Amanda Autumn
So absolutely amazing. I honestly saw the ending coming towards the end but it still did not disappoint. I can’t believe this is a debut novel it was written so well. Lillian was not the most likable MC but honestly I think that’s what kept things so interesting. She would do things that looked like a train wreck and I just couldn’t look away. I will definitely be on the lookout for more books by this author in the future
I literally am obsessed with every book this duo puts out that I've read and I can't say enough good things about their work. Billy use to be my least favorite in the family but of course after reading this he's quickly raised through the ranks (not above Nolan though🖤) I recommend not only this book but this whole series to anyone who loves kicking their feet like a giddy child at romance novels
FINALLY a good OCD rep! I am in love with this book for SO many reasons but as someone who lives with OCD I must acknowledge how well it was represented in this novel. I also love the authors note at the end. It is extremely rare for OCD to be properly represented in the media and the stereotypes are very damaging to the community. It's refreshing to see someone depict it so perfectly. I related so much to Ophelia and it made the novel even more enjoyable. I must say this is one of the best fantasy books I've read. I'm so excited for book 2 to release in 2025
I liked book two in the Coven of Bones series but I wasn't as obsessed with it as I was with book one. I hope book 3 is about Margot because her story seemed much more interesting in the epilogue. I still love Gray I think Woods made him extremely interesting and obviously a little questionable. Willow was the piece that had me a bit annoyed in book 2. I understand it's an enemies to lovers but I feel as though Willow should've been a bit more developed emotionally. Also I lowkey think I like leviathan more than gray
This was WAY too good. I swear Penelope always will be a guilty pleasure of mine. She just gets it. In the beginning Iron was my favorite but by the end it was Macon. I lowkey wish Iron would get his own spin off because I loved him so much. Literally if all the brothers got their own book I'd read them all happily
VERY 80s. I was really excited about this one and I ended up being slightly disappointed. Let's start with things I liked. I love the concept of getting lost in some crazy water park and I love the concept of it being super 80s and I love the slasher theme. I love the descriptions the author used in some of the more gory situations and I like that they didn't shy away from making the killer impossible to beat. What I didn't like was that the believability simply didn't seem there. The plot didn't fully make sense and there were questions that weren't ever answered. Also I kind of wish the killer had more personality and motive
I am in love with this book. This book was way too fast of a read. I am so torn up about everything that happened. The FMC having cystic fibrosis was honestly so inspiring and the way it was written was so perfect. As someone who has an auto immune disease (MS) it was really refreshing to see the kind of forward and backward struggle of living with an auto immune disease that is chronic and the duality of trying to live your life to the fullest while still being careful and I think the author did a really good job of portraying that. All of the characters were really good and I cried. Also the fact that the twist actually surprised me is saying something. Should've surprised me? Probably not. But it did so I didn't see it coming even though maybe I should've. I still have some questions, especially about Savannah, but I don't think those will ever be answered but honestly, I'm OK with that because the ending was everything I could've asked for
Over all I loved this book. I read it so fast and it was great at getting me out of my reading slump. The pacing was great until the end. The end felt very rushed. I would've rated it five stars if the pacing was a little more balanced. I will say though, this is definitely a dark romance. You need to read all of the trigger warnings before picking the book up. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a true dark romance with a toxic relationship at the center and suspense throughout with a balanced portion of spice
I started reading this book when I discovered Prime Reading. It was a pretty good book but I just wish things went a little differently. For whatever reason my brain was determined to make this a romance novel although in reality it's anything but.
I like the fact that there is no 100% good character. All of the characters had layers which made them enjoyable but also realistic. I felt the need to sympathize with all of them even when they were on opposing sides.
There's a lot going on in this book and I'm gonna open this by saying that I had a huge urge to change my rating because I looked up multiple analysis of the ending after finishing the (book because I was so confused). But, I feel it is best to stick to my initial thoughts. As always reading my reviews might lead to ruining the book for you. So if you plan on reading it, and don't want to spoil it, don't read this review.
