Bungulover

I get why this book is so popular. The plot is engaging, the characters are great, and I was hooked the whole way through. This is a book for escapism, to be entertained—and it delivers on that really well. The world-building was quite interesting and different.

The only reason I’m not giving it five stars is the cringe. Some moments were so awkward they made my eyes bleed, and the spice scenes were poorly written.

Saeris, the FMC, was getting on my nerves at the beginning—saying and doing so many stupid things. Kingfisher, the shadow daddy here, is of course super hot and mysterious (though I’m not a fan of his famous dirty talk 😆). I was suffering, hoping he could be saved from his curse. 💔 At one point, I was a bit worried he might be changing too much and getting too soft all of a sudden. I’m still not sure if the romance will stay interesting after this book.

Carrion Swift made me laugh out loud—he was the best 🤣. I also really enjoyed Archer, the fire spirit, and I wish he had more page time.

I felt that there are a lot of similarities with the ACOTAR first 2 books, but as of this first book, I actually prefer how things are handled here—especially the specifics of the mate bond. At least in this world, there’s room for free will and rejection, which makes a big difference.

Can’t wait for the next book.

I was expecting a romantic fantasy, but this felt more like an “erotic fantasy”—is that a genre? There’s quite a lot of sexual content and not much actual romance.

Overall, it was okay—especially toward the end, but I felt a bit lost in the world-building (or the lack of it) and overwhelmed by the side cast.

I’m guessing that’s because I haven’t read the previous YA series in the same world.

At first it was as a cute, cozy read, but I started losing interest once the suffrage survivor character appeared. The story didn’t engage me as much after that point, because it revolves too much around a new character I didn’t even care about.

Overall, the dialogue was sparse, especially in the beginning, with a lot of descriptions. The love interest was a rather uninteresting, quiet man.

Finally, I found the pronouns and adjectives used for the cactus in the Spanish version a bit confusing, which made it harder to follow at times.

I'm starting to notice a clear pattern in many of these so-called cozy fantasy books: there's usually an emphasis on sweets, tea or coffee, a touch of nature, strong inclusivity themes (often with prominent LGBTQ+ representation), and a recurring moral of "do the right thing for the community." While I can see the appeal for some readers, especially younger, it’s beginning to feel formulaic to me, and sometimes even a bit forced.

I was just looking for a break from high-stakes, violent fantasy; something lighter, but still within the genre. Unfortunately, this particular pattern of cozy fantasy just isn’t for me. I guess I’ll have to look elsewhere.

3 stars. A Mix of Good and Bad.

I gave “The Serpent and the Wings of Night” 4.5 stars.

I understand that the implications of the ending in Book 1 are complex, and it wouldn’t be realistic for the FMC to simply move on after that event.

However, the repercussions of that made me grow to dislike both main characters for a good part of the book. The love-hate dynamic and their muddled morals felt unclear and uncomfortable, and I couldn’t root for them the way I did in Book 1.

Overall, it was a bit boring to me—I’m not sure exactly why. Beyond the interactions between the main characters, there were the politics, the preludes, and the repetitive phrases like “there she is” (which, in Spanish, was translated as “esa es mi chica,” and honestly sounded really icky). The whole “quest for the Holy Grail” plot felt flimsy, especially with how convenient everything became around the 70% mark.

The ending was satisfying, thankfully. However, it didn’t leave me wanting to continue with the rest of the series.

I’m torn. It’s certainly an interesting story that kept me hooked, with great characters, but it was also painfully slow, with a lot of “filler”.

It ends on a completely open-ended note, offering no closure whatsoever.

I’m especially frustrated with the final twist. Seriously, another Tamlin? Rurik is even more similar: turning into a beast, locking doors, the whole thing. I was loving this character and expected more positive development between him and Saga, so his actions at the end were very disappointing. I’m genuinely sad that Saga continues to be ana bird in a cage after everything. It left me feeling pretty pessimistic.

The Good:

• The introduction of Saga.

• The slow-burn romance between Silla and Rey.

• The magic system and world-building.

The Bad:

• The endless Jonas POV chapters—I just didn’t want to be in his head anymore. His chapters were repetitive and dragged the pace down.

• Not a single appearance from the other Bloodaxe Crew characters. That felt like a letdown.

• Very few answers and way too many new questions. How many books is this series going to have?

• The graphic and often grotesque descriptions were a bit much for me—borderline disgusting at times.

• Almost every male character is either evil, abusive, or both.

Honestly, I’m actually relieved the third book isn’t out yet, because I don’ think I would have the energy to keep reading this story. I don’t know if I will continue.

Road of Bones: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kingdom of Claw: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book has the same exact structure to The House in the Cerulean Sea, specially for the first half approximately. However, here the characters felt flat, I didn’t care for any of them and their stories and traumas didn’t feel authentic but forced. I even struggled to differentiate between the three witch children.

