lambsbooks's Reviews (1.4k)

370 pages of Eli being a total simp to Rue means 5 stars

"I forget to look at other things, when you're around"

"Her existence, apparently, did a lot for him. More than an elaborately staged erotic show"

"He was going to look at her until he died or until his eyes wore off"

"I want her to be all right more than I want to keep my dignity"

He could toss me out the window, and in this madness, I’d crawl right back to him, broken legs and all.

In this professor/student, forbidden love, gay vampires, dark academia story…

Do I need to say more or did that convince you? Lmao

It’s futile trying to connect when you’re forced to hide major parts of yourself.

This book is set in the late 80s when it was hard for LGBTQ+ people like Johnathan to exist, to live happy, open lives (still hard now in places, don't forget that). His previous relationship went horribly wrong but now he’s at college (well, his second year) and he’s, um, moving on. But not really, he’s still haunted by dreams of his first love until some dreamy scary wolves come and save him (this makes sense, right?).

He wants me to see him? Oh, Dacian, how could I possibly see anyone else?

Enter Professor Bathory, mysterious, dark-clothing-wearing, gothic loving, and much to Johnanthan’s annoyance, Johanthan-hating?

And so begins the story of how Johnathan starts working in the collections library (think rare books, we stan) and looking for a book thief. But also, there are people going missing and others turning up dead.

I dunno how the fuck to describe this book. None of that made sense lmao

That was when I learned that people pick their own versions of history to ensure they aren’t blamed for the outcome.

It was dark. It was spooky. It was swoony.

“Don’t ever underestimate human stupidity, Jonathan."

I was pretty invested for the first 50% and then I realized that Johnathan was an idiot.

Honestly, it ended up ruining the book for me, it was a solid 4.25 stars until I realized that I actually didn’t like the main character lmao. I kept forgetting that he wasn’t like 16 years old, but 20ish, since he read so young, and the same for Dacian, who’s centuries old, but kinda still a child?? Please help.

“But you still expect him to make good, morally correct choices even though he is not a good person?”

Anyway, the mystery was no mystery at all, except to Johnathan, and the bad guys were comically bad, re. over the top. Despite the lower rating, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this book, so don’t discount it, I just didn’t love it.

Thank you to Coloured Pages Book Tours and the author for this eARC and finished physical copy!!

 He kisses me as if I’m water and he’s been in a desert. He devours me.

What a cute grumpy/sunshine, age gap (9-10ish years), coach’s daughter, spicy, hockey player and intern romance! lmao there are other tropes but those are the main ones that made it just *cute*

I have no idea where I’m taking her, but I need her. Being with her, inside her, is all I can think about.

I was so looking forward to Dane’s story after seeing glimpse of him in Sweet Collide, and how he was closed off to everyone but his sister, and this was a great glimpse into his head! He had a pretty bad past and his trust issues and darker tendencies kept cropping up to rear their ugly heads, but he pushed through and became a better person because of it.

She’s temptation. The sweetest sin.

I struggled with Josie a lot, I found her really childish, but she was strong (which sounds counterintuitive to childish, I know) and I thought she was really great on her own and for Dean. She also had a difficult past, with an absentee and mean-ish mom, and no father in the picture until, well, the beginning of the book. But, they both worked out (or are working on) their issues and it was a great representation of how the past affects the future.

All logic is gone. My need for her outweighs everything. “Get on top of me.”

Thank you to Hambright PR and the author for this ARC!

As soon as I return from my high, reality settles in. I just fucked Josephine in a park where anyone could see. Fuck.

 It's still interesting, but not as interesting as the first. I think I don't really like the funny comments; sometimes, I do, and other times, I'm annoyed. I'm still invested in how the whole portal thing is going to progress though, but I need more in order to read this for another 11 books *sigh* BUT I OWN THEM ALL so I will push through

*curses my inability to read a series without having all of it first* 

Well, this was fun! I'm excited to see how it plays out over the next tWeLvE books. I'm listening to them (but also own physical copies) and I'm not a huge audiobook person, I accidentally got distracted near the end and missed the last 30 minutes 🫠 but if I like the series enough, I'll reread the physicals eventually 😌

Okay, but now I need a paperback copy to hoard for my shelves 😭

Ali Hazelwood can write no wrong.

 You know, after that ending, I’m tempted to read the next one even though I hated this one lmao

Okay, thoughts:

There were 50 million characters and I didn’t care about any of them.

The book was also a million pages long and, no, just no.

I didn’t like the FMC, I thought she was like 16 but she’s in her 20s but she’s clearly a child with her tone. Why is she such a martyr? It makes no sense that she was some saviour in the games, why was she helping every single one, even the ones who tried to kill her 🙄

Why was it insta love!? Hades meets her and gives her this heartfelt nickname IMMEDIATELY. Um, no.

Some punishment for Hades was getting cuts on his hands and the FMC is full of guilt and whatever and I'm like ... they're cuts on his hands...he didn't lose his hands!? What. lmao 😂

Overall, just terrible. Why is the rating so high? What am I missing😂🫠

This book was…okay? The humour and family was still the same from book 1, but it was ruined by the obsessive need to explain everything. Every single action had to be explained, this book was the definition of tip toeing around a subject so they don’t offend anyone and it got in the way of the story. They told us things instead of showing us, and the constant affirmations and talking got on my last nerve. It was a huge shift from the first book, like, why are you trying to tell us to love these characters, we do, stop over explaining all of the actions and words in the book. I felt like I was sitting in a lecture or something.

A therapist. Every conversation sounded like it came straight from a therapy book. That’s was I was trying and spectacularly failing to say above lmao

“Let’s discuss why you feel that way.”
“Sorry you feel that way.”
“I understand where you’re coming from, but expand on your thoughts.”

Just stop 🫠

This was just so unnecessary. It was essentially a repeat of book 1 but instead of Linus, the government sends a garbage human to evaluate the house. Throw in every insulting thing some conservative politician has spout about a minority population, and bam, you have this book.

Also, I find that most books, they tend to dumb children down, they treat them really, um, childishly, but this was the opposite. Who talks like this to children lmao if someone started talking to me like this, like we're having some philosophical debate constantly, I'd zone tf out. But more importantly, what children talk like these do? I kept forgetting they were...children (even though it was said 50 million times by Arthur and Linus that they were just children).

I get Klune's message, I really do (and his note at the back makes it pretty clear), and it fucking sucks that it still needs to be said but *show* more than *tell* is what readers want, not constantly being punched in the face by the point. People reading Klune's books aren't disagreeing with anything he's saying, so I think the target audience was maybe forgotten? I dunno.

After reading some spoilers, and the fact that the first two chapters are in POVs that we haven’t had before and I don’t care about, I’m just not interested in this at all. 

I feel like this series isn’t going to end happily. Or end how I want it to.

So from a 5 star book 1 to this was a little disappointing. It dragged mostly, I was bored, and picked up once in a while, but mostly, I was bored. I’m looking forward to the next one but also not looking forward to it, re. my first sentence 🫠