Personal rating: 3 stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.55 stars Content rating: PG (some minor suggestive comments, but nothing too wild) Trigger warnings: Gaslighting (with good intentions, but it still felt kinda icky to me) A busy witch. An enamored count. An enchanted villa filled with nosy sisters. Alessia has more to worry about than the handsome new count everyone is fawning over. Mama's health is declining, the villa needs repairs, and then there are her four sisters who always seem to be either in trouble or causing it. With his Fae blood, Massimo never expected to inherit the title of count, nor the lands that accompanied it, and he certainly never expected to fall for the town's quirky witch—especially when she clearly wants nothing to do with him. It will take more than magic to bring them together. Welcome to Zamerra where cozy fantasy intertwines with Italian cottage core and fairy core vibes. Within this gaslamp fantasy realm, you’ll find witches, fae, warlocks, house elves, and much more! (goodreads.com) Covering the cover: Super cute! Gives the perfect spring/summer cozy vibes that you find in the book! It gently high-fives you with the cottagecore aesthetic and I love that. Review: Ever since I read The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim last year, I have been looking for more cozy books set in Italy. I didn’t even really realize that I was looking for them, but I recently watched the movie Made in Italy (with Liam Neeson and his son!) and while I was watching it I kept thinking “I want more of this, I want more soft Italian stories”. So I watched Under the Tuscan Sun (did not enjoy very much, sadly) and considered rewatching Pixar’s Luca and rereading The Enchanted April (the movie adaptation does NOT do the book justice, though it is a pleasant film). Then I saw one of Darling Desi's latest springtime videos and she recommended this book and the moment she said “Italian-inspired cottagecore” I knew I needed to read this book immediately. Was this a perfect book? No. Was the romance good? Not really. Did the magic make sense? Nuh-uh. But the lore surrounding the magical beings in their world, now that…! Was a major let down as well. HOWEVER. I am in love with this book nonetheless. Listen, there were aspects of this book that I straight up didn’t like. BUT MAMMA MIA THE SETTING WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. I was giggling and kicking my feet every time the mountain scenery was described. Every time the architecture was discussed I grinned. I wanted to cry happy tears at the picture the author painted of the flowers along the dusty roads. Bellisimo! It may sound like I am exaggerating, but I truly did adore the world this book is set in. I want to go live in Zamerra. (I also want to scold all of the townspeople because they were kinda fantasy-racist toward fae, witches, and fauns… like what was that about? There was never really a reason given for their fantasy-racism either. They never said why they didn’t like fae or why they didn’t trust witches, they just hated them for no reason, which I guess is true to real racism in that it doesn’t make any sense.) The mountain town just sounds so lovely and the author did an amazing job of reaching out of the book and pulling me into the world… so much so that I could seriously almost smell the flowers, strawberries, and limonata. It might help that it is springtime right now in the real world and all of the trees around me are blooming with flowers. And I had strawberries in my fridge. Regardless, I still felt transported to Zamerra. Another thing I loved about this book was Count Massimo’s constant companion, Lucia. Lucia was his precious, darling, sweetheart cat. I could only picture my own dear menace, Elinor, whenever I read about Lucia, which endeared her to me even more. I just think the idea of the romantic interest doting on his diva cat is cute and I wanted to give Lucia a little kiss on the head. Okay, okay, with the good part over, let’s get to the bad and the ugly. I’m going to come right out and say it: I hated the romance in this book. Oh my gosh, I tried so hard to like it, but, here’s the thing: the romance was not romancing. I do not claim to be an expert on the genre, but I am fairly certain that the two characters who are falling in love should probably actually talk to each other before they fall in love, right? And, I mean, I guess they did speak to each other, but not very much. I’m pretty sure Count Massimo spoke to Alessia’s sisters more than he actually spoke to her. I was waiting and hoping for the cute, private conversations between the two leads. I wanted adorable awkwardness, or inside jokes, or maybe even a little bit about them getting to know each other. Instead, I got Alessia shushing her little sisters every time they asked Massimo questions because it wasn’t proper to talk to a count like that. And I got Massimo staring at Alessia from far away and thinking about how much he loved her even though he barely had said a sentence to her. There was some intense pining on Massimo’s part. Man was head over heels in two seconds flat. Worst case of insta-love I’ve ever seen. Meanwhile Alessia is over here worrying that her mom is dying, her house is falling apart, her finances are a disaster, and she’s got to take care of it all while her family tries to badger her into marriage and tells her that they don’t actually need her as much as she thinks they do (the evidence suggests that they very much do need her as much as she thinks they do). The whole time Massimo (the poor dear) is just obsessing over this girl he’s known for all of five minutes while Alessia is thinking that he’s nice, but she doesn’t want to get married. And they hardly interact for the whole book, and they certainly don’t have much time alone together or bother to get to know one another, but I’m expected to believe that they’re madly in love? Not buying it. I also wish there had been more of a plot to go with the “romance”. I think I would have been more interested if there was something else going on. Massimo made a big deal at the beginning about how he was part fae and how society was not accepting of him. I thought maybe he would be on a mission to improve things for fae once he became a count, but no. The discrimination is only brought up every now and Massimo never really does anything about it. He tells the people of Zamerra to stop being discriminatory against Alessia’s family of witches and they kind of listen to him, but that’s about it. Or maybe there could have been some plot about the villa that Alessia lived in since it kind of seemed like it was alive? Or maybe about the house elf who lived in the villa? Or about Alessia dealing with the fact that she’s the only one in her family without magic? I don’t know, I just wanted some kind of other plot to help build the romance. I also wanted more explanation about Massimo’s heritage considering the book is called The Fae’s Bride. I thought it might talk more about the fact that he’s fae, but half the time I forgot he wasn’t human. He had pointy ears, spoke Elvish, and apparently he smelled like trees (even though I’m pretty sure he never spends time in the trees) but those were the only reminders of what he was. I honestly have no idea why he was written to be a fae other than the fact that fae romance books are kinda trendy at the moment. I just want to make one teeny tiny nit-picky rant and then I’ll be done, I promise: Holy guacamole, they drank SO MUCH coffee in this book. Like, dang, they must all be going to the bathroom all the time! It seemed like on every page someone was offering someone else a cup of coffee. You get into a building: “hey, you want some coffee?” You’re about to leave a building: “better have some coffee before you go!” About to start a task: “coffee first!” Finished with a task: “good job, reward yourself with some coffee!” Is this common in Italy? Is this common for coffee-drinkers (I’m a cocoa person myself)? At first I didn’t really notice it, but as the story went on, I picked up on it and then couldn’t stop seeing it. SO MUCH COFFEE. Alright. I’m done. Like I said, this book may not be particularly well written. It felt like this book was so busy establishing the characters for the next books that it forgot it was also supposed to have a fleshed out romance happening. It could be aggravating at times. And yet, I really did have such fun reading it. I am absolutely going to pick up the next book in the series, which is about the next oldest sister. I desperately want to travel to the scenic descriptions of Zamerra again and I will put up with whatever not-romantic-romance I have to in order to do that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am off to roam the mountain paths, pick flowers, and eat strawberries. Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/176941602-the-fae-s-bride
