Katherine

I expect this will be an unpopular opinion, and for that I am sorry, but not sorry for my opinion in itself.

Honestly? I am disappointed.

Crescent City has always been my least favorite of Sarah J Maas’ series, but I still liked it. Books 1 and 2 were good; I liked the plot (aside from how often Danika came up), the characters, the world building, and the Bryce/Hunt relationship. However, House of Flame and Shadow almost felt like it was a completely different set of characters.

Tharion, no longer the snarky sexy confident guy – now the defeated moping depressed guy.

Bryce, kind of a b*tch? In general she was extremely unlikable for most of the story. I was not rooting for her, in fact it was quite the opposite. Uncaring for Hunt in a way that made their relationship seem toxic, and a selfish asshole for several other parts that would be considered a spoiler. Their interactions made me cringe at times, and I was underwhelmed by their spice, reunion, and supposed power couple nature. I hated how she acted with everyone else, and I didn’t like her issues with her ancestry and how it became almost her whole personality.

Several other characters were different as well, and it was just not my favorite.

This review is really hard to write because I want to air my grievances with it (and there’s quite the list) but I don’t want to spoil anything since it is still a new book. I’ll outline some high level things, and maybe do a spoiler heavy part 2 where I really get into it.

The plot: horrible. Things that were easy should have been harder by a long shot, The story line did not make sense to me, the teased out combo of worlds was not what I imagined it at all to be. There were so many bad plot points and things that were stupid or just did not make sense. If you’ve read it, you can probably think of several pretty quickly.

It felt like someone else entirely wrote this book and decided to throw a bunch of things that didn’t make sense at all. The giant teaser we got at the end of book 2 had my hopes up high for the combo section, but it fell so so so flat. In my personal opinion, it was pointless, useless, and could have not happened at all. I do not believe it added any value.

I am really disappointed because as far as SJM’s 3 FMC’s, it seems like Bryce now is the most powerful, but she also didn’t have to work to master her powers at all?? How does that make sense? There is no character building with her, she just magically can wield a ton of power and it makes her so much less relatable.

Overall I am super underwhelmed and honestly really sad and disappointed. I kept having to put it down and come back to it, which is something I never thought I would say about an SJM novel. I read that she threw away draft 1 and completely started over, and I wish I could read that instead. My guess is I would like it more than this. I think in general I just did not like the story. I wished it would have gone so many different ways and wished the characters would have acted differently.

To be honest, I am not sure if I would read the next one in the series. I am not interested in hearing more about Tharion or Ithan, and that is the only realistic next step I see?

*insert sad face here*

ACOTAR follows Feyre, a young woman who cares for her family until she kills a wolf (fae) and is captured by a beast who turns out to be an incredibly handsome but moody/grumpy fae named Tamlin. As she goes through her new life in the Spring Court, she begins to fall for Tamlin, while also realizing things around Spring Court are a bit off - something isn't right. Romance blossoms, problems grow, and she must figure out both what she can do to help and what she is truly feeling for Tamlin.

This was my first dip into fantasy-romance books and it ended with me diving full force into the deep end. I could not put it down, it was fantastic!

I really enjoyed the strong, stubborn, feisty FMC Feyre, she was great! I loved going along with her through her journey. Sarah J. Maas did a great job with world building and descriptions of everything, I felt like I was in the spring court and could visualize it perfectly, as if I was part of the book itself. Tension grew and I was sucked into the story, dying to know what happened next!

Reading ACOTAR opened me up to a whole world of books I never considered and I am so glad I gave it a chance.

If you like world building, fae, heated romance, strong FMC, and general fantasy, this is a must-read!

Neon Gods is the first book in the Dark Olympus series and so good! It is a perfect broody x sunshine trope, filled with lots of banter, sexual tension, sexual release, and ultimately lots of caring for one another. A Persephone/Hades retelling is my favorite type of retelling and I was not disappointed.

Hades was dark, broody, handsome, mysterious and serious, but ultimately not a bad person. He opened up to Persephone and showed vulnerability as they went on and he honestly made me swoon. Persephone appears as the sunshine happy girl but underneath the facade lies a woman waiting for a chance to be her own strong person. Together they bring out the best in one another and show each other snippets of happiness each did not believe they would achieve.

I enjoyed the plot of Neon Gods, it made sense and was interesting. The stakes were high, the tensions were high, and the lust was high. What more could you want? The king of the city and Persephone’s mother hunting her down and starving out a city to bring her back to an arranged marriage to a known wife-murderer?? It was insane and also made so believable through the runaway scene and the messages sent by Zeus.

Katee Robert did a fantastic job describing everything from the surroundings, characters, emotions, thoughts. and anything else you could think of. Hermes and Dionysus were a fun addition, with Hermes being one of my favorites.

I LOVED the kink club angle. Of course that is perfect for Hades, and I loved that underneath the sunshine act, Persephone was just as into it. In general I think the kink club was super sexy and I really enjoyed those scenes.

Overall, Neon Gods by Katee Robert was a spicy, sexy, broody x sunshine trope wonderful book and I am so glad I read it. It is one of those books I would pick back up on a rainy cozy day and plow through in an afternoon because I enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it!

So this is my first thriller, and idk, I am not sold. I do think it was interesting, and I enjoyed reading it, it was suspenseful without being downright scary, and I blasted through it wanting to know what happened.

But, it was just so inconsistent and I did not think it made sense. things were alluded to that ended up being wrong, which can be fine for a twist, but when they don't make sense? That is where I think it becomes more inconsistency and less 'twist'.

The build up on the husband being EJ and then it wasn't was not my favorite. It just made perfect sense for him to be EJ, and then it wasn't at all? Tell me more about him then, because ya boy was suspicious and should have been EJ. Nope, he just randomly killed his mom. Nevermind the fact that he is overly obsessed with this house, encourages Tricia to wear Adrienne's clothes, etc. Clearly we were being directed down this path and then at the end randomly twisted away.

I did enjoy (Pa)Tricia and her twist, it totally makes sense for the most part. I do think there is inconsistency from the beginning few chapters to the end, but it wasn't as bad as Ethan.

Unless there is a part 2, several things were just left out: why did she continuously mention she only has known her husband for a year and doesn't really know him if it doesn't matter at the end? Why is Luke randomly there, perfectly poised like a little lamb in the den of lions? just so he could die? Why didn't we get a kill scene for Adrienne but did for this random stalker EJ?

Personally i hoped they all died but alas that is not the HEA we received. Instead we got a look into their happy family while also learning Tricia is ready to kill her husband at any time.

It was enjoyable and a quick read, but the inconsistencies bothered me and made it less enjoyable.