charliauthor's Reviews (531)

Finally finished and while I enjoyed this immensely, the latter part of this let it down a lot but as I was invested in the characters enough, i was able to get through.

Ikenna is very marmite in that you either love her or hate her. For me, I loved her. Even when she was very annoying and yes, a bit too rash, in a world of books with FMCs who talk the talk but dont walk the walk, Ikenna was a breath of fresh air. She was angry, she was strong, she was sexy, she has a hot boyfriend but doesnt let this define her. Ikenna is a great example of an FMC who takes noones shit for good reason but is also able to back it up. Yes, she has powers and while this book is about those powers and why she has them, she doesnt rely on them for her personality. She is strong with her without them, they dont define her and i love that about her.

Where this book and even book 1 has issues is that the dialogue is too wordy and scenes are drawn out unnecessarily. This particular book could have finished a lot earlier if not for Ikenna constantly going on about how bad she was and what she was going to do to her enemies. Coupled with there being 4/5 main villains for her to defeat, having the 'final' battle 5 times, let down the stakes for me in a big way. To have so much wordy dialogue woven in and around those battles made the latter half very tedious which is why it took so long for me to get through it.

However, the scenes themselves ie the fighting, the smut, the worldbuilding, the characters were absolutely awesome and i had such a great time. I would have liked more time with the rest of Ikenna's squad as it seemed to only be Reed, Dannica and Rossi who had extended backstory but when they were on page, they were so funny and sweet. a true band of brothers type vibe.

Generally, i enjoyed this book/series and love it simply for being different. The sci fi/fantasy blend, the action scenes, the romance that doesnt overshadow the plot, the bad ass FMC who is actually bad ass, i loved that the author did more than just lore inspired Gods. Yes, there was oppression in this which was the base of the fight but Ikenna was downtrodden because of it. She wasnt less because of the bigotry around her. She made it make her strong in a way that didnt feel like pageantry.

I really enjoyed this and want more people to read it.

haha this was awesome!
I laughed out loud through most of this because it was so funny and relatable and sweet! I've recently entered the world of audio erotica and this was simply the best way to explain what it is and how a lot of women use it. I immediately sent this book to my friend who has basically said the words that the FMC says to me, on more than one occasion! lol It was realistic and cutesie and just incredible fun and I enjoyed everything about it other than it being too short! Like where is the full length novel please haha although i wanted it to be longer, i also respect it wasnt dragged out for too long as well so i respect the vision, i just wanted mooore! Great stuff author lady, great stuff!!

Overall I really enjoyed this. I didn’t have any major issues with it, even though I am finding that I loved Emily‘s earlier work a lot more than I have her recent outings. However, the main issue was that there was not enough smut for me as we didn’t get round to them doing anything until about 55% into the story. While this was understandable because the MMC is in fact with another woman prior to this, it did felt dragged out, considering the attraction that Enzo and Vanessa have for one another. 

I’ve read some people feeling as though this was Insta love or Insta lust but I actually liked the dynamic of Enzo not being convinced that love was real but still wanting to find it and having a love at first sight experience with Venesa. I enjoyed Venesa’s‘s backstory and that she wanted to be loved “out loud” and that phrase in and of itself was such a darling thing to read that I really enjoyed it. Enzo not being afraid to love despite his own upbringing was a nice addition to the alpha male trope. I loved his Italian American accent. I loved his dynamic with his father. He was pretty well done all around.
I did not have an issue with Vanessa per se, but I was frustrated that even though she worked as her uncle’s henchman she didn’t really do that much heinous things in my opinion and allowed her cousin to overstep her or more than one occasion when she could in my opinion have done a lot more to her without even getting caught. 

I liked the Arial and King Triton characters as the villains. They were truly despicable all the way through which I enjoy but was not a surprise as Emily does villains very well. However I wasn’t able to get my head around the witch/supernatural element of this. I didnt understand why it was called hexed when she did not really do that much supernatural things. 

Overall, I liked the set up of Enzo being with someone else and them having to fight their attraction. I have no issue with the cheating trope and I appreciate how this was handled for some people who may have an issue with it but the entire time I just wanted Enzo to clap Vanessa‘s cheeks because it was clear that he was not in love with Aria. 

It gets to 3 because I did enjoy. I liked the characters they just wasn’t enough smart or dark elements for me in this one.

Okay, so in short, I found this really boring.
That's harsh but its the truth and before going into the reasons why, that's my overall feeling for the book: it was incredibly boring.
From the start its just endless dialogue and description and worldbuilding that doesn't actually really explain anything. I found it tiresome.

