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“I’ve never heard such a charming sound,” he told her.
“What sound?”
“Your laughter.”
I absolutely adored everything about Blood Mercy. Everything about this story was so incredibly well done. While the cover was the first thing that drew me in, the plot absolutely had me convinced to read this story. Blood Mercy follows two POV’s; Cassia, the bastard daughter of the human king, and Lio a political ambassador from the vampires (Hesperine’s as they’re called in here). Lio and Cassia start meeting in traitorous secret, and eventually, fall in love (this is a very simplified version of what happens in here LMAO). The author described these two as “star-crossed lovers”, and I very much can confirm that is the entire vibe.
This is one of those rare fantasy-romances that has just as much (maybe even more) focus on the fantasy elements including the world building, the magic systems, the fictional religion aspects, the vampire (Hesperine) customs, ect, as it does the romance. The writing also has so much lyrical and meticulous detail. This is truly one of the best most well-written things I’ve read on KU. So when I say I want a fantasy romance I truly mean exactly like this book. Although the plot is very slow moving from beginning to end, that didn’t deter me from this story in the slightest! The world building is very very heavy in the first 50% and the characters and relationships are very heavy in the last 50%. And this book is not short at all. It’s over 700 pages with very firm fixation on the lyrical writing and fantasy.
And while the fantasy elements were absolutely incredible in this book (and heavily prevalent), the romance and characters were easily my favorite part! I adored Cassia and Lio so so dearly. Lio is a very soft, sweet and downright precious cinnamon roll hero (which is my absolute weakness guys). He’s very good with his words (wink wink), and he never wants to resort to violence in anything he does. Cassia is a very good match to Lio’s character. She’s very obedient and meek for a lot of Blood Mercy, but she has so much growth as this story goes on. She becomes a strong-willed, and self-sufficient woman who takes matters into her own hands and will resort to violence if she must. And even though Lio is the stronger one (physically at least) of the two, Cassia would literally do anything for him and protect him at all costs.
Their relationship and character contrasts were the absolute best to read about, and their interactions were so fucking sweet. Lio would do anything for Cassia, and absolutely vise versa. They were just so god damn soft and I could go on and on and on about how much I loved these two and their relationship. Not only were they so cute, but this book had absolutely one of the hottest blood drinking scenes I’ve ever read. And believe me when I say I’ve read a shit ton of vampire books.
I’d almost given up on fantasy-romance so many times these past few months, especially a lot of the ones on KU. A metaphor I always like to use for KU: Kindle-unlimited is essentially a landfill stuffed with a whole lot of trash, and very few diamonds in the rough. This is absolutely one of those gems, and if you’ve been wanting a fantasy-romance with a heavy, sorted out fantasy plot, well done, fleshed out characters, and beautiful writing, I’m begging you all to read this book. You won’t be disappointed, even though there are a few pacing issues.
This will definitely be going on my favorite books of the year, and I’m so very excited to continue on with this series (but scared because how will I ever read that many books…). Yes I’ll admit there were a few issues, but for this being the author’s debut, and something I enjoyed so dearly, I don’t even mind. I will now talk about this book every chance I get and beg everyone to read it.
* * *
Finally some good fucking soup. Gushing RTC.
“What sound?”
“Your laughter.”
I absolutely adored everything about Blood Mercy. Everything about this story was so incredibly well done. While the cover was the first thing that drew me in, the plot absolutely had me convinced to read this story. Blood Mercy follows two POV’s; Cassia, the bastard daughter of the human king, and Lio a political ambassador from the vampires (Hesperine’s as they’re called in here). Lio and Cassia start meeting in traitorous secret, and eventually, fall in love (this is a very simplified version of what happens in here LMAO). The author described these two as “star-crossed lovers”, and I very much can confirm that is the entire vibe.
