eggcatsreads's Reviews (480)

This is such a cute children's book, and I loved it as much as the Christmas Mothman one! A little Halloween pumpkin party (accidentally) hosted by Mothman was a cute little surprise, and the jokes throughout were cute and fun. I also really loved the inclusion of other cryptids in this one.

Thank you 8th Circle for providing me this free e-ARC

A compelling historical fiction set dead center during the Black Death, starring Ginevra di Gasparo - our “witch” who has been exiled from Florence. However, circumstances bring her back to the city during the heart of the plague, and she has to rely on her own unique abilities to try to solve the mystery of the missing relics. With these relics of the saints suddenly going missing, the city is left without any protection from death running through its streets and those in charge are desperate enough to ask a convicted “witch” for help solving it.

The beginning of this book has a few flashes back to Ginevra’s childhood and her time before her exile - giving us insight into her past and the conflict within her as she returns to Florence. This story is a battle between her innate desire to help people as much as she can - and the prosecution from the Church if she does too much. We see her grow from an idealistic child and young woman, to being an adult fully aware of the dangers she is placing on herself by doing these same acts once again.

I really loved how the “magic” in this novel was handled. Set between 1320-1348, we live in a world where both religion and folk magic live side by side, and both are used together to help those who need it. The concept of these stones having unique properties that can be used by someone with the power to is such a fun one, and despite the wide variety of gemstones listed throughout this novel I never had any difficulties keeping track.

While this book has just a few hints of romance sprinkled throughout, a much larger relationship present is between Ginevra and her newest friend Lucia, who she saves from the plague. Together, they must work together to solve the mystery of who (or what) exactly is stealing these precious relics, since no one else is either alive, or brave enough, to venture out into plague ridden streets to do it themselves. I really loved the friendship between these two women, and despite having very different lives and upbringings, they quickly become close and rely on one another to help survive, and solve, the mystery.

Up until the end, I had no idea how exactly this issue was going to be resolved, and I really enjoyed the conclusion. It was a fascinating look to see how things like legends and beliefs are created in both a religious context, as well as a personal belief - and how while one or another may be manipulated in some way, neither is truly “better” than the other.

This was a fun read, and I really enjoyed the journey throughout Florence it took me on throughout it (although, that journey involved a lot of corpses). It was interesting to read a book where the majority of the population have been decimated, and getting into the heads and beliefs of those who lived during that time. The mix of mythology and belief, and genuine fear, present throughout this book made it a fascinating setting as we followed Ginevra’s investigation, and all the danger it put her in.

A huge thank you to the author and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Park Row for a digital copy of this book, as well as Goodreads for a physical copy in exchange for an honest review!

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Orbit Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully crafted debut that incorporates real-world issues into a fantasy setting, and allows the reader to really dive into all the issues present in this novel.

The worldbuilding in this novel is intense, and while it took me a little effort to fully understand how everything worked, I really enjoyed the setting once I could easily picture it. The description of the city and the combination of where/how the humans live vs the folk I found really fascinating - especially with the opened up worldbuilding of the ability of the folk to live underwater. I think possibly a softer introduction to this world for the reader would have been nice, but overall it captivated me enough that I wanted to learn more.

This story is told through the multiple POVs of the main characters - Nami, Mira, Cordelia, and Serena. Since this is an advanced digital review copy, I have no idea if this will be the case in the finished novel, but I think a chapter title of the character’s names would make reading this easier. Nami and Mira have very similar character voices, and there were a few times I wasn’t sure which one was speaking until I saw their name written. I don’t think it’s that much of an issue that their voices are similar, as they have very similar motivations and beliefs - they just have their own way of reaching them. Cordelia and Serena have a very distinct narrative voice, so for their chapters I immediately knew which character was speaking.

There isn’t a great deal of romance in this novel, and the little that is I thought was mildly lacking. .Mira and Kai are already romantically linked by the time the novel starts, so while they have a fairly healthy relationship I found some difficulty connecting to them as a couple. I think it would have been nice to see their relationship develop, which could have provided a nice parallel to the relationship that Nami has later in this book. Since Mira and Nami are very much two sides of the same coin as characters, I think I would have preferred a more explicit parallel for the relationships they form in this novel.

I also had difficulty connecting with Nami and Firth’s relationship, as it was very close to insta-love and I had questioned why she was so taken so quickly. There were a few times Nami began to question Firth’s intentions, but once she saw him she decided to be with him anyway. I think it might have worked better if he was a folk who is known for using their allure, or something to force attraction, to make this work better. However, while we can sense some issues hiding under the water with their relationship, it never fully was too unbelievable that Nami was just simply attracted to him - it just happens that that’s not my preferred relationship dynamic.

