I loved Struck By Lightning, but absolutely disliked this book.

I didn't like this book, I couldn't get in the story and got bored.

Wat een saai boek, ik ben na een tijdje maar gestopt met lezen. Ik vond het echt niet interessant.

DNF

So, I've had this book in my bookshelves for so long, I think I saw it in some 'books you should read' video and, honestly, I don't know why I added it to my wish list. I'm not sure if I even knew what it was about.

But anyway my grandmother gave it for Christmas a few years ago, but I never ended up picking it up because I'm that kind if person who buys a lot of new books and prefers to read those. I decided that I wanted to read some of the oldest unread books on my shelves. And here we are.

I DNFed it.

I have to be honest, I stopped at 10 pages, I was already annoyed by:

- The short chapters, I checked the rest of the book to see there were a lot of short chapters
- The first person pov. I've read other books with it, and usually I get used to it as some point, but it still annoys me.
- The way Jack acted in the first chapter about him.

Going into this book I already knew I wasn't going to like it, but my goal for this year is to, like I said, read some of the oldest unread books on my shelf AND not easily DNF a book. So I was going to give it a try.

After 10 pages I decided to look up other people's opinions and saw a lot of people talk about how, even though the character is overweight, it's still offensive. I haven't read the book, so I won't know it's true, but the lines that I've read people talk about, they made me pretty upset. (I'm overweight. Maybe that's why I wanted the book, it has an overweight character and most books only have skinny girls).

So yeah, I decided that I'm not going to continue reading this book. I'd rather spend my time reading a book that I'm actually interested in, and know that I'll like it.

Maybe I'll give it another try sometime, I don't want to give my copy away because my grandmother gave it to me. I might give Jennifer Niven's other books a chance, but I don't think this is a book for me.

DNF at around 30%

Normally I don't DNF books, because I'm obsessed with my reading challenge goal and keeping lists of books I read that month or year and DNFing means that I can't include it and that the time I spend trying to read it, was for nothing.

But damn, I could not get into this book. It got so boring, it started to feel like a chore to finish this. I got to chapter 12, but couldn't go further. I was just not interested. Which is surprising, because I really like mythology.

I'm sad that I didn't like this. I had expected to like this because mythology + lgbtq+ = a perfect book for me. And so many people loved this book, but I really don't get why.

DNF at 40%

I don't know if it's fair for me to add a rating because I didn't finish the whole book, and therefore can not give a rating based on the whole book, only the first 40%, but based on what I've read, it's a 2 star for me. Maybe a 1.5... Yeah, 1.5 feels more accurate, because a 2 star rating would mean I actually enjoying something, which is not the case.

I hate, HATE, DNFing books. My mind works this way: finish what you started, so you can include it in your 'read in 2021' list, and the days you tried reading this weren't for nothing. So at first I forced myself to continue reading, but I just could. not. get. interested.

And that sucks, because I was so excited for this book! I expected it to be one of my favorites! I really like fairytale retellings, and this book sounded so awesome!

But the plot was really boring. I couldn't care less about the characters, the only feeling I ever felt reading this, was annoyed. The main character, Jaya, is so controlling, especially over her sister. And, well, just annoying in general. I've read some mixed reviews, some say she gets better, some say she doesn't, but I don't have enough patience to find out. I also didn't like how in the beginning she played a little dumb to make Grey fall in love with her. You don't have to act dumb for someone to fall in love with you - intelligence is really attractive.

While reading a book, I usually write down my thoughts in the notes app in my phone, because I'm the kind of person who would forget everything once I'm writing the review. Most of the time the thoughts I write down are negative, so yeah this might come off as really negative. But to be honest, that's how I feel.

I'm a little confused whether this is a fantasy or contemporary? The cure gives me mostly fantasy vibes, but that's all the fantasy elements there is.

I might be the only one bothered by this, I haven't seen other people point this out, but: Europeans don't randomly say words in their native language. We don't. I see it happen in a lot of books, shows and movies, where Europeans - or anyone who's native language is English, doesn't even have to be just European, would just say some words in their own language, like 'yes' or any words in the middle of an English sentence. That's not how we speak English. Yes, if were caught of guard, we might swear in our native language, but we don't just casually speak a mix. But the French character in this book could barely say one sentence without random words being in French.

The switching point of views were a little annoying. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing different point of views, but only if they start at a new chapter. And if it changes in the middle of the page, then only if the new POV has a different storyline and takes place somewhere else.

The last thing I want to talk about - I promise after that I'm done ranting, was the way Grey was described. 'Feral', 'a beast', 'wild', and multiple times his feet or hands were 'gigantic'. It made me uncomfortable. Like... what?? I find it a really weird way to describe someone just because they're taller and more muscular than average. And if his personality was really rough amd cruel, I would at least get it. But he was just socially awkward and just kept to himself and was 'brooding' or whatever. And the constant mention of his 'gigantic feet' and his 'gigantic hands'... we get it... his hands and feet are big...

I'm going to stop typing now. This is long enough and writing negative reviews always makes me sad, I personally dream of becoming an author, but I'm not an author, I'm a reviewer, and I'm going to stay honest about my opinions.

DNF at page 102

I really wanted to like this but honestly I hated this. At first the writing style was funny but after 40 pages it got annoying. The repetition and the words crossed. I didn't like the characters at all, the storyline and world building also didn't make me want to continue. I heard some things about the romance in this series so I looked it up and found out it were ships I already know wouldn't like.

The whole time reading this I knew it was going to be a 2 star rating for me. I tried to continue hoping I'd start liking it more, but every time I opened the book and read a sentence I just didn't want to continue. So why continue if I know I won't like it? I'd rather DNF is now than try my best reading until 50% and then still DNFing it anyways, because then I would've wasted my time, and now it's early enough for me to say 'didn't like it, moving on.'

I am disappointed though. I heard great things about this series. Sadly I don't have the patience to see if this book gets better or if the other books get better.

I don't give DNFed books a star rating if I didn't at least reach 50%, but like I said it feels like 2☆ maybe 1.5☆

And that's generous because there wasn't anything I liked so maybe 1☆ would've been more accurate...

Dnf at page 36

For some reason I can just never get into classics. I looked through later chapters and still wasn't interested. Maybe I should just give up on classics for now.

DNF at somewhere around page 47?

I just can't get into it. For many days I have tried. The writing style isn't really my thing, it feels rushed.

I was sooo excited to read this ever since it was released, so my expectations were high. I think I'll try again some other time because of that, but right now I want to read something I'll enjoy.