**spoiler alert** This book started with a lot of promise and then felt really cheap and stopped holding my interest.
Insta love Flighty characters Lack**spoiler alert** This book started with a lot of promise and then felt really cheap and stopped holding my interest.
Insta love Flighty characters Lack of substance
There was no real emotional depth. This woman nearly died and then hooks up with a rando after a few days and once she tells her fam she’s in love they’re ok with it?
Oh…and how about this convenient masked event happening in Paragon that we find out about 300 some odd pages later.
DNF for me…the blurb on insta sounded interesting but my interest waned when she was only 23 and 5’2” and they totally lost me with three mafia men yeDNF for me…the blurb on insta sounded interesting but my interest waned when she was only 23 and 5’2” and they totally lost me with three mafia men yelling at this poor battered woman. ...more
**spoiler alert** This book was a solid 2 1/2 three stars. I will say it was well written meaning the quality of the authors writing is decent and enj**spoiler alert** This book was a solid 2 1/2 three stars. I will say it was well written meaning the quality of the authors writing is decent and enjoyable easy to read doesn’t read like I’m reading something written by middle schooler there weren’t grammatical errors or anything like that, so that was a definite plus and the story itself was decent and interesting too, but just felt short in a couple of ways and that’s why I rated it 2 1/2 three stars it was maybe 2.75 stars story and I say that because we don’t really truly get a full appreciation of why Harper started acting out the way that she did. It just seems like her best friend‘s mother died, but then the two of them got super super close and became engaged in a romantic relationship after his mother passed and then he went away to school and she couldn’t really handle it and broke up with him and so since we didn’t really get much of her frame of mind after his best friend‘s mom passed away to see how she was coping with it and dealing with it. It felt a little over the top for that to be the reason why she started acting out and couldn’t handle him leaving even though he didn’t leave by Choice so that part of the story could’ve been expanded a bit more and the story also probably could’ve benefited some from Declan‘s point of view not much but just a little bit maybe here and there because without it his behavior kind of seems all over the place and it’s hard to empathize with him when we don’t really know where he’s coming from. He’s obviously hurt. We know that much but he just definitely seems completely inconsistent and then on top of it you know these are two very young teenagers it’s hard to see after they have this big huge confrontation that feels very angry and very toxic and very hurtful. It’s hard to see how they come back from that without seriously going into therapy and that’s really my biggest gripe with the story is that this is all building to this huge confrontation and like seven pages later they talk it all out and the story ends and we don’t know. Does Harper‘s mother live or die we don’t really get a good sense of what the future holds for these characters and it’s OK to leave a story on an ambiguous note but I don’t think that’s what the authors intention was here so and what’s done is done there’s no changing the story it would’ve benefited I think more from these characters hashing this stuff out earlier in the story and then figuring out how to heal from that. I think that would’ve made a much more powerful story to see them healing from what they did to each other leading up to the confrontation as well as what they said to each other during their confrontation and dealing with the aftermath since that confrontation was pretty deep. It’s hard to just dismiss this as like oh well, they’re just teenagers. You know that again I don’t think that’s what the author was going for so kind of sold herself short a little bit and the story could’ve been a solid four stars if it had just been expanded a bit more in certain areas....more
**spoiler alert** OK, I’m glad you were finally gotten around to reading this book and finishing this geology like so many people I enjoyed the first **spoiler alert** OK, I’m glad you were finally gotten around to reading this book and finishing this geology like so many people I enjoyed the first book quite a bit and I’ve been burned by geologies in the past so I was relieved to see that not much really changed when it comes to point of view I saw another reviewer comment on the multiple points of view toward the end of the book and I do think that was very interesting. You know what it reminded me of is like when you’re watching an action film or really any sort of visual medium and there’s a quick montage showing what all of the characters are doing leading up to this huge climatic event And that’s what we got towards the end of this book. This huge bombing was gonna take place and so the author checked in with not only our main characters, but also supporting cast of characters to see what they were doing now I am utterly disappointed that forest and Sarah were killed off. I mean sure I get it that some people had to die maybe but why did it have to be them couldn’t the author of killed off some of Addie‘s siblings. I mean there’s like 10,000 of them running around Iris lost her mother in the first book. Did we ever even knew who