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Personal rating: 3 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.56 Content Rating: PG-13 Trigger warnings: Racism, homophobia, brief mentions of abuse, recovering alcoholic and some relapse. Once you let a book into your life, the most unexpected things can happen... Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy's funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist—even if they don't understand her peculiar need for books. Marooned in a farm town that's almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend's memory. All she wants is to share the books she loves with the citizens of Broken Wheel and to convince them that reading is one of the great joys of life. But she makes some unconventional choices that could force a lot of secrets into the open and change things for everyone in town. (goodreads.com) Covering the cover: (Since I always like to talk about book covers, I decided to add a small dedicated section to it… it’s my blog, I do what I want.) There are actually two lovely covers for this book. Click here to see the other one. I like how much yellow is in the other design because yellow is a prominently featured color in this book, but I feel like the blue cover has a more “Iowan” vibe. Review: I have more positive feelings for this book than negative, but I’m not sure that I would say I liked it. It fascinated me at times, and I certainly read through it much faster than I was expecting for such a slow book, but I’m left feeling a touch disappointed in it. I think my biggest complaint with it was that it was far too long. I think about 100 pages could have been cut, honestly. There was a point when it felt like things were beginning to really wrap up, with just a few loose ends, but then… it didn’t. It just kept going. And going. And goooooing. The last 50 or so pages were good, I just think they could have happened much sooner. It was like the author realized too late into the story where she wanted things to go, but didn’t go back and tidy up the plotlines to get there. There was also a secondary romance plot that cropped up out of the blue. I wasn’t mad about it, exactly, but it was odd. And it detoured so far away from the main character, Sara, that I almost forgot she had problems of her own and that she was even in the story for a few chapters. All of that said, I can’t really claim that I disliked the book either. I think I really enjoyed reading it. It was cozy and borderline goofy. The characters of the small town were fun and reliably themselves, with small surprises here and there. I’ve read a few reviews of people saying they didn’t like the cast of small town characters and thought that they were flat and bland. I don’t think they were bland, I just think that their interesting features might have been too subtle. I think they played off of each other well and each had a distinct personality. In some ways, their interactions reminded me a little bit of the show Derry Girls; they all give off the appearance that they hate each other, but they actually couldn’t get along without one another. They’re all constantly annoyed with everyone, but would be deeply hurt if anyone left the group. The humor in The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is not as good as Derry Girls, so don’t expect to like this if you like that show, or vice versa. Some of the character interactions just remind me of it. The “book about books” feature of this story was fun. I’m a sucker for a small town bookshop story. Especially a bookshop in a town full of people who don’t like to read, but slowly come to enjoy it, or if not reading, they enjoy the bookshop itself. I was just talking to my friend the other day about how independent bookshops are such wonderful places. They always feel so safe. The shop in this story, and Sara as the shopkeeper, gave off that feeling of safety as well. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining that there are too many spoilers for other books within this book. I didn’t feel that way, personally. I feel that most of the books that are mentioned are so well known that most bookish people will know about the spoilers already. But, if you’re worried about accidentally learning a plot that you didn’t want to know, the author provides a convenient list in the back of all the books that are mentioned. It was funny to me that this book was set in small town Iowa in a county near where I live. The town of Broken Wheel does not exist, but there are rumors that it’s supposed to be West Branch. If it is, I don’t feel that it is a particularly accurate portrayal. Not that I know very much about West Branch, but I know there is a library. There are a bajillion tiny, run down towns in Iowa that I think fit the vibe of Broken Wheel so maybe it’s a conglomeration of a few of them. I think the author did a good job of capturing the feeling of rural Iowa in regards to the town set up. I could picture the kind of roads and the cornfields. The singular bar and questionable diner. The mainstreet lined with historic buildings that really could be so much more if only people had the money to make them into functioning businesses. There were a few aspects that I felt could have been more accurate. There probably should have been a Dollar General store as well as one random fast food joint like McDonalds. Maybe a Casey’s gas station, but that might be too classy for Broken Wheel… perhaps if they were closer to I80. Anyway, that’s probably enough rambling out of me. Soon this review will be as long as the book if I’m not careful. I’m still not sure whether I liked The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, but I don’t regret reading it (mostly because I was reading it for a book club I’m leading at work). I liked the writing and I agree with a review that I saw that said Katrina Bivald would make a good romance author. I would like to see her write an actual romance without the genre of “literary fiction” weighing it down. Since I’m not sure if I liked it, I don’t know that I can recommend it, but if you are in the mood for a long, rambling book about books and about Iowa, then this might be for you. Maybe? If you’ve read it, or plan to read it, or DNF’d it, let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear your thoughts! Well, I’m off to curl up with a good book! Thanks for reading this review! Hope to see you in the next one! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25573977-the-readers-of-broken-wheel-recommend Personal rating: 2.5 stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.97 stars Content rating: PG-13 (violence) Trigger warnings: manipulative partner, murder, death of parental figure, non-consensual kissing, attempted sexual assault. On a cozy fall morning, Kate Kole is nestled in a coffee shop in the city of Toronto reading her favourite novel when she accidentally kills a guy who's being rude to the coffee shop's cashier. Unfortunately for Kate, the person she killed was a fae assassin of the North Corner of Ever, visiting the human realm in secret. From there, four deadly fae assassins come to the human realm to hunt her down for breaking a fairy law and killing one of their own. Leading them is Prince Cressica Alabastian, the most feared and deadly fae assassin of the North and heir to the North Corner of Ever. After the assassins arrive in the human realm, things go terribly wrong. To Prince Cressica's horror, his assassins unwittingly get roped into running a cozy café on Kate Kole's behalf. To blend in, the fae assassins are forced to learn how to do basic human activities like cleaning up after themselves, driving without road rage, reading