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waldtochter's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Bullying, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death of parent, and War
booking_along's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
a very slow build up to the actual story and plot as well as the romance.
some things where just utterly strange in this story that i couldn’t get used to no matter how often it was mentioned: the green or violet blood or that the werewolves blush green? didn’t get used to that at all.
this book felt like a dragged out introduction -to a world, to side characters that will get their own main story…. it didn’t feel like its own individual story that just finished in itself what it wanted to tell but very much like a start to something.
can’t say i am a huge fan of that overall.
also a lot of the things about this world don’t really make a lot of sense to me.
for example of little werewolves and vampires know about each other. it felt like a very forced way to give background into this specific world that Hazelwood build to have the wolves and the vampire basically quiz each other on what’s a myth and what’s real about their behavior and ways -aka asking the vampire if they mind garlic or asking the werewolf if they… i don’t know smell each others butts during the full moon.
while Misery’s and Lowe’s marriage is the first in a few years it is not the first overall so why is there so little known about the other.
also if it’s really your huge enemy shouldn’t you know what can actually hurt them or is just myth and hearsay?
would make more sense if they knew more about each other instead of spending 3/4s of this book being introduced to each other as different species in a world that only separates them by a small river.
i didn’t love the main characters?
lowe was okay but we honestly got very little from him since basically the entire book was told from Misery’s point of view and i didn’t really enjoy her.
i don’t know if it was this forced writing of how unfeeling and uncaring she was supposed to be and clearly wasn’t that at all.
or how she was so unsure about her worth … well anywhere at all, or that she always seems to expect everyone to think the worst of me about her without any actual prove for that?
look i am one of the most self crippling people out there - if i can find something i think someone will dislike about me i am 100% sure that they think about that and hate me. no questions necessary how else could it be!
but misery had serena -which their friendship had good moments and ones where i felt like they had an abusive relationship going on while also feeling like those two despise not really having any page time together had more of a romance going on that the one that was supposed to be building between misery and lowe.
anyways… friendship between serena and misery that they grew up with and supported each other through with for most of their lives - and then i am supposed to believe that misery can’t fandom the thought that anybody could like her?
mhm.
so clearly this book had some pretty big flaws.
and it’s one of my least favorites but this author… but it’s not bad.
<b>
this reads like a fanfic that tries to do too many things at once, but the writing style the why the chapters are separated and the story is told? it feels like reading a fanfic that is updated irregularly instead of a complete and published book. </b>
and here me out i love fanfic! i am reading those for 20+ years now and i will cry ugly you tears if for some reason that could be taking away from me at any time. fanfics are fantastic and some of those are better than a good amount of books i have read in the same time span i read fanfics for! so i am not putting fanfics down.
but some story’s feel a bit disjointed between chapters and feel like the author -half way through the story- decided to add some new plot elements because why not? and while on AO3 that’s completely okay… in a published book? can’t say i am loving it!
i think this could have been better if there wouldn’t have been so much going on at the same time.
if the focus would have been on the marriage and building the romance, trying to bridge the difference of species and the lack of knowledge there would have been great especially with how the characters where behaving and with the relatives and their behaviors that would have made an entire story and book and would have had a romance focus. m
OR if Hazelwood wanted to do something different with her first fantasy- fine! then do the fantasy mystery of where the heck is the best friend and all the intrigue and backstabbing going on with that.
but mixing it all together? it felt like it all fell short in its own ways.
this book was okay.
in some parts it even was good.
but it wasn’t great and i think it could have been if at any point during the publication process someone would have stepped up and said: you know what? let’s just focus on the species stuff and the romance - or on the mystery and what evolves around that and forget the romance! let’s branch out and have the first fantasy hazelwood writes be NOT a romance focused story!
either in of those would have made the book fantastic .
as it is?
it’s okay.
it’s slow paced, sometimes dragged out and sometimes skipping ahead in ways that made me feel like i missed a few pages or a chapter not because i was missing the plot but because i was questioning the timing and moment of the overall story. the main characters aren’t great and the overall story isn’t as fluent and nice to read as it could and should have been.
i think it’s people that don’t know anything about what alpha can mean could be surprised by this and enjoy it.
and for every Hazelwood stan that can’t let even one book of hers out.
but beside those?
let’s face it there is better fantasy romance and even this kind of interspecies romance out there -especially the ones with alpha relations -just try some fanfics to see what j mean if you need to.