Since this is an early digital review copy, I have no idea if this will be in the final draft. However, I want to suggest a glossary of terms in this novel to help the reader more easily learn what certain words or creatures mean, to more easily read through this novel.

All-in-all this was a solid debut with a strong voice and unique worldbuilding, and I highly suggest everyone to check this out. There are a few plot twists that I didn't see coming, some hints at a deeper world to be explored in the next novel, as well as some heartbreak that I will be devastated if it’s not resolved. This novel left me wanting more, and I am very excited to see where the author continues the story.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Redhook Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you like your romances to be bloody, dark, intense and leaving you breathless for more - you need to read this book. If you’ve read A Dowry of Blood, you will love this novel as well (if you haven’t read ADoB, you should get on that ASAP.)

Intense and atmospheric, every sentence I read had me needing to continue reading to see where it went. Every chapter I finished felt like I was barely treading water in this world, and as the romance progressed I could feel myself drowning in it.

We follow Laura as she enters this all-women’s college and takes an advanced poetry class - that only happens after night. There, she meets Carmilla and the professor De Lafontaine,
who have some unknown connection between them. As Laura advances in the class, and gets closer to them both, she learns of the dark underbelly to this college and their relationship. She slowly learns to accept her darker desires, and leaves as a very different person than she entered.

There were multiple times in this novel I wasn’t sure how it would progress, and at no point was I entirely sure who could be trusted. The romance in this novel is both dark and intense, and kept me glued to my kindle as I read further.

Anyone who likes gothic romances with a little (or a lot) of blood thrown in, danger, secrets, lies, and sex would absolutely love this novel. I began reading unsure of how the relationship between Laura and Carmilla would ever graduate from hated academic rivals, and the way this book does it was beautiful.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Harper Voyager for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a perfect companion to read after the Celestial Kingdom duology. These short stories give you insights into the minds of the characters we met and loved during the books, and gives us glimpses into their lives before and during the events of the books. These stories were a perfect way to come back to this duology that I love so much, and felt like visiting old friends. I think these stories provide a perfect accompaniment for reading the books (on a reread, the spoilers are real) to go back and see some of the different experiences that we didn’t get fully exposed to during the initial books. We also get different POVs, and Wenzhi’s chapters had me kicking my feet, I love him so much.

Other than the first section, which is a prequel story of how the Moon Goddess became the Moon Goddess, these stories have spoilers for both books in them and should only be read after you finish both books. I absolutely think this would be a great book to pick up after finishing Heart of the Sun Warrior to help recover from the book hangover, and to gain more insight into some of the little side stories of events that happened. (PLUS THERE’S AN EXTENDED EPILOGUE THAT TRUST ME, YOU NEED.)

I loved this so much, and if you loved this duology I believe you’ll also love revisiting with these characters and storylines.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Flatiron Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fantasy novel where the four seasons are actually gods who enter our world for only 3 months out of the year, and whose presence facilitates is the cause of the changing of the seasons. This novel greatly resembles how the Greeks saw the change of the seasons, with the presence or absence of Persephone in the Underworld, but takes it further to include all four changes - Summer, Winter, Spring, and Autumn.

Our main character, Tirne, is the Herald of Autumn - in charge of bringing the spirits of the dead to rest, and in bringing her god of Autumn into the world when it’s time to change the season from Summer. However, in her sixth year of doing this - when exiting the Mirror to bring the gods into the mortal realm - it breaks, shattering the connection and trapping the world in an endless autumn. Nothing can grow as everything slowly dies, and eventually famine hits the world and the spirits of the dead pile up, with nowhere to go.

Tirne is the main suspect for the breaking of this Mirror, and she must investigate on her own to try to uncover the real culprit before time runs out on the living. With her connection to Autumn, she has a bit of his magic, and the ability to feel his emotions - as the longer he remains in the world of the mortals, the more mortal he becomes.This is dangerous, as if he spends too long in the mortal realm he may no longer be an immortal god, and instead simply a man.

I wanted to like this novel more than I did. Even with its very Greek retelling feel, this novel never fully did it for me. I’ll explain further in detail with more specific spoilers, but as I believe this novel to be a standalone I felt much of the worldbuilding and character relationships left much to be desired. (If there is a sequel, then I will revise my statement.) I think if this book had a sequel, it could account for much of the issues I had with this novel, as much of my issues are things feeling unfinished with questions left unanswered.