popular fantasy books at book club without getting into alpha male fights over what they’re reading, and in general, be nice, all to blend into regular human society. With a temper like no other, and deadly power that's unmatched, Prince Cressica seeks to get revenge on Kate Kole. But as he aims to strike where it will hurt her the most, the Prince finds himself enchanted by his human target in more ways than one. And when the darkness of the Ever Corners comes knocking at the human realm's door, he needs to make a choice that could cost him everything. (goodreads.com) I really, really, really wanted to like this book. The cover is adorable, the concept seems like so much fun, it was touted as the ultimate cozy urban fantasy—it seemed like it would be perfect for me. However… it just wasn’t for me. And the writing wasn’t even all that good. Not terrible by any means, but it reads like a coffee shop AU fanfic that has not been edited beyond a quick re-read before posting (which, to be fair, is how I “edit” all of my fanfics). I don’t want to be too harsh, but I am confused about why everyone on social media is hyping this book up so much. Let’s get into it though. First weird thing I want to mention: there’s a lot of pro-police content in this book. Regardless of your feelings about the police, I think we can all agree it’s kind of weird to have the line “And we can trust cops. Don’t let your pretentious partner make you think otherwise” (page 35) in a cozy fantasy novel. On this same note, the main character, Kate, goes to a police fundraiser (because her best-friend-sorta-sister is a cop) gala. In many fantasy books there is a ball or grand event that the characters dress up for and dance at, so it looked like this was the modern day equivalent of that trope for this book. It just seems a little off for it to be a police fundraiser, and even odder still is that the main character goes, but her love interest does not. So she doesn’t even get to dance with him at this stand-in ball, leaving me wondering why it was even necessary to have it. Even weirder, the whole scene was really just a set up to have Kate force one of the fae assassins to kiss someone’s shoe. All of the other assassins are horrified and are like “how could you do that?! Think of his traumatic back story!” even though we have not heard anything about his backstory up until this point. We, of course, later learn that the assassin she forced to kiss a shoe has very specific shoe kissing related trauma. I’m totally fine with learning that a character has trauma, but it was just weird that everyone acted like Kate should have known about his trauma even though she barely knows him. Also real weird of her and her cop best friend to force him to kiss a shoe in the first place. And for that to be the only noteworthy thing that happens at the gala. Okay, random police involvement aside, there were other problems with this story and some of them are very nitpicky. So, bear with me or don’t, but it’s my blog so I’m going to nitpick as much as I want. The romance was really not for me. The whole time I felt like Prince Cressica loathed Kate. And he was supposed to for a good portion of the book because he was trying to kill her. But when things got cozy and fun in the cafe, I still felt like he didn’t like her. He was just mean to her and called her stupid and occasionally rescued her. I don’t care how handsome he is, if I met him in real life, I wouldn’t even want to be friends with him, let alone be involved in romance. He’s kind of a jerk and he doesn’t stop being a jerk even when he admits that he has fallen in love. On the subject of the romance… I’m not a fan of how it got started in the first place. Cressica, when trying to kill Kate, kissed her against her will because his kiss was supposed to be magic and she’d be so enchanted that she would do whatever he told her, including kill herself (why he couldn’t just stab her with his fancy light sword instead, we’ll never know). The magic kiss backfires and instead he starts to fall in love with her. Sort of? There isn’t really evidence of this, they just tell us that the kiss was reversed and so now he’s enchanted. And when the kiss wears off, we’re still supposed to believe he likes her, even though he doesn’t act like it at all. And then, guess what, it turns out they are mates! Which never really gets explained so if you haven’t read a fantasy with “fated mates” in it before, sorry but you won’t be learning about it from this book. Worse still, was the power imbalance of the relationship at the end of the book. I don’t want to say too much and spoil anything, but Cressica manipulates Kate and humiliates her as the grand “happily ever after” ending to the story. And everyone is fine with that, including Kate. There were some “fairy godmothers” in this story who seemed like they were going to be cool. And they kinda were, for a little bit. But they also didn’t seem super relevant to the plot? They got into a bloody brawl with the four main fae assassins and they knit a magical pink sweater that never did anything, but apart from that I forgot about them most of the time. Nitpicky critique: Why the heck was the word “faeborn” used SO MUCH in this book? It was used to describe every little thing about the fae. Their “faeborn ears”,“faeborn feet”, “faeborn hands”, “faeborn heart”—pretty much any body part, if it was on a fae then the word “faeborn” had to be in front of it. It quickly got to be annoying along with the made up swear word “Queensbane”, which was used multiple times a page in some instances. And then, Kate would misuse big words so much throughout the story as a personality quirk. I wanted to tear my hair out at having to read all of the other characters turn into Inigo Montoya whenever Kate (a writer) used an SAT vocab word incorrectly. Okay, enough bashing. What did I like about this book? The cozy elements were, in fact, pretty cozy. I loved when it was Christmas time in the book and they had the cafe up and running. They drank warm beverages, went sledding, read books, and did generally cozy Christmas things. It took quite a while to get to the cozy part of this cozy fantasy, but when it finally did, the warm vibes delivered. The other assassins were also fun. Comedic relief characters for sure, but it seemed like they all had twisted backstories to be explored in later books. My guess is that the next book will feature the cop friend and one of the assassins falling in love because they were sort of flirting with each other in this book. Unfortunately, there really isn’t much else I can think of that I truly enjoyed about the book. So, I don’t really recommend it, honestly. I’m glad so many of the people who read it have enjoyed it, but it wasn’t for me. Well, I’m off to eat some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and keep the fae assassins from hogging them all. Until next time! Thanks for reading! Image sources: goodreads.com and giphy.com Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating at time of review: 3.97 Stars Content Rating: R (profanity, violence, gore, sexual content) Trigger Warnings: Violence, blood, abuse, war. As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago. Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind. When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion—and Nena’s rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago—is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh. And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn. (goodreads.com) I’m not someone who is usually drawn to the horror genre, but every once in a while I’ll come across a book that piques my interest. Though there are definitely horror elements to this book, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a horror story. It’s really more of a historical romance that happens to have scary vampires and even scarier colonialism. Since I’m not a regular scary story reader, there were parts that gave me the creeps, but I think someone who regularly reads horror would probably find this book tame for that genre. There wasn’t much that I didn’t like about this book. Personally, I don’t care for sexual scenes in my books, but the majority of that content was “off-screen” in this book anyway, with just a few easily skimmable parts with vague descriptions. So that wasn’t terrible. Apart from that, the only thing I didn’t really care for was how the ending was tied up so neatly. Not that I didn’t appreciate a happy ending, but it was maybe a little too perfect. The characters in this story were fantastic, I was fully invested in chapters from both Nena and Néstor’s perspectives and rooting for both of them, even though they were fighting each other at times. I loved the way their relationship developed and that they were reunited after such a long time. The background characters, for the most part, felt real and well rounded, not just cardboard cutouts for the main characters to bounce ideas off of. The only people who did not seem like real people were the invading Americans, and since they were set up to be some of the monsters of the story, that made sense. The vampires were not the cape wearing, castle owning sort. So, if you are looking for suave seductive vampires with cunning plots, this is not the book for you. These vampires are described like wild animals and act like it too. There is nothing romantic about them as they attack random animals and melt out of their skin from time to time. Very gross. Since English is my first language and I have forgotten most of the Spanish I learned in high school, I was frequently looking up words. There are many terms in the story that are spoken in Spanish exclusively and a few phrases as well. Even if I hadn’t looked them up, the context that these words are used in still lets you know what’s going on, but if you, like me, have to know every detail of what is being said and you don’t speak Spanish, it might be helpful to have a translator app nearby while reading. This is a really random note to throw into this review, but this is my blog and I make the rules, so I’m going to throw it in anyway: my first experience learning about Mexico and the surrounding area during the 1800’s was from reading the Josefina American Girl books. Because of this, much of my mental image for the setting is based on the illustrations for the Josefina books. In a way, it almost made this book feel weirdly nostalgic, which added to my enjoyment. So, if Josefina was your favorite American Girl growing up (she’s in my top three favorites) and you like gory vampires, then this may be the perfect book for you! I’ve been in a reading slump most of the summer and now into the fall (partially because I’ve been focusing on my writing, partially because of work, and partially because the internet is way too distracting). It has been taking me forever to get through books, even when they’re really good. There’s one book I’ve been slowly reading since the beginning of June and it’s late September now. However, with Vampires of El Norte, I could have read it in one sitting if stupid things like life hadn’t gotten in the way. This is a good read for the upcoming spooky season, even though the book is set in the spring. The atmosphere feels almost autumnal, especially with the cold nights spent sitting close together watching in trepidation to see if a vampire will show up. If you like historical romances and don’t mind a bit of sexual content and strong language and a lot of violence then I recommend giving this book a try! I’m off to go hide my cows from the vampires! I’ll see you in the next review! Thanks for reading! Image sources: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4590322-meet-josefina https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/63892214 Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating at time of review: 3.62 Stars Content Rating: Light PG-13 Trigger Warnings: Fantasy substance abuse, anxiety, depression, absent parent, some body horror (people growing flowers out of skin, chest, lungs, etc.) Clara’s magic has always been wild. But it’s never been dangerous. Then a simple touch causes poisonous flowers to bloom in her father’s chest. The only way to heal him is to cast an extremely difficult spell that requires perfect control. And the only person willing to help is her former best friend, Xavier, who’s grown from a sweet, shy child into a mysterious and distant young man. Xavier names a terrible price in return, knowing Clara will give anything to save her father. As she struggles to reconcile the new Xavier with the boy she once loved, she discovers their bargain is only one of the heavy secrets he’s hiding. And as she hunts for the truth, she instead finds the root of a terrible darkness that’s taken hold in the queendom—a darkness only Clara’s magic is powerful enough to stop. (goodreads.com) The copy of this book that I own is the Fae Crate exclusive edition, so if you’d like to see what that cover looks like, scroll on down to the bottom of this review! Both are magnificent covers, so please take a moment to appreciate the beauty! Alright, obligatory pretty cover comment out of the way, let’s get into the actual review. I was so, so, so excited for this book! A cottagecore fantasy with flower magic and a bit of romance? Sounds lovely, sign me up! And it was lovely, it was also just a twinge disappointing. I think part of that was because I set my hopes unattainably high and did not prepare for anything less than exactly what I wanted. It was still a fun book, it just wasn't the warm cottagecore hug I was hoping for. My first disappointment with it was the world building. Well, the lack of world building. And I know world building in a cozy fantasy is not always a top priority, and generally not all important to the plot, but I still would have liked a bit more. The reader is dropped into a world and told there are magic users, that those magic users have a council of some sort, and that young magicians are apprenticed to older magicians. All of which is relevant to the plot and great. However, there isn’t really much expansion on that information. We get small details about what the magician’s code of ethics is like and how they use their magic, but not much else. And the rest of the world is never explored. We know it’s a queendom, which sounds really cool and interesting, but I don’t recall them mentioning any information about the queen or what the queendom looks like outside of Clara’s small town and Xavier’s family home. My default guess for books like this that feature cottages and manors, is that the world is inspired by the English countryside, but there aren’t many clues confirming that, so that imagined world only fits because of my own background in reading fantasy. There also isn’t really a “set time period”. Obviously, this is not set in our world so no time period would line up with it exactly, but most fantasy worlds are inspired, at least with fashion and technology, by a point in our world’s history. Lord of the Rings, for example, has some decidedly medieval aesthetics going on. Based on the dress Clara wears on the cover, I’d guess Flowerheart is supposed to be late Victorian or early Edwardian, but hardly anything in the actual book points to that. The Victorian/Edwardian eras have some great technology that would have been a fun way to set the mood, like a gramophone or mention of trains or maybe even something with an Industrial Revolution nod. Again, it’s not vital to the plot that we have an exact picture of the world the story takes place in, but it would have been nice to be able to visualize it a little better. Apart from that, it really would have been cool to know more about how magic works in their world. Are the magicians the only difference from their world and ours or are there other things? Magical creatures? Odd geography? Legends of magic? Deities? I’m not saying not knowing these things makes it a bad story, but I, personally, would have enjoyed it more with more context. What little the reader does get to know about the fantasy world this is set in reminds me a little of Ingary, the place where Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is set. Which was fun, but again, I'm drawing from my own reading experiences and not being given anything new from this book. I did like the plot. I mostly liked the writing style (I’m a bit exhausted of first person perspective, but that’s a me problem). The flower descriptions were so fun and I loved that we got to see some “language of the flowers” action. I would adore it if more books used the language