"I would die for you" "But I'm not worth it" "I still love you" "I love you too!" "NO you don't. I'm too complicated." "You're right." "You still loPage 100
"I would die for you" "But I'm not worth it" "I still love you" "I love you too!" "NO you don't. I'm too complicated." "You're right." "You still love me?"
I WAS READY TO JUMP OFF A METAPHORICAL BUILDING Y'ALL, I WAS IN PAIN...more
This could've ended in three pages and save me the torture and hatred I felt for the characters. This could've ended in three pages and save me the torture and hatred I felt for the characters. ...more
This was, quite possibly, the biggest disappointment so far in 2023.
Like, get this, I LOVE the Shopaholic series from the same author. The mc for thaThis was, quite possibly, the biggest disappointment so far in 2023.
Like, get this, I LOVE the Shopaholic series from the same author. The mc for that book was kind of dumb, kind of stupid, all sorts of moronic and a whole lot of conceited, but I laughed!! I stayed till 3am to FINISH EACH BOOK. JUST SO I COULD FALL IN LOVE WITH IT. OVER. AND OVER AGAIN.
This book though?!AAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA. Sis, I'm sorry but no. I'm not even sorry, it's just a plain old NO.
The MC REPLIED TO ANOTHER GUY'S EMAIL Y'ALL. LIKE, TO THE WHOLE COMPANY. AND WHEN HE SEARCHED IN HER PHONE- SHE ACCUSED HIM OF INVADING HER PRIVACY AND BASICALLY THREW A TANTRUM- someone please tell me the logic I was supposed to find in that because it's been DAYS and I still haven't.
And just to add a little more messed up pizzazz, (spoiler alert to those who still want to read this *intense side eye*) the mc was READY to marry a cheater just because she justified his cheating as 'people make all sorts of silly mistakes'
He was engaged 4 times before her, y'all. Four Cuatro And she knew it- literally, if you do read this, prepare yourself for the second handed embarrassment of the CENTURY
My job here is done, have a nice day.
(If the author does in fact see this review... please look away, you don't need to be traumatized further. I know you were forced at gunpoint to write this.. thing. ) ...more
Okay, so let me get this straight... am I supposed to have understood the jumble of plots- intentions- twists- and more twisted branches of other topiOkay, so let me get this straight... am I supposed to have understood the jumble of plots- intentions- twists- and more twisted branches of other topics, within the last 15 pages of this book?...more
It's currently 1:49 in the morning, my eyes are burning and I'm really regretting that I read this at this hour. It's currently 1:49 in the morning, my eyes are burning and I'm really regretting that I read this at this hour. ...more
(I'm going to get sued for this) Did I read the same book as everybody else?
Rating: ✨ (though I will leave it at two stars because it physically pains (I'm going to get sued for this) Did I read the same book as everybody else?
Rating: ✨ (though I will leave it at two stars because it physically pains me to lower it further)
Because either I got brainwashed into thinking this was horrid or this book was just not for me. Which is IMPOSSIBLE, because helloooo, monsters? Antagonists???? Villains??? What part of that doesn't scream BOOKSY PICK UP THE DANG BOOK RIGHT THIS MOMENT? I don't even know what went wrong- Oh got it! Every. Thing. Let's face it, this will be a super long rant with extra sarcastic remarks and unrivaled pettiness. Why? Because the fact that I hated this book breaks my heart. And in consequence of that, I need to say that the things I will murder concerning this book are of no ill will to the author herself. In short, I'll be burning the book, not the writer. ( I know from experience she is so sweet and awesome, and I really hope she never reads this-)
Possibly myself too because I hyped this up for too long, KNOWING that the outcome would be less than perfect. Which has happened before, so really, it shouldn't anger me anymore. But it does. A-freaking-lot.
*deep breath keeps the demon away*
Let's start with the fact that there was absolutely, literally nothing, nada, that screamed monsters about this. (you'll get sick about how much I mention this information) Oh wait, is lack of personality and personal ambition considered monstrous? Silly me, I should've considered that.
*flicks on zippo lighter with glee*
I'll try to be as honest as I can whilst still maintaining the nice version of Booksy and to complete such an ardours task, I'll divide this by the stars the book lost. Like my hopes. And dreams. And will to live- Also, stars it gained.
-0.5 The Plot:
I really do have to say nice things about it first because I feel horrible right now and being a human is difficult and having emotions is a nuisance and if someone ever said these things to me, I would run away crying. Dramatically. With onion tears.
And possibly a beheaded body dragging behind me, because why not?
