adds
That was... bleak. Definitely understand why Haymitch is broken as hell now. I know how the Hunger Games go, but it's infuriating that he didn't take one for the team and kill Snow when he was left alone with him. Screw the arena, cut the head off the snake.
It took me 7 months to get 35% through because the arena doesn't show up until 55% of the way in. I had to force myself to smash this out to finish.
I looked at the casting for the upcoming movie, and I might be even more excited for that now. Hopefully they get into the arena faster though.
Warning bells started going off at 2%. At 5% those bells were booming. 8% and I'm functionally done. Especially after researching critiques of the issues I was clocking. I skipped through to get the gist and read various analyses. https://stewarthotston.com/2026/01/23/review-the-everlasting-i-feel-used-and-dirty
I think The Everlasting is too close to white guilt management in pretty prose form for me. A POC is placed into a fascist framework, written as a willing participant to further genocides, and then weakly made to navigate out of that using romance as a prop. A romance as a reward for suffering, but only once his dark eyes have lightened to amber and his dark hair is turned "a pure, unnatural white, like bleached bone".
Zoey Draven really said, "I'm gonna make my readers heartbroken and miserable but they're gonna like it." And I did, but I wish Kaldur had done literally anything to fix the system that disenfranchised Erina or her loved ones in the first place. No long-lasting changes in his lands, no real growth, just a pregnancy trope (which I kind of hate) that forced her back to him before she could grow her own believable spine. Let me just reach through the book and give Kaldur a couple good smacks upside the head to knock some sense into that cad. Erina, stop being so damn nice!
DNF 10.8%, although I knew pretty much instantly I probably wasn't going to like this. The writing style is a little juvenile. The female lead is all over the place. But honestly, it's the way-too-fast breeding kink pregnancy stuff that gave me the ick. I had a pretty good idea where this book and series was headed, so I read some spoilers that confirmed it. That direction doesn't interest me, so I'm out.
Porn with a slightly messy plot. A little too insta-love for me.
I finished this and immediately went to read the blurbs of the other books in the series but none of them look like they're about Sofie so that's a bummer. I was hoping to get her story taking place maybe 10 or so years later.
I'm also thinking this book was self-published, and if there was an editor, they too didn't know the correct usage of lay/lie. Just a heads up.
It took me 3 weeks to get through 30% of this book. I came so close to abandoning it multiple times. Sat down and forced myself to power through and ended up reading for 7 hours until I finished. Honestly, the world building has some major weak points. There are so many holes for me that aren't explained or just flat out don't make sense. I kept telling myself if I just kept reading, everything would be revealed, yet I think it's really just stuck at massive suspension of belief. Having a second POV might have really helped fuel the intrigue and build out characters. I will say that when the romance hits, it packs a pretty good punch, but you have to wait a looong time for it.
Solidly young adult. It's dark, but still YA. If this hadn't been labeled as adult on Goodreads and pushed as such on TikTok I might not have wasted my time with it. Probably should have stopped reading when I was slogging through the second part. I'm not at all motivated to keep reading this series, which is a bummer because the first part was very good. Impressive premise and scope from the author but this needed more editing and shaping. As it is this is somewhat over-hyped.
The plot is mostly just a vehicle to get from one sex scene to the next. Characters feel very juvenile. There are wolf shapeshifters but no knotting. And the dystopian elements are either not fleshed out or don't go far enough in my opinion. I kept waiting for the horrifying secret eugenics plot, but there was none. This could stand to have some major editing removing some of the video game playing and adding world building.
Contains spoilers
Alana suffers from an acute case of dumb bitchitis, which clearly infected me because there's no other reason for me to have not DNF this all the times I considered it.
My Turn has a choose-your-own-ending option: one with a HEA and one without. The only reason I finished this was to see what happened to Jayce. I would accept 1 of 2 outcomes for this murdering rapist. He would either need to end up dead or in prison for consecutive life sentences. Neither of those things happened, so in my opinion there was definitely no happy ending.
I don't consider this dark romance; just dark. This is a straight horror novel. There's no morally grey. No person in their right mind could ever like Jayce, including readers. This character had a straight coal black heart and moral code. Terrorizing, raping, and branding the female lead is never romantic.
I was unfortunately and very unpleasantly introduced to this shit-stain through far too many videos and clips of his beyond repugnant views concerning women, birth control, sexual assault, and victim blaming. This piece of shit creep asserts that women who take birth control are basically asking for sex because he can't comprehend in his back-assed smooth excuse for a brain any other reason someone might use birth control. He plainly blames women for being raped, calling them “stunningly unsophisticated”, because he thinks we don't know how to say “no” correctly. The only thing this waste of space is concerned with is a man's hurt feelings. Send this turd directly into the sun, no expense spared.
But what do you MEAN he's a 9 foot tall gator lizard looking alien and the cover is some buff blue human guy?!
I thought Alien Exile was pretty great. Then again, I did skip the first 4 books in this series because they didn't sound interesting enough. I certainly wasn't confused or like I was missing anything though.
When you think this is going to be just a lighthearted funny romance and then you end up crying for the characters. But don't worry, there is a happy ending.
I likely wouldn't have even come across this book if it hadn't been nominated for the 2024 Choice Awards but I managed to finish it just in time to vote for it in opening rounds over the handful of others I read.
The premise caught my eye because I've lived through my own version of a dating “curse”. I had quite a streak where the next girl my exes would date would get pregnant. It even rubbed off on a couple guys I friend-zoned and never even dated. Really helped solidify my belief that birth control of all forms should be handed out like candy and we all need universal healthcare.
Written by a millennial woman for other millennial women. I would know; references felt targeted. The writing is mildly pretentious a handful of times and the book, with the entire premise of I'm-sad-you're-sad-let's-be-sad-together, isn't really worth adapting into a movie imo.
The female lead is an early to mid (I swear an editor missed an age consistency) 30's children's librarian who dowdily looks the part and seems to never wear makeup. We also get a smattering of adorkableness, I'm-not-like-other-girls, a huge dose of negative self-esteem, along with trust, and daddy issues. What a bundle of joy she is (sarcasm). I don't know how, but somehow, she's still “sexy”.
Her male romantic love interest is again, somehow handsome through his potheaded bearded scruffiness and self-confidence issues which stem from slowly revealed family baggage and drama (not trying to give away too much here). His personality is a massive improvement from hers and at least got me to finish this.
If you're in an airport bookstore and the pickings are slim this should do for a flight. Otherwise, life is short read something else unless you're great at skimming.
Easily my least favorite in the series so far. Maketes is great. Loved seeing his violent side. Ace not so much. She was kind of a bitch to him for far too long. Even behind his back.
As much as I want the next book I hope the author takes more time with it than what Echoes of the Tide seemed to get.