of the flowers, ever since I read the Enola Holmes books by Nancy Springer I’ve been interested and Flowerheart has rekindled the obsession. I thought the characters were lovely. Albert Lucas, Clara’s father, was adorably sweet. The various magicians Clara met with were interesting and I would have loved to hear more about them. And I liked that Xavier felt realistic for a teenager burdened with large responsibilities. He acted mature and formal much of the time, but there were little instances of bashfulness and awkwardness that made him seem genuine. The book was easy to get into and be drawn into, but there were points that lagged for me. The pacing was not quite right. There were moments when it seemed like it was trying really hard to be a slow, cozy read, but then other moments when everything was happening at the speed of light and all of a sudden there are new problems, or old problems are solved in the blink of an eye. And the slow, cozy moments were not always well connected to the rest of the story, which is why I had to set it down several times. I kept thinking “why are we focused on this right now? Clara’s dad is dying!”, or “okay, things are calm, now would be a good time for some cute warm scenes--oh, nevermind people have dandelions growing out of their faces”. However, as a whole, I did like this book, I just didn’t love it. Not as much as I was hoping to anyway. Still, I could see myself picking up a sequel if there is one (most of the dilemmas were tied up, but there were enough openings that a sequel is possible) for a quick fantasy read. If you like diverse, mid-stakes (I don’t want to say “low-stakes” because her father was dying, but it doesn’t feel like incredibly “high-stakes” either because I was never too worried about the guy), cottagecore, teenage romances, you should check out Flowerheart. If you don’t… well, okay, I dunno, check out another one of my reviews and see if you can find something you like, I guess. Thank you for reading, I am off to check the magical cabinet that has delicious treats in it. Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61319750-flowerheart Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 4.1 Stars Content Rating: R (for sexual scenes and language) Trigger Warnings: Dead parent, mentions of murder, brief mentions of child abuse, emotionally manipulative ex-boyfriend. Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead. When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father. For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it. Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is. Romance is most certainly dead... but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories. (goodreads.com) I was astounded to find that I’ve actually read a book by this author before! Ashley Poston also wrote Geekerella, which is a fun, nerdy YA book that I wholeheartedly enjoyed back in 2018. I didn’t find this out until after I read this book, which was kind of nice because that means the book is good even without predetermined positive feelings for the author! Before we get into the review, let’s get this out of the way: Yes, this book had sexual scenes and sexual jokes. The jokes were sprinkled throughout, but not alarmingly abundant (just enough to let you know that this book is for grown ups). I was actually pleasantly surprised that the actual *spicy* scenes in the book were not as numerous as I thought they’d be. There were really only two major ones that I can recall and one of them was sort of fade-to-black. There was no important information in these scenes so they could just be skimmed through. Okay, that aside, I really did enjoy this novel! It went much deeper into exploring grief than I was expecting from a fluffy romance. It talked about family struggles, healing, honoring those who have passed, and enjoying life. Way more than I signed up for when I was told this was a fun romance about a ghost and an author, but I was okay with that. Speaking of ghosts… you may be wondering how this book can possibly have a happy ending if one of the main characters is dead. Well, I’m certainly not going to tell you. That would be a big ole spoiler. Just take my word for it, things work out. As far as the characters go, I liked ‘em all. Well, except for the ones the reader isn’t supposed to like. Florence, the MC, is a bit jaded, but still knows how to joke around. Her family is fun and felt realistic to me. The only character that I didn’t find particularly believable was Ben, the male lead. Don’t get me wrong, he was a likable character and I enjoyed reading about him. But something about him just did not feel realistic. He was honestly too good to be true. I’m not complaining about it, since this is a romance novel and I guess that’s kind of the point (I haven’t read enough adult romance novels to know if other male love interests are as “perfect” as Ben, and in all the YA romance novels I generally hate the boy characters). Like I said, I thought his character was great, just maybe a smidge too perfect. He almost didn’t feel human. But I guess he was a ghost, so that works out. The setting of a small town was lovely. The story takes place in spring, but since I’m more than ready for autumn, I imagined it to be during the fall, which was kind of fun. All together very cozy regardless of what season you read it in. Florence’s interactions with the ghosts of the town were generally sweet, or at least interesting. I almost wish the book had covered more of her being able to speak to ghosts. However, it was also really cool because it kept mentioning how Florence, with the help of a ghost, had solved a murder when she was a kid. It almost felt like this story was showing you what happens to the protagonist of a YA paranormal murder mystery book after she grows up. I don’t know that I’d recommend this book to everyone (particularly if you’re already struggling with grief or if you don’t like romance), but I read it very quickly and enjoyed it quite a bit more than I was expecting. Thanks for reading, I’m off to wander through a graveyard (for real, does anyone want to go walking through a cemetery with me?). Until next time! Cover image source: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/58885776-the-dead-romantics Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.53 Stars Content Rating: R (mostly for violence and language, but some non-graphic sexual content is present as well) Trigger Warnings: Violence, lots of blood, assault, manipulation. There’s only one way out Belle Morte. One of five houses where vampires reside as celebrities and humans are paid to be their living donors. While others came here seeking fortune, I came in search of my sister who walked into Belle Morte five months ago . . . and never walked back out. Now that I’m here, the secrets about this world have proven to be much bigger than I ever anticipated. And lurking around every corner are shocking insinuations of what happened to my sister. There’s only one person who might have the answers I need, and the undeniable pull I feel toward him is terrifying: Edmond Dantès―a vampire, and my mortal enemy. The harder I try to resist him, the further I fall under his spell. And in one instant my life is irrevocably changed. My past becomes prologue and my fate becomes sealed behind these doors. Belle Morte has spoken. And it may never let me go. (goodreads.com) As always, a moment of appreciation for a pretty cover. I’m not quite sure how it relates to the story, other than the general elegant vampire vibes, but it’s a lovely cover nonetheless. When I first heard of this book, I was excited about it. I’m always hopeful for new vampire books. I never really got into the Twilight/Vampire Diaries/Vampire Academy type books, but I love the idea of vampires and the different plots that can come from immortal, super-powered individuals who struggle with morals. So, I get excited when I see new YA vampire fiction. Then I saw that this was a Wattpad book… and my excitement dimmed. Unfair though it may be, I am generally apprehensive about books written on Wattpad. If you don’t know, that particular free writing website has spawned works such as The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles and After by Anna Todd. And no hate to anyone who enjoys those books, but