This wasn’t my cup of tea at all I’m afraid. My biggest qualm with this book was the writing style. It was very, very weird in word choice and also1/5
This wasn’t my cup of tea at all I’m afraid. My biggest qualm with this book was the writing style. It was very, very weird in word choice and also structure. A chapter would end on a cliffhanger and the next one starts with our main character thinking about her childhood for 3 pages before getting back to telling us what’s going on, and it just sort of makes the anticipation not build up as much as it could have. The final sequence of the book being just talking was an interesting choice, just as not describing the battle scene was. I can’t say that I found the romance cute because I didn’t honestly think that Misery and Lowe interacted enough throughout the book for it to be believable. Would Lowe have even loved her if she hadn’t been his mate?? I personally found Misery to be insufferable but whether that was her personality or the atrocious first person writing style of this is the true question, and it’s likely a mix of both. I really enjoyed ‘The Love Hypothesis’ and I’ll likely stick to Ali’s rom com books in the future!...more
Hmmm! Unfortunately this was very boring and the plot was laughably predictable. The romance lacked depth, and Freya was an absolutely terrible mai1/5
Hmmm! Unfortunately this was very boring and the plot was laughably predictable. The romance lacked depth, and Freya was an absolutely terrible main character. She could not physically be anymore annoying if she tried!...more
My review got deleted after 20 minutes of writing. So I’m pissed off.
This book was awful, and a les1/5
Thanks to NetGalley and bloom books for the arc.
My review got deleted after 20 minutes of writing. So I’m pissed off.
This book was awful, and a less than stellar sequel to bewitched, which was a favourite of mine last year.
Selene loses all edge she has to her character after her main adversity in book 1 is removed. She is stupid and does foolish things the whole book, never thinks, and acts immature 24/7, never wondering why she keeps getting into awful situations.
Memnon is reduced to just loving Selene and having no personality of his own.
The romance is shitty. Selene has control over Memnon’s will and implies she can control him sexually more than once. This is very non consensual and gross that she would think such a thing, let alone say it. This leads to lots of rather odd smutty scenes where the line between consent and non consent blurs at times because she can make him do whatever anyways.
The plot doesn’t come in until 70% through, by which is goes at a very fast pace to make up for its lack of presence at the beginning. The plot lacked a sense of urgency and had no twists at all.
The character of Kane was very stupid. He tries to get Selene to love him after multiple rejections and always tries to undermine her relationship with Memnon. He is disrespectful and always looking for a way to make her see how bad Memnon is so he can claim her himself.
The cliffhanger is laughably boring. I literally said ‘who cares?’ After reading it. The implications are next to zero and they provide 0 clues as to what a third book could even entail. So Memnon has a company now. Who cares???
All in all, this was a lacklustre sequel that left much to be desired....more
The problem is not me but is in fact Emily Henry books. There. I said it. The fact that people consider this peak friends to lovers literature m1.5/5
The problem is not me but is in fact Emily Henry books. There. I said it. The fact that people consider this peak friends to lovers literature makes me want to cry because my favourite trope is NOT deserving of a book this bad. I have a long rant but I’ll try to keep it short!! I also don’t want to bash anyone who loves this book. If you see this review, I’m criticizing the book and not you if you loved it. If this is your jam, great!
I think Emily Henry tries to create rom-coms with insightful ideas and conversations on the mechanisms of love and life itself, this one in particular dealing with the topic of happiness and the journey for it. The only issue is that she fails on all fronts to meet any of the things she sets out to do. The romance in this one and in Beach Read are awful. I’ll admit, Beach Read was better than this. Still, mediocre. The main issue I have with the romance here is that unlike other friends to lovers romances, Poppy and Alex were flat out hurting other people by refusing to talk to each other about their feelings. Most friends to lovers romances have the couple date people, yes, but it’s ALWAYS short lived. Not serious. In this book, ALEX LITERALLY WAS PLANNING TO MARRY HIS GIRLFRIEND. I don’t care for his reasons for it. The fact that he strung her along like that (and when she appears at the end, it’s evident she’s pissed off about it, and rightfully so) is such a red flag to me. The fact is that Alex always put Poppy above everyone else and him even attempting to date others in a deep way was plain shitty of him. Poppy never got serious with anyone, so I can forgive her. She just dated averagely. But Alex? Another story.
