Ratings17
Average rating3.9
Breathtaking suspense and scorching romance meet in this page-turning tale. This is an immersive, sweeping fantasy from the mega-bestselling Jennifer L. Armentrout. She lives by her intuition. He feeds on her pleasure . . . Long ago, the world was destroyed by gods. Only nine cities were spared. Separated by vast wilderness teeming with monsters and unimaginable dangers, each city is now ruled by a guardian – royalty who feed on mortal pleasure. Born with an intuition that never fails, Calista knows her talents are of great value to the power-hungry of the world, so she lives hidden as a courtesan of the Baron of Archwood. In exchange for his protection, she grants him information. When her intuition leads her to save a travelling prince in dire trouble, the voice inside her blazes with warning – and promise. Today he’ll bring her joy. One day he’ll be her doom. When the Baron takes an interest in the prince, and the prince takes an interest in Calista, she becomes the latter’s temporary companion. But the city simmers with rebellion, and with knights and monsters at her city gates and a hungry prince in her bed, intuition may not be enough to keep her safe. Calista must choose: follow her intuition to safety or follow her heart to her downfall. From the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of From Blood and Ash, this is a searing new romance. Praise for Jennifer Armentrout: ‘I hope you guys love this book as much as I do!’ - Sarah J. Maas ‘Armentrout packs a powerful emotional punch’ - Publishers Weekly
Featured Series
1 primary bookAwakening is a 1-book series first released in 2015 with contributions by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
Reviews with the most likes.
I'd give this book a solid 3.5 stars. The heat was def there but the story was a bit slow. The ending was interesting and I will read the next book. But I hate the way women were used in this book. Gave me a bit of a yuck feeling. She had no consent to anything even though the men said she did. Interested to see book 2.
Really disappointed in this one. The first 10% and the last 10% were the best parts. The middle was just a smut fest. I didn't feel the connection at all. What I want most out of my romance is the the romance. And I just didn't feel it. Wouldn't hurt to also have more world building to help with the fantasy part. I don't think I will continue with this series. I feel like I'll get the same, a few interesting things buried in smut.
This will probably be an unpopular review, but it is what it is.
I like JLA books, I really do! I love Blood and Ash and Flesh and Fire, and I was actually convinced she was improving a lot as a writer.
I did think an editor would improve her work, thus my excitement to see her new book being published by TOR.
Such . . . a . . . disappointment!
So . . . about . . . this . . . book:
- You take Blood and Ash and mix it up with Flesh and Fire.
- You search for synonyms of intriguing and opt for interesting and enthralling
- Liessa is used already . . . You decide to change it for na'laa
- you eliminate all traces of a plot
- You remove gradual world building and add it all up as info dump at 70% (you all know what usually happens at this point of the story).
- To increase the length of the book, you use ellipsis every chance you get! Don't forget to add a space between every dot, this will ensure you barely need to write a story.
- Procede to add bits of plot in the last 15% of the book, in between some intense action scenes, so you can prepare a cliffhanger to hook readers for a second book.
- To make it TikTok worth it, you add smut every chance you get. If everything goes right, nobody will notice they are reading recycled material without any story behind.
The characters:
- Lis is special, obviously, but she is no maiden! She is some rich lord paramour, and sometimes even works as a courtesan. She is abused ALL THE TIME, but apparently, she only complains when is the MMC, and she actually wants it. As the story goes on, she slowly converts into Poppy, finds herself a dagger and stars throwing things to MMC. More powers appear and I expect she will be a Queen at the end of the series.
- Cas and Niktos had a son, but he is horny and feeds on desire. Said horniness will avoid the necessity of creating a personality for Thorne, maybe on the second book. He senses (and sees) the FMC being abused, but he is very hungry, so he let's everything happen, and patiently waits for his turn.
Unfortunately, I don't believe I will continue with this series.