lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

The publisher sent me an e-galley of this to read, and I wasn’t sure at first if I’d be able to fit it in. But I did and I am definitely glad I did, as I now want to go back and read the first one as well!

I loved all the different takes on angels, and fallen angels, nephilim, dark angels, and other supernatural creatures like mermaids, unicorns, etc. In a way it reminded me a bit of one of my favorite tv series, Supernatural. All the characters were interesting and added layers to the story. Definitely makes me want to see all three of our main nephilim characters get their own HEAs. I liked how there was a quest to go through in order to find out who was behind what had been going on, and that it tied into the first book, in that they didn’t realize what they’d worked on then actually was the start of a larger trail leading to a possible overthrowing of heaven. The different worlds that both Evangeline and Gideon come from were intriguing as well, and I look forward to probably learning more in the next book it sounds like.

Probably one of my main or only complaints with this was it being told in third person. I just feel like I could have gotten so much more from first person, or at least connected with the main characters more I guess. But that is a personal preference, and is why I only marked down a half a star on my blog rating.

Just not a big fan of the bully romance.  He's too mean for her to keep going back to him.

It's not bad, just pretty much sexy times, and I'm more in the mood for actual story/plotlines that are more than that at the moment. Probably won't go back to this!

I really adore how this author has taken the world of Penny Reid’s Knitting in the City series and made it into historical romance reimaginings. It is always so much fun to match up the characters with the books in the original series and see just how the author will make the stories fit into the time period she is using. I did love this romance in the original books, because I loved that Alex was a younger guy, and he was just so different than expected.

And even though Alex is more street-wise in some ways in this book, he still has a bit of that air of innocence to him, with how he was brought up and the way the author makes it finally okay for him and Cassandra to be together in the end. I enjoyed Cassandra’s parents, even if I don’t necessarily remember much of her family being in the original. But I do like her friend that she had the marriage pact with, and how he had to do that with the way things were in that time period. 

This was a great addition to this series, and I can’t wait to see how the author does the next book in the series. I’m very excited to see our Winston sister’s incarnation for this series get her HEA and how the author will weave the original story into this world. And it makes me wonder if the author will do a spin-off of the Winston Brothers in this world as well! And of course there is Fiona, whose book/story wasn’t my favorite in the original series, but with how she fits into this world, I’ll definitely be intrigued to see how that is written.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, My Book Boyfriend, and was excited to read this one. I liked the characters and their chemistry was fun. They both had a lot of issues with their last relationship, or even earlier ones. Very similar issues, so they kind of kept pulling away from each other in the same way. It was more than just relationship issues and even job issues. Both had competing co-workers or bosses, exes who seemed to be around just to cause problems, and then there was both their jobs and also the detective work that actually led to their first meeting, and really the biggest obstacle in their budding romance.

I did enjoy all the different things with their jobs though. The figuring out what was going on with a company he’d recommended for portfolios. Her pro bono work to help a woman get her grandmother’s apartment back. And I enjoyed once again all the different characters and hope to read more about who I think the next romance will be, a rock star and his neighbor.

I did have the same issues though, and these are personal issues, not even really bad things. It was just a little long for me, or at least a little too much back and forth between the characters on ending up together. But it didn’t drag or anything, those were just things that I may have skimmed through a bit as I wanted to get to the excitement getting solved and their happily ever after. 

So, I think this author got her start with Twilight fan fiction which turned into books we know and love later? But this book definitely goes back to those roots. As a Twilight fan myself, I saw all the similarities in this story. However I enjoyed the way the author turned those into new twists and turns in the story, and even just made it her own story as well, not just a copy. Also this is set as a New Adult series, set with college aged characters, for the most part. I mean, obviously the vampire characters are older.

It was a lot of fun to see the science aspect that the characters had in being pre-med, as well as just what the vampires in this iteration were like. There was actually another magical aspect with a half vampire/half wizard character. Since this was NA it definitely had the sexy times, with frat boys and frat parties, and all the steamy scenes between Hazy and Godric.

This was a fun and easy read. I can see possibly getting the stories of Godric’s brothers maybe at some time in the future if this one does well enough.

Another fun story and I really enjoyed being back in this world. It actually even made me really want to go re-do my own story of a paleontologist in Chicago so that it fits into the SmartyPants world, and now I could maybe use Andre as a connection as well! But anyway, I loved Andre’s background, and I love how the story begins a bit of a car wreck. It was the perfect way for one of them to crash back into the other’s life. 

Andre was a sweetie, really only wanting to do what he could to make Nikki happy, and even if she didn’t let him back into her life romantically, he’d be happy just being however he could be a part of her life. I liked how the characters even as they might have run from problems, were able to not make a HUGE drama scene that often becomes unrealistic in the stubbornness characters might exhibit. They had those human reactions, but were still able to figure things out as they could move on from feelings.

The author has a note at the beginning about how she normally does closed-door romance, but this one she said needed the open door to make the story feel right. It’s not anything over the top, so I think it won’t be too much for those used to her usual style. But I agree that it definitely worked for the story to be that way.