Nikki

Alright, so... I wanted to like this book, I really did. However, pretty much as soon as I picked it up I wanted to put it down. Seriously, I constantly found other things to do as soon as I started a page.
If it wasn't for the audiobook I may never have gotten past the first couple chapters.

I found Katsa to be super annoying, childish, and unlikable. Po was better but, how did this guy who came off as at least a bit more mature fall in love with this childish teenager? Po seems like a bit of a martyr, he's a prince that's not like other princes, he likes that he has the smallest castle and is last in line, he has to hide his grace, he even takes his blindness with the acceptance of a saint. The only reason I'll give this two stars is because I give one stars to the books I actually loath and I didn't loath this, I was just really, really, really bored. I wanted it to end about 10 chapters before it did and had to drag myself through it. Their romance seemed shoehorned in to me, like the author was told that it needed to have a romance because it was YA. I didn't care about them or their love. honestly would've been better if it was just Katsa going to find and save Bitterblue. Or if it was told partially in Po's POV as well.

Like the last book I read, if it hadn't been on a list of books I'm trying to read through I probably would've DNF'd it.

It's melodramatic teen drama, if you like that then you'd like this. I didn't.

I probably wouldn't have read this if it wasn't on the list of a hundred YA books (that are suppose to be great) that I'm trying to read through, so take from that what you will.

I honestly think if I'd of read it when I was 13/14 I would've liked it but now... I'm just not in the demographic for this book and I think this book didn't age all that well, it feels very early 2000's to me; even though it's from 2010 it feels like 2005...

Two stars for the bits that did actually entertain me, otherwise would've been one.

I don't know why people recommend this as a angsty romance, it's not, it's a revenge story.
a psychological horror revenge story and if you go into it knowing that then it's pretty good. (although I wish this would've been told in a chronological third person narrative)

Just because the main characters are/were in love, and the revenge is mainly plotted around Heathcliff's anger at his lost of Catherine, his motives are also driven by his anger at being treated shitty by almost everyone since he was brought to the Wuthering Heights as a child, although that doesn't excuse his horrid behavior towards everyone (including animals) as an adult. Heathcliff has mental health issues, and to say that his 'love' is unhealthy is an understatement. Dude straight up dug up Catherine's grave cause he wanted to see her, spent his whole life trying to get Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange just becase he wanted to demolish them, wanted to be haunted by Catherine and then thought he was, and not to mention that he starved himself to death because he wanted to see her again. my guy needs some therapy Also, I can't say that I liked any of the characters, I honestly didn't care what happened to any of them, they were all dicks, it wasn't just that they were 'villains' or 'anti-heroes' the were just assholes. They were the type of unlikeable that I think Jane Austen thought the character Emma would be, but upped by a hundred percent. For me, they didn't have redeeming qualities. (Nelly was okay, but let's be real she was just a narrative device)

If you want a ‘classic' romance then pick up Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, or Northanger Abbey (any Jane Austen for the matter). Honestly, I'd put this in the same category as Frankenstein, it gives off similar feelings/tones. This is more for if you want a story about miserable people being miserable.

It's beautiful and terrible, and will tear your heart out and tell you it's okay.

Truly it is a hard read, but worth the praise it receives.

I'll give it two stars even though I'm dnf-ing it, ‘cause it might just be a me thing.
I read through the first two, one right after the other because I enjoyed them so much, the second was a bit slower but, I did at least enjoy it. I don't know why but I just can't bring myself to finish this one. It's not holding my attention and I no longer care what happens.

It was okay, could've ended a few chapters earlier or at least had them condensed a bit.

Would've been a four star read but, the last 30-40 pages were dragging, felt a bit like they were just there to reach a page count number/or for another conflict after there was already so many conflicts. Other than that, it was an enjoyable read. Anyone who already likes BDSM, troubled people kind of genre would like this book.


(sort of a) Minor Spoiler Ahead:



Also, (although it does seem to just be used for the friction) I would assume that someone with trauma of their own would be more understanding of someone else's, that they wouldn't just demand answers then walk out on them when they don't say the right thing. Maybe I'm wrong, but it felt odd.

This was a 4 star read but it's been a few months and I honestly don't remember anything from this book, so I'm bumping it down to a 3 star. It was an enjoyable read but also an unmemorable one.

Cute story; it would've been a four star read but I do feel as if 50 or so pages could've been cut and made the story more concise. It was a really enjoyable read nonetheless.

Where do I even begin? This review is for the first book ‘Gentle Warrior'. A misnomer if I've ever heard one, the dude is as gentle as a thorn in the bottom of your foot.

