Dylan

Tall, musclebound man with “tawny” skin, dark eyes, and is covered in scars. Oh, and he has a huge, nay, absolutely massive pe——rsonality. Paired with a pale, very, very small (so tiny, so itsy bitsy), badass/snarky woman with unnaturally pretty eyes (and/or unique hair). And what do you get? A modern romantasy novel. Woo! Yay...

The only reason I even finished this book is for the worldbuilding.Which is amazing! A tidally-locked world, unique time cycle involving auroras, the dragons and most of the other little creatures. I loved the descriptors of the locales, the idea of the unique languages (for the most part), etc. I could nitpick a few things I didn't like, but they're so minor and I'm so happy to see a romantasy with actual worldbuilding that I'll let it slide (the bar is in hell).

I didn't like some of the linguistic choices. The usage of male/female made me cringe every time. But it's expected at this point, so whatever. Some words were just minor changes from normal words (dae - day, mahmi/pahpi - mom/dad, for example), which was kinda goofy.

There was a lot of cringe millennial dialogue. A. Lot. Of. Staccato. Writing. To. Convey. Aggression. A lot of fucks/fucking from all the characters. A lot of growling and snarling from the men. And yes, the MMC does roar when he cums, which made me laugh out loud because of course he does. No avalanches here though, so that's a plus (maybe they'll save that for book 2).

The FMC is whiny and insufferable. It got to the point where I debated if it was worth it to even continue. She's so “woe is me, I'm so damaged” and “I can't love, loving me is a death sentence” when she CLEARLY HAS PEOPLE THAT LOVE HER (Essi deserved so much goddamn better, RIP). She snarks after being tortured, for goodness sake.

The MMC is insta-love (you find out why later but it was still annoying) and even gifted her an unasked-for nickname (which is gross tbh). If there wasn't an actual plot-related reason to be so head-over-heels for her, I would have absolutely zero reason to believe he would try so hard for her. She is so aggravating and just pissed me off. The whiplash between reading Elluin and Raeve's perspectives hurt because I genuinely liked Elluin and hated who she has become. He is a consent king (mostly), so props for that over so many other MMCs out there. 

TL;DR - middling book with interesting worldbuilding and annoying characters. I'll maybe check out the sequel, so long as it doesn't turn into smutty garbage and actually continues the world building.

This is a very YA book, for decent and for worse.

The world and descriptions of locales and some people are great, I really would've loved to see more. I also liked the magic and, of course, always love me some dragons.

The plot feels rushed and a little too easily resolved, but intriguing all the same. I don't like how easy it was to resolve a lot of long-standing worldbuilding issues (dragon pearls, really?!). Like, I expect a little Mary Sue-ness in a YA novel, that's fine, but it was too easy for the MC. And there is ittle to no character growth, especially for the MC.

 I really didn't care for any of the main characters (Shuxiao is a real one, though. I want more of her, please). The sorta-kinda rebound love “triangle” almost made me DNF (specifically the West Lake Inn and godawful shared room, one bed trope 🤮—that thankfully didn't follow through). 

I'll read the sequel for the worldbuilding, but I'm not rushing into it.

This is a fascinating book about consciousness and what exactly it means to be human. Good and bad.

As much as I love optimistic sci-fi, this book paints a fascinating and bleak vision of the future, where Earth is barely habitable and getting into space to the many extrasolar colonies requires literally selling your soul and body to an organization called the ISF. It's a mix of conscription and near-sevitude (there are mentions of prison planets for people who dissent).

There are humanoid robots and the book explores the complications and inevitable human prejudices that come with that. Park's relationship with Glenn and, later, Jimex really reflects her soul and the conclusion of the book.

The human characters are fairly diverse with their own complex motives. They're struggling under the chaos of the mission and the looming threat of the ISF. I didn't really like her “relationship” with Fulbreech (thankfully there is no true romance here), but the ending is vague enough that there may never be anything truly there with all that happened.

I will say that I really wish there was more focus on the Fold and less on the boring mutiny stuff. I was kinda hoping that we'd get some really mind-blowing stuff that didn't pan out how I'd hoped. Like, I expected something from Solaris and/or Alien instead of what little we did get. Still a fan of the unity rain and all that, I just wanted more.

This is a weird book. But I devoured Harrow the Ninth, so I'm prepared for weird books that don't really make sense until the final third.

The cover art and title drew me in, the synopsis snagged me, and the immediate concepts it introduced really got me. 

I'm a huge fan of anything even remotely necromancy related, and splitting ones self into multiple individual beings that inhabit lab-grown bodies to avoid (religious) trauma during an invasion of an objectively evil empire was right up my alley. I really liked the concepts of the characters, and keeping track of exactly who was who and what they were like was a little tedious. 

Despite being from the perspective of a sex worker (though much more disparaging words are used), there aren't any on-page sex scenes (thank goodness), only brief mentions of their activities — the few good and, unfortunately, the large amount of bad.

I'm not normally a fan of “whodunit” stories, but this kinda kept me guessing. The reveal of the perpetrator was satisfying and the deaths of the awful, awful sons felt like a genuine relief with how awful they are. 

I did like how it wrapped up at the end. I don't want a direct sequel whatsoever, but I wouldn't mind seeing more in this universe. Maybe exploring the magic system? Or a prequel from the perspective of Inshil?

Oh, and a map would be lovely.

It's a book about oppressive religious cult modeled after Christianity, where the witches are not only real but an explicit part of the faith. The setting is vaguely colonial/puritan, so naturally, there is lots of religious trauma, racism, misogyny, etc.

The book opens with a woman giving birth and dying after dropping some cryptic lines that come together much later in the story. The Prophet (church leader) has a harem of battered wives he likes to collect when they're teenagers/girls, and the book doesn't shy away from that fact (up to and including the reveal and death of poor Leah at the Prophet's vile hands.

It's a good book, I'd definitely recommend it to anybody looking for a fictional witch persecution book.

That being said (and if I were to critique one thing), the book feels very YA at times. Kinda like Poppy War, where you have a lot of daaaarrrkk topics and imagery padded with teenage antics. And I know this might come off poorly, but the religion was tame compared to real life puritan culture, in that the FMC not only was educated but had free will and could mouth off to men. Obviously I don't want women oppressed, but if we're gonna make a puritan setting full of blood, creepy church cultists, and witches, we should go all out and make it as bad as it was in real life. 

TL;DR, if you're expecting something like/as dark as The VVitch, prepare to be a little disappointed. It's good, just not terrifying and as bleak as that movie.

I will definitely keep my eye out for this authors books!