Imani is a warrior of some kind and her brother was a warrior of some kind goes missing for a while. They realise that he did not go missing but was in fact taken or ran off - im not sure which - because their leaders were lying to them about what's going on outside of their country. Considering Im not entirely sure what is going on inside their country, it really didn't mean much.
Imani manages to get a genie of some kind which is bad for reasons unclear. She hangs around a boy she thinks hates her, when its clear if she'd ever read any fantasy book would know that this means thats her soulmate.
The dialogue was repetitive throughout which characters hashing out things we've already discussed. Just endless talking with minimal action that I just did not care about at any point. 
I finally gave in when there was a whole scene and description and back and forth about her horse dying just so she'd be forced to be on the same horse as the boy who hates/loves her.
I'm over it

I actually quite enjoyed this one. There was a bit of a lag in the middle that i thought was dragged out but overall definitely one of the better romantasy books that have come out recently. 

HB is set in a world ruled over by Stars who each claim a kingdom that has various traits and looks dependent on that star. Elara is the Princess of Darkness and is kidnapped by the Prince of Light in order to take down a start for… reasons.

While enjoyable, there were some moments that felt too easy, lacked real danger and Elara and Enzo’s time “training” felt a little weak but since i was invested in them as characters and really liked their personalities it didnt matter too much what they did or didn’t actually get up to. 

I liked the build up to their relationship although how Elara could deny her feelings for so long was beyond me cause Enzo was super cute and funny the whole time. I liked the smut/romance in this and thankful that it was a tad more adult with its language than some other outings ive read.

The book itself is very isolated in that it feels like its just back and forth between the main characters but when we did get exposure to the secondary characters, i did enjoy them as well. 

Im excited enough about it and like both main characters to read the sequel. I also ordered some special editions cause i would like to have this on my shelf for keepsies. A fun outing!
 
Heavenly Bodies is out November 28th!

Thank you to #netgalley and publishers for the arc. All thoughts are my own.

 Really disappointed with this one.
Sadie is one of my auto buy authors for dark/mafia etc romance but this paranormal outing was just not it hunny.
Minimal plot, weak worldbuilding, insta lust, unnecessary bully romance, pathetic FMC, undistinguishable MMCs, teacher/student privilege abuse. The list goes on about how weak i found this. It was too slow, too dragged out, not entertaining enough.
Fantasy gets a lot of stick but there really is an art to writing it that not everyone can do. Just moving your setting to include magical creatures does not make something magical and it really upset me that none of what i like about Sadie's writing was really prevalent here outside of the smut 

This was silly. What could have been an incredible father/son taboo set up just made no sense and what made it worse was that the father was the better man so why not just be with him instead. absolutely ridiculous stuff. why are we talking about flying helicopters all the time? who even cares bro. Nash was a dick and his near rapes were exactly that, no matter the kink level or how wet the kitty is, how he treats you is abuse babes. when you have the father who is willing to worship you why even bother with the dickish son. ugh, so silly 

No plot. Stupid FMC. Ridiculous MMCs. Age gap was NOT cute. Writing was trash

 There was a lot going for this but it ended up feeling a thought it wasn't executed very well.
Alexis Henderson is great for atmosphere in that i had a great sense of when and where i was and it was appropriately scary and gothic in parts that was amazing to read. the prose wasnt too purple and i had a sense of urgency and fear throughout even when it didnt quite lift off the page in the way i thought it would.
It was unclear to me whether the blood drinkers were actual vampires or just people with some weird affliction because other than the main character, it wasnt clear what the point of everyone else was. sure there were nights of debauchery and revelry that was very dark and gothic and sinister but there was no real understanding of what went on outside of the house in the wider world.
I liked main character Marion at the start but as the story went on i sort of fell out of love with her because she didn't do much but fall in love (lust) instantly, seemingly get people hurt and complain to her new lover about things way above her paygrade.
The best parts came when we discover what's really going on with the bloodmaids and i did enjoy that there was some otherworldliness to what was previously just a little bit unsure whether they were just a little dingy and debauched.
There were some additional characters that werent necessary throughout but what i did enjoy was the power dynamic of Lisavet to the other girls.
It would have been very easy to make this extremely sexual and triggering had she been a man, so i liked how powerful she was as a terminally ill woman with a harem of ladies. it was giving boss bitch energy which i loved. 

 Didn't love this one. I liked the threesome/poly element but there just wasnt anything special about the set up. Eden kept pushing Clay away unnecessarily and the other girl was just too eager to BE Eden that it felt gratuitous rather than sexy in their coupling. It felt dragged out as well and after the fun i had with highest bidder, it started to feel a bit stale.