I want to start with as brief of a summary as I can. The narrator is a male teacher in his mid to late 20s only referred to as K. K is in love with a friend from college named Sumire. She was in college with the desire of becoming an author but dropped out before graduating. Sumire has never experienced romantic love or sexual attraction. she meets an older woman 17 years, her senior named Miu and becomes inexplicably, drawn to her, falling in love with her and sexually attracted to her. Miu is a married woman and doesn't feel sexual attraction to anyone. Miu hires Sumire as her personal secretary (presumably because she just wants to be around Sumire). inexplicable magical, realism events take place when Miu is 14 years younger, and it traps part of her“ the other side“. The way they describe this previous event is Miu was trapped on a Ferris wheel over night at a fair because the machine operator was drunk and forgot she was on the Ferris wheel. She uses binoculars at the top of the Ferris wheel and looks into her apartment window that she can see from where she is. In the apartment she sees herself having sex with a man she loathes named Firnando. Miu wakes up in a hospital with pitch white hair and zero understanding of what happened. Miu and Sumire vacation to Greece where Sumire professes her feelings and somewhat gets rejected. Miu says she believes if Sumire met her before she was “split in two” she'd love her. Sumire goes missing that night. Miu calls K and flies him out to Greece. When K finds Sumire's things in her room he reads through her journal and looks into a floppy disk. He learns about the inexplicable things that happened to Miu 14 years ago and is convinced Sumire is trapped on the “other side” because she wanted to meet “the other half” of Miu. Anything and everything beyond this point goes into conspiracy and different beliefs of what exactly each reader thinks happened. Not every reader agrees on whether or not K actually left Greece.The ending was about as vague as can be some people believe K committed suicide other people believe the magical half of magical-realism, and think that K went to “the other side“ note: the other side is not referring to afterlife. It is a parallel universe. Some people Believe K went back to life as normal, and simply dreamed of Sumire. I'm not fully sure what to believe but, I don't think there was a parallel universe. I believe the change in appearance that happened in Sumire when she met Miu and the change in appearance of K after Sumire disappeared is a foreshadowing that is based in their mental states. I believe Miu also went through a change in mental state, but the reason she didn't die or “disappear” is because she survived meaning: did not kill herself. Her hair permanently turned white, which can happen in times of extreme trauma, but she survived. Even though she survived she was never the same, which is a common occurrence when somebody gets that close to suicide. I believe after feeling rejected Sumire killed herself. I have zero idea where her body went. That's one thing I don't have an answer for I believe after reading all of Sumires letters in Greece she went through a light psychosis, which explains the unexplainable music playing in the middle of the night on a mountain in Greece. I believe K left Greece. I believe K broke up with his girlfriend (the mother of one of his students) to tie up his ends and I believe the reason something seemed off when he was talking to a security guard was because he was a shell of his former self. I believe the night he was called by his friend, was actually him killing himself to be with her.This is not a popular opinion. A lot of people like to go with the more magical side of magical-realism, but I like to believe magical realism is just a way that authors explain what seems to be unexplainable. In reality sometimes we must exaggerate what we see to make them more accurate to our own perception when speaking to others Some people look at this as an embellishment of the truth, but I think it's the way of trying to get someone else in your headspace. I don't think there's actual magic in this case of magical-realism. I believe this was just the best way the author found to describe his plot and vision I believe his plot is based fully in reality, but adding magical elements and extraordinary elements in a way made everything more real and more relatable
I think writing off everything that happened as magic or parallel, universes defeats all significance of the novel
I wanted to love this so bad. I usually love books about addiction and Chuck is one of my favorite authors so I figured this would be the perfect novel for me. I think that there was just way too much going on. It was hard for me to commit to one layer because there were so many layers. All of the twists were good and it definitely had the shock value of all Chuck novels. It was just a lot going on that didn't really flow together in my opinion
First off I am so grateful for StoryGraph, because it is literally the only app that I was able to truly realistically rate this book I adored this book, and the only reason it isn't five stars is because the conflict sometimes dragged on a little too much for my liking. I was surprised by every plot twist, and every new development. Seeing the character development was honestly so heartwarming and made me so happy. I am truly so happy with the outcome of this novel
World building ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Character development ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Twists ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Romance ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was a really good book. I have a few things I could complain about but over all I liked the book. If we look at the men in this novel I now have a new preference, Onyx. I loved Ames in book one but in book two he just came across as controlling and unsupportive. The twists were fairly obvious but they still were interesting. It didn't ruin the book.
Now for what I didn't like in the book Onyx was great and I was fine with him looking for his family. The thing that annoyed me was his father (one of the obvious twists) king of the vampires. I should've expected what the Bleeding Heart ball was. But I didn't. Wolfgang is still a lovable character my only concern is that he acts immature sometimes.
