Janee
I really wish the summary mentioned that this book is a prequel to Six Crimson Cranes. I haven't read SCC and I didn't know these stories were connected so I went in 100% blind.
Let me start by saying that for about 75% of the novel I was thinking of rating 4 or 5 stars. I enjoyed the fast paced plot, I liked Channi, the world building was decent. But then I got to the ending...and I was so deeply offended with how the author wasted my time that I'm dropping my rating down to 2 stars. The ending legitimately made me angry. Even after ranting about it to two friends and my husband I am still mad about how it ended. I will never stop being mad about the ending. Justice for Hokzuh!! The author did him totally dirty!
I wasn't ever that interested in reading Six Crimson Cranes so I have no idea if that series is much better or about the same as this one. But I do know that the author has totally lost my trust and I'm so upset by this ending that I might never read another novel from her again. I feel like I can't trust the author not to pull the rug out from under me again.
2.75 stars. I'm a Lily Mayne stan because of her Monstrous book series, but this book was tough to get through. Enjoyable enough but it does drag in the middle. And it's kind of depressing for my tastes. The main character Cody is abused and neglected by every member of his immediate family and it's sad to read through. I also felt myself getting more annoyed with Cody as the book progressed and I got tired of Nor's personality consisting only of “I love Cody”. HOWEVER, I'm so ready for a spin off book about Lau! Please tell me that is in the pipeline.
DNF @ 6%. Its got that immature writing style typical of YA that I cannot stand. The main character is “so clumsy, so loud (how unbecoming of a servant girl), just the most average girl in the whole village, and her mother ran off, and her poor father the inn keeper doesn't know what to do with her!” So she's the generic protagonist of every “average teenager goes on a magical adventure or is the chosen one” YA novel. The author was doing a lot of lore dumping and info dumping about spirits and legends in this book rather than gradual world building. I typically like a spunky main character who doesn't fit societies mold but this was just written so heavy handed that I found Miyuko more annoying than anything. This book is just not for me personally.
Once again, YA has done me dirty. You offer me a book with a great premise but instead I get mediocrity.
DNF @ about 10-15%. In the first few pages I already didn't like the main girl and that's not a great a sign. So I started skipping around and reading the interactions between the king and the performer and it did not get any better or more interesting. She wants revenge for a tragedy that happened to her family but she's obsessive and incredibly ill-informed about it. After 10 years of planning you don't even have all your facts right girl?! And I also don't like how the characters are written. She comes of as a “badass heroine” who talks a big game but we don't see them do anything other than have a shitty attitude. The king seems like a generic “asshole who actually loves deeply” type of love interest and I didn't care about him.
2.75 stars. It had a strong start and a decent ending but the middle really got on my nerves. Jude and Dante have terrible communication skills as a couple and they both make terrible decisions all through the middle of the story. It only serves to move the plot along so as a reader you're screaming at them to not do the dumb thing they are thinking about doing. Also, nobody in this book is very smart. You're telling me a demon hunter and a literal priest don't know one of the most powerful demons in hell by name alone? Things also started to get too easy for them both. Every time a new conflict with the demons arose they managed to easily get out of it because someone decided they had it in them to go super power mode. It was an okay read but I wanted more demon hunting and more struggle.
I picked this book up because the summary sounded so messy and I just wanted to read something fun and trashy. Imagine my surprise when I ignored the other 3 books I'm reading to binge through this. This book went down easy for me. This is the first polyamorous romance I've read and I think it was a great introduction to the trope. All three leads get their own section of the book so it felt like I got to know them all individually and the plot was certainly interesting. Solving a series of assassination attempts on the royal family? How fun!
2 stars. For a book about the Italian mafia and recovering from the trauma of sex trafficking this was boring. I gave it a good +30% before deciding to just skip to the end because there was no way I was going to finish it otherwise. The main couple is okay but I prefer the couple from the first novel. Gin is Wacky, Ashe is sweet but needy and they love each other so good for them. I only picked up this one because I wanted to read the third novel but honestly I think I need a break from the mediocrity of this series.
