randi_jo's Reviews (420)

Maybe 1.5 stars.

I had more fun talking shit about this book as I read it with friends than actually reading the book (which always made me feel dismal and frustrated). Even though people tried to keep me fairly spoiler free SpoilerI still saw the 'plot twist' at the end coming from a mile away, also the reason as to why Andras had to die -- sadly there is no other plot beyond those 2 points. It held no real surprises and I feel like I just read 400 pages where only 150 of them had any meaning.

I did not like Fayre much. I feel like the only thing I DID like about her is that she's stupid and stayed stupid throughout the whole book, so, consistency at least. Lucien is probably the most decent character of them all, but he should've just stayed mean - it would've been more fun.

I slept on this and after a night thinking about what parts of the book I DID like was more difficult than I had thought. I liked a simile. To paraphrase: 'I was like dandelion fluff and he the wind that stirred me about the world.' That was nice. Not nice enough to make up for everything else though.

I'll read book 2 since I'm told it's massively better than this one, so that I might give the series a pretty fair chance, but I'm going to need a detox after this.

I vaguely remember reading some of this book years and years ago but never finishing for reasons I don't remember. Overall it's a good book, but maybe not for everyone. I think this book shines best in the second half - there's more action, more mystery, more emotion. The first half is sort of long winded, the characters aren't terribly likeable, and it suddenly jumps into extremely blurred lines between admiration for a child's beauty and pedophilic remarks.

But really, I'll pick up the second book because the ending of this one was so strong and heartening, and with the feeling that it'll be someone's redemption arc. I want to know what happens!

In short, if you like vampires, and a bit of mystery, and everything being described in an erotic manner, including but not limited to: candles, beds, dresses, corpses, fingers, eyes, platonic love, nostalgia, children, mirrors, breasts, young men, sewage, nightly ambiance, etc. Then I highly suggest this book.

he's an alien but he just has a normal curved dick that kinda looks like glass...... all i feel is regret.

I read this in two days, it was so easy to keep up with and nothing about it made me want to put it down. The dialogue is really witty and engaging, and while Cloe Brown isn't my favorite Female Lead I've ever read, she's certainly not the worst. I did like the chronic illness/disability aspect of this though, so that helped keep things interesting.

Otherwise, this read like any typical romance book, down to the fight they have in the last 20 pages and make up and then finally say "I love you" for the first time. But also this book was unexpectedly horny. I think the cute cover art made me think it would just be heart-eyes and stolen kisses but no. So very not. Not to say it's a bad thing, but maybe I wouldn't have brought it to work with me if I'd known, haha. I don't tend to read an awful lot of romance but I've never read the word clit so many times in one book as I have this one. Hm. Maybe it should be used more often.

In all, a fun read. No reinvention of the wheel or anything, but it's well written and enjoyable.

I won this book in a giveaway and have an uncorrected proof, so there will be no quotes in this review as the final product could be altered.

Firstly, I myself enjoy gardening, which is why I was excited for this book, but I'm in the Midwest, so most of the "subtle" gardening advice in this book is moot and takes away from the story. Speaking of the story, it was rather . . . boring? The villain reminds me of my grandma when she talks about her HOA, of which she's on the board. Most characters feel more like caricatures than people; "angry old ladies", "chill garden dude", "quiet nerd boy", "ult-left feminist but actually an emotionally repressed woman", "hot guy who knows carpentry". Granted, Lizzie is probably the most fleshed-out character, but she is so UNLIKEABLE.

I want to take a moment to shame the publishers for trying to skew this story as some kind of romance, where the garden issues are sub-plot to the romance plot, when it's actually the opposite. Lizzie isn't even the main character - and thank God for small mercies. The romantic sub-plot was the worst part of the book. Lizzie in no way shape or form should be in a relationship; she's cold, distant, obsessive, panicky, and will literally run away from a man who can cook decently because she assumes it means he has A WIFE. But she attends one funeral and suddenly she sees the light? Idk man. She didn't even know the guy.

Also the curry fever undertones at the beginning? Please tell me that was edited out. So creepy.

And the ending of the book! Talk about Dues ex Machina SpoilerNed being loaded AF to just end all of the 'plot tension' (I mean was anyone REALLY worried the garden would be bought out? No. Don't lie to me.). And then to never hear from the villain again or how everyone's miniscule sub-plots were tied up with a big red ribbon in the last three pages? It was so unfulfilling.

I'm on Team Bernice-Was-The-Best-Character-And-Should've-Been-The-Main-Character.

This book is definitely a page-turner. It's hard to put down and unfolds like a mystery, but when you get answers to something, it comes with more questions.

The MC, the biologist, is such an interesting character in that she is so utterly strange/logical/and maybe repressed emotionally, likely stemming from her trouble childhood. Her narrative is both highly logical and unreliable at the same time, giving the story a near believability.

4/5 stars because the ending wasn't as good as the start. I was absolutely absorbed by the whole thing until it hit me with the Spoiler"it's aliens". The cosmic horror just wasn't here to match the hyped levels at the beginning.