So let's start here: Geoffrey is an ass, and grandpa is an expositional tool to tell the main characters how the other feels because they both have the emotional understanding of a gnat.
Little brother Thomas has memory lost for the first half, then PTSD for one literal paragraph when he remembers that he saw his family murdered, and is suddenly fine for the rest of the book. The main battle (the one against the brother-in-law who arranged to have her family killed, yeah, that guy) was completely skipped. Yup, just skip right over what could've been an interesting battle, nothing to see here.

There was no danger, no moment for Baron Geoffrey asshat Berkley to realize he's made a mistake in being such an unbearable twit.
Instead he sits by a lake, realizes he loves Elizabeth, but then still decides to let her wallow in sadness, thinking that her husband will never love her, to make sure she “learns a lesson” after saving his friend Roger (from not just enemy soldiers but drowning too).

On top of it all the other bad guy, uncle mustache twirler, doesn't really have any comeuppance. Sure, he doesn't get control of the castle and guardianship of Thomas, whoop-de-doo, not enough of a punishment to be satisfying in this book.

The moral of the story seems to be: obey your husband, and maybe he won't lock you in a room with no food or water... Again.

I didn't really know anything about the plot when I started the book, and I'm glad I didn't.
I didn't even know it was a horror novel; all I knew was there was a portrait, and I had a vague sense there was a macabre feel to the story.

I highly enjoyed the book whilst despising the characters (in the best possible way), would recommend to anyone who likes stories about uppity victorian era English aristocrats, and those who don't mind disliking the main characters.

I didn't really know anything about the plot when I started the book, and I'm glad I didn't.
I didn't even know it was a horror novel; all I knew was there was a portrait, and I had a vague sense there was a macabre feel to the story.

I highly enjoyed the book whilst despising the characters (in the best possible way), would recommend to anyone who likes stories about uppity victorian era English aristocrats, and those who don't mind disliking the main characters.

Cartoon-ish antagonists, a ‘not like other girls' heroine, and a male protagonist that has relationship issues because of his parents.

okay, so...

This was very formulaic, and tropey. It wasn't horrible but, I could see everything coming from a mile away.

I really didn't need the bad guy pov, not that there were many pages of it but still; I didn't need to know what ‘they' were planning nor did it really do anything except offer unnecessary exposition.

The love story between Ian and Sarah was fine, if a bit too convenient. What with her being a sensor and Ian being a fairy she couldn't sense. Ian came off as just a little too perfect, I get that it's a romance but, like give the dude a some faults why don't cha? And I don't count minor jealousy and him ‘having to leave her to save her' for plots sake as character faults.

Also, I don't really understand the point of Sarah being so concerned by, not only her age, but by their age gap (her thinking him to be younger, even though he's a 600 year old fairy), when it literally stopped being an issue for no real reason halfway through the book.
For real, if I have to sit through her agonising over thinking she's ten years older than him than, at least give me a line of him telling her that if anyone is too old for anyone it's him.

Sarah's ex-husband is one mustache twirly son-of-a-bitch, I don't get why he's so contemptuous of her. ‘Cause she left him (nearly 20 years ago, mind you)? Because that sounded like it was mutual; if all he wanted from her was money than why didn't he try harder to stay married? They weren't even married for a year and there wasn't even any mention of him pretending to try to make it work. Also how did Sarah not know he was a dirtbag since she's got all that magic person-sensing power? Like, why would you marry someone that terrible?

Anyway, I could go on but, honestly, I'd just be getting into nit-picks ‘cause if none of the above bothers you than nothing further said would either.

This wasn't the worst, which is why I'm giving it two stars instead of one but, it needed so much more character development for me to believe any of the relationships, and for me to think it was a good book.
Aeva needed more time and story with Wulfram, Aelric, and Idin for me to believe that they'd care about her, especially for Idin to be in love with her.

Bayan should've had more to his character than just being the mustache twirling bad guy who wants the main character only because she provides ‘legitimacy' to his claim to the throne; which by the way, did the heroine really need to be a princess?

It also felt like Aeva was just being pushed around throughout the story, and not in a “this is based in the ‘before the year 1000' days and women don't have rights” kinda way but, in a ‘the character doesn't make any decisions for herself' kinda way: yeah she chose to follow them but, it was Wulfram's' choice to let her stay, she wanted to go with the group but Bayan made them leave without her, she tried to leave Bayan but Wulfram brought her back. None of her choices mattered unless one of the other characters also wanted the same thing.