This is one of those rare fantasy-romances that has just as much (maybe even more) focus on the fantasy elements including the world building, the magic systems, the fictional religion aspects, the vampire (Hesperine) customs, ect, as it does the romance. The writing also has so much lyrical and meticulous detail. This is truly one of the best most well-written things I’ve read on KU. So when I say I want a fantasy romance I truly mean exactly like this book. Although the plot is very slow moving from beginning to end, that didn’t deter me from this story in the slightest! The world building is very very heavy in the first 50% and the characters and relationships are very heavy in the last 50%. And this book is not short at all. It’s over 700 pages with very firm fixation on the lyrical writing and fantasy.
And while the fantasy elements were absolutely incredible in this book (and heavily prevalent), the romance and characters were easily my favorite part! I adored Cassia and Lio so so dearly. Lio is a very soft, sweet and downright precious cinnamon roll hero (which is my absolute weakness guys). He’s very good with his words (wink wink), and he never wants to resort to violence in anything he does. Cassia is a very good match to Lio’s character. She’s very obedient and meek for a lot of Blood Mercy, but she has so much growth as this story goes on. She becomes a strong-willed, and self-sufficient woman who takes matters into her own hands and will resort to violence if she must. And even though Lio is the stronger one (physically at least) of the two, Cassia would literally do anything for him and protect him at all costs.
Their relationship and character contrasts were the absolute best to read about, and their interactions were so fucking sweet. Lio would do anything for Cassia, and absolutely vise versa. They were just so god damn soft and I could go on and on and on about how much I loved these two and their relationship. Not only were they so cute, but this book had absolutely one of the hottest blood drinking scenes I’ve ever read. And believe me when I say I’ve read a shit ton of vampire books.
I’d almost given up on fantasy-romance so many times these past few months, especially a lot of the ones on KU. A metaphor I always like to use for KU: Kindle-unlimited is essentially a landfill stuffed with a whole lot of trash, and very few diamonds in the rough. This is absolutely one of those gems, and if you’ve been wanting a fantasy-romance with a heavy, sorted out fantasy plot, well done, fleshed out characters, and beautiful writing, I’m begging you all to read this book. You won’t be disappointed, even though there are a few pacing issues.
This will definitely be going on my favorite books of the year, and I’m so very excited to continue on with this series (but scared because how will I ever read that many books…). Yes I’ll admit there were a few issues, but for this being the author’s debut, and something I enjoyed so dearly, I don’t even mind. I will now talk about this book every chance I get and beg everyone to read it.
* * *
Finally some good fucking soup. Gushing RTC.
DNF at 18%
What in the Wattpad did I just read??? Gothikana is one of the most poorly written books I’ve read in awhile (aside from this monstrosity). For how high the praise for this story is (I think I just need to stop listening to hype atp bc I always seem to hate all the hyped up books) I found nothing likeable, nor redeemable about the writing or story that I read. I’ve only read 18%, but already I can tell this book desperately needed an editor.
Gothikana is marketed as a gothic, dark academia, romance with a mystery plot and paranormal elements. It’s hilarious to me how this book is called Gothikana and nothing about the book is gothic—unless we’re counting the 5 hr long Spotify playlist in the beginning of the book…Our FMC, Corvina (made me think of this place LMAO), leaves her quiet home town to study at an elusive and mysterious university in the middle of nowhere. It’s there that she falls in forbidden love with her Professor, Vad…allegedly anyways (btw this is one of the worst MMC names I’ve ever encountered. Worse than any J name ever tbh).
While the start of this book was promising, Gothikana quickly falls into the forgettable and poorly written category of the indie, self-published, KU landfill. This book is obviously more focused on its (supposed) general aesthetics than the quality of its writing. The descriptions were mediocre at best, and very very poor at worst, the romance is already instalovey and giving me visceral ick, the telling instead of showing is absolutely infuriating, the amount of typos was driving me insane, and the dialogue is downright awful. I literally just DNF’ed after Vad (jesus christ) says to Corvina (rolls eyes):
”Steer clear of me, little crow,” he muttered, his eyes piercing, flaying her open. “You might be a luring siren but I’m no ordinary sailor. I’m a mad pirate and I’m trying to resist your call. If I land on your shores, I will plunder and take away everything worth having. Be careful giving me those eyes.”