I almost to DNF’d at 40% because of this, but I was too lazy to choose a different book so I continued. It didn’t get better.

In a word: Chaotic.

One shock after another turned this series into a full-blown telenovela. It was exhausting, painful, and left me deeply disappointed.

With Powerless, the Hunger Games inspiration was obvious, but after reading other reviews, apparently the author borrowed from several other sources throughout the series. So I guess that in order to write Fearless, she probably went hunting for dramatic moments and threw them all into the mix. Most of it lacked real justification—added purely for shock value.

The scene where Paedyn had to fight Kai to the death was painful to read—and revealing him as Mak didn’t make it any better. It left a terrible taste.

Making Paedyn the lost child of the king and half-sister to her new husband felt completely unnecessary. It was obvious Kitt would end up dying (and I didn't want him to), but turning him into a villain and having Kai kill him was upsetting and gratuitous.

The twists about their ages and hidden origins were just too much and made the story feel tangled and overcomplicated.

All for the drama.

The same scenes, dialogue, and cheesy quotes are repeated endlessly. One are twice are cute, but it was too much. Also making out where the sister is buried? Really?

I looked up the author—she’s quite young. I hope that, with time, she finds her own voice and learns to recognize when less is more. The romance was emotive, and I liked most characters and their playful interactions—when they weren’t being overly repetitive.

My breakdown:

Powerless: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ — Enjoyable, as long as you don’t have high expectations.

Powerful: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ — Cute. Sad. (tandem read not recommended)

Reckless: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ — Filler and repetitive (but the slow-burn romance was still enjoyable)

Fearless: ⭐️⭐️ — Exhausting, messy, bad ending.

Series Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ — A trope- and romance-heavy series with some enjoyable moments, but also plagued by repetition, and a messy, unoriginal finale. Too much borrowed, not enough substance.

This book was very interesting and refreshing. Lately, most romantasy books I’ve read have felt quite similar, but this one stood out a bit—even though it still shared some common tropes.

I definitely saw the protagonist’s identity coming. Unfortunately, I also knew Jonas wouldn’t remain the main love interest because of some fan art I stumbled upon (I just couldn’t avoid it!). I expected he would either die or be Tamlinized—a word I just made up to mean “turned bad”, if you know, you know 🤣—and it turned out to be the latter, which was disappointing. He is waaaaaay worse than Tamlin 😭

However, the reveal about Rey around the 90% mark genuinely surprised me, and that was exciting!

The sunshine x grumpy trope isn’t my favorite, but I’ll keep reading, since this book is anything but conclusive.

A cute, short secondary novella about Adena and Mak. Mak isn’t mentioned in Powerless, so he felt a bit like an afterthought—but I liked him, and it was nice to see a different kind of romance for Paedyn’s best friend. They’re the classic grumpy x sunshine type.

The story takes place at the same time as Powerless, but from the perspective of these two characters.

I read the book in tandem with Powerless, following a guide I found online, and I really wish I hadn’t done it that way.

I do not recommend the tandem read. Why? Because the stories rarely intersect—the characters are in different places, doing completely different things most of the time. It was very anticlimactic jumping back and forth between the two books, and the ending is emotionally devastating if you don’t know what happens at the end of Powerless. Yes, I cried. More than once.

If you liked Powerless, just read this novella right after finishing it, while it’s still fresh in your mind. It’s short and sweet, so it won’t take you long. Reckless (the second book) can wait a bit!

It’s like the author took The Hunger Games, mixed in some other YA dystopian and romantasy tropes, and made a book. Maybe I’ll get tired of it someday, but not today. 🤷🏻‍♀️😆

The book was fast-paced, and the constant tension kept me hooked—I couldn’t stop reading.

All the male characters (especially Kai) being arrogant and flirty all the time got a bit annoying, though.

Also, I didn’t realize this was a Young Adult book (which I’m definitely not); I was expecting more development in the romantic relationship—maybe even some spice—so I was a bit disappointed when it didn’t go there.

I really disliked how the protagonist immediately offered her help to a group of people she didn’t know, without asking any questions about their methods or considering the potential consequences for the two princes—who she was supposedly befriending.

Despite its flaws, it was very entertaining and addictive. I’ll keep reading the series.

The concept was nice, stories were cute, but everything was repeated too many times (specially the rules) and the translation/adaptation was poor. Thankfully I live in Japan and speak Japanese so I could imagine what the characters were saying.

It's the typical Japanese drama of very, very sad happenings in order to make you cry what I disliked about this book. After watching many Japanese movies/series and reading some books, I'm so tired of that recurring theme that it annoys me at this point. I won't continue reading the following books of this series.