bookwyrm25's Reviews (219)

1.5 books into the Crown of Nyaxia series and Carissa Broadbent is someone I’m really considering having as an auto buy author. Heck, I already pre ordered book 2 and 3 in this series and am desperately waiting their arrivals. (Hardcover comes out in June… so far away 😭)

All that being said, this was an absolutely adorable and breath taking story with a gothic setting in a world of vampires and many gods/goddesses. I can’t compliment the writing enough. It is absolutely beautiful, dark, and lovely. It’s painfully magical and entwining with every page. I can’t wait to see these characters come back in book 2!

Very few books leave me staring into oblivion for a time after finishing it, just trying to absorb all of the insane things that just happened. I’m flabbergasted and shook, and lord almighty, do I have mixed emotions on the ending in regards to how many emotions I’m feeling all at once here.  The middle was a bit slow, but I enjoyed the building of their initial relationship and the slower evolution of it. The plot twists were insane. 

I thought this book would never end, and I listened to it on 2x speed. The characters are all insanely unlikable and the story is absurdly predictable. It would have improved leaps and bounds if any of the characters actually provoked any kind of stronger emotion than indifference or just mild dislike towards them. I was promised camp and was given nothing. 

Also, I get that satanism is a fun thing to play on, but did you really have to make it Christianity but replace god with Satan? Christianity is extremely bloody and cruel in reality, when Satanism isn't actually unless it's a cult just saying that they're satanists when they aren't. And I've never heard of a cult that prohibits swearing and makes you quote scripture all the time. It was Christianity in disguise, and not done well. 

Honestly I just don't think this author is for me. If you like long, boring, and predictable this is for you. 

Good gracious I loved this book. I am super grateful for the footnotes, both because some were hilarious and for the fact that it helped me emerge myself in the culture and better understand what they talked about. I loved every second of this book and the adorable, lovable characters. I haven’t loved a male lead like this in ages, he’s just so precious. I highly recommend 

Not me sobbing over a middle grade book. Excuse me, I’m just healing my inner child. Beautiful story and beautiful art. Found family and love. I’m obsessed

“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. 

I am blown away by the dark, toxic, romance/horror/gothic thriller of a book. The only reason it isn't 5 stars is that I wish some parts of it were better fleshed out and that some early parts had better transition, but overall I was entirely captivated and enthralled with this book. It gave me major A Dowry of Blood vibes, which is one of my favorite dark books of all time. Very sad I waited so long to give this book a listen. 100% would recommend, I sped through it and devoured every last beautifully tragic crumb.

DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE RECOVERING FROM AN EATING DISORDER OR DO NOT LIKE CONSTANT REMINDERS OF EARLY 2000'S EXTREME DIET CULTURE. SKIP THIS BOOK, IT'S SATURATED WITH NEGATIVE WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT AND TALK ABOUT BODY IMAGE!!

Reasons I read this book: I thought if I tried hard enough to get through the early 2000's misogyny I'd get to the "good parts" everyone seems to rave about.

What this book had:
*Early 2000's extreme diet culture (

in the end hannah just put on the wrong pants and put herself through a horrible diet that resembles an ED for nothing

) 
*Ableism (AKA because the character had an intellectual disability he wasn't allowed to be interested in dating women his age or getting a truck and had to be manipulated by the ex con. There's now way he had these interests all on his own apparently!!!)
*Typical the person who went to jail did it (

and of course he was the murderer

) stereotype
*Misogyny again but less mention of it due to the excessive diet talk in every other paragraph (I'm not even kidding, it was constant and gave me flashbacks to my ED)
*Unlikable romantic interests that see Hannah as lesser than because she's a woman and her "hobby" of finding out literal murderers when the police should be doing it is just a cute little quirk and not actually impressive to them


What this book DIDN'T have:
*A good plot, believable or not
*An entire page without body shaming
*An entire page without diet talk


Overall obviously I'm not seeing why these books are so well loved. They're not good and have so many issues with them. I guess I just need a break from this series before I lose my mind.