This is a really interesting take on the narrative perspective for a time travel book.

I honestly thought it was going to either bounce between the two of them (like time travel books I've read tend to do) or be entirely from the perspective of the time traveler.
I'm glad this wasn't, it made for a really unique story experience to forgo the mandatory pages of ‘how'd I get here? how do I get back? do I even want to go back?' blather that can be so predictably boring. This was able to hit the same notes but not feel at all the same, and I appreciate that.
Whilst it did leave a few questions unanswered (and ask some questions I don't think there's an answer for) I don't really mind; good characters that feel real and don't turn into caricatures makes up for everything else.

Would recommend this to anyone who likes time travel romance, doesn't mind a more animalistic/primitive mindset to see the world from (a quite literal caveman) and is cool with basically no dialog between characters.

The book itself is about an important and difficult topic, and is worth the read if for no reason other then to further spread awareness of what happened to these women and girls, and to the people of Korea during the war.

However, narratively, I didn't love the switching two person (past and present) storylines every other chapter, especially when intermingled with the occasional throwback memory in the middle of a characters on-going story, which happens with Hana in particular quite a bit. It felt out of place and always took me out of the story when it happened.

All in all, I'm glad I read it but I don't see myself ever re-reading it.

well... I liked it, I thought it was an entertaining read... until the end of chapter 14.

Now, you may wonder ‘what happened so drastically on chapter 14 that changed your opinion?'
and the answer is that it's nothing that happened in that chapter in particular, it's that I lost patience with the protagonist (Beth) on chapter 14.
The continued assumptions from her that the love interest (scotty) hates her because he didn't act like he liked her for 100 years (even though she admits that she was an angry and bitter person until like 10 years ago) and that's why he hasn't ‘claimed' her as his lifemate; without ever having inquired to him as to why he hasn't ‘claimed' her, is highly annoying.
Plus when her life is in danger (after multiple attempts on it) she stubbornly and to her own detriment refuses to listen to scotty when he says she should stay at the house of the immortal enforcer agency they both work with/for, and have bodyguards, until they (other enforcers, and presumably scotty) can neutralize the threat.
He's the head of the uk's enforcer division that covers multiple countries, with literally hundreds of years of experience with tracking, hunting, and killing ‘rogue' vampires, and she still wouldn't listen to sound advice that maybe she shouldn't be putting herself in unnecessary danger. Especially when she herself is an enforcer and, I would hope, have some enough sense to understand that he has a point, but no... she'll takes any opportunity to go out and promptly get almost killed... and then pout that, even though they both are attracted to one another, that even though they've had sex, that even though he's never said that he didn't want to claim her, he doesn't want her.

I usually don't mind formulaic plots and tropes but the childish ‘I don't have to do what you say' that's mildly disguised as her being a feminist combined with the ‘why haven't you pursued me (or in this case ‘claimed me') really makes me roll my eyes.

however, I did see this book out to the end.
The ‘tell each other our backstories, to understand each other better' and the reveal of Beth's attempted assassin that followed was fine (cliché, but fine), although it was tainted by my frustrations for the above reasons.
All in all if you like tropes, over done clichés, and don't mind a 125+ year old being unable to just have a direct conversation to her 800+ year old potential love interest, than this book will probably be an enjoyable read for you.

the MMC was so incredibly unlikeable

I gave it a shot because I'd heard so much praise for it, but it felt like a poorly done early 2000s rom com

Insta-love / insta-wanting to bang. They were literally pushed off a waterfall and his first thought is about her body, like what? they're handcuffed together but it honestly doesn't seem that way most of the time, only when its convenient to the plot to make them sleep next to each other, naked btw (like how? their hands are cuffed). I don't know if I'm being too harsh but this didn't work for me at all and I wasn't in the mood to be forgiving.  

just at a 4 star read for me. Was so much better than other books I've been reading so I feel like I might be overestimating just how much I liked it. At least this had a plot and character development so 3 stars just for that honestly.

wasn't bad by any means but I feel like I wasn't the demographic for it.

Too much impregnation fetish, they were ‘back' together by chapter 16, and lost interest in the plot 

  It wasn't for me, I don't think it was bad per se, more like I was expecting it to be amazing from all the reviews I saw and I just didn't get in to it. Maybe I should've started from the first book but I didn't enjoy the writing style and some themes in it, so I don't necessarily think that would've helped.

If you enjoy the tropes of MC contemporary romances: close found family, over protectiveness, some dom kink, that kind of feel, then you'd probably enjoy this.