My next issue is that the comedy part is unfunny. Some of the jokes come of as blatantly offensive if you disagree with their opinions. There’s an entire chapter where Alex and Poppy discuss their favourites things, and the novel is written as if the things they dislike should be universally disliked. Like what is your issue with saxophone in songs?? Alex go listen to False God by Taylor Swift. Please. And why was it necessary for a whole two paragraphs about said dislike for saxophones?? Just… sit down. This book felt like a telling lesson 101. If I could have seen the characters show their dislikes in a setting with them, it would have been more interesting then a conversation just relaying stuff. Maybe my humour is different than Emily Henry’s, but the few comedic moments felt out of place and jarring. Poppy’s attempts at light hearted fun alway went wrong and it just was terrible to read.
The insightful commentary section was, again, misplaced. The fact that we would have pages worth of monologue about Poppy’s opinions on life’s meanings and happiness as if her opinion on it is the only opinion there can be was not well. The lessons, if you will, were not done in a subtle way at all.
The past chapters had more descriptions of places then development in Alex and Poppy’s relationship. They were boring and filled with too many paragraphs that had no actual substance or relevance to the plot.
On top of that, Alex himself was boring. When he said he felt as if he had no personality and didn’t become a person until he met Poppy I was like obviously. He could not have been more flat if he tried. He also made shitty decisions and reduced Poppy to tears more than once because she said one thing he didn’t agree with. Sorry, but it seems like Poppy loves him way more then he loves her. He breaks her heart three times in this novel. And his excuse is he needs therapy?? And is sorting through issues?? I get that but it felt like an explanation thrown in the last 20 pages to justify the way he made Poppy feel and how he acted.
Poppy was annoying as hell and had one personality trait of being quirky. Seriously. She was a very annoying person to be in the head of because she felt the need to point out the most unhelpful things and drone on and on about the same issues without trying to actually solve them.
The romance itself is based on friends to strangers (ish) to lovers but the lines are all blurred in a way that makes it a mess. Maybe just bring in Poppy’s head affected this, but to me, I genuinely didn’t think Alex had feelings for Poppy for most of the book. Sorry. I also don’t get how they got from barely speaking for two years to being pretty close after a few hours together?? The angst of them finding each other again was simply non existent.
And, on top of that, the present day plot line with this supposed ‘angst’ was bland and Alex was bedridden for half of it with back spasms. Why was this a plot point for so many chapters? Why was it there at all? I mean, back spasms ??? And they’re never mentioned again? Okay.
I also find Emily Henry’s writing style it be dense and boring. She lacks the ability to convey emotions unless it’s in face to face love confessions or dialogue. It’s impossible to tell what anyone besides Poppy is feeling because she doesn’t describe anything that would help us tell. Overall the chemistry was non existent because the writing was to boring to create any.
Well I think I’ll stop for now. This book was bad and I can’t say anything in its praise besides Poppy gave a stellar love confession to someone who did not deserve it....more
I think this book has a lot of promise, but it really, really fell flat. I think it can be best described as Crescent City’s younger, and much wors1/5
I think this book has a lot of promise, but it really, really fell flat. I think it can be best described as Crescent City’s younger, and much worse sibling. I totally get what the book was going for, but it was way too drawn out. Being over 700 pages long, you’d expect a plot that is tightly plotted and engaging. The thing is we don’t really know what the main plot is until at least 100 pages in. Unlike Crescent City, which has a murder mystery , this book opens with a kidnapping and doesn’t really build on that. A bunch of things happen at the very end, but a good 400 pages of this book is filler and slow moving, pointless scenes.
Loren Calla, our main character, is a very annoying main character that doesn’t do anything to help herself. In the first chapter, she’s being begged by her sister to run and she just stands there??? She literally thinks ‘oh I wish I could do something but as a human, I’m useless’ but running away from the killers trying to get you would be doing something? The entire book has a bunch of scenes were she just doesn’t do anything. It isn’t a point of having to be badass, but more of just haven’t a backbone in general.
Our other main character, Darrien Cassel, was your typical morally grey character with a sad backstory nonsense. Sorry, I’ve read SO many books with guys like that at this point I could care less for the archetype. He was so not special and, quite frankly, boring. I mean, he was such an uninteresting character. He has really no personality.
Their supposed romance fell flat due to the utter lack of chemistry. It was slow burn to the point of nothing happening. Seriously it was so so bland and boring. Not a drop of chemistry was coming from them. It was just lust. The world building was really bad. I mean, it was really non existent. As in, had nothing. The city of Angelthene was very isolated. I have no clue how the actual world works or anything about the forms of government.
I also hate how the entire book could have actually been solved so quickly if Darien had done his job. Like???? Anyways this book was really NOT good and if you’re looking for an urban fantasy series with a slow burn romance, fierce heroines and lovable heroes, Crescent City is amazing....more
So. I usually don’t like hyped books. It’s not my fault really it’s just that they’re made up to be something they quite plainly aren’t. This book 1/5
So. I usually don’t like hyped books. It’s not my fault really it’s just that they’re made up to be something they quite plainly aren’t. This book was exactly what it was hyped up to be, in content, but I just say didn’t feel anything.