(Btw his corny ass is the English professor, so I just know he thought he did something…)
This book just kind of felt like if you gave a middle schooler Microsoft Word and told them to write anything they wanted. I hate to be so critical in my reviews, especially to indie authors, but I’m sorry, this was just really bad and I’m so glad I DNF’ed. I just really want to try what y’all 4 and 5 star readers are smoking because the hallucinations must have been
What in the Wattpad did I just read??? Gothikana is one of the most poorly written books I’ve read in awhile (aside from this monstrosity). For how high the praise for this story is (I think I just need to stop listening to hype atp bc I always seem to hate all the hyped up books) I found nothing likeable, nor redeemable about the writing or story that I read. I’ve only read 18%, but already I can tell this book desperately needed an editor.
Gothikana is marketed as a gothic, dark academia, romance with a mystery plot and paranormal elements. It’s hilarious to me how this book is called Gothikana and nothing about the book is gothic—unless we’re counting the 5 hr long Spotify playlist in the beginning of the book…Our FMC, Corvina (made me think of this place LMAO), leaves her quiet home town to study at an elusive and mysterious university in the middle of nowhere. It’s there that she falls in forbidden love with her Professor, Vad…allegedly anyways (btw this is one of the worst MMC names I’ve ever encountered. Worse than any J name ever tbh).
While the start of this book was promising, Gothikana quickly falls into the forgettable and poorly written category of the indie, self-published, KU landfill. This book is obviously more focused on its (supposed) general aesthetics than the quality of its writing. The descriptions were mediocre at best, and very very poor at worst, the romance is already instalovey and giving me visceral ick, the telling instead of showing is absolutely infuriating, the amount of typos was driving me insane, and the dialogue is downright awful. I literally just DNF’ed after Vad (jesus christ) says to Corvina (rolls eyes):
”Steer clear of me, little crow,” he muttered, his eyes piercing, flaying her open. “You might be a luring siren but I’m no ordinary sailor. I’m a mad pirate and I’m trying to resist your call. If I land on your shores, I will plunder and take away everything worth having. Be careful giving me those eyes.”
(Btw his corny ass is the English professor, so I just know he thought he did something…)
This book just kind of felt like if you gave a middle schooler Microsoft Word and told them to write anything they wanted. I hate to be so critical in my reviews, especially to indie authors, but I’m sorry, this was just really bad and I’m so glad I DNF’ed. I just really want to try what y’all 4 and 5 star readers are smoking because the hallucinations must have been
DNF at 37%
At this point I’m DNF’ing books at the drop of a hat…
Mistress of Misfortune starts out strong with a heroine in love with the gothic, crumbling castle in her small village. She passes by it whenever she has the chance, however this time does not go smoothly. She’s very prone to accidents (ie misfortunes) and falls off her horse. The hero, a gruff colonel, brings her inside his home. The heroine is forced to stay the night due to a storm, but there is a “curse” that every woman who stays the night at this home will to fall in love with the man of the house and die tragically. The premise was very interesting, and I quite enjoyed the first 20%. However, a completely odd side-plot divulges with our heroines third (?) cousin coming up with a POV and all out of the clear blue. I was so confused by the abrupt tone change, as well as a new POV added.
This could have really been good imo, but that extra POV and new character introduction (also setting up a side-plot romance…) just completely turned me off from the story. The writing was decent, and if the cousin character and unrelated romance weren’t introduced, I think I would have quite enjoyed this.
At this point I’m DNF’ing books at the drop of a hat…
Mistress of Misfortune starts out strong with a heroine in love with the gothic, crumbling castle in her small village. She passes by it whenever she has the chance, however this time does not go smoothly. She’s very prone to accidents (ie misfortunes) and falls off her horse. The hero, a gruff colonel, brings her inside his home. The heroine is forced to stay the night due to a storm, but there is a “curse” that every woman who stays the night at this home will to fall in love with the man of the house and die tragically. The premise was very interesting, and I quite enjoyed the first 20%. However, a completely odd side-plot divulges with our heroines third (?) cousin coming up with a POV and all out of the clear blue. I was so confused by the abrupt tone change, as well as a new POV added.