There are issues with the religion in this novel - much of which are things assumed to be factual, that Tirne discovers to be untrue - that is simply brushed over at the end of this book as things go back to Square One. In the same way, she has 3 relationships throughout this novel, all of which do not really go anywhere and end with none of them together - which makes the reader feel a bit empty when the book ends. There were also parts of this book near the end that felt rushed, and as I was reading it (and especially after the ending) it felt like a good 100-200 pages of plot was removed and only the main events were kept. However, near the middle there is a bit of a stagnation where nothing really happens, which I think should have been the parts that were edited for brevity instead.

However, overall I did enjoy this novel and would recommend it for a reader who enjoys novels that feel like Greek myth retellings. As I was reading it, I was never bored and I cared about the characters and what happened to them. I enjoyed some of the romances in this novel, and thought the character relationships to be interesting and diverse. I also enjoyed the disability representation with the main character and her chronic headaches.

SPOILERS AHEAD: I kept these at the very end, so you could read my full review without reading any spoilers. These are more specifics with the issues I had with this book, but in describing them I’d be spoiling those events. Also, I may or may not get mean so don’t shoot the messenger, I warned you.


RELATIONSHIPS:

I thought the development and inclusion of some of the relationships in this novel to be unnecessary, and a few times it felt like they were included only to keep this novel from being classified as YA.

Our first look at this is when Tirne returns from the ceremony with the broken mirror, and meets up with her childhood friend. Instead of communicating, they immediately have sex to distract herself from her issues - and apparently, them hooking up when she’s back in the mortal realm is a regular occurrence, despite him having another relationship. I’m not a prude or saying friends with benefits can’t exist, but this felt like an abrupt change of pace when it happened and I was more surprised than anything. Reading this didn’t do anything for me, and I kind of just read it waiting for it to finish so we could continue the novel. (Also, I clearly missed something when he was introduced because I legitimately thought he was her brother before this point, but clearly I was wrong, lol. That’s how out of left field this development was.)

The other relationship that I kind of thought was unnecessary was her attraction to her god Autumn. I have to admit, while this concept drew me in (the relationship between the two developed kind of like in Gods of Jade and Shadow), with Tirne’s other more prominent relationship this never impressed me. The description says this is a forbidden romance between the two, but it’s more of a blink and you’ll miss it - and then, he’s back in the realm of gods and no longer has human emotions so it’s done. We suddenly go from her being his Herald, to her noticing how “attractive” he is, and then as Autumn becomes more human with more and more emotions - he starts breaking the rules to be with her. (Also, this is a personal gripe, but they hook up after she’s had months of starvation to the point she can’t eat without severely watering it down for her stomach - the entire time they had sex I was like “hello???? HELLO???? Miss ma’am, how do you have the energy for this?” It’s just hard to get into the idea of them having sexytimes when she’s described as being sunken and skeletal, okay.)

Her final relationship, and the only one that actually fits in this novel, in my opinion, is with a sorcerer named Sidriel. I was kind of surprised this turned into an actual relationship, because he’s such a morally ambiguous man who at times is a significant antagonist. However, their chemistry develops fairly well from hate sex to something more, and I wish the novel focused more on this than her other romantic entanglements. There’s supposed to be some drama between her being attracted to the other two as opposed to him, but honestly I feel like the drama could have been even if she wasn’t attracted to Autumn, and just him to her. Also, there’s literally no development to this relationship, as after the events of the novel he breaks it off with her and she mopes on her own. And then, she decides she NEEDS closure and goes to see him again - and once again, he just says no and then she accepts it?

Tirne had an entire dynamic where she had to break up with a significant other because she only spends 3 months out of the year in the mortal realm. However, after the events of the novel she has to remove Autumn’s magic and live there full-time. I thought for SURE that would be the catalyst for her and Sidriel to be together, as he had lost one love to the gods, but gained another - and she learned to prioritize being with others over her obsession with being important. But no, they just say “Nah” and move on. Sure I guess?

RELIGION:

I won’t go as in-depth here as I did the relationships, but there were multiple MUTLIPLE times we see the cracks in the facade of their religion after Tirne is cast out of it.

We begin with her having a less than stellar relationship with her aunt, who has rejected the main religion to follow a more offshoot one that focuses on the creatures who remained after the 4 season gods defeated the master of those monsters. Tirne doesn't believe in those monsters at all, and her aunt thinks that the gods are poisoning the world with their magic - and so, their relationship has frayed beyond repair.

