The title of this book is misleading. I got 20% of the way through the book and centered more on Greek men than on Trojan women. While the prose was beautiful, it dragged, making even the attack at the very start dull. 

I started and stopped and restarted and stopped The Ephemera Collector by Stacy Nathaniel Jackson repeatedly before DNFing. I really wanted to like this one, but there was far too much dry info dumping and not enough focus on character. There were elements I was very interested in, like a middle aged Black woman as the protagonist of a futuristic fantasy novel. But I don't feel that the delivery was as engaging enough to keep spending time on. 

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

This book just wasn't for me. I do like some cozy fantasy, but this leaned into too silly for my tastes. Everything was treated as a joke, so there were no stakes and therefore no rooting value. A book the begins with the kidnapping of a queen should be very engaging from the start. Sadly, this one fell short for me. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I try to get to at list about 20% of a novel before DNFing. But this was a struggle to get to 10%. I keep trying romantasy because I do like romance in my fantasy. It's just been difficult to find one that is a good fit for me. Just based on the reviews, it looks like this is a hit for others and I'm in the minority. So, it clearly works for others.

That said, my specific issues were with how the romance was being written. The female love interest actively pursues vigilante justice against criminals by executing them. The male love interest disapproves and actively judges her, drugs her to take control of her at one point, and wants her to change to fit his preferences for a relationship between them. That means their incompatible and therefore the romance portion of the romantic fantasy has already failed. I really dislike the theme that seeking justice is bad and will cause a woman to be "too far gone" to be deserving of a man's love. 

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really tried with this one. I even set a goal to at least get to 20% before DNFing. But I couldn't even get that far.

With The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters or the mysteries that were being set up. When the story took a turn into another world, it was so unbearably dull despite what sounded like an interesting premise. I also didn't like how short the chapters were since they created the illusion that I was getting through the book faster than I saw, only for me to realize that a mere five minutes had passed.

Maybe I just wasn't the right audience for this.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really tried with this book. I picked it up and restarted it so many times over months. I wanted it to cl8ck with me. But it didn't. The main couple had no rooting value whatsoever. I really wish the author had made me love them rather than starting out with mutual pining that wasn't earned. 

It was pretty slow and difficult to care about the characters.

I don't think I was the right reader for this. It was very heavy on the empty tropes. The romance dominated the story to the point where everything else felt like filler. What was worse was that the romance was cliche and formulaic.