lilibetbombshell's Reviews (2.79k)

Just about everyone I follow on social media has been raving about this book all fall. I had already selected it for my BOTM pick the month it came out, and I moved it up in my queue so I could read it as part of my 10 Before the End for 2024 because of all the buzz. 

 

I wish I could say I felt the same as so many did about this book, but I didn’t. With all of the positive buzz, I truly feel like this book has been overhyped. I can see where it would appeal to some readers, but for me it read like a Wattpad Danny Phantom fanfic. That would be fantastic if I wanted to read Danny Phantom fanfic (don’t get me wrong–I’ve definitely read that before, and on purpose!), but I was looking for a dark, lush, spicy historical romantasy with a MMC that looks like Danny Phantom, and that’s not what I got. 

 

Ophelia wasn’t a FMC I felt I could enjoy because she felt like a cardboard cutout of a character, and Blackwell’s dialogue may have been intermittently witty, but I honestly didn’t feel as much chemistry between the two as so many others have. I felt like all of the supporting characters were caricatures of every supporting character trope there ever was, and the twist was easy to predict from early on in the book. 

 

I enjoyed the trials. I enjoyed the more paranormal and supernatural aspects of the book. I enjoyed the idea of a demonic traveling haunted house. I enjoyed how Ophelia and Blackwell explored the house and how many secrets it held. I definitely enjoyed the haunts with their gore and creativity. It’s too bad none of that has to do with the core parts of the story. 

 

File Under: Adult Fantasy/Dark Fantasy/Disability Rep/Romantasy Series/Fantasy Series/Forbidden Romance/Ghost Story/Historical Fantasy/Interconnected Series/Kindle Unlimited/Paranormal Fantasy/Paranormal Romance/Spice Level 2 

There’s just something about the “loathe to love you” trope that I can’t resist. (I don’t know what other people call it when the characters in the main pairing hate how much they want one another and yet can’t stay away from one another, but that’s my name for it.) The push and pull, the chemistry, the internalized anger, and the passion when the thread snaps…it all makes for fantastic spice scenes and complex character dynamics. 

 

We met Mikhail Ivanov briefly in The Silencer when he came to the Costello Estate to marry Angel. His Prince picks up immediately after Angel and Mikhail land on the East Coast and head to the Ivanov’s home. It’s there where we learn just how much Mikhail had hidden from Angel and far astray the whole Costello family had been led. 

 

Cora Rose has an incredible talent for writing characters you can’t help but fall in love with. We already loved Angel from his previous appearances in Cora’s books, but now we get to fall in love with Mikhail and the members of the Ivanov mafia family. The guards give Snuggly Duckling thugs from “Tangled” vibes, only their weakness is for homemade Russian food and cookies. 

 

The dynamic between Angel and Mikhail is fraught with emotion and electric with sexual tension. Neither one of them married exactly who they thought they were marrying and neither one of them got exactly what they were bargaining for, but somehow these lapses make the pair even more perfect for each other than they thought they originally were. It’s a fantastic read because of it. 

 

 I was provided a copy of this title by the author via The Author Agency. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. 

 

File Under: Age-Gap Romance/Book Series/Dark Romance/Kindle Unlimited/LGBTQ Romance/Mafia Romance/Romance Series/Spice Level 3 

The Rivals is the follow-up novel to Jane Pek’s debut novel, The Verifiers, and the second book in her Claudia Lin series, named after the novel’s protagonist. Given there is an interconnected story and overarching plot between The Verifiers and The Rivals (and this story will be carrying over into the next book, whenever it’s published), you must read The Verifiers before reading The Rivals (that certainly won’t be a chore, considering The Verifiers is an excellent novel). 

 

This review will be as spoiler-free as possible, considering this is a sequel and I don’t want to spoil either The Verifiers or The Rivals. 

 

The Rivals has the same quick wit and wry humor as The Verifiers, which was what made me fall in love with Pek’s writing in the first place, but The Verifiers had this deft exchange of heavy and light throughout the book that kept the story from becoming too bogged down or overwrought, which is what I feel The Rivals lacked. The moral and social implications of the plot elements in this book are rather depressing and I spent the whole second and third act of this book wishing for a little more levity or some kind of break from the swelling cynicism. 

 

Claudia Lin is still a terrific protagonist, with her romantic soul, impulsive manner, and flighty nature. Her head is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, which makes it all the more endearing when she puts together the pieces of the puzzle. Her fraught situationship with Becks proves to be both entertaining and frustrating, full of the same will they/won’t they some of the best prime time television shows of all time were marked with. 

 

There is a lot of technological jargon in this book. I mean, a lot. It almost all went over my head. I did okay when I read The Verifiers, but my eyes started to glaze over a little while reading this one. I still don’t regret picking it up. 

 

I was provided a copy of this title by the publisher and author via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. 

 

File Under: AAPI Fiction/Amateur Sleuths/Book Series/Dark Comedy/LGBTQ Fiction/Mystery/OwnVoices/Sci Fi