“In the future… if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again… fall in love with me.”
I suppose the main reason I disliked this book was because I truly couldn’t connect to any of it. I didn’t like any of it. I didn’t hate it, which is odd. And you might wonder why 1 star if you didn’t hate it? And I was wondering if I should give this book a 2 or maybe a 3 but at the end of the day a 1 reflects my feelings the best. I hated all the characters. Didn’t like any of them. Lily was boring, Ryle was creepy, Atlas was also bland, and everyone else fell into stereotypes.
Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person.
The story takes place over a long period of time and that’s probably my main problem. We see Lily pregnant, then skip to her about to give birth. The time needed to form relationships is skipped over and we have to assume that the connections were made and are told that, but not ever showed it. You know?
The next problem was in general Lily. I hated her character. She was so boring and I hated her thought process and it was such a slog to read in her 1st person POV. I skipped half of the last 25% of the book because I really couldn’t stand anymore of it. I guess the main focus on Ryle and Lily’s relationship was a let down as I could care less for them both and found their relationship from the beginning creepy. Seriously. First meeting in five minutes and you already want to fuck her? Please go away. AND SHE LITERALLY SAW HIM SMACKING AND THROWING A CHAIR BEFORE TALKING FOR THE FIRST TIME. Maybe it should have been a hint?
I do think the reluctance for Lily to admit she was being abused by Ryle and he was violent in more ways than one was realistic. Him smacking her, throwing her down the stairs, and then almost raping her were scenes tough to read. Lily trying to convince herself it was an accident was hard to read when you’re screaming at her to leave Ryle. Those were the only scenes I felt emotion.
Our eyes, locked together, speak more naked truths than our mouths ever have.
I suppose the biggest problem here is I didn’t care about anything in this book. Since this book deals with domestic violence I feel like I should’ve felt something. Pity for Lily, anger at Ryle, something. But I didn’t. I read the last half of the book with no feeling at all. I was bored. Not only was the pacing all over the place, but I just couldn’t connect to the story. This is obviously a story that relies on the reader to be emotional to have an impact and I didn’t connect at all.
So yeah in all honesty this books was a slog and bored me to death. I felt the writing was amateur and it had no emotions for me to connect with. At the end of the day I’m disappointed.
“It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.”...more
I can’t even explain what happened in this book. This book was a mess. I’m glad that if you liked it you liked 1.5/5
”Fine. Make me your villain.”
I can’t even explain what happened in this book. This book was a mess. I’m glad that if you liked it you liked it, but I could not for the death of me understand what the hype was.
Alina. My oh my. Well, the first chapter made me like her, get used to her. Than she uses her power, tries to convince people she’s useless, and complains. A lot. To people who are just going their job...more
1/5 Wow. If there’s anything you should know about my rating system, it’s that 1 star books are the rarest things ever. I try to see the best in all bo1/5 Wow. If there’s anything you should know about my rating system, it’s that 1 star books are the rarest things ever. I try to see the best in all books. And furthermore, the only books I would even give 1 star are thrillers and mysteries (which is easy to say why you dislike it- a plot that makes no sense and confusing crime and culprit). A fantasy horror book with 1 star? You need to fuck it up quite bad to get that rating. Yet here we are.
How the hell does one fuck up a book that has such a good premise? That, my friends, is the question of the century. With a premise of spooky atmosphere, ghosts (!!!!!), romance, subtle horror, a curse, murders, and subtle fantasy.... one would wonder why the hell you wouldn’t like it! And here I am to tell you why. *i did a buddy read with two other people - nicki and Amelie- and they agree this book was a mess*
First things, the plot. My oh my. If you are looking for horror plot, please go read any Stephen King, Ninth House, or literally ANYTHING else. The horror is so random in this book. Do we have creepy scenes? Yes. But what’s the point if they come and go with no real explanation? The plot itself just.... was hiding. The author would bring up a twist, or get the mystery started; and then spend five chapters prepping for a ball that we don’t even get to see, instead we skip to the day or night after. The author avoided this plot to the fullest. And 1/3 of this book is pointless parties. Boring. The parts that I wished were good (horror) brought more confusion as they seems out of place. And the overall mystery was awful. The pacing was also terrible, and given the fact a large part of this book is ‘illusion’ (more on that later) it’s very hard to determine what actually is happening, what is fake, and how much time is actually passing.
