imskylow's reviews
262 reviews

Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.

I had to DNF this book. The writing felt very juvenile. The words don’t have weight. The prose is stiff and unyielding and the emotions felt dry to me. There was also a big lack of imagery. I tried to skip forward to see what the book would feel like later and I was not terribly impressed by what I found. This plot of this book is merely a vehicle for the smut. I say this as a reader who enjoys smut: I feel like each tool an author uses in a story should be carefully placed, crafted, and utilized. Smut just isn’t interesting when there’s a lack of believability and a real sense of tension.

I received the digital version of this book as a ARC books from NetGalley, which is interesting because Goodreads says this book was published back in 2020. Not quite sure why this available for review now in 2023.

Content Warnings

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

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adventurous challenging dark emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

What the actual f**k?
All this build yp, all these books, for this?? For convoluted yet lackluster ending? And an ending we could have gotten long ago had Gansey only asked?
Holy hell, this finale makes this whole series feel like a fever dream. Blue's identity was nonsense and unnecessary. The focus on Adams family was disproportionate to the actual plot. Why does everyone hate Henry? Is he sophisticated or is he ditzy? It's like everyone, including the author is racist. l ate up the first few books because I was hoping for a big payoff but this was honestly upsetting. Feels like nothing in this series was planned and Stiefvater was just flying by the seat of her pants. Of course the prose is lovely and the dialogue fun but that's about it for this novel. What a disappointment.

Content Warnings

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I am left gasping for air as I close the back cover of this book. My favorite book of the year. I am in love.

This book spoke to me and wove itself into my soul in a way I had forgotten an amazing book can do. I think I’m gonna start calling this phenomenon soul books. These are books I’m terrified to finish— a life I’m scared to let go of. I want to collect each and every one of these characters and crush them in big bear hugs. I want to cry with them about the lifetime of shit we’ve gone through together over 400 pages. It feels like I’ve known them longer than the 5 days it took for me to inhale this. The highs the lows the heartbreak the excitement and joy were just communicated so well to me and my soul. I love the way Casey McQuiston handles dialogue. I enjoy the characters’ relatable and humorous banter. I love the imagery. I adore sense nostalgia that they tuck around the edges. I am excited by the high energy moments and thoughtful in the moments of quiet simplicity. It may not be everyone cup of tea, but it feels like it was made just right for me.

If Casey McQuiston has one fan, I am that one.

Content Warnings

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

A very raw and emotional window into Jennette McCurdy’s life. As a lover of iCarly and lots of different movies and TV shows it’s easy to catch yourself wondering how much like their character these actors and actresses really are. Coming to find out that some not only are not at all similar to the characters they portray but also didn’t even like them is always a bit alarming. It was really brave of her to be so open about her life of acting and her toxic, codependent relationship with her mother. I wish Jennette all the best things in her life moving forward.

Content Warnings

Space for Love by Emily Antoinette

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

It was fine. It had a lot of potential but honestly fell flat in a lot of ways for me. There was a lot of missed potential. This might be a nice intro book for someone who hasn’t read much smut but for someone who reads quite a bit, this felt very ordinary and vanilla, even in the supposed BSDM scenes.

The writing was uninteresting which is to say it lacked a lot of imagery and interesting prose.

The aliens weren’t believable to me either. They knew too much about human culture and emotions but would trip up on a random word— it felt silly. There was missed opportunity with body difference. As the love interest has glowing stripes on his skin, we could have had steamy scenes in the dark purely illuminated by his skin. He also has talons and that wasn’t at all taken into account when pleasuring the MC. Unless they’re retractable (which isn’t mentioned), I imagine that would hurt/need soothing. The sex scenes in general were too fast paced with no tension at all.

Not much is talked about about attraction differences other than there might be some. I would not have expected an alien to be attracted to breasts and butts like human men do, though I do enjoy that he was attracted to her roundness, dissimilar to todays human Eurocentric beauty standards of being skinny. The word jiggle was used too often for my taste though.

There were too many page breaks for my taste. A lot of telling rather than showing. Too often they would mention how easy it was for them to talk to each other but you never actually get to see their real banter. I didn’t feel the connection they supposedly had.

Even with all of this, I commend Emily Antionette for publishing her first book. It’s no easy feat and I’m sure that as she continues to write her work will indeed improve.

Content Warnings

Curves for Days by Laura Moher

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Having won the lottery from a ticket she was gifted by a dying friend, everything in Rose Barnes life is turned upside down and sends her running away. She finds herself in a small town full of wonderful people and decides to stay, keeping her money a secret while she builds the humble life of her dreams. She quickly falls in love with her grumpy contractor who shows her curvy girls deserve love too. However, she keeps her money and the charity work uses it for a secret, hoping that her new home, friends, community, and love won’t change their opinion of her with the knowledge of it.

I gotta be honest, I love everything about this book except for the love interest, Angus, and his toxic masculinity. He really broke it for me. I was really hoping he’d have a big realization about how many of his beliefs are just plain wrong or hurtful and really change for the better. Had he done that, this book would have gotten five stars. Everything else about the book is so charming and sweet, I love all of the friends Rose makes in the small town of Galloway and the people that she helps with her money. All of this is soured by Angus’ and his failure to convincingly realize his toxic beliefs and show a legitimate change of heart.