However, when Tirne is cast out of the temple and must live on her own, she reconciles with her aunt and slowly starts to see the legitimacy in what her aunt believes. Tirne is told a hidden truth in the history of their religion by Autumn - a secret so major that she can’t tell a single other person - but refuses to see her aunt’s point of view when she says that there are two sides to every story. Even when Tirne begins seeing the creatures and monsters, she only “joins” that religion when she has nothing else to turn to - and even tells Autumn that she never abandoned him or her beliefs. This I understand, but it seems that the second her aunt dies and they fix the Mirror, Tirne goes back to Square One and never even THINKS about the truths she discovered away from the temple, and from her aunt.

This also goes into the conflict caused by the main bad guy, who is the cast away god from their religion origin story. He doesn’t seem to have much of a plan, and then at the very end he simply just tries to stab Autumn as he is fully mortal, rather than killing him in his sleep - as he could have very easily done. His reasoning is that by doing this he proves to the people that the gods are fallible, but I think a god dying would ALSO do that, no? However, because he randomly does this in a crowd of people he’s immediately caught and his blood is drained to fix the Mirror. The End. (What????)

This is what I mean by saying I think this novel would highly benefit from a sequel. As both the relationships and the religion are kind of shuffled back to the same status quo we had at the beginning of the novel, and unless this is further explored it kind of feels like a “what was the point?” to the reader.

A sequel could explore the issues with the religion, now that Tirne is no longer the Herald of Autumn and an important member of it. It could give context to the villain’s motivation (who was in a relationship with her best friend and may have had feelings for him) - where we could find out that using his blood on the mirror to fix it, and “killing” him, was his original plan all along. We could also learn more about the truths of the religion, and whether or not Autumn and the other gods are really as benevolent and trustworthy as they seem. And finally, we could explore her relationship with Sidriel as they both learn to live with one another without the issue of the Mirror or past lies hanging over their heads.

In all honesty, if we get a sequel I think I’d enjoy this first book much more, as my issues are with this novel being a supposed “standalone,” where it brings up a bunch of issues and then never solves them by the end.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Simon and Schuster for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A tale of a sister’s quest for revenge after the unjustified death of her sister, this book has a lot going for it to make any mystery lover intrigued. We follow Maude Horton (of the title) as she investigates the truth of how her sister died - and its coverup. Maude’s sister disguised as a cabin boy to go on an Arctic exploration and rescue - but she never comes home and no one will tell Maude exactly what happened. Told through dual timelines and 3 POVs - Maude, her killer, and the journal of her sister on this fateful journey - we slowly piece together the truth of what really happened out there on the ice.

I kind of feel this story might have been more interesting from Maude’s sister’s main POV, and I felt a bit too much of the narrative was in the mind of her killer (and to be honest, Maude’s “revenge” is only near the end) but otherwise this was a fun book to read. I think anyone who likes Victorian era historical fiction, mysteries, and doomed Arctic exploration tales would enjoy this book. Despite knowing who the “villain” of this tale is right at the start - Maude still needs to figure out a way to prove his guilt and exonerate her sister after death. We follow her investigation as Maude gets close to her sister’s killer - who, ironically, is out of luck himself and is trying to shill anything he can to pay his debts.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and had fun with it, despite (especially near the end) it feeling like Maude herself didn’t really have much to do with this “revenge” and it just kind of falling into her lap at the conclusion.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Random House Ballantine - Dell for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you like dark YA romance between two damaged teenagers, where eventually they find their way to one another and learn to grow and change to remain together, this book might be a good fit for you. We follow two main characters who are 17 and about to be adopted into a new family - Nica and Rigel - who have a contemptuous relationship at the orphanage. Rigel is cruel and mean to Nica, who is extremely sensitive and hides from his treatment - but when they are forced to live in the same home their relationship is forced to change.

This book didn’t quite work for me as I felt our main character Nica was almost TOO sweet and innocent, to the point that she just annoyed me as a person. In the same way, Rigel was almost TOO mean (and somehow amazing at fights? Is he an anime villain?). I wasn’t invested in either character, nor their “relationship,” and to be honest if I hadn’t also been gifted a physical copy to more easily flip through I might have DNF’d this book.