When someone mentions villains, I'm there. If they say there are monsters, I don't care about my wellbeing, take me. And if there are time travelling plot lines thrown in for the torture of it? What are you waiting for???? Throw me into a van and sacrifice me to Zeus if it means I can read it.
Yet when I began this wonderful journey of amputating a part of my soul to gift it to a book I was hoping would emotionally wreck me, something felt wrong.
More like, a few things were missing. Like the monsters. And logic. (I promise I'm not usually this salty, but it's painful to acknowledge that this story didn't live up to its hype)
At the start, I attributed my stale feelings to the shock of having the opportunity to read such a book, then I questioned whether it was me. Later on, I totally and completely gave up on the idea that this was going to get better. As it is still an ARC, I cannot say too much. However, if I were to have the ability to go back in time (hehe), punch myself in the throat and tell that stupid little child to calm down and not get so hyped-- I would.
On the brighter side of the volcano, I'm considering swimming in: ~There were some parts that were thrilling, yes. ~Others when I felt my freezing heart melting itself. ~Some that surprised me and made my eyebrows strive to meet my hairline (however impossible it may seem).
But in the grand scope of things, when I finally closed the book for the last time and took a slight breath to compose myself, the good things were completely obscured by the unlikable instances the plot strived on giving me. I considered overdosing on chocolate, y'all. It was serious.
-0.5 The Writing:
I truly believe there's a road for improvement and considering this is a debut novel, I can overlook grammar mistakes because come on, I make grammar atrocities every time I open up the computer. However, this book --including the plot and writing-- gave me more of a middle grade vibe than a YA one. Let me explain:
I wasn't given the chance to actually care about the characters because the writing portrayed them as superficial and thin in existence. The repetition of certain phrases left much to be desired. Fights scenes were unseasoned, not enough blood for the amount of stabbing-
And you know what? Maybe I would've enjoyed it more if the book was classified as Middle Grade. I would've been given a slight warning beforehand, and I could've related more with younger characters whose decisions matched their age. And their thought process made sense for thirteen-year-olds.
Don't get me wrong, I was surprised when a few sceneries were described with beauty and written elegance, but it was overshadowed by certain dialogue prompts that made my brows furrow in slight frustration. I rarely critique a book's writing because I'm not an author (at least not yet) so who am I to judge how a person writes when they've poured their soul into it? But in this case, I do see how the author of this book can grow as an Enchanter of Words (not me running out of ways to say the word author, pfffft) and I think that the way to grow is to hear others opinions about it. Of course, when they aren't rude.
Also, that page where the word 'said' was repeated 11 times almost killed me. I wanted to cry.
-0.5 The Pace:
For this one, I'll be very brief because my thought process can't seem to expand more than that. It was all over the place, I'm sorry but it was. I really thought this was a standalone. Things were moving way WAY too quickly for it to be a series - oh but it is.
*smile through the tears, darling. Smile through the tears*
-1 The characters:
They were simply pieces of stapled cardboard. Shiny edges, pointy ends, useless existence. You get it-
Nonetheless, the MC was good, decent, nice. Fought for her family, fought for what she thought was right (especially without thinking it through, she really loved doing that) which I enjoyed, but her main characteristic is that she's a monster but actually not. Also, she's speshul. And possibly has a thing for history affairs.
On a great note though, her being biracial and having that diversity implemented in the story was incredibly refreshing and something I would love to see more of! I think I connected with her sense of selflessness for the ones she loved. No matter what, family was extremely important to her, which I admired.
Then we have the background characters- that will be totally skipped to save time for the rest of the ranting.
Aaron is a complete disgrace. There, I said it. Y'all KNOW I'm all for the broody, arrogant, slightly concerning male love interest who makes my heart pound just by blinking. Imagine someone whine and question everything for HOURS. That's him and I hate the feelings that he failed to invoke because how can a 'monster' not be good for me ???
Luego, we have the other half of the sad triangular thingy, Nick. At first I didn't see the point of him being alive, and then I was like... ooOOOOoooo, I see you. *wink wink* I totally see, you know. ... Hm Maybe I see a little too much. What are you doing??? Stahp You know when there's a character that at first you don't root for, and then you do, and then you DON'T? And the pain is all the more prominent? That's my personal relationship with him.
+0.5 Love Triangle:
Of course, we cannot possibly forget about the love triangle. *chokes on disappointment*
To be honest, I'm completely trash for that trope. Can it be utterly frustrating? Of course. But it's the drama I crave. Thus why I added half a star. To feel better about my decisions. However, the supposed love triangle in this book didn't even make SENSE. The intrigue? Let's fly over that. Chemistry? Pfft, who needs it? *sigh* I am so sorry for those who have been reading this venting session until this point, because I'm going to get so much worse.
