This is a fair and honest review given after reading an eARC for this book.
Full disclosure: I went into this book blind. I mistakenly thought these weThis is a fair and honest review given after reading an eARC for this book.
Full disclosure: I went into this book blind. I mistakenly thought these were standalone books about "men of the world", not that it was an interconnected series of novels all following along with a gay reality TV show called "Tainted Love" and centering on one primary love interest, Deacon Brady, as he moves between twelve countries and twelve men with $12 million dollars in it for him at the end.
It didn't take but a couple of pages for me to acclimate to the storyline, though.
We're in Salzburg, Austria for this book; but Deacon, his charismatic producer Dante, and Fynn (the Austrian contestant referred to in the book's title), are in more than a little spot of trouble. They're in the midst of a global pandemic (sounds familiar) and the Austrian government has put everyone on lockdown (also... familiar). So, somehow, Dante has to find a way to make a show that's supposed to be about chemistry work while Deacon and Fynn can't even be in the same room as each other.
I found this aspect of the book to be the most entertaining, because it allowed Mantel to highlight exactly how hard it is to NOT use the full depth and breadth of your body language and proximity to connect to another person when you meet them to establish rapport. Deacon and Fynn are forced, for the majority of the book, to communicate almost solely via video chats, and although Deacon tries to do his job it's clear Fynn doesn't care for him one bit and knows next to nothing about him. The ways in which Fynn goads Deacon and takes the wind out of his sails had me snorting more than once. But it also had me feeling sorry for Deacon, who kept trying to put in an effort for the sake of the show and for Dante, who probably felt like he was babysitting children he didn't ask for while simultaneously working another full-time job the whole book.
Once the lockdown was broken down enough for Fynn and Deacon to come close to one another the animosity was still there for a bit, but that communication barrier that exists when there's a screen between two people didn't stay erected for too long, and the two of them became closer. But the chemistry Deacon has with Dante was outshining whatever Deacon had with Fynn by miles and miles.
And that was my favorite part of the book, really: that unresolved sexual tension between Deacon and Dante. It's an inexorable pull.
It was an entertaining read. I wouldn't call it spicy. More steamy. It was also a shorter book, too, so it moved light and fast. And if you are a fan of this chemistry between Dante and Deacon? Well......more
This is going to sound so, so, so cliche, but one of the primary thoughts I had while reading this book was that infamous quote from “The Dark Knight”This is going to sound so, so, so cliche, but one of the primary thoughts I had while reading this book was that infamous quote from “The Dark Knight”. You know the one: “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
“A Mirror Mended”, as if you weren’t aware, is the follow-up novella to the absolutely brilliant “A Spindle Splintered”, which introduces us to Zinnia, a young woman just about to turn 21 and who is quickly on her way to dying of a terminal disorder/syndrome/malady she developed in the womb from pollution in her hometown. Basically, she’s got only weeks to live. But her lifelong obsession with the tale of Sleeping Beauty and her degree in folklore leads to her bestie throwing her a themed 21st birthday party, complete with a spinning wheel she found at a flea market. And what do you know? Prick your finger on a spindle for funsies and all of a sudden she’s hurtled across space and time like a fairy tale version of Doctor Who (yes, I am repeating a joke from this book) and discovers that there is, essentially, a Sleeping Beauty multiverse. (Insert the rest of the plot of that book here.)
Well, here in “A Mirror Mended”, I guess you can kind of tell right away that Zinnia isn’t in Sleeping Beauty multiverse land anymore, right? You’d be correct! She’s in a bathroom at a wedding, looks in a mirror in the bathroom, and there’s a woman asking her for help. Before she knows it, she’s being pulled through the mirror and–lo and behold–there’s a multiverse full of Snow Whites too! Only Harrow doesn’t focus on the princess in this installment. Zinnia was pulled through the mirror by who we usually identify as the “Evil Queen”.
