I came to the reviews in hopes they'd inspire me to keep reading, but everyone's issues with the book are also my issues with the book. Halfway through and the FMC becomes incredibly annoying (reviews say she gets worse), there are plot holes in the very little story there is, and the spice is good but there's more of that than there is an ounce of the plot (that, again, has plot holes).

I really wanted to like this book, but instead I'm going to DNF and not give it a star rating so it won't effect the ratings of the book overall, but only because the author is lesser known and some people might still really like it.

I hate to say it but the narration was extremely hard to follow. Maybe I’ll try to read it again sometime, but while I’m in a reading slump it’s just really not intriguing enough to pass by the bad narration 

I really tried. However, there is no substance to this book. Just pretentious descriptions, self objectification for the male gaze being used as a statement of feminism when it isn't, gross short descriptions of sex and her getting off on being the other woman with quotes like  "Of course," I said, drawing an idle doodle with his spunk. "You'll pay me $4,000 a column." 

There is nothing to like about this book. It's not feminist anything, it's not eerie, it's not a powerful stand for women.... it's just objectification and obscenities with a ton of over-indulgent food descriptions that aren't remotely needed. I regret wasting my time on this.

I did not expect the whole plot of the book was going to be “get Rune naked and have sex with her!!!” This is a YA ffs. Rune is dumb and bad at not getting caught like a typical YA, but it’s so overly sexual in a non spicy but just objectifying way it’s INSANE. I felt extremely uncomfortable the whole time. And it’s extremely bloody for a YA, which I didn’t mind but it was mostly just objectification of each other especially Rune as the female lead. Especially when the male main lead purposely makes her feel bad for being “above” his station like she can help it any more than she can. Pathetic man child. One star. No idea why even whole ass adults are raving about this book. 

I had to DNF this book. 2 stars if any unfortunately. The writing was muddy and all over the place, I constantly had to re-read parts to see if I missed something, the stereotype of her best friend Sasha was… concerning… and the “romance” wasn’t there at all until suddenly it was “I love you” despite all the fighting. I’m severely disappointed from all the 5 star reviews. This honestly did not seem professionally written to me, which I feel bad about saying but… it was just too hard to get through. 

The main character is so insanely unlikable it’s astounding. Not even her brother and his girlfriend/fiancé are remotely likable. The love interest is extremely bland and flat on the page. A lot of the writing is super cringe too. I just can’t make myself read more, and I REALLY hate DNF-ing a book. 

“Baby, the way you kiss, there’s a bad girl inside you dying to get out and have some fun” - Nick Santiago (main love interest)

ICK!!! I can deal with a LOT of cringe, but “bad boy” Nick is too arrogant and asshole-ish for me. He talked to Riley ONCE and labeled her a “good girl” and is OBSESSED with making her a “bad girl”. And he gets super territorial over her and won’t let her talk to her spiritual guide without throwing a baby tantrum. Also totally cringe,  he keeps saying “you’re a good girl, be a bad girl” CONSTANTLY!! Literally word for word! The dynamic is totally disgusting, which is a shame because everything else about the book was good. I just can’t handle how awful the main love interest (Nick) is. 

Plus, this is 100% “white woman writes token black magical girl who won’t accept she’s special” stereotyped to 1,000. Do better. 

The main character is extremely unlikable. She's not even trying to get over her ex and suddenly this woman that everyone is TERRIFIED of pops up and she's just like "yeah I'm going to ignore that and not ask anyone why they're scared and accept her even though really weird things are happening and she's lying to me about everything left and right" ....like? Have some common sense and at least call her out on lying to you constantly instead of rolling over  like literal life threatening situations that could have been avoided if she told the truth aren't that serious. It's just not worth continuing based on the reviews I read that said how disappointing the ending is.

The main character isn’t strong, she’s just angry. The slight word changes (grandma to grandmah for example) was unnecessary, and the glossary didn’t have to cover all of that for 30 pages before getting to the actual story. I also feel like every new chapter started with “I” and the grammatical errors should have been caught. It was very hard to digest with the way everything was phrased. I read and loved the Priory of the Orange Tree series, so I’m not unfamiliar with high fantasy worlds and how they’re built, but this books high fantasy world felt forced and wasn’t described in a digestible way.