the way that i completely jinxed this, i'm so bitter

300 pages longer than it needed to be, reallly cringey/unnatural dialogue, weird paedophilic vibes (offhand, suggestive comments that are supposed to be hot. absolutely not). the world-building/magic system was atrocious, the author would completely contradict the "laws" of the magic system, simply for plot conveniences/so the author had an easy way for the plot to progress. beyond lazy, in my opinion. and the love interest was creepy and unattractive, fucking gave me the ick. i hate writing bad reviews for indie romances, but i'm actually so disappointed by this. it started off so well but just spiralled 40% in :(

moral to this mess: don't trust booktok