Saga Rosen
Unsure of what rating to give, at times it deserves a four but at times (like the ending and some really cheesy action scenes and everything with NATO) it was a two. I did enjoy the most of this book, it had a lot of interesting themes and it got the RAGE quite well. The issues stem more from some of the misunderstandings of DID and the god-awful ending, it was abhorrently predictable and so cheesy and just not very good (not cause it was a ‘bad' ending for the characters, but rather that the writing was bad and it both came out of nowhere and was too obvious, idk. It kinda ruined it for me.
First half of the book absolutely sucked and was so tropey and predictable it became unbearable. But the second half is considerably better.
God this main character is frail and skinny and slim and so beautiful literally everyone talks about how beautiful she is and it becomes so dull. Not even mentioning how her beauty is so deeply associated with how skinny and shit she is, its so boring to make a beautiful character and then describe her like a starving model. It's so,,, conservative. This book fits better on wattpad than as a published book. I hate how Aurora is described and I hate how she is written. Like this is a dark romance and she doesnt have a single character flaw. At least her counterpart did. The book is too much of a coward to make her butch though, i hoped at least the mafia boss would be butch because its so hard to find romance novels with butch love interests smh, and I need more after finishing “make room for love” (which is a feelgood romance, not a dark one) but thats not the fault of the author just me being tired of everything being femme4femme everywhere
Speaking of which, this is considered a “dark romance” but it just isn't. There's kidnapping and not being allowed outside during the day and whatever but it's so damn mild. There are no dark themes at all, it's honestly a pretty generic regular love story which STARTED in a dark way but after a few chapters aurora was treated like a queen
gareth is edgier than shadow the god damn hedgehog.
this book is also home of one of the worst lines in fiction! see below:
“Simone's out there fighting for her life shounen anime style”
absolutely unforgivable
I was also gonna list the insane number of similarities between this book and ‘god of fury' but it would be too many so I wont bother. but it is weird how the same kinds of abuse and sexual assault is in this one too (nothing against cnc and rpe fantasies, kinks are harmless), but both of these books have had background themes of sexual assault and it's just odd that it's in both of them.i listenened to the audiobook and the readers are very good and talented but every time Kayden said “pussy” i laughed, it sounds really silly.i'm starting to feel like the author uses gray- and ace sexualities as part of the fantasy of the leads only being attracted to the one man with no exceptions, feels weird, idk how to describe it. like it didnt feel like representation but rather a way to rationalize the fantasy of being the other person's one and only to an extreme way. this is not an actual thing, just a pet peeve, it's annoying when kayden said something like: ‘put my dck in my pssy' (idk how course language you can use on goodreads) and by ‘my pssy' he means the MC's ass in a possessive ‘mine' way, but the grammar is annoying to read and I kep't imagining him inside himself like a slug would impregnate itself.
the gighting, crimd and rich people aspects of it was so strange and felt so fake and forced in. this does NOT feel like it's a part of an actual world and reads more like slightly fancier fanfiction
ps. i was in a sapphic relationship with a bigger age gap than this! grampa is a COWARD
pps. how come all these mm romance books are all so misogynystic?? most of them are written by women and it perplexes me
It was fun, but somewhat repetetive and overly long. also the contemporary slang was painful. Drinking game: take a shot every time someone say the word ‘epic' or some other archaic interjection
also why on earth is the author so obsessed with the word ‘balls' and how they tingle and throb...
if you want a gay erotic romance with a lot of humour (some of it genuinly funny) and some mild taboo elements I would recommend it as one of those guilty pleasure reads. I listened to it on audiobook too, which was nice, can recommend.
it's a genuinly dumb book but if you have some time to kill and dont wanna open your copy of war and piece its quite alright hehe
the ending in the novella is significantly better than the one in the movie, in my opinion. I enjoyed the movie and in some ways it did do the concepts more justice. Though, the more descriptions and internal understanding, while at the same time the power of imagination being utilized in the novella.
its hard to compare then, they have separate strengths and weaknesses. but overall I prefer the novella.
Good book! I went through four stages during it.
The first half or so: Intrigue and casual fun when reading about interesting daily drama about an unsatisfied newspaper worker and his life and love.
The second half: a complex series of paradoxical emotions about love and loyalty. Feeling both disgust and ingrigue at this love and the frustratingly devious actions they do to hide their affair instead of being up-front about it.
The final 20 pages or so, deep unhappiness, heartbreak and frustration.
The final paragraph hit me like a god damn truck on the highway going 200km/h... like fuck.... jesus christ
I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone enjoyed this, it's boring, sexist drivel and in no way “the saddest book ever written” it was wholly dull despite the exaggerations and emotions and suffering. I expected to FEEL more of this “sturm und drang”-novel but went away feeling naught but boredom, annoyance and disgust. The main character is a fool and despite the whole novel being about his adoration for Charlotte, we barely know anything at all about her. We in no way feel invested or engrossed. I should also be clear that I really like novels written in the form of letters so that in itself was not a problem. Additionally, the final part of the book had information that this character that is writing could ever find out, which breaks the (very lacking anyway at this point) immersion further.
I dont know, I am just glad it was kinda short, finished it in two days. It's far from the worst book I've ever read but its certainly nothing I'll speak about much anytime soon.
I read a swedish translation: Translated by Allan Bergstrand and edited by Daniel Martinez
Score: 1.5/5
A wonderful read! Colourful characters, setting and language. Well earned title of “classic”!
Theres too much to say to fit in a review here. Every part of this novel needs to be analyzed and read purposefully and well and still there will be more to discuss. Its a complicated, modern and a really interesting read in so many ways. Wish I had the time to write it all down here but I just cannot. But its such a feminist piece of history, that even now is moving, and deeply engrossing. As an autistic person, Mr. Darcy's personal issues is intriguing and personal for myself and I did not expect a 210-year old novel to touch me in such a “modern” aspect.
im not really sure what I expected. maybe I had some lingering sense of hope after reading ‘The Silver Eyes' some years ago. It's also funny that the worst story is the one the book is named after. The second story, I dont even remember and the third was by FAR the best, which was unexpected! The third was the one I was the most skeptical about beforehand, but it basically carries this book. I mean, it's no masterpiece but its pretty spooky, had good pacing and is surprisingly well written.