I’m surprised by how much I loved this book - and I’m itching for more!
Books over 450 Kindle pages always intimidate me. I can’t help but think… doesI’m surprised by how much I loved this book - and I’m itching for more!
Books over 450 Kindle pages always intimidate me. I can’t help but think… does it really need to be 450+ pages, or is there a lot of back and forth… unnecessary drama… etc. But this 534 page standalone fantasy monster romance was - to me - perfectly paced and used every page well. I never felt like the story dragged, and I would have loved more time before the “happily ever after”. (Holiday novella, perhaps??? I will settle for them cameo-ing in future books.)
The first book of a series, especially a fantasy series, always has a tough job of world building, but Opal Reyne was able to get this book off the ground quickly with a simple premise: there are humans, and the demons who hunt them. Reia is seen as “bad luck” and is being sacrificed to a Duskwalker (a demon able to walk in the light) to keep the village she grew up in safe. Enter, Dustwalker who takes her away… and we’re able to get on with the story.
This was a very isolated book. Reia and the Dustwalker named Orpheus are alone on page for most of the book - with the occasional appearance from demons trying to kill her, an ominous Owl Witch, and another Dustwalker who is not as smart as Orpheus. While there was a plot, it was mainly character driven and relationship driven - something I loved. So much time was spent as Reia and Orpheus got to know each other, it was wonderful.
Orpheus is sort of a classic monster archetype… deadly and scary, but a sweet and lonely soul on the inside. A big difference between him and other monster heroes is that he has no “human” qualities, physically. He has no mouth, just a tongue; his whole head is a skull with horns; he has fur, fish gills, and an extruding penis with tentacles. By the 20% mark I adored him, because he’s just… so sweet. Duskwalkers “eat” their humanity - as they eat humans they learn and gain capabilities like the ability to do magic. He craves a bride, but will settle for a companion - he’s just lonely and it broke my heart.
Enter Reia. Seeing them grow together was so fun. And since I love a Beauty and the Beast story it really isn’t surprising I loved this one (she even reads him a children’s folktale of Beauty and the Beast… meta).
Super excited for where this world will go !!!...more
I was recommended this book and picked it up although I’ve read one other from Ilsa Madden-Mills (Not My Romeo) and didn’t like it.
I think that, despI was recommended this book and picked it up although I’ve read one other from Ilsa Madden-Mills (Not My Romeo) and didn’t like it.
I think that, despite the potential she has with plot, Ilsa’s writing just isn’t for me.
First of all, this book deals with HEAVY TOPICS. The heroine was raped her junior year of high school, and promptly slut shamed because it happened at a party of the “Sharks”, the athletes of a private school whose fathers own the town. She returns to the school her senior year to get revenge and prove they couldn’t break her, and is still slut shamed - graffiti on her lockers, people attacking her in the hallways.
From the description of the book we know that the premise is she gets an anonymous love letter in her locker from a Shark. Here’s the thing… we know who it is almost immediately. I almost think it would have been better if the chapters alternated between Ava / “Secret Admirer” until she found out.
*So I don’t reveal the hero, I will be calling him “H”. Like I said, you quickly learn who the hero is because he gets his own POV chapters, but… I went in without knowing and wrote my review this way so you can too.
Ava and the H have a little forced proximity when they are paired together for a film class. The “banter” between them - if you can call it that - felt so… awkward and stilted and forced and weird. Cringe-y in several parts and I was like, “whyyyy would they say that?”
H is supposed to be this cold badass and yet he blushes because she caught him with a girl under the bleachers (in years past)? Like, dude, YOU FUCK GIRLS UNDER THE BLEACHERS, of course someone’s gonna walk by RIGHT AFTER the football game is over…
The dialogue just did not felt natural at all and really took me out of the story. The plot was lukewarm until almost the end, when the “truth” and revenge is revealed.
What saved this book for me and made it not a one star, was the last 15% of the book. There is a small time jump, but it completely works with the book. AND Ava and H remain faithful to each other during their time apart.
TWs: past rape, PTSD, slut shaming, assault, violence...more
I was intrigued by this book because of the cover and the premise of the hero being a psychopath. I love violent heroes in dark romances for a reason I was intrigued by this book because of the cover and the premise of the hero being a psychopath. I love violent heroes in dark romances for a reason I can't explain.
I read this after only reading book 2 in the series (which I didn't like), and didn't realize the heroine of this book is Loulou's younger sister, Bea (Loulou was the heroine of book 2). I liked Bea more than her sister, who I found immature. Bea is seen as sweetness and light, but has always been drawn to darkness and violence. Her relationship with religion is complex, as is her relationship with her mom and the members of the Fallen. One in particular who she's watched for years: Priest.
Priest was abused severely as a child and is the stone cold enforcer of the Fallen. In a case of opposites attract / bad boy and good girl, he becomes obsessed with Bea.
I saw some similar undertones in this book that Welcome to the Dark Side (book 2) had - like Priest being obsessed with her virginity/taking it and how he had been attracted to her when she was 16 (she's now 19). I guess this is a part of taboo romance that I don't quite understand.
I liked their romance a lot. The heightened violence makes it feel a bit fantastical, like it's obviously a story so it's easier to suspend disbelief. Plus violence in writing tends to feel a bit abstract to me, more so than in TV shows....more
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