And enemies to lovers?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA THERE'S NONE OF THAT HERE- I KNOW- WE WERE MISLED-
-2 'MONSTERS':
This is where smoke starts to come out of every orifice I have in my body. I won't spoil, pinkie promise!! But when a book is marketed as monster friendly, you know what I expect? *whispering* Monstersss. Blood drinking, skin craving, marrow drenching monsters. Even if they're atrocious humans. Even if they perform stealing souls art. A monster by pure definition is a 'large, ugly, and frightening imaginary creature' (thank you Google). And that can be manipulated! Killers are monsters. Abusers are monsters. Kids can be monsters. Cruelty is monstrous. Yet none of the characters did anything actually monster like.
Kill something, for goodness’s sake-
On a closing note, I'll repeat that this wasn't against the author. If you loved the book, I'm genuinely happy for you! Please tell me the good things, so I can feel better. But there were simply too many things I disliked for me to properly fall in love with it. The plot was endearing and interesting enough at first, then turned into an abrupt ending with literally no logic in sight. Characters made me feel nothing, pace destroyed me and the thing that I was most looking forward to --the enemies-to-lovers-- was made a mockery.
I feel horrible yet vindicated. I need professional help.
"Beyond the castle gates, the sun rises and the birds sing, but the Golden Palace is draped in a veil of night. My night. My darkness. My power."
(first sentence as reference)
Since I disliked this book passionately, I shall describe in excruciating detail how many things this book did right.
Finn.
For the first half.
When he was not present.
Or corrupted.
…The End.
Okay, fine. I must be nice, for the sake of my conscience and future writing endeavors that now consist of me screaming at my computer because my brain is not braining and I’m sick of it, make sense?
Literally, this bloody book in a nutshell.
For starters, let me clarify that this is NOT against the author in any way, quite the contrary really, I’m proud that the author wrote a book- I’m just angry that the editors and publishers didn’t read what I read or I read something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT because how is it even possible for a sequel to leach the life out of me, but making it in an addictive way?
Kind of like waiting for a killer to hunt you down, but the killer is an imbecile who doesn’t know what they’re doing, so it’s plain entertainment-
You end up dying in the story, but all for the fun and fun for all!
Now, I read the first book a while ago, and my brain cells are commonly known for auto deletion in various modes, HOWEVER, I do not recall the first book making me want to eat chunky bleach (the chewy version to prolong the effect) with my eyespheres.
I really really don’t! And that’s what’s ultimately depressing about all this. I WAITED for this book, I CRAVED this book, I GOT THE NETGALLEY ARC REJECTED BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT ‘OH HEY, LET’S MAKE THIS GIRL MISERABLE, BUT REALLY, WE’RE SAVING HER LIFE AND THE REVIEWING RATIO- so yes, this book and I have a long, traitorous journey that lasted weeks and painful days when I had to singe the words ‘female’ and ‘male’ from my poor, dead retinas.
It’s been a minute or so since I finished (metaphorically speaking, of course. I finished this wonderful fan fiction, this morning and since then, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts into something resembling coherence. But, you know, that and I, we don’t match) and I’m saying that to justify the utter disaster (but entertaining, if you will, like this story) that will be so carelessly written by moi.
Are you strapped in?
Do you have your blinders on and a cup of vinegar to wash down the things I’ll dramatically express?
If so, do walk in, take a seat right by my catatonic self and enjoy! Again, this is NOT towards the author, but I have a lot of things to say about one of my most expected releases that went WOOOOSH to a battlefield and lost.
Picture this,
You’re walking into this divided world, full of war and sadness and pain, shadow and light, kings and queens dying for the chance to make their voices heard and obeyed- years and years AND YEARS OF TORTURE AND WAITING FOR THE ONE SAVIOR. And in comes this girl, with flawless skin (but she's so so different from other girls because she's not gorgeous but every 'male' proclaims her beauty every five pages), a Mulan haircut moment with none of the amazingness that was Mulan, and these two ‘males’ that cannot bear to be apart from her.
And of course, if that wasn’t good enough, we have the fact that every single MOMENT that we’re in the main character’s head (literally the whole book, if you may), she’s always saying:
“I don’t understand how I could be so special. I’m not even pretty enough, I’m just a human who fell in love with two males and I am nothing. I wish I could sacrifice myself to save people from the agony of being near me.”
NONETHELESS, at the less second, this same self victimizing bucket of acidic waste, says:
“I am meant to be here. I am shadow, I am flame, I deserve better than these two males trying to hold me in. I’m a bird.”
