Take a photo of a barcode or cover
perid0t 's review for:
For the Strange and Surprising
by M.F. Adele
• 1 female, 4 males - changing povs
• Clean story, very slow burn
• Portal, Magic
• Top knotch writing, 200 pages
What is good? It's a very cozy, cute, and whimsical tale to me. Adelaide gets stuck in a storm on a little boat and ends up in another world. One with magic, and queens that have lived for thousands of years. The blurb felt very misleading to me, one speaking of danger and great powers. But all Adelaide really does is relax, enjoy herself and sees some new sights. It's very short, and while there are a so-called war between two tribes on the island. You hear about attacks, help heal wounds, but no deaths are really mentioned.
The blurb + the excessive trigger warnings in the beginning of the book had me not only expecting to be changing POVs between 4 girls (that doesn't happen), but also experiencing a darker tale. The very worst things in the books is a potential stalker (but could also be a spy), and the mention that "bad things happen to women in both worlds", which was alluding to rape. But rape doesn't happen, the word is never even mentioned, other than vague hand motions in the air that it might have happened to someone in the past. I don't know if that changes in the next few books tho.
I greatly enjoyed Adelaide, I greatly enjoyed the idea that the island was alive and powerful. And actually trying to manipulate people, but in an.. friendly sort of way? It kind of covers the whole "female lead acts very differently around different guys" aspects. I loved who whimsical and magical the land felt. And out of the four guys, I enjoyed 3 of them. I wasn't a big fan of Ecaeris, because out of the four men he was the only one who felt like a cookie-cutter trope. FMC and MMC instantly gets on eachother nerves and bicker and fight constantly while being insanly attracted to eachother? Yeah.. not very original. It's very common in reverse harems tho that each male fits a very specific personality trope AND a kink trope to "cover all the bases", and I didn't get that vibe from the other guys. Tho, this being a clean book, I can't really testify for the kink trope part.
My biggest worry really, my biggest complaints, is really just fears over what's to come. This book only covered Adelaine, there were no romance other than a little light flirting. I want to read how this blossoms, how their relationship develops and see her fall into someones arms once or twice. How am I going to get to see that if they're this short AND there are 3 other girls I'm supposed to be introduced to?
• Clean story, very slow burn
• Portal, Magic
• Top knotch writing, 200 pages
What is good? It's a very cozy, cute, and whimsical tale to me. Adelaide gets stuck in a storm on a little boat and ends up in another world. One with magic, and queens that have lived for thousands of years. The blurb felt very misleading to me, one speaking of danger and great powers. But all Adelaide really does is relax, enjoy herself and sees some new sights. It's very short, and while there are a so-called war between two tribes on the island. You hear about attacks, help heal wounds, but no deaths are really mentioned.
The blurb + the excessive trigger warnings in the beginning of the book had me not only expecting to be changing POVs between 4 girls (that doesn't happen), but also experiencing a darker tale. The very worst things in the books is a potential stalker (but could also be a spy), and the mention that "bad things happen to women in both worlds", which was alluding to rape. But rape doesn't happen, the word is never even mentioned, other than vague hand motions in the air that it might have happened to someone in the past. I don't know if that changes in the next few books tho.
I greatly enjoyed Adelaide, I greatly enjoyed the idea that the island was alive and powerful. And actually trying to manipulate people, but in an.. friendly sort of way? It kind of covers the whole "female lead acts very differently around different guys" aspects. I loved who whimsical and magical the land felt. And out of the four guys, I enjoyed 3 of them. I wasn't a big fan of Ecaeris, because out of the four men he was the only one who felt like a cookie-cutter trope. FMC and MMC instantly gets on eachother nerves and bicker and fight constantly while being insanly attracted to eachother? Yeah.. not very original. It's very common in reverse harems tho that each male fits a very specific personality trope AND a kink trope to "cover all the bases", and I didn't get that vibe from the other guys. Tho, this being a clean book, I can't really testify for the kink trope part.
My biggest worry really, my biggest complaints, is really just fears over what's to come. This book only covered Adelaine, there were no romance other than a little light flirting. I want to read how this blossoms, how their relationship develops and see her fall into someones arms once or twice. How am I going to get to see that if they're this short AND there are 3 other girls I'm supposed to be introduced to?