ashleysdreamlibrary's Reviews (600)

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

so this book for me is a 3.5 star read!

I really enjoyed the way the Fae magic works, it is really interesting.

I will say the MFC Athroxane was not my favorite main lead hence the under four star rating. I felt like for someone who was raised by a king who did not baby her she sure did run a lot. The first time I understood, but where she ended up before Blake found her did not make sense to me, I could not understand why she chose that route. And I felt like she was randomly very cowardly. I am hoping to see growth in the second book and will be reading the second book because the cliff hanger got me!

4.5 stars!!!
I received an arc of this book in exchange for a voluntary and honest review!

AHHHHHH THERE IS A REASON I love Marion Blackwoods books!!!! This book was so intense!
I love the premise of a world with magic but of course not everyone is born with it. But to help the jealous people who were not born with it they created a way to take magic from the people with powers and share it between everyone.

I love the chapters swapping between Audrey and Callan. And that ending!!!! Oh my goodness!!! I cannot wait for the second book. Im only slightly heartbroken by the ending but at the same time so excited!

And the spice was FANTASTIC

3.5⭐️

I seriously enjoyed the hell out of this book!
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 stars for me!

Sometimes I had a hard time with Paige and how quickly she ran from situations versus talking them out. I get she got cheated on once and that sucks but sometimes I feel like she acted out like more then that had happened, when Colin never did anything when she first met him. But she grew and he grew and I really liked the story!

Well!!! I need that next book now!!!

And I need Caelum to be end game!!!!
I know he came off as overbearing but honestly I can’t wait to learn more about him because I feel like there are many sides to him and that he has room to grow where Estrella is concerned. I mean I’m just saying he has gone through a lot so it makes sense why he is so over possessive of her and needs time to grow. And also almost every single time I read about fated mates they are ALWAYS possessive. Some fight it off better then other but not all the time.

Also I really would like his story fleshed out more especially with the town and his reasoning behind it all or if there was a reason past anger in the moment. (Being vague for people who haven’t read this yet)

This book was really interesting and also confusing to read. I caught on about halfway through but I also felt like the synopsis didn’t fully match what I was reading. This is definitely a political intrigue book with some fantasy elements but more like dark fantasy / sci-fi elements. Charm isn’t a necromancer she is just a scientist who uses the tools at her disposal to make “bone ghosts” which are just extensions of herself stemming from specific emotions. But they still can feel other things other then just that one emotion? There are a lot of dark elements to the book so I would definitely beware.

I received an arc copy of this book in exchange for a voluntary and honest review.

I LOVE vampire books!!
I really enjoyed this one especially the YA aspect of it. I felt like the tension and build up of a slow burn more innocent romance was a really nice change of pace.
Honestly Ansel cracked me up. You could tell he is a really old vampire. And whenever he would try to understand Lena it honestly bordered on cute.

I really like how you watched Lena go through the motions of growing up in a village that worships the Dawn God and thinking vampires are just scary bedtime stories, then she meets one and constantly battles with her beliefs because the more she gets to know Ansel the more she likes him and understands that because they are two different species some things make less sense to him.

I loved this ending! I was honestly unsure of where it was headed for a bit. The build up to it was fantastic and I loved that the final chapter was from Ansels point of view. Especially his thoughts concerning Death.
I think this is a standalone, but regardless you should definitely give it a read!

In regards to making it a 5 star, I think more chapters from Ansels POV would have really helped because the whole time I kept wondering why does he like her so much, what made him decide to try so hard to understand her humanity, etc

I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for leaving an honest review.

Okay so this book is a solid 3.5 star for me. I am loving the story, and the world building. This mysterious key is really interesting and I want to know more about the Nilari and their Isle of Ashes.

I’m still dead set on not liking Kyla. I feel like she jumps the gun way too quickly of threatening everyone if she doesn’t get her way or doesn’t like the answers that are coming up. The fact that she still is set on the sacred core and isn’t more set on getting answers also kills me. Like how can you so blindly believe everything you have been told when obviously no one else around you does. Especially when you keep learning more and more about what is going on or has happened before.
I also feel like Max is always there but has fallen to the wayside and I would like to see more of him since he has such a weird connection to the dead.
Marlowe, oh Marlowe. I really like him but he needs to get his anger in check a bit. And stop making googly wyes at Kyla. I do not want them together. I was so happy with the ending when he pretty much told her to STFU and be honest. Because she always demands and threatens but then hides so much info from everyone else and then threatens them over the same secrets she is keeping.
(Sorry if I butchered any titles)
Regardless I still enjoyed this book a lot and I am excited for the next book!

I received an arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest and voluntary review!

3.5⭐️s!

I really enjoyed learning some of the lore in this book, I thought the characters were pretty great as well. Rylan and Trinity definitely have some stuff to talk out but I enjoyed that they are slowly starting to work together more.

I love the new side character Stella! I hope she is here to stay!!!

For me I just had moments where I was like … no… why are you doing this, why rush head first when you know it’s caused you problems before. Which is what keeps most books rolling. I still judge the characters.

I would like to get more lore / world building. Just to understand what the ancients are. What’s been going on and honestly what happened to her parents!

Very calm ending, not a cliffhanger just a and time to start the next part of our adventure type ending.
If you love shifter books with a slow burn / friends to enemies to lovers trope. Because that’s where I see this going you should definitely read this book!!

I received an Arc copy of this book for a voluntary and honest review.

So this book wasn’t my cup of tea. Quite a few grammatical errors. It was on and off for the characters for me. I wasn’t a fan of the MC. I felt like for who she is she comes off as weaker then I would imagine. And she doesn’t show interest in becoming stronger for the most part. It’s how it came off to me. And after the banquet scene I felt like it all just fell down the drain. I felt like there was so much that could have been done with specific characters and I don’t really understand the need for what had happened. War had already been declared so I don’t get how it moved the plot.
I felt like the story was too all over the place. But the premise behind the book wasn’t bad. I feel like it could have been really good if certain things had been pushed to the second book, or maybe hinted at but not a 20 percent reading chunk of the book.

The book gave off The Wizard of Oz and Narnia vibes. Surprisingly there was a little bit of spice.