kormac. He's kind of dumb and he's not asking enough questions and blindly following the unseelie. I don't think I'll continue with the series.
This was very enjoyable. It has he falls first and pining so I loved all that. Emily is smart and capable all the way through the novel and learns that she can open up to other people and trust others as well. She does do something I didn't agree with in the last arc of the story, but it was for scholarly insight so I can't be too mad about it. I LIVED Wendell. His banter with Emily is so fun and I think they are so good together ☺️ I desperately wanted a couple things to happen that didn't so it got -1 star off the total.
DNF @ 22%. I just cannot be bothered to finish this. It read way too much like YA and I don't like YA. I was all into it being a story about a hardened young women who's a master thief in magical Cairo and that's not what I'm getting. Firstly, we only see Nahri being a thief for about 2 seconds before the plot line takes a sharp left into class struggles between the half bloods and the pure blood djinn in a magic city. Second, I was expecting Nahri to be smarter. She's spent this entire book so far just asking Dara questions that I feel like she should know considering she grew up in Egypt where these legends and monsters are from. The couple of chapters I spend with Ali the Prince were infuriating. He's a teenager by Djinn standards and you can tell. He's a spoiled, clueless boy who clearly has had horse blinders on his entire life because he doesn't seem to understand the depth of oppression that the half bloods are experiencing in his own hometown?! Even though he's secretly working with the half blood rebellion in a limited capacity when we first meet him?! The only character who wasn't getting on my nerves was Dara. And he's a battle hardened djinn with PTSD and a snarky attitude. So because these two idiots (Nahri and Ali) don't know shit about shit, Dara is the only person driving the plot forward by info dumping after being asked a million questions. I'll pass on this series.
The ending was rushed and introduced several plot points that it didn't have time to fully conclude. I felt that it could have been a more satisfactory conclusion if Ilya and Danya only had to overcome the attitudes of the townspeople by the end. And all the things with the corruption of the church should have been in a separate novel. But I don't think there is a second novel so I just have to imagine the continuation of their journey I suppose.
I don't know how to describe this book because it has a lot of things it's saying, but the plot doesn't really go anywhere. But I still really enjoyed it. The basic storyline is about a man (Fetta) who leaves the cult he grew up in and goes to the big city. While there he makes friends, learns that he wants more out of life than fulfilling a destiny his mother thrust on him, and he also learns about the messed up things the people in power in the city are doing. Underneath that story, the book is saying a lot about classism, oppression of minorities, the lasting negative effects of colonialism, the dangers of hive mind, the inadequacies of government, etc. I was having a fantastic time for the first maybe 60% of the book. After that I was still interested in the story, but I was just kind of along for the meandering ride the plot had become. Even up to the last 3 chapters I was thinking “how exactly are we going to end this story? Everything is really up in the air?”. And I would say we got a plot twist I was really not expecting at all but it lead to an anticlimactic ending. So I liked it but I don't know if I could strongly recommend everyone read this. I could see a lot of people getting bored or frustrated with the lack of forward momentum with the plot.
I'm feeling 3.75 stars. I enjoyed it for the most part but not nearly as much I've enjoyed other books by Feener in this universe. And it didn't even come close to how much I loved Between the Devil and the Sea. I feel like the things Apollo did were way worse than anything Kai did so the entire time I couldn't really care too much that Gael had been manipulated. The plot did start to really drag after about the 60% mark but it ended on a good note.
On one hand, I love this book so much and it has parts that made my heart ache. I loved Ox, I loved the entire Bennett family. I laughed with them and I mourned with them. On the other hand, there were parts of this story that made me so angry that I had to take a day or so before I continued reading.
Overall, I love the story, but it did not need the page length it had. At the start, I was having a great time watching Joe and Ox and the other Bennett boys grow up together. Then we hit a part in the story where everything changes and “the pack is split” as the summary puts it. That portion of the story DRAGS ON FOREVER. We have the same arguments for chapter after chapter with only a few notable things popping up and it got old. Also, in my opinion, both Joe and Ox were making the dumbest decisions possible when it came to fighting the antagonist. And I felt that they were only making those decisions because Klune had a very specific way he wanted the final fight scene to end so he had to do mental gymnastics to make Ox and Joe suddenly turn into the dumbest people alive whenever it came to fighting the villain.
I REALLY want to get to Gordo and Mark's story, but I don't know if my brain is ready to jump back into that 3 year time of separation again. And while Carter is my favorite brother I am very interested in how things are going to play out in Kelly's story. Overall, a solid 4 star read.
I loved every single second of this book. No notes. It was everything I wanted from the final installment in a series. There was drama, steam, intensity, heartbreak, heartwarming moments, mysteries were solved, and a HEA. I want the author to write a novella where we can see more of Angel and Francis after their HEA because I cannot get enough of them together!
DNF at 14%. Is just moving too slow for me and there are too many perspectives for me to get invested in anyone. I love a spooky house story but they haven't even made it to the house or anything spooky at 14% and I'm not interested enough in continuing. Which is upsetting to me because I was really excited for this book.
I think I've found that short story collections aren't really for me. I only read Charlie and Moth's stories as well as Hunter and Edin's story and then the book sat on my kindle untouched. I have to be honest with myself and know that I will just not be reading the other stories because I got what I wanted. Which was mostly more of Charlie and Moth. And snippets of a few of the other couples. And I'm incredibly satisfied with leaving it at that.
My very quick thoughts because I NEED to go start the novella right now. This book being focused on Seth and Kade was a misstep. Clay was the real star of the show. I loved him, I felt for him, I wanted him to be happy and both Seth and Kade did my boy Clay dirty this whole book. Kade was dumb and thought Clay betrayed him instead of just asking him what went down. Seth basically forced Clay to watch someone he loved fall in love with him so that must've hurt. He sacrificed everything for those two and I don't even like them together. Seth was a total spineless, annoying, damsel in distress. Kade was a typical obsessive serial killer. Normally I would be eating up a story like this but, if you look through my book highlights, I spend the entire story wishing we could focus on Clay. Kade and Clay had palpable tension and I felt their love. I also felt Jayce and Seth's love at the beginning. Seth and Kade being paired for this book was a mistake.