Structural issues and some problematic jokes against marginalised groups

My first DNF of the year unfortunately and im really sad about it. I really tried to push through with this The Mummy inspired tale but it just didnt raise me from the ashes like the Book of the Dead. 

While much better than attempt What the River Knows in a few places, I mostly couldnt get over the constant change in POV mid sentence/paragraph/chapter. It was just really random and kept pulling me put of the story as I had to figure out who was speaking every other sentence. 
It was confusing and longwinded and i couldnt get into what could have been such a fun story, inspired by one of my favourite films!

Things felt a little coincidental in terms of the tomb/excavation but from the elusive dialogue and excessive descriptions, anything of substance just got lost.

I skipped ahead to see if the spice was spicing and it gets a solid 🌶️🌶️🌶️but it also didnt really fit with what was going on around it, the settinf etc. which was odd for me cause smut ahouldnt really fit in Regency romance for example but it can and does. 

Le sigh, not a great one but feel free to check it out. 

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 I started this after recommendations from friends and while there were some funny laugh out loud bits, I just wasn't really invested and stopped at 79%.
For what is meant to be a fluffy past time for me, there was just alot of nothing going on and the steam wasn't that steamy. I liked how the time period was blended into the smut and remained true to the social conventions but the characters were just a little flat and at some points a little unrealistic. The setting of spindle cove was also a little unrealistic with the lack of and calibre of men. It stopped being funny and just seemed a little pathetic. I was definitely on the MMCs side in that regard lol
A cute enough read but i just dont think i was in the mood for it 

I never thought id see the day when i read a romance book with *shock horror* no romance. 

I actually cant comprehend how this was approved as a “rom com” type with the cover and title etc. because none of them go together. 

Im still not entirely sure what The Boyfriend Project is since 1. Its not explicitly called that at first and 2. The actual pact they make, makes it more a life/goals project then a boyfriend one. 

TBP involves thirty year old high achiever Samiah who is catfished by a guy and when confronting him about it, meets two other women that he was dating alongside her. The three women become friends through the incident and outside of the “positive friendships with women at an older age” element that i adored, the exposure of the catfish was the only exciting part. 

The rest of the book is filled with excessive explanations about working in Tech and lengthy descriptions of her office and every new trendy outlet in the city she lives. It was straight up boring even while skimming the page looking for the juice/romance. 

The MMC is Daniel and even though his Korean/African American look was to DIE FOR, the whole undercover element was dry and not particularly exciting. The writer explained so much about the decor that i didnt even realise he was the focus of his introductory chapter until i realised we werent reading from Samiah’s point of view anymore. It all just meshed into one. 

*sigh* i expected more from this on the cutesy black romance scale and it just didnt deliver in the slightest. Major yawn fest.

 DNF at 36%/Chapter 21 once i found that i was no longer following what was going and actually didnt care to.
In short, there was too much going on, too many people and not enough action to really warrant what was meant to be taking place. The two people who made book 1 what it was, were pushed aside for an abundance of random people you have to no care for which just made everything drag.
I will say that if i was reading this - rather than audiobook - i might have taken a lot more in but the fact i was able to just zone out was an issue, as i dont do this with other audiobooks.
In this book, i didnt really understand what the Thunderhead was even after, what it was trying to do. What did finding a blindspot even mean?
I was really waiting for some massive revelation of who the Thunderhead was and it just didnt amount to much. I eventually just googled what happened and im glad i didnt waste time reading it because i would have been really angry.
Such a great start, but this ended terribly and just got super boring. 

 Not sure what was meant to be the point with this one.
Found it in TikTok as a “my wife” rec but it fell short in almost all other ways.
I spent as long as i did on it trying to figure out what the point was but after the millionth pointlessly degrading sex scene, was all pretty dry.

The MMC has forced the FMC into a seemingly loveless marriage as some form of revenge against her family but for the life of me, i couldnt figure out why.
The world built around secret societies and the powerful men who run it and the woman abused by it was interesting enough but it never really took of the way i wanted/needed it to. Why the endless abuse? Why the degradation? What was the need for this level of depravity?
It just didnt make much sense for the amount of smut it included.

No matter the smut, a semblance of substance is required and this didnt deliver. 

 This book was an absolute chore. It felt like wading through molasses with concrete boots on. It felt like trying to learn a new language.
I found it dense and tiresome and overly excessive for no good reason.
Everything i liked about the first book was completely lost or oversaturated that by the point of deciding to shelve it, i just wanted to claw my eyes out from the agony of reading the same unfulfilling repetitive word vomit.
It just kept going and going with more elements added to the mix that either felt shoehorned in or just werent properly explained.
I hated every character.
I can safely say i did not like anyone in this book. Their choices, reasonings, demands were all non sensical garbage.
Argh! Im so frustrated with how annoyingly boring this felt 

 Despite having a read-along with friends,i couldnt get into a vibe with this and decided to DNF after about 120 pages.

Witch King starts with a demon waking up in a tomb, realising that hes been betrayed into being killed/captured but possesses a new body in order to get free. He and his witch friend set about finding out who did this to them with a little sidekick orphan kid along for the ride.

My first issue with this was the list of characters placed at the very start of the book. It was almost a deterrent from starting because it felt overwhelming before even beginning. There were a bunch of complicated and unfamiliar names straight off the bat that i didnt have time to marinate so just felt like too much.

Following this, while i enjoyed the initial mystery of the opening, the ongoing haze of what was happening and who was who was frustrating.
The magic system wasnt clear, the world building while rich with tons of potential just felt complicated and obscure which made it hard to connect.

Same with the characters, i felt no real connection to them or excitement to see what came up next. I was intrigued by Kai and Ziede had real bad bitch energy but there was just something lacking in emotional connection or care.

I respect the intensity of it but when i found myself drifting off or counting how many pages left in a chapter, i knew this wasnt for me. 

I  realise that this is probably really unfair to not finish at only 4% but I have tried to start this book too many times and keep getting sidetracked with other things because I'm simply not interested. I may come back to it at some point but it's not going to be on my list of things to read, primarily because the first book went completely over my head that I was only reading this to complete the set but have no emotional attachment to it.
I wasnt 100% what was even going on.