In a way, they felt like stock characters for most of this book, where their entire interactions are “Rigel is mean to Nica, Nica runs to avoid him/cries/finds some random animal to help and talk to, Nica realizes that Rigel is kind of attractive?, we get a smash cut to Rigel’s POV where it’s revealed he’s horny 24/7 and obsessed with Nica.” Rinse and repeat. Quite literally nothing else had happened by 250 pages in this book.

I couldn’t get into their “love” or relationship, as even with the reveal that Rigel is trying to force Nica away from him because he thinks he’s too damaged for her, nothing between them ever really changed. The only advancements they get is when Nica decides to confront Rigel for his abuse, until eventually she decides she’s into him and forgives him - without him ever having to confront or change his negative behavior. It’s kind of alarming that there’s a negative love interest in this book for Nica, but yet basically all the red flags found in this boy (this is pointed out, many times) are found in, if not worse, in Rigel. Rigel spends the entire book as the same character he started as, except now Nica likes his “bad boy” self and isn’t bothered by his refusal to treat anyone else as a person.

In fact, Rigel so refuses to change at all, that even as the book ends he’s still obsessive and willing to/threatening to beat up any man that talks to Nica - which she just finds attractive now? Despite this being the reddest red flag of abuse there could be. The entire book Rigel is finding and beating up boys who say or do anything to Nica (bad or not), and then the book ends with him still threatening this same behavior to a classmate of hers. And it’s just seen as fine and a “quirk” of his, despite that being a negative earlier in the book. In the same way, Rigel refuses to talk or tell Nica anything, to the point that there’s a reveal about a character he used to sleep with during the LITERAL last like 5 pages - and when she’s like “hey it’s fine since that was before we were together, but I’m with you and her friend, why didn’t you tell me” and his response is the classic avoidance “I’ve been in love with you since I was 5.” ???? That. That answers absolutely nothing, my boy. Except of course this is the end of the book so Nica has to accept it.

I understand it’s a darker YA romance, and that Rigel can’t be suddenly “changed” or “redeemed” by the end - but an ounce of change wouldn’t be amiss. It just made me roll my eyes when he did the same thing to Nica’s classmate (as they’re now adults in their early 20s) that he did at 17. It almost made it completely pointless to have chapters of them as young adults - especially as there IS an epilogue at the end, and it’s strange that these chapters aren’t included as they felt VERY epilogue “nothing is going on and we’re living happily after”.

In the same way, this book avoids the whole “Rigel was cruel and abusive to people other than Nica” so much, that when they bring in another character who was harassed by him (in the last like 5 pages of the book) and he’s like “???? What do you mean you’re dating him?” it’s kind of just glossed over entirely. I think the ending of this book wouldn’t have bothered me quite so much if there was any actual development in their relationship, but as it is the only reason they get together is because one character almost dies and then when they wake up they’re suddenly like “well I guess we’re soulmates now” and now with the entire rest of their relationship they’re just riding off this belief while also not communicating to each other.

However, I think my biggest gripe is that this book was boring and nothing happened for the majority of the runtime - and then, near the end, suddenly the author decided to add some plot events (literally the last like 50 or so pages) and then just ended the book. And then, SPOILER, but had the dumbest ending possible where it’s implied that this book is a STORY told to her daughter about how her and her father got together (are we assuming the sexual stuff wasn’t told to her like 3 year old, or?) Also, the entire name of this book, and the “fairytale” of the “Tearsmith” was so barely there that I think removing it would have made this book make more sense.

I will admit that a big issue might have been that I don’t typically like just plain romances, but I think I might have enjoyed this if either character was anything other than a flat piece of cardboard and literally anything at all happened in this book. However, there are many people who enjoyed this book and I can see the appeal of self-inserting as a shy insecure girl who eventually gets together with the big mean bad boy - just as long as you can deal with like 300 pages of nothing before that.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Wicked House Publishing for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A creepy horror that takes you further into the dark than even your darkest fears will expect.

I started this book expecting strictly a story about grave robbers - and instead was given something much more intriguing and in-depth. Yes, this story is about graverobbing, but that’s only the beginning to the events that eventually unfold.

We begin this book with the aforementioned graverobbing - complete with some grisly descriptions about the corpse’s smell and appearance. But it’s what happens with the newly deceased during these experiments in the wealthy Mr. Creighton’s basement where this story really takes off. Eventually hearing about this spat of grave robberies, Chicago reporter Michael Jacobs winds up investigating the case for a story. But when he thinks he’s solved it - suddenly he’s entangled more than he could have ever expected.