**next page**
“My wings are broken. I cannot be a bird. A bird is too kind and powerful, I’m weak. I’m the soil beneath the feet that trample my very being.”
**moments later**
“I don’t know how my wings were ever broken because people must kneel before my power. Yes, power curses through my veins like the broken stars that litter in one of my male’s gaze.”
And so on and on and ON, if she had an off switch, I would slam into it.
Seriously, in the first book? She was tolerable, slightly relatable, and the drama was enjoyable! In this … thing? HA! Good luck, my loves. Because I needed it and the luck went FTYUJHGFGTYU
I really did try to like her, I really did. I saw this book as more of a funny in between story because if I had delved into thinking this book actually meant to be SERIOUS? I would’ve been heartbroken- more so than I currently am.
The only light that saved the first novel of this duology? My husband Finn?
I’m sorry, baby, but what in the hecking world HAPPENED TO YOU. You, with your amazing feelings and mysterious self and strong yet gentle personality, now you turned into a (forgive my french) simping-who-knows-WHAT.
Simping for who??? Brie????
What???
Why???
And since I unknowingly made this into the section of characters, let’s have a chat concerning Sebastian.
Man, oh, man. This ‘male’ (UYTFRTYUIKJHGV) made me want to tear out someone’s eyes and shove them into their ears, so their vision was as muddled as their freaking HEARING. Did this dude not LISTEN when Acidic Waste was telling him she did not want the bond???
No, because he saw him first, thus, he definitely wasn’t going to let her go.
Literally his words. Written. In the book.
And you know what? I WISH I was done with the things that disappointed me about this story, but sadly, I haven’t even scratched the edge of the iceberg yet.
(Can you imagine if an iceberg had killed them all? Oh, what a lovely end that would’ve been.)
The supreme highlight of this book was Misha. Period, no comma, no paragraph, nothing. Just him and his sassy, lovable, genius, telepathic, devious self.
Questionable romance set aside, he was the reason I found the strength to suffer through.
The things I had to suffer, though, they were entirely different.
The plot was all over the place. Things did not match up, randomness was flying everywhere, AND WHAT THE HECK WERE THE POWERS MENTIONED??? Brie had shadows, apparent hallucinogenic powers too, had night power- boo, do you want the whole spectrum of it???
Should we give you star dust and gift you a part in Tinkerbell? Or **gasp** you’re too normal and average to ever be a fairy of any kind.
**resounding smack**
To this time of the day, I am confused and since I read just to read and not to really catalog anything or even understand, I don’t really care.
(That’s a straight-up lie, Booksy does in fact, care. A bit too much, I might say.)
The writing was a fail for me too in this specific book, in the previous one? I was like, GO OFF QUEEN. SLAYYYY. YASSSSS. YASSIFY THAT ISH, KILL ME WITH YOUR WORDS, ANNIHILATE ME WITH YOUR METAPHORS- SLICE ME WITH YOUR PARAG-
Okay, I’ll stop. (she, in fact, did not stop)
I just feel like this book was poorly written, and there’s nothing sadder for me to say than saying that. The end felt meh, the storyline was okay, drama was amazing, romance was in shambles (and I do like well done love triangles when they add some kind of pizzazz to a storyline, but not this thing), the characters left so, so much to be desired, and the inability to say men and women rankled me to the every edge of the sanity I don’t have.
I’m not even angry at this point, I’m just giving up. I gave my best efforts to THINK about the things I felt for this in a positive light, but apparently, that light is from Hades and he’s a devilish idiot who doesn’t like to share.
On a closing note, I’m sure you’re as tired as I am of my words jumping in and out (or you were viciously hooked to this review! In which case, here’s a wedding ring and you can choose the venue for our elopement), I do think this book had potential. There was a chance for the characters to grow personalities and wings that weren’t brittle, character development to take those wings and turn them into armor. I did find this addictive and unputdownable, but at the same time, would I read it if I were to suddenly develop elective memory loss?
…
Noh.
If you'll excuse me, I’m going to throw a tantrum in usual ‘female’ fashion now.
...................... Don't bring up the "You're so special" bloody nonsense, and I may enjoy this as much as the first one. ...more
My beautiful friend had to suffer with me ranting about the MC for 200 pages. To her, thank you!
And side note, this book made me just a tad frustrated My beautiful friend had to suffer with me ranting about the MC for 200 pages. To her, thank you!
And side note, this book made me just a tad frustrated with everything. Like, literally everything.
I need some knives to sharpen or something while I work on a full fledge rant....more
Booktastically
>
Books:
heck-no
(34)
Loading...