know who her father was? OK? She married Roman only to lose him and be apart from him for a good amount of the second book, and then she was separated from her brother only to be reunited, and then he dies, and Sarah dies too I mean those two characters were so great. I just really felt like it was so cruel to our female main character to kill off her last living relative so I You know agreed to disagree with the author I suppose that that kind of killed some of it for me the other thing is you know we’re dealing with God‘s and just something that I was thinking about as I was reading. The second book is that it’s just so interesting and deviates in my opinion so much from the fantasy books that were used to where the female main character who ends up saving the day or whatever ends up having some you know there ends up being something hidden about her that we didn’t know that makes her the chosen one, but that wasn’t the case here I mean Eva popped into the dreams of multiple people that I miss the part where Eva says why Iris is the one who is going to kill Dacre? and I just thought it was so interesting that something like printing newspapers ended up being like such a powerful thing that played throughout both books and I guess because it’s a medium that has lost its importance and significance today but it just I don’t know struck me for some reason while reading the second book like they’re just newspaper writers and is it just me or did it seem like super easy to defeat him and you know maybe the idea wasn’t so much about actually how they went about defeating him but everything that led up to that moment and not the moment itself like I think him being defeated was inevitable, but you know it’s not a bad thing or a good thing. It’s just different. You know she had the sword and then Addie ended up telling her weight and they sung him to sleep and you know I mean it’s just very it’s so different. It’s so different and I think that’s why it was like striking to me in that regard. another thing that I find really really interesting and refreshing is that the male main character is very weak and I don’t mean like weak minded or not having a backbone or anything like that. Roman is a very strong willed individual but he is physically weakened he is constantly out of physical disadvantage not because he is you know 3 feet tall or anything like that but he’s held prisoner his mind so yeah, he’s also mentally weekend because he’s held prisoner. His memories are stolen. I mean it’s very very interesting to me and oh my gosh that scene when Iris sneaks into his room and we get Romans in our thoughts and how he is self-conscious about his physical state how much weight he’s lost and everything I mean, I don’t know just such a fucking beautiful scene and Iris just loves him regardless I mean, I could go back and reread that scene right now it was just so tender and loving and touching and beautiful and authentic so as I’m reading this book, I’m trying to figure out what’s going to happen. I mean I almost had to break down and re-spoil spoiler alerts because I couldn’t take it. I stay strong and kept reading when I kept expecting that Roman would be used against Iris as it means of manipulation and then it seemed like it wasn’t gonna play out that way, but then I knew it was too good to be true that they never got caught in his duplicitous and never got caught I love the magic of the typewriters. I love Iris‘s friendships and I don’t know if it was because I was so dead tired and I was desperate to finish this book because I was so close to the end. Maybe that’s why the ending seems so anticlimactic to me and I’m trying to remember exactly how it ended so Iris kills Dara and then she is working on cleaning up the city. Meanwhile, Roman gets sent to the hospital and then we find out that he’s gonna be dealing with the scar tissue in his lungs and have this heart condition. I mean the man he’s only 19 years old and here I’m thinking how are he and Iris ever gonna have sex again if he can’t, you know get his heart rate up or anything like that you know I think our author was just a little bit too harsh on the after effects for our poor main couple. OK, I just skimmed over the last couple of chapters of the book to refresh my memory and yes, I was bone tired when I read it, but it was also very subdued which given what the characters had been through I think it is deserving and fitting, they de deserve a quiet, peaceful life, and it is very charming to think of Roman and Iris together to writers. It is a very romantic idea her in the garden and it’s very sweet to see that you know something she had no experience with and learned from her friends, Marisol and Keegan and now it’s something that she’s doing so it was very sweet and especially the last couple of letters that were exchanged between them that we were able to read so overall very satisfied with this geology that I like the first book slightly more than the second yes, but the second book was certainly just as entertaining, and I was just as interested in the characters...more
**spoiler alert** OK, I am only rating this four stars because it is a good story, well written, even though I have major issues with it I again I’m s**spoiler alert** OK, I am only rating this four stars because it is a good story, well written, even though I have major issues with it I again I’m still rating it 4 stars mainly because of one character and one character only and that’s Nightmare.