This could have really been good imo, but that extra POV and new character introduction (also setting up a side-plot romance…) just completely turned me off from the story. The writing was decent, and if the cousin character and unrelated romance weren’t introduced, I think I would have quite enjoyed this.
ON HOLD AT 32%
I don’t hate this so far, it’s sitting probably at a 3.5. I’m not really loving the relationship between the MC’s, though. They don’t feel very genuine together, especially bc of how much our FMC hated the MMC (to the point she was going to kill him) for years. I like the MMC, he feels very different from other fantasy-romance heroes, but the way he and the FMC interact isn’t my fave. Their chemistry isn’t very believable. The characters on their own are fine, I just don’t know I feel about them together, so far. I also feel like I was led astray with this one because I’ve heard this is a true enemies to lovers plot, and the enemy portion is already over, basically????
Despite my issues with the building romance and misleading marketing, the plot is very intriguing. It kind of reminds me of the Shadow and Bone setup, with The Darkling taking magical children for the king’s army. In this case, The Witch Collector (our MMC) chooses a witch once a year for the king’s army. Very interesting plot, and I’m excited to learn more about the world. Alongside the plot, the writing is also very nice, and a little flowery. World building has also been good. I really don’t have many issues with this so far, it’s really not bad. Unfortunately, my Libby checkout runs out for this in 2 hours and there is no way I’ll be able to finish it by then which is why I’m putting it down. I will be pick this back up once I can get it back from Libby, and give a better, more concise review, then.
I don’t hate this so far, it’s sitting probably at a 3.5. I’m not really loving the relationship between the MC’s, though. They don’t feel very genuine together, especially bc of how much our FMC hated the MMC (to the point she was going to kill him) for years. I like the MMC, he feels very different from other fantasy-romance heroes, but the way he and the FMC interact isn’t my fave. Their chemistry isn’t very believable. The characters on their own are fine, I just don’t know I feel about them together, so far. I also feel like I was led astray with this one because I’ve heard this is a true enemies to lovers plot, and the enemy portion is already over, basically????
Despite my issues with the building romance and misleading marketing, the plot is very intriguing. It kind of reminds me of the Shadow and Bone setup, with The Darkling taking magical children for the king’s army. In this case, The Witch Collector (our MMC) chooses a witch once a year for the king’s army. Very interesting plot, and I’m excited to learn more about the world. Alongside the plot, the writing is also very nice, and a little flowery. World building has also been good. I really don’t have many issues with this so far, it’s really not bad. Unfortunately, my Libby checkout runs out for this in 2 hours and there is no way I’ll be able to finish it by then which is why I’m putting it down. I will be pick this back up once I can get it back from Libby, and give a better, more concise review, then.
OMFG! Wow what an epic book. So you know how I said ‘The Titan’s Curse’ is my favorite book in this series? I lied. This is!
First off, the epic action-packed scenes are AMAZING! And whilst I’m talking about this, can we talk about how much Riordan’s writing has improved over the years of writing these books?! This book was so well written, and Percy’s POV just keeps getting better.
Next, the characters in these books ARE EVERYTHING. I love them with my whole entire heart and soul. Annabeth Chase, I’m a lesbian for her, can we get married? She’s so fucking adorable, yet so sarcastic and amazing and I WANT MY OWN ANNABETH. Grover Underwood also has my heart! He’s the most adorable, and vulnerable yet badass character I’ve ever read about. And Tyson makes me heart literally heart and my eyes well up. And can we talk about Percy Jackson my child, my baby, my everything? He’s just so adorable, and so fucking oblivious and I can’t handle it. Plus he has the right amount of badassery and I’m HERE for it. Also I really enjoyed Rachel although we didn’t get much about her. AND NICO AHHH!