There’s a whole lot going on in this fast and clever read, but it never feels like Harrow is cramming in too much for us readers to be expected to extrapolate on our own or to keep up. She doesn’t just throw information and plot at us and expect it to stick as she hurries on her way to the next scene. It’s simply that these books don’t take place over a long period of time. It’s maybe a day or two. Most of that is spent traveling with Zinnia’s inner narrative to provide exposition, entertain us, and to keep us thinking about what Harrow is trying to convey. Some of it is spent on emotional and sometimes witty dialogue scenes that serve as social and cultural commentary, and maybe a glop of it is spent on action scenes.
Both of the books in this series spend a lot of time with the idea of agency and crafting your own narrative, and that brings me back to “The Dark Knight” quote. Zinnia comes to the realization early on that the Evil Queen was once just a girl whose father made her decisions for her and she obeyed like she should. Then she became a queen who obeyed a king she didn’t love and then became the object of his anger when she could not produce that which he required of her. She had lived so long doing the things everyone told her were the right things to do that when she had the chance to do something for herself she found she couldn’t give that independence up… making her the villain of her own story. Zinnia herself finds out that even though she has been traveling throughout the multiverse trying to save as many Sleeping Beauties as possible from their terrible fates (if they wished to be saved) while simultaneously outrunning her own disease that will eventually kill her if she stays in her own timeline for too long, there are serious repercussions to her actions that are going to make her into a villain before she knows it if she doesn’t stop playing the hero. She has to write herself a new narrative for a new life in her own timeline and let her story end where it may. It may not end happily ever after, but may it end happily.
Overall, I liked “A Mirror Mended” slightly less than “A Spindle Splintered”, but that could be my Sleeping Beauty bias (yes, Princess Aurora is my favorite and she always belongs in the blue dress). But both books read back-to-back (I read the first one yesterday) is a really stunning read altogether. If you haven’t read these yet because they look like children’s books, I can assure you they are not. I highly, highly recommend them.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and Tordotcom for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
I have a small, tiny confession to make: I pre-ordered this book as soon as I found out I could. I don't even know when that w(True Rating: 4.5 stars)
I have a small, tiny confession to make: I pre-ordered this book as soon as I found out I could. I don't even know when that was, but I was so excited to read the third book in this trilogy after loving "Dare Me" and "Dare You" so much that I thought I was going to explode with anticipation before "Truth or Dare" came out... and then I got the wonderful opportunity to review it in ARC format. So that meant I was getting the extreme privilege of reading and reviewing this book days before it would end up on my Kindle for me to own, honor, and cherish.
I was delayed somewhat in reading the ARC because of difficulties in getting it to me (a miscommunication and nothing anyone is ever going to hear about) or else you guys would've been seeing this review a few days ago, for sure. I truly would've liked to have gotten it out there sooner because if there was a mm romantic trilogy that has ever stolen my heart and swept me away, it's the Dare to Try trilogy.
Now, onto the brass tax: I expected to like this book a touch more than I did. That's why I rated it 4.5 stars instead of the 5 stars the two previous books merited from me. It had nothing to do with any of the characters, or with the plot. It had everything to do with the pacing of the book and the ending. The pacing of the book felt uneven to me. It didn't make the book wholly unenjoyable, but it was enough to jar me a little as we moved back and forth between Chicago and South Haven throughout the book. And I have to say... the ending disappointed me. It felt rushed and so anticlimactic I just kind of sat there and stared out into the distance for a moment after the book ended, going, "That's it? That's all we get?" I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't something so... placid.