let’s be honest… well, I can’t be honest without making a generalized assumption. Let’s just say that they are not my cup of tea. Neither are many of the stories that can be found on Wattpad, though the genres cover everything you could possibly want. Still, I thought I’d give it a go, because, well, vampires. The first few chapters irritated me because I felt like I’d literally just opened Wattpad in my browser and had clicked on the first vampire story I saw. Of course, the grammar and formatting were miles better and by probably the third chapter I was sucked into the story. Because that’s what Wattpad stories are good at, they might be the most ludicrous, poorly written thing you’ve ever read, but something about them does a great job of keeping the reader entertained. Or, at least, this reader. Okay, I’ll stop talking about how Wattpad-ish it is now. It’s published by them, we get it. Moving on. The actual story itself was pretty interesting for the first half of the book. The main character, Renie, is searching for her sister and the vampires seem to know where she’s gone, but no one is giving any information up. There are spooky clues that Renie keeps finding and dubious alliances that she’s forming. Things are mysterious and the reader is hoping along with Renie that her sister is okay. It’s a complete mystery as to what happened to her sister for the first half of the book. Then we find out what happened to her and the mystery element goes away. I won’t tell you what happened to the sister, but I will say that the revelation comes much earlier in the book than I was expecting and from there onward the book loses some of its appeal. There are still mysteries to be solved, but no one puts much effort into figuring things out until it is revealed to them. Plotwise, this book is kind of meh. I wish it had been more difficult for Renie to find her sister, June. It didn’t particularly feel earned when she figured it out and since that was the main plotline, it kind of just dropped from there. But, I suppose, people don’t read books like this for the plot. And that’s totally fine. After all, I read it and even with the flat plot, I still found it entertaining. This book is not a mystery with a supernatural element, it is a vampire romance with a dash of mystery. And it does a pretty good job at being that. Personally, I didn’t really care for the romance of Belle Morte. It was very insta-lovey and not in a way that was explained. It’s one thing if the two leads see each other, feel irrationally drawn to each other and then it turns out, gee whiz! There was some sort of soulmate magic all along. But it irritates the heck (pardon my language) out of me when both characters feel a magnetic pull toward one another and even though they barely know each other they fall desperately in love and then there is no explanation why they felt so drawn to each other. Apart from that, the story went out of its way on multiple occasions to point out how old Edmond is compared to Renie and how he’s lived through wars and trauma and heartbreak and how she’s… gone to highschool. Which, to be fair, happens in almost all vampire books. But this one kept pointing it out and Renie had a moment where she was completely freaked out and somewhat disgusted by their age difference. Then she got over it after a nap because Edmond was just so darn pretty. I’ve read and enjoyed other books where one of the characters is immortal and the other is not and it hasn’t bothered me, but Edmond seemed like such a grandpa. He was bad at technology and kept talking about how cushy things are in the present. It had a very “when I was your age we had to walk uphill both ways” feel to it. One thing I did enjoy was the amount of extravagant parties the character attended. Completely unhelpful to the plot, totally unnecessary, but really fun to read about. I just enjoy the dancing and the many irrelevant details about what dresses and tuxes everyone wore in the book. That’s one thing I love about some YA books is the amount of fancy dresses. It’s probably because I grew up on a healthy diet of Barbie movies. Overall, I liked this book and I will read the next one when it comes out, but it was a bit disappointing. Oh well, I’ll keep looking for a vampire book that I enjoy and if I can’t find one then I might just write one. We’ll see how things shake out. Thanks for reading! I’m off to raid the wardrobes of Belle Morte and throw a fancy ball of my own. Until next time! Cover image: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/57917080-belle-morte Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: Content Rating: R (for violence and suggestive scenes) Trigger Warnings: Murder, assault, an almost rape/murder, funeral for a teenager, kidnapping, prostitution. Cassandra Caravello is one of Renaissance Venice’s lucky elite: with elegant gowns, sparkling jewels, her own lady’s maid, and a wealthy fiancé, she has everything a girl could desire. Yet ever since her parents’ death, Cassandra has felt trapped, alone in a city of water, where the dark and labyrinthine canals whisper of escape. When Cass stumbles upon a murdered woman—practically in her own backyard—she’s drawn into a dangerous world of courtesans, killers, and secret societies. Soon, she finds herself falling for Falco, a mysterious artist with a mischievous grin... and a spectacular skill for trouble. Can Cassandra find the murderer, before he finds her? And will she stay true to her fiancé, or succumb to her uncontrollable feelings for Falco? (goodreads.com) A book about Venice? In the Renaissance? With a spooky murder mystery? Don’t mind if I do, hand it over! Originally, I thought this book was going to have fantasy elements to it, because it was shelved in the young adult fantasy section of the library. However, after reading the first book in this series, I can find no blatant use of magic. There may have been something vaguely alluded to because it seemed like the main character had “premonitions” of some sort, but none of those came true so I’m not sure what exactly was going on there. I’d say that this first book is mainly mystery/romance. My favorite thing about this book was the immersion into Venice. C’mon, you know me. You knew that was going to be what I liked best. When I was reading it, I felt like I was there, like I could run away to Italy in a book. After I finished reading, I almost didn’t want to pick up another book because I knew it wouldn’t be set in Venice and I wouldn’t be learning more clues to solve the mystery. My least favorite thing was, unsurprisingly, how much sexual stuff was going on. C’mon, you know me. You knew that was going to be what I liked least. It just felt like an unnecessary amount of talking about prostitution, affairs, secret trysts, etc. There was only one scene that described anything happening in detail and it wasn’t terribly graphic (and it was easily skimmed through) and it was really not needed for the plot of the story or for the development of the main character. Or if it was, I’m sure it could have just been mentioned briefly, rather than described at all. To my great irritation, books about Venice are like books about vampires. Both are intriguing topics that I find fun to read about, but both are always swamped in steamy, sensual writing that I don’t care for. Maybe there just needs to be more children’s books about Venice. And vampires, come to think of it. Maybe even both together, but not like that Doctor Who episode (fun fact, I’ve only seen three or four episodes of Doctor Who, picked out for me by my friends and they decided that one of those episodes should be “Blink” because I guess they wanted me to have nightmares or something *glares good naturedly at friends* but one friend also showed me “The Vampires of Venice” which was great, but not exactly what I have in mind for more stories about vampires and Venice). Enough of my rambling about what I want for the future of Venetian and Vampirian (is that a word?) literature. Moving on with the review! Let’s talk about characters, shall we?