I was immediately disappointed to see that this book had three POV‘s especially since the first book didn’t have multiple POV‘s. I didn’t feel that it was necessary here and in my experience as a reader, an author relies on multiple POV‘s when they lack the ability to progress their story. Now sometimes dual POV‘s can come in handy and can be executed well, there are authors who have done that, but my opinion is that if you’re going to give me multiple POV‘s then the POV‘s need to progress the story, they need to relate to what’s happening and in this case, I ended up skimming a lot of the chapters that focused on Elm. Sometimes no matter how much we may like a supporting character they are meant to be a supporting character. OK, think about movies, think about acting categories. You have lead actor and supporting actor. You have lead actors and you have character actors. You know, people who are meant to be the main character, and those who are meant to be part of the supporting cast. And while Elm, yes, was responsible for so much of the comedic relief in the first book I in no way think that he warranted his own POV let alone as much of his POV that we got. Were his chapters meant to try and offset the heaviness of Rayvn and Elspeth’s chapters because they were boring. His story was just about this alleged love and I really ended up skimming the majority of it. I was not at all interested in these feasts and what Ione was wearing or anything like that. I truly felt that we were given this love story between these two characters in this book because Rayvn and Elspeth were separated and you know we don’t need two grand love stories in a duology. One is really fine and sure maybe have them get together, but it doesn’t need to be a main story at all if anything I feel cheated by the author for not getting more of Elspeth and Rayvn because they are who we were rooting for from the beginning. I was here for the action. I was here for the resolution. I wanted to just get as much Rayvn and Elspeth as I possibly could and the Nightmare yes, you know I had my suspicions after reading the first book that there was more to him, especially seeing how much he cared for Elspeth and everything in the bond that they had I mean, that was just confirmed and further cemented I mean, I literally freaking cried when the two of them were saying goodbye to each other, so that relationship was quite beautiful. Now, this allegedly was Elspeth’s story, but we got hardly any of her and then even the epilogue was more about Elm and Ione and I really don’t care about the two of them. I care about Elspeth and I care about Rayvn and we got no reunion between the two of them and they were kept apart for pretty much the entire book. I mean, I really wish I could’ve been part of the editing team for the story because what my mind kept going to was how Rayvn was going to be able to look at Elspeth and not see the Nightmare and yeah, the Nightmare was not keeping up his appearance or anything like that to try and help Rayvn disassociate, but still, I mean there is a huge psychological impact, and I feel that if these two main characters have been reunited earlier in the book, you know we could’ve explored some of those after effects with them and I guess just overall I was really kind of disappointed and I kind of was a little bit prepared given how much I absolutely loved the first book I mean I rated the first book 5 stars. I never rate things five stars. I mean, it is very rare when I do that and so I know it’s going to be impossible to kind of live up to that expectation and four stars honestly is a bit generous. I really might rather rate it three stars, but because Rachael‘s writing style is so good and the concept of the story and again the character of the Nightmare himself it’s just so compelling that I will go ahead and stick with the four stars but yeah if you’re all about Elspeth, then this book is gonna disappoint you because we really hardly get her at all and that sucks. The first book I feel like there’s a good balance of Elspeth being in control, but then we see the Nightmare, but then that same balance isn’t there in this book and yeah granted at the beginning she’s like completely lost in their mutual subconscious, but that pacing could’ve been amped up a little bit more and honestly if we got rid of all of the crap with Elm and Ione, this probably could’ve been one single book instead of a duology, but perhaps I’m in the minority so will I read other books by this author yes and that first book I still feel just as passionate about it and the duology is definitely just leaving me severely wanting more of Ravyn and Elspeth...more
This was a DNF for me. I wasn’t really a fan of the writing style, and I was not at all impressed with the female main character, and once we got to tThis was a DNF for me. I wasn’t really a fan of the writing style, and I was not at all impressed with the female main character, and once we got to the part where it was time for her to escape for her life, I was questioning her thought process so I read some reviews and it kind of backed up and confirmed my suspicions which is that the girl is an idiot and since I wasn’t really feeling it, I decidedlife is short time to move onto the next book...more
**spoiler alert** I should’ve known once I realized that I DNF the first book in the series that this one wouldn’t be much better, but I didn’t recogn**spoiler alert** I should’ve known once I realized that I DNF the first book in the series that this one wouldn’t be much better, but I didn’t recognize the authors name and the purpose of the story. Sounds like it’s totally my jam. I mean it’s a single mother and this guy who’s been in love with her for like ever but While the story itself is interesting even if it is a bit trite, it’s the writer style that I can’t get into like the way, she writes a seven-year-old is so freaking annoying and I don’t know the writing is just a little bit to elementary and a little too ninth grade creative writing class And I also thought it was totally stupid that an issue here is that they’re worried people are gonna talk because he’s her dead husband‘s best friend like please. No one talks about