I don't know what happened in this. It was like a fever dream where I never understood the story (or the story within a story) and I was never interested in the characters. I finished this (I think?) and retained nothing.

The first few books are available with an audible subscription for free right now, but not sure if I'll continue since I had no connection with this book. Sad, because I enjoyed Vo's novels. 

 I don't generally read faerie stories, but this was really cute. Funny, easy to read, and the characters were both likeable and insufferable in equal measures. All in all a good story. 

 I didn't realize this was a novella until I was halfway through, but it was great.

Unfortunately, there might have been a chapter I missed or the audiobook just has two chapters wrong, unsure. They put the last chapter in there twice, so I dunno if there was something replaced or what. Hopefully other people get to listen to it properly.

Either way, it was still really interesting and enjoyable. 

 I didn't read any of the other books in this series, but it wasn't difficult to follow or anything. 

The story wasn't too bad. This is touted as a slow burn but it is not. They were talking about how sexually attractive each other was from the beginning, so while the romance doesn't come along for a while, if you are expecting an oblivious enemies to lovers sort of situation, you'll be let down by that. It is a big grumpy/sunshine, though, and a 10 year (adult) age gap. 

There was just some things that felt weird to me. Gavin's Britishness seemed to ebb and flow a lot throughout, as if the author didn't really know how to write it or it was tacked on later in the story or something? It felt off to me, but that also wasn't helped by the fact that the narrator didn't do a British accent at all either.

There was clumsy representation of anxiety and even lactose intolerance. The meta about romance novels that was said by the characters in the story was way over the top. A passing mention is one thing, but the consistency with which it is brought up is a bit much. Also a prank every once in a while makes sense, but the amount of pranks that are mentioned (in passing, but not happening on screen) are pretty astounding and rather childish. Especially when it's stated that he's driving to his brother's house wherever that might be to partake in said pranking. 

This is not a sports book even though it says it is. I've read plenty of sports romances and plenty that include ones where they are on a professional team, and this is definitely one that does not understand how real time management in a professional league works. They don't have this much free time during a game season and we hardly even see the other team members. We know far more about Oliver's family than his team.

Regardless, I still found it readable enough. 

 I didn't like this one quite as much as The Chosen and the Beautiful, but it was still really fun. I think what I got hung up on was the lack of explanation on the fantasy aspects of the world. I felt like I was stumbling along trying to understand what was happening and it was a detriment for me being able to enjoy the other facets of the story. It seemed really interesting, but I still didn't quite get a lot of it by the end.

There was also some strange time jumps back and forward that were jarring enough that I got a bit lost and felt like I was having to grab a rope and hoist myself back into the story by some thread of recognition.

I enjoyed the characters and the setting, though, and wish that some of the characters had gotten a bit more resolution than they did. The story had a nice, eerie quality to it that made you feel both on edge but dying to know what happens next anyway. 

 I didn't expect to enjoy this, especially after I started it and realised it was a huge Draco/Harry fanfic and the beginning was just regurgitating Harry Potter references. But it had some good humor and started to become its own after a while until I really did get into it like 30% of the way through.

I don't care too much about some of the POV chapters, but otherwise I really quite liked it. 

 I didn't dislike this book, but it took me way longer than usual to slog through this for some reason. I liked the world and the magic in it, but something about it did not keep me captivated and make me want to keep reading and I'm not sure what it was. It might've just been that the characters were a little on the dry side, overall. I didn't find any of them to be particularly interesting--their lives were and their abilities and the like, but they didn't really have much by the way of personalities. Nobody had that special spark and they all just felt very cardboardy. 

 I did try, but this just isn't something that is going to resonate with me. The narration is weird, even when the character isn't speaking, and it makes it annoying to follow. But it's also a really boring premise. I thought with the computer becoming more human-like, there would be something interesting to read, but the 'revolution' is just too boring to read about. I like political intrigue to an extent, but you have to have action and characters that can drive it along and this was dull.

Also, just reading the way the first female character was described... made me very uncomfortable. 

 I couldn't get past how annoying the love interest was. I wanted to strangle both characters after about 45% of this. 

 I can't say the book was bad, but it couldn't hold my interest after a while. The concept is interesting, but I just wasn't connected with the characters enough to want to keep reading.