rowan_reviews's reviews
702 reviews

 This is not your average fantasy monster smut. I received an ARC from the author for a review.

Dahlia Grayskull has been grieving her mother for 5 years, taking solace in a haunted manor in the midst of the forbidden forest, reading stories to the gravestones, tending the overgrown garden and swimming in an enchanted cave. On her way home one day, a suitor approaches her in the forest with a proposal - which doesn't go well. She laughs in his face, he tries to murder her. In her desperate flight to survive, she heads to the only refuge she has: the manor. Which.... It turns out is owned by a lich who has watched her and fallen for her through his windows these past 5 years.

And thus, Dahlia and Sebastian meet and things get even more interesting.

This is a CHONK of a book at almost 550 pages. Some authors/publishers would have split it into two, so imagine my surprise halfway through at what would have been a natural break for that to notice that I still had half the book left! Best. Moment.

There's plenty of plot in here with the romance ramping up between Dahlia and Sebastian, who is extremely shy about his body so things take a while to build (but paces well, IMO). Turns out Dahlia's family is cursed - surprise! - and her stepfather desperately wants her inheritance, locked away in a vault at the bank with strict orders to only open upon her marriage (and to be burned in its entirety if she were to die).

It does have a slow lull around 75% or so in & then picks back up in the last 10% or so.

The author went above & beyond with TWs, which is greatly appreciated!

The juxtaposition of a haunted, low-tech manor with a high-tech, essentially modern city was very jarring at first, I think because the city wasn't set up first. This could probably benefit from a short prologue in the city to set that up - maybe a scene with Dahlia and her mom? This also would help set up a bit more context for Dahlia's grief. Given how long the book already is I understand the choice not to set that up beforehand, but it did affect my enjoyment in the beginning.

Some of the world building is also strange - references to golden retrievers and doberman dog breeds; W-2 forms; rock, paper, scissors; prickly pear cactus and raccoons. It doesn't feel very elf/magic/lich/fantasy world at times. Oh and she gets compared to putty... Like a LOT. That did get old.

There's a bit of formatting weirdness with italics that sometimes seem like thoughts and sometimes not.

Overall very enjoyable, could use a bit more editing IMO but a very solid fantasy monster romance. 

Your escapist fantasies might actually be a nightmare.

The violence is as graphic as the sex.

 

 Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Grace of Wild Things is about a young orphan girl, Grace, who is searching for a witch to teach her how to use her magic - and for a home.

This is a fantasy AU of Anne of Green Gables. I expected it to have more differences between it and the source material - but in many ways, they are nearly identical in characterization and plot points, with magic added. This could have been Anne telling her story and just changing names/adding magic.

I think there was an opportunity here for the author to explore more the background of the witch and Grace and give more depth to why the witch was so irritated by Grace (what if it was that the witch herself used to be young and full of wonder and big words but the world's cruelty slowly stripped it away?) - to give her own spin on the characters and relationships and not just the world. I think a different POV or exploration of the relationship between characters would have made this stand out (I wanted more about Poppy ok)

I can see this being popular with young teens (especially if the like the Netflix show) and it was well written and enjoyable - but there was in the end not much unique about it. I enjoyed the little puzzles of magical ingredients that Grace had to figure out how to solve (like the piece of the moon or day with 25 hours) the most. The ending was a decent wrap up of loose ends, but definitely set up for a sequel.

All in all, it was good but too similar to the source material for it to feel like something I want to read again or to pick up any sequel that might come out. 

Matrona is an ordinary woman - her parents have arranged a marriage with Feodor, whom she doesn't love but will marry out of duty. She happens upon a fine paintbrush on the ground one day, and in attempting to return it to the tradesman Slava (the only one in town wealthy enough to own such a thing), she enters his house and discovers a table of nesting dolls. One for every single villager. Slava discovers Matrona has found out his secret and she's pulled unwillingly into a plot of lies and magic.

I would say I liked this, but didn't love it. I probably won't read it again, the plot overall didn't do a whole lot for me & I didn't feel particularly invested in it. Holmberg's writing is, as usual, excellent. Her world building & concept just didn't scratch the mental itch that her books usually do.

My actual rating would be 3.5 stars.

I enjoyed this, but I didn't LOVE it. There are some cultural aspects of the society that aren't challenged & made me feel... uncomfortable. Despite the culture being largely matriarchal, if a woman dies in childbirth her child is considered "weak" and "berncast", so they can never really advance in the society. Children born with birth defects have assigned careers based on what the birth defect is. Having any kind of "deformity" is seen as a negative thing, including from accidents during someone's life (i.e., burn scars). There are some hints that the MC might challenge the acceptance of this aspect of his society maybe in future novels, but tbh I'm not sure that I'm quite willing to stick it out in hopes of that.

The MC also has very little confidence & basically does what he's told & strives for approval from his captain. I'm not saying that wanting the approval of someone is a bad thing, just that it feels he lacks agency for a large portion of the book. That may be purposeful because of the background, and is somewhat understandable, but it gets tedious. It does build some tension towards the end as I kept hoping that he would go against orders. 

The parts I enjoyed most were the magic surrounding the guillaime and arkesian - which weren't a large enough part of the novel to keep me hooked.

I haven't decided whether or not I'll read book 2 at this point. I have a long TBR and given that it took me a lot longer than it usually would to read a book of this length, I don't think I will.