that shit like that is not taboo at all. OK were they brothers? OK maybe then people would have something to say about that but the fact that it Was Just a best friend and the husband‘s dead it’s not like the husband still alive or anything like that so I thought that was so stupid and then I also didn’t like that there was all this buildup. I mean, I don’t know 140 pages or some shit of build up And neither one of them really wants to confess their feelings or whatever and then all of a sudden they’re having sex and very explicit sex like it didn’t feel natural to me at all and it was not enjoyable so I kept going for a little bit after that cause I do like the character of Penn butI just couldn’t get into it and decided life is too short. I’m not gonna finish reading this shit....more
**spoiler alert** So I’ve read several books by this author and I do like her writing style. I mean it’s not fraud with grammatical errors or anything**spoiler alert** So I’ve read several books by this author and I do like her writing style. I mean it’s not fraud with grammatical errors or anything like that. She doesn’t have any weird writing ticks or anything like that so the quality is there it’s enjoyable and while I was kind of interested in these characters, the story itself was just a little weird. I’m not really a fan of stories that are condensed into a very short time. This isn’t a Hallmark movie, but I would’ve much rather the story. Been about these two characters spending 12 days together and that created the foundation like that they didn’t necessarily have sex or anything like that but things escalated pretty quickly and I mean, I don’t know. I guess that can happen in real life, but I just feels a little forced and then also You know myself as a 44 year-old woman who doesn’t necessarily always have her shit together. I can’t really judge characters who are the same age and they still have issues they’re working on. I mean, everyone is a work in progress and for the most part I felt like the two of them were pretty Mature. I’ll be with issues that they needed to work on, but I wasn’t crazy about how I forget maybe 70% or maybe even further along than that suddenly we are being told that there’s something she’s hiding from him and then I just think it’s so stupid. I mean what is the point of that it’s to create this conflict and I just don’t feel like it’s really necessary and instead of just and still a sense of dread in the reader like why do things have to Get to that point you know and it was all really so that he could turn the tables on her and hold her hostage for 12 days or whatever and it just wasn’t really necessary. I do like that. They didn’t necessarily break up even though he was pissed and rightfully sobut I did just feel very manipulative of her, and it also made her feeling seem less genuine the fact that she was saying, I was lonely, and I thought you were lonely too. You know I don’t know just kind of cheap and the whole experience with them together, so I think that the ending kinda got flubbed by the author a little bit thus the two Stars...more
OK, was this the best book ever written? No it wasn’t but it was cute and I appreciate a college romance that has a little bit of smart but it’s not lOK, was this the best book ever written? No it wasn’t but it was cute and I appreciate a college romance that has a little bit of smart but it’s not like these 220-year-olds like can’t get enough of each other in our fucking all the time I mean, I wasn’t a nun in college, but I wasn’t a stripper either and I just know that that has to be like the average college experience so anyway I just let you know kind of makes me a little bit uncomfortable reading college romances when it’s very sexually graphic, but you know whatever anyway I appreciated that this was a little bit on the sweeter side And I am a fan of friends to lovers and even though we know Cory has feelings very early on almost instantly for Hartley. She does a very impressive job of really developing a friendship with him without any expectations. You know she’s not being friends with him hoping that one day he’ll know that’s not what it is at all. She genuinely cares about him. She wants to have a friendship with him and that is enjoyable and yes, they are initially bonding because they both have this disability. I’ll be at his temporary but still and so many times while I’m reading her in her monologue I’m thinking so much about how I identify with her thought process. It’s just very easy to see how someone in her situation would have those thoughts and reactions and you know thinking that someone in a wheelchair no one‘s ever gonna find her attractive or worthy or whole I mean, those are all just such a normal insecurities and fears I think and it was just very easy to empathize with Cory Now where I feel like there could’ve been more to the story was surrounding her hockey and her accident for something that was so life-changing we never really got a lot of details about it. I don’t even think we ever really got very specific details until closer to the end when she is remembering on the anniversary that you know, she got flipped over by someone at hockey practice, but You know I don’t know there’s just a little bit on that topic that I feel could’ve been added to the story to give it a little bit more depth, especially since hockey was something that was so important to her. It just seemed like it wasn’t very present in the story. I was hoping that she would’ve gone to a game with him or she would’ve in a weak moment gone and watched the women’s team practice or something to really show that she’s grappling with that loss but really she was kind of handling it by just avoiding it, but anyway that felt kind of like a bit of a hole in the story. I did think that she and Hartley were pretty cute and especially once his girlfriend came back to town it was pretty obvious that it was gonna be a matter of him seeing her again and the connection wasn’t gonna be the same and he was gonna start connecting these dots and that’s really when we start to see more depth to Hartley. We learn about his family background and all of that so that really gave so much more death to his