And Percy and Annabeth are EVERYTHING. I CRIED during their time in the mountains (if you know what I mean) and ugh then they ignore it! PERCY IS SO OBLIVIOUS AND I CAN’T TAKE IT!
Plus the freaking character development is GOLD! Nico develops, Percy develops, Annabeth, Tyson, Grover And basically everyone develops and makes me so freaking happy.
I’m also very happy Sally found someone new even though her and Poseidon aren’t a thing anymore! SHE
First off, the epic action-packed scenes are AMAZING! And whilst I’m talking about this, can we talk about how much Riordan’s writing has improved over the years of writing these books?! This book was so well written, and Percy’s POV just keeps getting better.
Next, the characters in these books ARE EVERYTHING. I love them with my whole entire heart and soul. Annabeth Chase, I’m a lesbian for her, can we get married? She’s so fucking adorable, yet so sarcastic and amazing and I WANT MY OWN ANNABETH. Grover Underwood also has my heart! He’s the most adorable, and vulnerable yet badass character I’ve ever read about. And Tyson makes me heart literally heart and my eyes well up. And can we talk about Percy Jackson my child, my baby, my everything? He’s just so adorable, and so fucking oblivious and I can’t handle it. Plus he has the right amount of badassery and I’m HERE for it. Also I really enjoyed Rachel although we didn’t get much about her. AND NICO AHHH!
And Percy and Annabeth are EVERYTHING. I CRIED during their time in the mountains (if you know what I mean) and ugh then they ignore it! PERCY IS SO OBLIVIOUS AND I CAN’T TAKE IT!
Plus the freaking character development is GOLD! Nico develops, Percy develops, Annabeth, Tyson, Grover And basically everyone develops and makes me so freaking happy.
I’m also very happy Sally found someone new even though her and Poseidon aren’t a thing anymore! SHE
[b: Cinder|36381037|Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)|Marissa Meyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507557775l/36381037._SY75_.jpg|15545385] - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
[b: Scarlet|12296|The Scarlet Letter|Nathaniel Hawthorne|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404810944l/12296._SY75_.jpg|4925227] - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
[b: Cress|13206828|Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3)|Marissa Meyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470057005l/13206828._SY75_.jpg|18390772] - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It’s official, I’m obsessed with this series. All I do is think about these characters. I love them so much, each and every one of them. The friendships are so pure, and the romances are great, and I just genuinely love these characters with my whole heart.
Cinder: She’s the OG, she’s what started the revolution and she should be highly more appreciated. She’s also a badass who’s gonna murder her aunt
Kai: A kind of dumb, and highly clueless emperor who’s Cinders love interest, and doesn’t know what to believe, but hey he’s cute so that’s all that matters
Scarlet: A no nonsense, angry badass with a fiery (see what I did their) temper
Wolf: An adorable baby who’s the only one for Scarlett; he’s just a really big softie
[b: Scarlet|12296|The Scarlet Letter|Nathaniel Hawthorne|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404810944l/12296._SY75_.jpg|4925227] - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
[b: Cress|13206828|Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3)|Marissa Meyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470057005l/13206828._SY75_.jpg|18390772] - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It’s official, I’m obsessed with this series. All I do is think about these characters. I love them so much, each and every one of them. The friendships are so pure, and the romances are great, and I just genuinely love these characters with my whole heart.
Cinder: She’s the OG, she’s what started the revolution and she should be highly more appreciated. She’s also a badass who’s gonna murder her aunt
Kai: A kind of dumb, and highly clueless emperor who’s Cinders love interest, and doesn’t know what to believe, but hey he’s cute so that’s all that matters
Scarlet: A no nonsense, angry badass with a fiery (see what I did their) temper
Wolf: An adorable baby who’s the only one for Scarlett; he’s just a really big softie
Oh my god, this was one of my favorite Wattpad books in middle school. This brings me back
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