this was a nice try but it didn’t quite reach where it tried to go.
some things where just utterly strange in this story that i couldn’t get used to no matter how often it was mentioned: the green or violet blood or that the werewolves blush green? didn’t get used to that at all.
this book felt like a dragged out introduction -to a world, to side characters that will get their own main story…. it didn’t feel like its own individual story that just finished in itself what it wanted to tell but very much like a start to something.
can’t say i am a huge fan of that overall.
also a lot of the things about this world don’t really make a lot of sense to me.
for example of little werewolves and vampires know about each other. it felt like a very forced way to give background into this specific world that Hazelwood build to have the wolves and the vampire basically quiz each other on what’s a myth and what’s real about their behavior and ways -aka asking the vampire if they mind garlic or asking the werewolf if they… i don’t know smell each others butts during the full moon.
while Misery’s and Lowe’s marriage is the first in a few years it is not the first overall so why is there so little known about the other.
also if it’s really your huge enemy shouldn’t you know what can actually hurt them or is just myth and hearsay?
would make more sense if they knew more about each other instead of spending 3/4s of this book being introduced to each other as different species in a world that only separates them by a small river.
i didn’t love the main characters?
lowe was okay but we honestly got very little from him since basically the entire book was told from Misery’s point of view and i didn’t really enjoy her.
i don’t know if it was this forced writing of how unfeeling and uncaring she was supposed to be and clearly wasn’t that at all.
or how she was so unsure about her worth … well anywhere at all, or that she always seems to expect everyone to think the worst of me about her without any actual prove for that?
look i am one of the most self crippling people out there - if i can find something i think someone will dislike about me i am 100% sure that they think about that and hate me. no questions necessary how else could it be!
but misery had serena -which their friendship had good moments and ones where i felt like they had an abusive relationship going on while also feeling like those two despise not really having any page time together had more of a romance going on that the one that was supposed to be building between misery and lowe.
anyways… friendship between serena and misery that they grew up with and supported each other through with for most of their lives - and then i am supposed to believe that misery can’t fandom the thought that anybody could like her?
mhm.
so clearly this book had some pretty big flaws.
and it’s one of my least favorites but this author… but it’s not bad.
<b>
this reads like a fanfic that tries to do too many things at once, but the writing style the why the chapters are separated and the story is told? it feels like reading a fanfic that is updated irregularly instead of a complete and published book. </b>
and here me out i love fanfic! i am reading those for 20+ years now and i will cry ugly you tears if for some reason that could be taking away from me at any time. fanfics are fantastic and some of those are better than a good amount of books i have read in the same time span i read fanfics for! so i am not putting fanfics down.
but some story’s feel a bit disjointed between chapters and feel like the author -half way through the story- decided to add some new plot elements because why not? and while on AO3 that’s completely okay… in a published book? can’t say i am loving it!
i think this could have been better if there wouldn’t have been so much going on at the same time.
if the focus would have been on the marriage and building the romance, trying to bridge the difference of species and the lack of knowledge there would have been great especially with how the characters where behaving and with the relatives and their behaviors that would have made an entire story and book and would have had a romance focus. m
OR if Hazelwood wanted to do something different with her first fantasy- fine! then do the fantasy mystery of where the heck is the best friend and all the intrigue and backstabbing going on with that.
but mixing it all together? it felt like it all fell short in its own ways.
this book was okay.
in some parts it even was good.
but it wasn’t great and i think it could have been if at any point during the publication process someone would have stepped up and said: you know what? let’s just focus on the species stuff and the romance - or on the mystery and what evolves around that and forget the romance! let’s branch out and have the first fantasy hazelwood writes be NOT a romance focused story!
either in of those would have made the book fantastic .
as it is?
it’s okay.
it’s slow paced, sometimes dragged out and sometimes skipping ahead in ways that made me feel like i missed a few pages or a chapter not because i was missing the plot but because i was questioning the timing and moment of the overall story. the main characters aren’t great and the overall story isn’t as fluent and nice to read as it could and should have been.
i think it’s people that don’t know anything about what alpha can mean could be surprised by this and enjoy it.
and for every Hazelwood stan that can’t let even one book of hers out.
but beside those?
let’s face it there is better fantasy romance and even this kind of interspecies romance out there -especially the ones with alpha relations -just try some fanfics to see what j mean if you need to.
this was a nice try but it didn’t quite reach where it tried to go.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Blood
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