3 very sad stars. I love Holmberg's writing style and I've given 5 stars to every other book I've read from her but this one wasn't doing it for me. And they're sad stars because Star Mother has been on my TBR forever and I was really looking forward to it.
Part of my dislike was because this book has a strong theme of motherhood and what it feels like to yearn for your child. I am not a mother so I couldn't relate to Ceris' all consuming feelings about her star. She is constantly talking about her star, thinking about her star, singing to it, wanting to be near it and as someone who doesn't have a kid I got tired of hearing about her star after a while.
I also found Ceris herself to be a little boring. I thought that I liked her until I met Ristriel then I spent the rest of the novel wishing the book was about him instead. He was just so much more interesting than Ceris in my opinion.
Nothing that interesting happens in the book which is saying something because there is a literal war between gods happening IN THE BACKGROUND! The book is more of a character study so don't go into this book thinking that you're going to see some epic action scenes.
The love story was okay. I can believe that Ceris and Ris fall in love over their long journey together, but Sato loving Ceris was pointless. I also didn't understand why. The only thing Ceris did was ask questions so the reader can understand what's going on and survive the birth of her star and then Sato was in love?
Major plot spoilers below here!!!!
Deeply disliked the last 3-4 chapters. What is the point of setting up this love story if the main couple has to be separated for many years before they can be together? And I understand Ceris wanted to spare the other Star Mothers and she was living with Sato for a long time but why did they need to have more kids together? Again, why establish an OTP if you're going to have the other man live with/ be in love with/ have MORE kids with the woman before she goes off to be with her true love? I know their gods and they don't care but she was basically cheating on Ris for 348 years! THAT HOE DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT A DECADE BEFORE SHE WENT CRAWLING TO SATO FOR AFFECTION!!! And then that bullshit at the end with Ceris saying she grew to love Sato but Ris was her true love so she had to go to him?! WHY ARE YOU EVEN IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER MAN IF YOU SUPPOSEDLY LOVE RIS?! That just doesn't make sense to me. It felt like Ceris was in love with Sato out of convenience because he was nice to her and she was stuck in his palace waiting for her real husband for 351 years. Just dumb.
3 stars. I don't fully know how to feel about this one. On one hand, I love E.M Lindsey and their ability to write emotionally gripping love stories. On the other hand, this particular couple's story felt rushed to me. There were some very sweet moments in here but there were also things that bothered me. Like mention of SA against a minor that I felt was 1) rushed and 2) handled a little poorly. Not EML's best work but it was a fine book.
Considering it's marketed as a dark romance it wasn't all that toxic to be honest. Not in comparison to “Between the Devil and the Sea” at least. Nobody can be as crazy as the love interest in that novel! We've got the space mafia and crime lords with supernatural powers in this book series so it's a pretty interesting read.
4/5 stars! I can't say I would recommend this book to just anyone because it is DARK but I'm clearly trash because I enjoyed it. The author goes places here and Apollo truly does some manipulative, diabolical, fucked up things to Shadow and other people throughout the story so do not ignore the content warnings. I originally picked up this book because of the pretty cover art and I'm glad I did. Minus 1 star because there were many grammatical errors and spelling mistakes peppered throughout the book. I think this needed one more edit to clean up the writing and streamline some of the scenes.
This book was surprisingly soft for a story about a psychopathic vampire who finds his mate. Considering we are introduced to both Eric Monroe and Wolfgang in the worst light possible in the other novels both of them were delightful to read about. I thought Wolfe was very funny in his own way and I honestly agreed with a lot of the things he did/ said. He was very reasonable and much less crazy than Lucien used to be. Eric was actually similar to Gabe with his feelings of anxiousness but he also had a lot of self doubt that made him endearing. The third act “twist” of this novel was definitely weak compared to the others of the series but it allowed us to be introduced to more fun characters.