Cassandra is the main character and she is a pretty standard 2012 YA book heroine in some ways but also different in other ways. For one thing, she seems to have quite a strong “not like other girls” streak and one character literally tells her that she is not like other girls. I’m sure that line killed back in good ole twenty-twelve, but it’s been a decade since then and the phrase induces more cringe than anything. Regardless, Cass was also different from standard 2012 heroines because, despite being “not like other girls”, she also had a couple of awesome gal-pals who she could confide in and she wasn’t a complete snob or running around wearing trousers because she’s just “too tough for dresses”. Not that there is anything wrong with wearing pants, sometimes pants just don’t make sense in the context of Renaissance Venice for a young noblewoman. Anyway, Cass isn’t the worst MC that I’ve ever read, but she definitely had her annoying moments. Then we have Falco. The artistic bad boy who worships science instead of God. Wowza, what a rebel (although, honestly, at that time in history being an atheist out loud was pretty darn dangerous). He’s also the main love interest for the book, even though Cass is betrothed to another guy named Luca. I won’t say too much about Luca for fear of spoilers, but I will say that I got kind of an icky vibe from Falco for the whole book. Something about him just seems wack, even though I’m pretty sure he’s supposed to be a good guy. I wasn’t a fan of him and his constant peer pressure of Cass. And the two of them rarely have a conversation that isn’t an argument. If they aren’t arguing then they are smooching. How they had time to decide that they loved each other, we will never know. One character that I really liked but who wasn’t in the book very much was Sienna, the lady’s maid to Cass. Sienna started off somewhat distant from the main characters and I didn’t think she’d be involved in the whole murder mystery at all. Again, I don't want to say too much, but she does become a bigger part of the story later on and her arc is continued in what I’ve read of the sequel, though Cass is still the MC. There were plenty of other interesting side characters as well, but there were almost too many and I sort of lost track of them. I would suggest keeping somewhat of a list of names mentioned. It might make the big “who-dun-did-it” reveal at the end more satisfying. Just because of the setting, I want to finish this book series, but the end of the first book doesn’t leave all of the ends tied up, so the suspense will also keep me reading until the end of the trilogy. I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves mysteries, Venice, or the Italian Renaissance, but doesn’t mind some violence and spice (although most regular spice readers wouldn’t even consider it spice, they’d probably think of it more as just a tad zesty, but it was spicy for me). It really is a read that sucks you in and keeps your attention, so if you do check it out, I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reading, I’d better be finding a gondola to take me to a masquerade ball. Alla prossima! Image sources: Cover: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9999795-venom Gifs from giphy.com Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.96 Stars Content Rating: Strong PG-13 (for alcohol consumption, language, and “fade to black” sexual content) When Japanese-American Izumi Tanaka learned her father was the Crown Prince of Japan, she became a princess overnight. Now, she’s overcome conniving cousins, salacious press, and an imperial scandal to finally find a place she belongs. She has a perfect bodyguard turned boyfriend. Her stinky dog, Tamagotchi, is living with her in Tokyo. Her parents have even rekindled their college romance and are engaged. A royal wedding is on the horizon! Izumi’s life is a Tokyo dream come true. Only... Her parents’ engagement hits a brick wall. The Imperial Household Council refuses to approve the marriage citing concerns about Izumi and her mother’s lack of pedigree. And on top of it all, her bodyguard turned boyfriend makes a shocking decision about their relationship. At the threat of everything falling apart, Izumi vows to do whatever it takes to help win over the council. Which means upping her newly acquired princess game. But at what cost? Izumi will do anything to help her parents achieve their happily ever after, but what if playing the perfect princess means sacrificing her own? Will she find a way to forge her own path and follow her heart? (goodreads.com) This is the sequel for Tokyo Ever After, which you may recall I read and reviewed last year. You can read that review here if you would like. Oh my goodness, this was such a fun read! The book I finished before this one (which I may or may not review, I haven’t decided yet) was such a long and arduous read with so much world-building jargon, that it was nice to read a fun, fluffy story. If I would have had the time, I probably could have read the entirety of this book in one afternoon. It’s a very quick and easy read, which was very much appreciated after the week I’ve had. This book takes off pretty close to where the first one left off, hopping right into the summer following Izumi’s graduation at the end of Tokyo Ever After. Right off the bat, it seems like things are going well. Her parents are engaged, she’s starting to get the hang of being a princess (minus a few blunders), and she and her boyfriend, Akio, are super duper in love. It’s great. Until it isn’t. Dun, dun DUUUUUNNNN. This is a minor spoiler, but it basically says it in the description anyway so I’m not going to worry too much about it: Akio breaks up with Izumi! He says it’s for the best because everyone, including the Imperial Household Council, thinks that he is not the right fit for a princess (since he’s a commoner, y’know, that old spiel). And then he runs off to flight school after throwing into effect one of my least favorite contemporary-romance-sequel tropes: The Unnecessary Break Up.
I don’t know why, but it seems like there are a ton of contemporary romances with sequels that involve the main couple splitting up for really stupid reasons. It particularly annoys me when the reason for the break up is something that they already resolved in the first book. So, I was super shocked, annoyed, and heartbroken when Akio pulled a “I’ve gotta go my own way” à la High School Musical 2. I’ll be honest, I briefly considered quitting the book right there, so annoyed was I. However, I decided that I liked Izumi and the whole princess storyline enough on its own to keep reading even after Akio abandoned ship. And I’m so glad I did because, gosh darn it, it was still such a fun read without that surly, brooding bodyguard boyfriend. In fact, after another character is introduced, it might have been even more fun without Akio! So, ha! Take that, you self-sacrificing galoot! The other character that was introduced is named Eriku and good golly, he was probably my favorite character for most of the book. He is introduced as, first Izumi’s tutor and then… she and he decide to fake-date to make both of their families happy and appeal to the Imperial Household Council. And the shenanigans they get up to are absolutely adorable. There were also some fantastic and fun gal pal bonding scenes in this book, both with Izumi’s old friends, and some unlikely new ones. One of the things I’ve found so entertaining with this duology, as well as with The Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, is reading about people with remarkable wealth just doing super expensive things. In real life, absurdly rich people are… controversial and sometimes not the most ethical people in the world. I feel like watching real wealthy people do things like go to amazing theme parks, spend exorbitant amounts of money on clothes, or clear out a restaurant for private use, only sparks envy, annoyance, or self-righteousness. Reading about a fictional character experiencing those things, and sort of “going along for the ride” with those characters is so much more fun and guilt-free since it’s all made up anyway. On the whole, I was so happy with this book and all of the drama, fluff, and adventures in it. There was one thing that irritated me to the point of removing a star from what would have been a five star rating, but it’s a spoiler, so I will only discuss it in the spoiler section below. Basically, though, I’m in love with this series and the characters and I could probably read thirty more books about Izumi and not get bored. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fluffy romance (that isn’t very steamy), The Princess Diaries, or a bit of Japanese culture (again, I cannot attest to the accuracy of the cultural depictions in this book, but the author did say she did her research). If you would like to read my mini rant in the spoiler section, click the “Read More” button below. Thanks! Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads rating at time of review: 3.77 stars Content Rating: R for violence, drugs, alcohol and sexual content Trigger Warnings: Forced marriage, animal death, drug use/addiction, kidnapping. The elves come for two things: war and wives. In both cases, they come for death. Three-thousand years ago, humans were hunted by powerful races with wild magic until the treaty was formed. Now, for centuries, the elves have taken a young woman from Luella's village to be their Human Queen. To be chosen is seen as a mark of death by the townsfolk. A mark nineteen-year-old Luella is grateful to have escaped as a girl. Instead, she's dedicated her life to studying herbology and becoming the town's only healer. That is, until the Elf King unexpectedly arrives... for her. Everything Luella had thought she'd known about her life, and herself, was a lie. Taken to a land filled with wild magic, Luella is forced to be the new queen to a cold yet blisteringly handsome Elf King. Once there, she learns about a dying world that only she can save. The magical land of Midscape pulls on one corner of her heart, her home and people tug on another... but what will truly break her is a passion she never wanted. (goodreads.com) You might be looking at the cover of this book and raising a judgemental eyebrow in my direction. Particularly if you’ve read my reviews before and you know I don’t like sexual content in my books. And yes, that cover does look rather suggestive, but in my defense, lots of people were saying this book has very little “spice” in it and that it is a YA book. Having now read it, I can safely say that if this is mild on the spicy scale then I should probably stay far, far away from anything people consider steamier than this. One thing that I will say is that, the majorly amorous parts of this book were at least contained to Chapter 31 for the most part (and a few scenes after that weren’t quite as spicy, but still out of my comfort zone) with nothing important to the plot tied up in the descriptions as far as I could tell. So you could just skip Chapter 31 and skim the other parts if you wanted to and not miss any necessary information. Which I appreciate! There’s nothing that annoys me quite like there being a sex scene in a book that also includes vital information for the rest of the plot. If there has to be sex in a book, I prefer it to be possible to opt out of reading it without losing the thread of the part of the story I actually care about. Now that we have that discussion out of the way, let’s talk about the rest of the book, shall we? Overall, I liked it fairly well. The characters were, for the most part, likable, and the plot was intriguing enough to keep me reading through the bits that weren’t for me. The writing style was sort of strange (we’ll get into that in a minute), but easily overlooked. The world building could have been better, but for a book that’s main focus was a love story, I think it achieved its purpose. As I said, the writing was a little odd. There were some words that didn’t seem to fit into the flow of medieval-inspired fantasy land, like “yeah” and “heck” (I really did find it hilarious to read someone in an adult book say “what the heck” though and it definitely gave me the confidence to do the same with my own writing). It also seemed to go back and forth between more formal writing and super casual, which was jarring at some points, but didn’t hinder my enjoyment. There were also a few instances in which the sentence structure seemed a tad off (though who am I to call someone out for that) and I would take a moment mentally rearranging the words to correct it. Again, this didn’t really top me from easily reading the book, it just snagged my attention from time to time. I would like to take a brief moment to applaud the author for using the terms “Your Majesty” and “Your Highness” correctly. Goodness gracious, it was incredibly refreshing to have the king and queen be referred to as “majesty” and the prince as “highness”. Some writers use them interchangeably and it drives me crazy. Let’s talk about characters. Luella, the MC of the story, was actually pretty fun. I liked her more than I thought I would. She was interesting, with her own goals and abilities. She was also, for the most part, smart and reasonable. Plus, she was an herbalist healer and I can’t recall any other main characters that I’ve read with that profession. King Eldas, the titular Elf King, was almost exactly how I expected him to be. He was protective, foreboding, and grudging but with a soft side for Luella. However, I can’t help but find it funny when the reader finds out that he has basically been secluded in a castle his whole life. Generally, when I come across a dark, fierce, brooding love interest, he’s got some life experience under his belt. He’s been to places, done things, acquired scars both mentally and physically. You may never know how many people a Dark Brooding Boy ™ may have killed or maimed because his past is complicated. Eldas’ first time really leaving the castle, it is revealed, is when he goes to pick up Luella at the beginning of the book. This means, since she’s been to an academy, Luella has probably traveled more places than Eldas. She’s probably done more things, met more people, experienced life more. And one of the reasons I find this funny (morbidly funny) is because Eldas, when we first meet him, really wants to use his magic to tear this one guy limb from limb. And then, toward the middle of the book, but still nearer to the beginning, he actually does dismember a dude. And since he’s rarely left the castle up to this point, all I can imagine is that he has never killed anyone before (I can’t remember if he says otherwise in the book or not), but he knows the kind of guy he’s trying to be would definitely kill people. It’s like he’s so committed to his aesthetic that he just dearly wants to murder people to live up to it. We don’t get to read any of his inner dialogue but my headcanon is that it went something like this after he ripped apart a dude: Yes! Finally! Oh my gosh… that’s a lot of blood. I might be sick. No! No Eldas, stand majestically. Hold Luella. She is so impressed with me right now I bet. I just saved her from this guy and then dramatically punished him for his crime. And I managed to say something awesome! Heck yeah, this is fantastic. Okay, okay, I’m just goofing off now. Back to the review.
The side characters were nice. I liked that Luella had friends in the castle and that she spent time with people other than Eldas. I won’t say much because of spoilers, but I liked how things turned out with Prince Harrow too, it wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was certainly refreshing as far as plots involving wild, wicked brothers go. Before I wrap this up, here are a few other bullet points of my thoughts on the book:
While this book and its spice were not a great fit for me, I can totally see how someone looking for a steamy romantic fantasy would enjoy A Deal with the Elf King. I don’t see myself ever picking up the sequels to this book, mostly because they aren’t really sequels, just stand alones in the same universe, but also because I haven’t come across many positive reviews. I’m undecided about whether or not I’ll try anything else by Elise Kova. Originally, I thought I would give her Air Awakens series a go, but now I’m not sure. I’m sure I’ll let you know if I do decide to try it. Thanks for reading this review! If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to mix up a whole bunch of plants into a super elixir that will heal pretty much any wound ever. Until next time! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55285911-a-deal-with-the-elf-king?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=mp7CvaB8B5&rank=1 |
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