Lisa Fries

Overall enjoyable read but didn't fully grab me. The world building & magic mechanics is really great. I definitely loved learning about the world and how it operates, but wished for a little more action. The climax felt a little rushed & not as exciting as I had hoped.

EDIT: Feel I need to add that reading this book is well worth it to read the series as a whole. I felt each book got better and really loved the 3rd book.

I feel I need to preface this review with the fact that I’ve realized Science Fiction maybe just isn’t my genre. I enjoy sci-fi movies & TV, so I always thought that would translate to books, but in film, when they start talking about physics & quantum mechanics, I politely disassociate and just focus on the pretty pictures. I guess I can’t do that while reading.

Boyyyy does this book get deep into the nitty gritty of physics, mathematics, quantum mechanics. Every theory or experiment that Ryland has is explained in excruciating details. I’m not a complete dummy, I understand some of it, I just don’t care 🤷🏻‍♀️ To me, a lot of the pathos and fun of the book really gets distracted by getting lost in these scientific details. But also, I think that may just be a me problem. I think this sci-fi just doesn’t make my heart sing. That’s ok.

I had high hopes due to the glowing reviews but it never really grabbed me. Aside from the science, I just found Ryland to be a bit hokey for my taste. On the other hand, I loved Rocky. I loved their friendship, how they learned to communicate, all of that was A+.

It’s a good read, just not quite my cup of tea.

Another 2.5 rating if half stars existed.

Ok so stuff actually happens in this book! Like there's kind of a plot! And there's tons of smut! So what's the problem? - this book is about 100-200 pages too long. It all just gets really repetitive, even the smut. And ya know, the plot is still not great. There's a lot of bits that feel really unbelievable or big conflicts that resolve 2 pages later - a lot of it feels unnecessary. Christian is also as insanely controlling as ever, which weirdly continues to be less scary to Ana then his penchant for pain.

I watched the movie right after finishing this. While it's no Oscar winner, they cut a lot of the unnecessary fat, rewrite some of the bigger leaps to make more sense and soften Christians wild control issues. I rarely say a movie is better than the book, but plotwise that definitely applies here.

Did I keep reading it though? Yes. Did I finish it? Yes. Am I going to read the 3rd book? Yes.

Plot: 1 out of 5; Smut: 4.6 out of 5. Wish I could give half stars, cause this is a solid 2.5

Terrible story, the first 1/3rd was hard to get through. I put it down for a couple months before picking it back up to finish; cause I hate not finishing. Once the smut geared up it got more readable, but it really is just that. The whole abuse=BDSM plot line is bad. It's the guy being a stalker/insanely controlling that's really worrisome. It's also a very 2011 book and even feels dated more than that. I was 25 in 2011, at that point I had a smart phone for ~3 years. I get that Ana's a “bookish” gal, but her being so flustered by technology is a weird thing that comes up constantly. She's ~22, not 60.

The ending is abrupt and dumb - though it's clearly done so that you want to read the next book. My ebook had that 1st two chapters of the next book and that satiated my curiosity enough for now.

I'd read the next two if I didn't have anything else to read

I wasn’t fully invested in The Cruel Prince. It felt it took right until the end to interest me, so I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to continue with The Wicked King. I’m glad I did.

There’s a nice amount of twists and turns in this one. I have a knack for predicting what will happen and I was gladly surprised by a lot of the twists. Both Jude & Cardin have nice development in this one.

While the series hasn’t fully hooked me, it’s been an enjoyable read and looking forward to The Queen of Nothing.