I once watched a video of a couples therapist that mentioned the occupations of the men most likely to get divorced. She listed heroic jobs like firefighter, policemen, and doctors. Soldiers were also included. As Angus is a veteran and a counselor, I think it would have been nice if we could have seen the hero complex that is so interwoven into his character completely dismantled. It would have been great to see him to understand that he can’t help, fix or save everything on his own. Sometimes, he too, needs caring for. Instead, we find a man that is constantly trying to balance everything even when people are being kind to him out of love. All of his relationships are transactional and money focused. If he can’t balance interactions or pay back kindness immediately then he becomes rude. Rose buys him a meal, he tips the restaurant all the money back. She makes him coffee, he gets extremely pissy and refuses the offering— not drinking a single drop. Alternatively, he doesn’t mind showering others in his love even if they can’t pay him back. He’s perfectly happy paying for meals and groceries helping people with car trouble. At some point it starts to feel very sexist like Angus believes he has to be the breadwinner and take care of his woman and their joint needs. Obviously, when he comes to find out about Rose’s money, he doesn’t know what to do or how to process it. He feels absolutely worthless if he can’t bring his income to the table.

His plan was to save her from what he thought was money struggles. He was prepared to pay off all her debts but instead when he finds she has lots of money, he’s distraught.

Of course, Rose then ends up feeling bad about hurting him and apologizes for keeping her wealth under wraps— for good reason, might I add!! She does get annoyed that he thought their entire relationship was transactions, and I cheer as she argues how horrible that is. Ultimately the book ends soon when Angus realizes he’s too horny and feels bad about making her cry. He apologizes that he got upset and hurt her and the story ends.

‘Twas a completely unsatisfying amount of character development.

Sure, he can’t picture life without Rose but and she adores him but attraction does not a relationship make. I really wished they could have worked through their issues and had a legitimate breakthrough.

Content Warnings

Slow Heat by Leta Blake

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emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Alright alright. I know this is depraved. But lissssstennnn. It’s surprisingly well written. I didn’t know an omegaverse story could be so complex.

Content Warnings

The Kingmaker by Kennedy Ryan

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emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I wish there was more tension 🤣 some of these romance felt too easy and perfect to be all that fun to read about. That being said, I really loved the characters. The description of Lennix is gorgeous and she’s a complete BA 💪🏽

Content Warnings

Making Hers Theirs by Lily Manning

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Making Her Theirs is a why choose romance set in Edinburgh, Scotland where on a 10 day stay, Georgia Henry meets three brawny brothers who run the bar below her rented flat. Before returning to the states to her new home, she falls in love simultaneously with the lighthearted Finn, possessive Knox, and the broken and soft-hearted Lachlan.

I gotta say, I wasn’t into this story. I really ought to DNF books more often. To be completely honest, it wasn’t much of a story at all. I know that is erotica and is serving a sexual purpose but I feel as though this genre works even better if used in conjunction with a legitimate story with tension and dynamic characters.

Honestly, I get the sense that this author’s taste in writing sex would be more suited to the Omega-verse. While steamy, the sex in this book was very hard to take seriously. None of these men have even a few minutes of a refractory period but instead can have sex basically endlessly. Additionally, smelling pheromones and human scents are referenced so often in this book that it has me wondering what kind of werewolf hybrids these characters have to be. Multiple times it was said that one of the brothers would cut down or kill any man that dare hurt Georgia. Like, sir, you are a civilian. Act like it. The cherry on top was when we find out that Georgia’s friend (who we don’t meet page 100) has mauve eyes. Like her eyes are purple. 🤣 maybe the author can pivot and make bank in the omega-verse market.

More specifically what I didn’t like:

The emotional whiplash from Georgia. Especially in the beginning of the story when she was meeting the brothers and exchanging life stories, Georgia would go from laughing to tearing up to laughing in a matter of sentences. It made her character more frustrating than likable or relatable.

The unbelievable characters and setting. Georgia is described to have moved all across the states because of her fathers career, never settling in one place. Yet somehow she has a thick Southern accent like she’s lived in the south her whole life. In terms of the boys, sure, they’ll use a Gaelic term or Scottish slang here and there but past that, their personalities and thought processes feel almost identical to each other and even to Georgia. Not a lot of effort was put into creating distinct and separate feelings for each chapter.

The sex. While very steamy sometimes, a lot of the times the sex had me cringing about how unhygienic and unrealistic it is. You can’t be giving it from the back raw and then switch to the front and then switch to her mouth without cleaning up! That’s a recipe for all sorts of problems! Also, the brothers seemed as though they needed to all have sex with Georgia at the same exact moment which gave a level of incest to the story that I was not prepared to experience. Like, yeah, maybe you’ve all agreed to share her and love her but that doesn’t mean you need to all participate at the same time even if it is exciting for her. The positioning was also often unclear or anatomically impossible.

There’s much more to say like phrasing or reactions that were very odd but I think it’s clear that I just don’t have a high opinion about anything in this book. It’s a 1/5 stars for me that one star is only for Lachlans snuggling and hair combing aftercare.

I wouldn’t recommend.

Content Warnings

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Brandon Sanderson cannot go wrong. I can see how he gained his fame from this book what a wild ride with such an interesting magic system. I was not at all expecting the ending.

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imskylow's reviews 262 reviews

imskylow's reviews
262 reviews