laur gluchie
I have received a digital Advance Reader's Copy of this book through the publisher. This has not affected my rating or review in any way.
[Listened to the audiobook narrated by Jeanne Syquia.]
A cute, spooky, and comforting read. Reminiscent of Crave but with less angst and Harry Potter but with more ghosts. I believe that gothic/dark academia fans and cozy contemporary romance readers alike would enjoy this.
Read my full review here.
4.5 Stars
I'm. I'm just very emotionally drained and numbed right now. That feeling of “how do I even continue from this point?” It's kinda weird, I get this feeling a lot after I read a fanfiction I really adore but it doesn't really happen with print novels. Guess it goes to show just how much I loved this fucked up series.
I have received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book through a giveaway hosted by the publisher. This has not affected my rating or review in any way.
2.5 Stars
The Forest Grimm had potential, but unfortunately fell short for trying to be too much at once. I feel that it would've worked well as a middle grade fairytale retelling, but it forces itself into being a disappointing young-adult paranormal romance.
I wanted to read this because a) I need a break from magic school books, b) this is marketed as for fans of Agents of SHIELD (which I am currently re-watching right now <3), and c) because I really liked Claire Luana's Confectioner's Chronicles series. And this was a really fast, short, and good read! It felt like watching an episode or two of a 2010's Marvel show. Zariya and Konstantin give such SkyeWard vibes idc. Just hope he doesn't turn out like him... ha... haha... (I'm still upset about it, okay?)
3.5 Stars
Crave is... not great. It's an overly-drawn out young adult series opener, all of its major plot points were easily predictable, and it's a borderline spoof of Twilight— if the cover doesn't spoil you for that right off the bat.
BUT. It's enjoyable and entertaining and I think this could be one of my new guilty pleasure series, in the vein (no pun intended) of The Selection, Shatter Me, Ice Planet Barbarians, so on and so forth. The Percy Jackson-esque chapter titles were one of the highlights of this book, and I found myself unable to put this down at times. My ratings reflect my personal enjoyment over the actual quality of a book, and this one was entertaining as hell.
3.5 Stars
2024 Reflection Time: My feelings are so conflicted. It wasn't as awful as I first remembered but it wasn't great either. Dunno. Need time to think. Leaving my original review up for transparency and also because it's iconic as fuck.
2022 Review:
Buddy read with Kayla!
I normally don't rate books that I don't finish but this completely deserves it. This was extremely disappointing. But honestly, I went in expecting something like this.
This book was written by two popular sixteen year-old parents-are-Republican preppy-cheerleader-type girls and you can't convince me otherwise. I think that the authors's goal here was to get me to never say another bad thing about Michael Waldron or Chris Chibnall's writing ever again (and it nearly worked). It's cringy, it's poorly-written, and it's a shitty Harry Potter/Winx Club/Victorious fanfiction. With typos and grammatical errors galore, I completely understand why this was self-published. If I was a publisher and was offered this, I would laugh in their faces and kick their asses to the curb. This read like something I would find in the depths of thirteen year-old me's Wattpad library. It literally has me wondering how this series is so popular.
I have been told by many (including my bookish group chat friends who have been pestering me to read this for weeks) that this series gets better in later books. However, I would rather stab myself multiple times than force myself to read any more of this. Honestly I wanted to get a bit further in this book since it was my first buddy read but I just couldn't continue torturing myself. Sorry to my friends who like toxic aLpHa males but I'm done. I'm so fucking done. Cope.
And the true queen of Solaria is my girl Stella thank you very much.
TL;DR this one should've stayed in the Wattpad drafts besties.
Original Rating: 1 Star
Edit: I found this on YouTube and it's my new favorite video on the internet. <3
Now that I've had to process my thoughts... this book honestly wasn't very good? I feel like this book suffers from a lack of world-building, a lack of editing, and a pretty flimsy plot with a ton of infodumping or telling instead of showing. I also struggled to like Lowe and his relationship with Misery, as I felt as though they didn't have any chemistry until approximately the 60-70% mark. On the positive side, I really enjoyed Misery on her own and the dry and occasionally dark humor. But overall, this book is missing the charm that Hazelwood's other books have.
P.S. Is the name ‘Misery Lark' in reference to “dorothea” by Taylor Swift, in which she says, “making a lark of the misery”? Or is there another meaning? I know Ali is a Swiftie, so I thought this might be the case.
pre-reading: if this is not as good as y'all say, after i've just suffered through that awful first book, someone's getting a scooter to the ankle.
post-reading: not as awful as the first book but still could've been a lot shorter. felt overly drawn out for no reason. the queen pov chapters were unnecessary. at least auren finally came to her senses in like the last two chapters.
I don't even know what to say. Yes I do lmao.
When I first started Gild, I was horrified not only by the absurd amount of graphic on-page sexual violence and overwhelming misogyny from every single male character, but also by the main character's Stockholm syndrome, stupidity, and whininess. Auren, who I unfortunately have to share 83% of my first name with, is one of the worst main characters I've ever had to read about. Actually, none of the characters were enjoyable. None of the plot, if you could go as far as to say that this book even had a plot, was enjoyable. This read like a glorified, drawn-out prequel or prologue, with no substance except to set up the upcoming novels. I'm trying to think of a redeemable quality this book has... it was a fast read?
I DNF'ed this book twice while reading it, first at the 10% mark and again at the 50% mark. I picked it up again twice in the hopes that the hype was real and that it would get better by the end— spoiler: it doesn't. This is a boring, shitty, awful, poorly-written book. By the 60% mark, I had lost any hope for this book and I was basically just skimming and hate-reading. Though fortunately for me, things started picking up with the pirates and the Fourth Kingdom plot— though the misogyny and sexual violence was still uncomfortably rampant.
When I finished this, out of pure wonder and curiosity for what the fuck I just read, I went down a Goodreads-TikTok-Reddit rabbit hole only to see that a lot of other people agree with me and think that this book is absolute shit. And while it feels nice to be validated in my feelings, these people have also unanimously agreed that the second, third, and so-on books get better and better and that it's worth it to push through this pile of utter garbage. So, against my better judgment and because I just can't help but be morbidly intrigued, I will be reading the next book, and maybe the book after that. At minimum it will be a hate-read to fuel my stress into. I'm done.
TL;DR: It is SO bad I wanna give it a zero, but that's not possible so I give it a one.
Edit: raising my rating a little because hindsight is an interesting thing. still the worst one in the series tho.
This was so cute. It's a slow-burn, angsty WWII-inspired historical light fantasy novel. My only complaint is that the romance between Roman and Iris felt a little unrealistic and rushed, especially towards the end of the novel. The plot, though?? So good. On my way to Target to get the next one don't look at me.