Something I think this book does exceptionally well is with existential horror. I won’t spoil anything, but there’s a character (or characters) who become essentially “trapped” in their own bodies, who can no longer move as quickly as they can think. Ever. And in my honest opinion, that part of this novel was the scariest part. (Yes, there were other rather shockingly scary parts - but being trapped in your own body is a particular fear of mine and this book captures that feeling PERFECTLY.)

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys horror, with some mystery, as well as some rather fun and gory descriptions - as well as a possibly ambiguous ending. Once I began reading this book I had to finish it, and the story took a few significant turns that I was not expecting.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Tides Collide Publishing for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting twist on the tale of the Little Mermaid, with a focus on Filipino folklore and the trappings of abusive relationships.

The audiobook narrator did a fantastic job with the voicing and I felt they fit this book extremely well. In many ways the only reason I finished this book is due to the audiobook.

Overall, this book was fine but it just didn’t work for me. I think perhaps this book was a bit too YA for me and felt too young in both characterization and plot - but I think a younger audience could enjoy this book much more.

As I wrote this review I came off meaner than I intended, so don’t read this if you want a positive review. I’ll write here that based on the other reviews my issues are definitely more due to my interpretations and reading, and I would encourage anyone interested in a Filipino twist on the Little Mermaid to check out this novel.

Once the plot kicks off, the pacing of this novel speeds up and improves, but the beginning portion of this book almost made me DNF it. I understand the author putting the warnings near the beginning about the toxic relationship shown in this book, but - and this could be entirely me - I didn’t feel like we were shown enough for how it became so toxic. We just moved from “he’s so sweet” to “and then months later he’s gaslighting me” with no inbetween. In many ways this felt less like an exploration of a toxic relationship our main character wants to escape from, and more like the author had decided “this is the bad boyfriend” and then just told us this.

(Spoiler: This is really prominent when in the other reality this same “boyfriend” is the one who murders his girlfriend on this side - and this is literally never explored or talked about again, despite the murdered character supposedly being a friend of one of the characters. It’s just a “See! He’s terrible! Right??? Right???” thing, and felt shoehorned in. He can be abusive and violent without you holding our hands and telling us this. That was the event that made me feel justified for thinking that the boyfriend was just told to be bad to justify us not liking him, rather than the author actually writing a believable abusive relationship.)

In the same way, we’re simply told that Malaya is too entrenched to break up with him even when she wants to, and we (as the reader) don’t believe this because we didn’t see it happen - so instead of sympathy it’s honestly kind of annoying. (I know! I know! The beginning tells us to not do this, but you can’t just tell us to believe something and then add a forward that tells us that not believing what the author wrote is on ME and not a mark of not great writing.)

And then the very YA feeling happens again with the sudden insta-love our main character gets with the boyfriend she’s “supposed” to have. Their attraction wasn’t that believable, and it threw me for a loop that it took so long for the author to tell us their age difference when Malaya is in HIGHSCHOOL and he’s in COLLEGE. They’re only a year apart, but I spent a concerning amount of the book trying to figure out how he was a better choice if he’s in college already.

(Also, this is me complaining about the plot, but the whole “curse” thing felt extremely fake, and the way the mother handled it made absolutely no sense. She just tells her daughter “hey we’re cursed to fall for a terrible boy and then he’ll ruin your life - and when you fall for a terrible boy instead of trying to help you I’m just going to blame you for everything and push you towards him.” What? If there IS a curse (I don’t believe this part of the narrative one bit) the mom should have been like “Hey there’s a curse that makes us like bad men as our first love - if you do, don’t think it’s all you’re good for and you can find better” since a BIG part of why our main character stays with him is because A) her mom told her she can’t leave him “unless she dies,” and B) her mom is abusive enough that she doesn’t want to prove her right. Bad parenting 101.

In the same vein, at the end it’s the DAUGHTER’S responsibility to coddle the mom about her bad parenting? What? Or the talking about how the other reality’s sister was good because she showed her that actions have consequences by beating her up, and then suddenly that other mom realizes that she’s taking advantage of being the “better” kid. Huh? That part made absolutely no sense, I’m sorry.)

With this being a fantasy retelling, I won’t be too harsh on the plot. I thought the Filipino monsters from mythology were a fascinating touch, and the reasoning done by the sea witch an interesting decision. I wish there was a bit more background or information on WHY the sea witch is trapped, or any worldbuilding at all, but overall it worked for a fantasy retelling.

Side note: Is this cover AI? Because………the hand looks a bit sus.