Now, as for the spice: Holy schmoly, Miss Razzle Dazzle! I was definitely not disappointed on that score! With Kieran and Bash both fully on board in this book, navigating each other and testing the waters of each other's home bases as they try to figure out how they're going to make their lives work together, neither of our boys are holding back on what makes the other feel good or look good and I AM HERE FOR IT. Let's just say that Bash sure knows how to pick perfect couple's costumes. *fans self*
All in all, it was a sexy, sweet, and sincere ending to one of the best mm romance trilogies I've ever read. I've read them all on my Kindle, but you can be sure when I get some more money in my pocket these puppies will be physically present on my bookshelves as well....more
Got this around 7:30 am and dropped the book I was in the midst of reading to IMMEDIATELY tear right through this one as fast and happily as I did theGot this around 7:30 am and dropped the book I was in the midst of reading to IMMEDIATELY tear right through this one as fast and happily as I did the first book in this series, "Dare You". I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED. Holy cow! I mean, I love Ella & Brooke: they make magical mm together, but this was something else. Book one gives you a TON of time to fall utterly in love with Bash, but "Dare Me" gives you almost the whole book to give you time to fall in love with KIERNAN, away from Chicago, the firehouse, and his family, which is something I think we readers needed to do. We needed to see him as a fish out of water, in Bash's world, to see who he was as JUST Kiernan the human who somehow had his whole world turned upside down by Bash in the first book, so we could see how much conviction and passion he had behind his feelings if he was removed from his comfort zone and placed smack dab in the line of fire of all of Bash's protective friends. It was HOT, well-written, HOT, sweet, funny, HOT, irreverent, and now I'm pouting and stomping my feet like a toddler because I have to wait until the end of September for "Truth or Dare". DAMMIT. ...more
I was absolutely captivated by the idea of a feral, rogue, alpha female assassin. When Kathryn Moon announced this new title forTrue Rating: 3.5 Stars
I was absolutely captivated by the idea of a feral, rogue, alpha female assassin. When Kathryn Moon announced this new title for the Sweetverse, I was all a-twitter, because all those things are huge button-pushers for me. And, true to form, those aspects of our FMC, Eve, were definitely some of the best parts of “Bad Alpha” for me. The other brightest spots were taken up by her initial mark: the wily con-man omega, Adam, who is sweet as sugar one second and slippery as olive oil the next. The pair of them are the two strongest characters in the book with the strongest moments and they’re what kept me reading and invested in what I was reading.
Look, Kathryn Moon is one of my favorite romance authors. I have yet to read a bad book from her. So, just because I gave this book 3.5 stars (a lower-than-usual rating for me when it comes to her books) doesn’t mean this book is bad. It just means I didn’t have as much fun reading it as I did her other books, or even other Sweetverse books. The issue, for me, was with the other three alpha males in the book: Rory, Jamie, and Garrett. I didn’t connect with Jamie at all, Garrett felt like he was just there as a juxtaposition to Eve and that left his character lacking in further dimension… but I enjoyed Rory a good deal. I wish we’d only gotten more of Rory. Heck, I think that if this book had been split into two parts like “Lola and the Millionaires” was, I might have liked all three alpha males better, because so much time in this book had to be given over to the (deservedly so) complicated, emotional, sensitive, and time-consuming plot line that the relationships didn’t feel like they could grow more organically, we didn’t get to know everyone very well, and there could’ve been more spice. (Yes, I said it. I got to the meat and potatoes: I would’ve liked more spice and more detailed spice and I said what I said). So, this book is 506 pages, but I feel like it should’ve been a longer story and split into two shorter books.
But what we do get of Eve, I absolutely adore. She truly is like a feral cat, an abandoned puppy, a child raised by wolves… but then kind-of crossed with training in the Red Room with Natasha Romanoff, if that makes sense? She knows how to play at being human, but to actually sustain that mask of humanity on a consistent basis? Yeah, no. But watching her observe, listen, feel, learn, and then try to do the same? That’s absolutely some of the best stuff. And Adam’s wiles, determination, grit, and drive make him so much more than a needy omega trope. And I love how he and Eve compliment each other that way.
I really think if I’d gotten to know the other three alpha males better I’d be rating this right up there with Moon’s other Sweetverse books, but I just couldn’t. But it was a fun time. ...more