character because up to that point we knew he was like a wrong side of the tracks kind of kid, but I didn’t know much more. He was kind of coming across is like a typical jock guy, which is not very endearing, but I don’t think he really started making those connections for himself until his girlfriend came back to town and by then he had developed a very deep friendship with Cory so I really like the second kind of the second half of the story, especially when she was like look at what I’ve done to myself. I’ve created this world where it’s only him and I need to do better and that I just really really admired that awareness, especially for a character who’s so young and granite she’s been through a lot So She made those changes and just identified with that so much I was just really really rooting for her and cheering her on to make smart healthy choices for herself and then when they did get together, it was very sweet and I was really really that there was no third act break up. I kept kind of waiting for it, but I was glad that there wasn’t and guess the only other thing that I can think of to say right now is, I wasn’t the biggest fan of him breaking up with Stacia and then getting together with Cory on the same day But I guess when you kind of have that epiphany moment you know that kind of thing can happen, especially when he went on to say to Cory you know I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you. That’s why it’s different or whatever it was it he said it was very sweet and very honest and genuine and authentic....more
**spoiler alert** It’s interesting to me that I rated this book. Only two stars considering I kept thinking about this book the whole day after I fini**spoiler alert** It’s interesting to me that I rated this book. Only two stars considering I kept thinking about this book the whole day after I finished it like I wanted to see what was going on with these characters or what not and so that to me is a sign of good writing and characters that you can kind of connect with or see is real I mean this was not a fantasy story right so this was meant to be based on real life scenarios And with all that being said, I am still sticking with my two star rating because one I was not crazy about the book within a book like this is a little too is that Meta or a little too much like inception or when you you know position your mirror just the right way and it’s a mirror of mirror mirror Mirror so I wasn’t crazy about that and then on top of it I don’t know even though it was well written, and I liked the characters enough and I didn’t have any issue with the two parts and I didn’t have any issue with the alternating chapters in the beginning being her therapy session. I mean, I liked all of that stuff, but I don’t know it was just lacking and in general The characters were lacking like their depth. The connection between the two I just kept thinking she’s trying to make this be like it ends with us by Colleen, Hoover and I by no means and Colleen Hoover fan, but this is supposed to be a depiction of a marriage that is fraught with issues And bordering on abusive I mean not I’m not abusive in that sense. I mean he’s an alcoholic and yeah, I mean it’s just bad the lying and all of this stuff anyway yeah they had issues who doesn’t have issues so I don’t know. I just felt like it could’ve been more. There was too much of Avery saying he’s my world. He’s my world. He’s my everything like it. she’s just saying the words that she loves him so much but we don’t really see a lot of of that. Here’s a perfect example and this happens in a good number of books where things happen off page that really would be so valuable to the story. OK so Avery and Gabriel are divorced, living their own lives and then she starts seeing this guy Hudson so we get to see their initial meeting and I’m thinking OK this is great. This is great and I am here for watching her have another relationship, but we get maybe a handful of pages you know we get their initial meeting and then maybe a couple weeks into their dating if she wants to be with him physically and then next thing we know it’s like a year and a half later and they’ve broken up, but then she makes multiple references about how important it was to have Hudson in her life and everything and I’m like OK I did not get that impression at all based on not the character but on what the author chose to share with us so was nothing about the character. It was definitely the author’s choice to not show us more of that relationship and I by no means want a love triangle I am anti-love triangle, but don’t just show me the initial meeting and then tell me later on about how important and significant that relationship was in your life. Like, let me see that let me be bare witness to it so I get frustrated with crap like that and that’s really much of what we got in this book, a lot of passing of time and just telling us things instead of showing us and letting the reader be the witness I I’m here for the story. I’m not here for a lecture. One other thing I thought of is Avery is or was a therapist and she did this research project and there’s a good amount of the books spent talking about her research project which was on the longevity of marriage and how it really boils down to making sure your partner had what they needed and in the second half of the book, Gabriel is living in a small remote town and he says to himself and to Avery that that’s where he needs to be. He’s thriving there. he’s doing well there, etc. etc. I kept hoping that the author would have Avery realize that it was her turn to give Gabriel what he needed. Make sure he had what he needed since he always took care of everyone else but himself and have her make that connection herself like oh look I did this huge research project and this is my opportunity to make sure he has what he needs and so I’m gonna relocate so even though that is what ended up happening, she relocated and they lived in the small town together. There was no tie in or call back to her research project and so I really feel like that was very much a missed opportunity to kind of tie things together or show character, growth, and development, etc. etc.....more