The characters are so 2-D and flat you could literally walk over them. Annaleigh, our MC, is boring and forgets to solve the mystery as soon as a party is mentioned. She avoids everything and insta-loves herself with Cassius. Sadly I originally liked Cassius as a character, but after the plot twist of who he actually is, I was just done. If you didn’t know, this book is a loose re-telling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses . So there’s 12 siblings. Of course 4 are dead by the time we start the novel, and by the end there are less. Sadly, they fall into the same categories. Camille is the now oldest, bossy, rude sister. The triplets act like they’re one person. And the three youngest, known as The Graces, act similar as well. And for a book about how much Annaleigh loves her sisters, she spends more time mooning over Cassius than thinking, or even talking with them. I don’t mind the mooning over part, I myself am probably a hopeless romantic, but at least put some focus on the relationships! The insta-love is unbelievable, (and the love triangle but not; due to the end- again I’ll get there) the father is awful, the step-mom is just weird, and the sibling love is non-existent.
The world building is so weird. We’re told there are different peoples, different gods and goddesses, and lots of different lands but it’s given on such a surface level it’s hard to believe this world actually exists, or could even function.
The ending. My god. *Spoilers ahead.* What the heck?! Okay, so the worldbuilding, as mentioned, awful. So we’re told the person behind it all is a half-goddess, a harbinger Of chaos and nightmares. But we have no mention of her before! So how were we supposed to guess? And the fact Morella (step-mom) was the reason it happened because she wanted a good life and made a bad deal is so unbelievable. Also, the half-goddess claimed she wasn’t responsible for the first three siblings deaths, so were they natural? Or not? Plot hole to me. When we’re told Annaleigh is half in an illusion, it’s confusing because then You wonder what you’re reading is real or not. And then we are told Fisher is dead, has been dead for weeks. So he was an illusion the entire time? He wasn’t actually in love with Annaleigh? Therefore we got a pointless love triangle...? And Cassius just dies at the end and comes back seven months later?? And he also is half-god yet dies super easily when out main villain is the same (half goddess) yet she’s immortal and impossible to kill. And what happens to the Trickster or our half-goddess? This is very open ended and just overall a terrible ending. *spoilers done*
There are so many odd parts in this book. A random quest to go light the lighthouse after a shipwreck? Like what on earth was the relevance of that??
I could go on but I don’t wish to think more about this book. I disliked this and do not recommend it but you may like it more (as this seems to be an unpopular opinion). I do think the author has potential with her writing, but the book itself was a flop....more
1/5 Nope. This book is bad. Just that. Everyone loves We Were Liars and says it’s one of the best books in the mystery genre, and has the best plot twi1/5 Nope. This book is bad. Just that. Everyone loves We Were Liars and says it’s one of the best books in the mystery genre, and has the best plot twist ever. No body likes this book. Let’s start off with the fact I guessed what happened before the book started. That’s that. Next: we learn what happened about 60% through. The rest was the aftermath which, no offence, I disliked. None of the characters were likeable. Jules, Imogen, Brooke, Forrest, Paolo- I hated them all. So many plot points were brought up and never addressed again. Like Jules’s parents were murdered. No killer was found / arrested. Some random lady came to her house and took her away and trained her to be a spy. Is this real? Or just made up? Who knows. Next, it’s very, very convenient that before Imogen died, NO ONE mistook Jules for her. Suddenly, after Imogen is killed, everyone thinks Jules is her. How? How can everyone not see that she’s not Immie? Next, the ending gave zero answers as to what happens to Jules. Jules has no personality. That’s a fact. She spends so much time pretending to be Imogen that she looses herself. We never see her personality, as everything she does is either as Immie or a lie. The story is told in an awful way. We start in 2017, then go back. And we keep going back further in time with each chapter. Until we start going forward, and see Imogen’s death. Then we go forward, and jump to what happened after the first chapter. It’s confusing and if kept in chronological order, I probably would care for the characters more and learn about their relationships more. If I saw the growth of friendship for Imogen and Jules In Order, I would enjoy, instead of flipping between times where they like each other, don’t care for each other, and hate each other. Also, no one else had personality. Imogen is bland and a typical character. Also, it appears Jules and Imogen killed someone together? Who knows. The unreliable narrator is a trope I just don’t like . We have no reason for Jules to be unreliable. Some characters with this trope get memory loss or some other things that make them unreliable when they think they are saying the truth. This book has no reason for Jules to lie, not really. And also, the Great Expectations references I felt were not used in a good way. I will now re read Chain Of Gold as it’s a loose retelling of GE, and also, one of the best books ever. Also people say this is a ripoff of another book, only changing characters genders, so probably an issue there. In the end, this book isn’t good. But, I will read We Were Liars as everyone says it’s fantastic....more
☀︎El In Oz☀︎
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