Ariadne Pagakis

This is great for what it is, a fun, fast paced romance novel set in a fantasy setting. Great if you're looking for a fun popcorn read, but don't go into it expecting excellent prose, character development or exploration of the human condition. It's not that kind of story, and that's totally fine, fun popcorn reads have their place.

I went into this thinking it might be a regular New Adult action/fantasy novel, and the description made it seem that way, but past chapters 5 - 6 it's basically romance/smut. I gave it to a friend who enjoy that kind of content more.

The Good

+ It's decent written, the prose is quite good and you can tell the author is experienced in her craft. Nothing revolutionary of course.

+ The story is entertaining, fast paced, and well organized. If you enjoy contemporary romance but also action and fantasy you will really like this book.

+ The dialogue style is very accessible, the characters speak as though they're in a contemporary romance, despite the setting being more fantastical. If you're coming from contemporary romance you will enjoy this writing style.

+ The dialogue is mostly good and pretty vibrant and believable

The bad

- The characters are a bit flat, like, Violet is a self insert protagonist, and doesn't have much of a personality outside of being weak and smart, but I guess it fits the tone of the story.

- The main love interest doesn't have much of a personality outside of being a douche and his rival doesn't have many other traits outside of being very possessive. If you're looking for nuanced characters, deep character growth and introspection this isn't the book for you.

If you're looking for a fun gripping read, and enjoy romance and action, this is the book for you.

Overall: 4 stars.

Personal rating: 3.5 stars, not my thing.

I could barely get through the first chapter of this book. The advice is decent for writing 101, for someone who has never written before or read any fiction at all, but if your writing is already good, and you want to take it to the next level and make it exceptional, this book is not for you.

Furthermore, if you go look at the authors Goodreads, all the novels she's written are self published with less than 100 ratings, all of them rated around three stars. I don't understand why so many unsuccessful or marginally successful authors start giving advice to others about how to be a successful and excellent novelist. It's like those music industry advice YouTube channels where the owner is an obscure indie artist who makes music nobody listens to, with 5000 listeners on Spotify or something. Like, okay, I have a hard time taking you seriously then. Let's hear it from Ed Sheeran, or from Taylor Swift, both very acclaimed and very popular songwriters. I think it's the same with novel writing, let's hear it from Stephen King or from George R. Martin. I have a hard time taking people's advice seriously if they haven't achieved the goal their advice claims it will get you to.

I think you are all better off reading "On Writing" by Stephen King, unless you've never read any fiction or consumed any storytelling at all, this book isn't for you.