gutea

have v mixed feelings about this. there was too much unnecessary politics & business bullshit that i skimmed over. i loved matt. i HATED the father & the daughter constantly pushing his shit personality under the rug. the father just sucked too much for me to enjoy the book. the whole step-grandma bullshit also just felt kinda misogynistic? like ofc she's the villain, and not the father who probably stressed out his daughter enough into having a miscarriage.

something about the writing style just puts me off so fucking much. it's very middle school, i don't know how else to describe it. constantly sounds quirky & it just comes as trying too hard to be witty, which it really isn't. got annoyed within the first 15 mins of reading it.

loved the premise & beginning so much. it was genuinely so promising, and i was like dayum, this is gonna be my favourite book of the series! merikh was a 10/10 character, and his viciousness to get what he wanted was just chefs kiss.

my fav part of the book was when rae found out he wasn't what he seemed, and he did that whole malicious chuckle thing. wow. i was like at the edge of my seat, because how tf would these two fall in love.

even the whole build up to go to the temple was nice, and it made me understand and appreciate the characters a lot.

after the whole village/temple visit thing, the book kinda fell flat for me. rae, supposedly being super genius mad scientist, just didn't seem to have a lot of power, but i was like oh maybe she's just not familiar w earth. but when they went back to the elvish realm, she was still treated like a child?? like no one listened to her, or told her anything of importance. and i genuinely just felt bad for merikh, because she had built up the realm so much in his head, but the people there were kinda stinky too yk.

i was disappointed w the end so so much. i waNTED desperately for their to be a confrontation w jazbez and rae, and i really wanted merikh & jazbez's friendship & bond to be explored. i lOved the whole elder sibling trauma stuff too! there was just so mUCH potential. wouldn't have minded this book being even longer. but nah, the ending felt rushed. rae, my girl, disappointed me with not defending merikh strongly enough, not even trying to help bring merikh's family to the elvish realm, or even trying to help the humans out. she just became this wishy washy, self righteous character who felt so much for the people, but really did fuckall to help anyone who was not her species. and merikh kind of just became this losery whipped dude. i mean i love those characters too, bUT merikh was just so much more interesting earlier. couldn't he have kept a lil bit of his personality

loved the heroine, 10/10. and surprisingly, really cute relationship with the hero's mom. vv adorable. the beginning especially was so solid. everything was believable & cute.

also liked the fact that the hero wasn't like the best at everything, or like the coolest dude in his entire lineage. refreshing.

reread this because i wanted to read the next book in this series & was reminded of how much i didn't like the mmc douchebaggery. i always feel like u're gonna be an ass, at least have other charming qualities that are redeeming. man had NONE. and it didn't help that i was siCK of the fmc's whole bantery bs. like girl, we get it you're supposed to be witty, stop w the cringe remarks every 5 seconds though. idk if it's because the book is old & that's why it feels super dated, or was the cringe too much even back then? the whole creepy ass enforcers lusting after her is perfectly a-okay, but we're supposed to believe our mmc is a possessive guy (even though he shares his mate w his pals). kinky but unrealistic given his personality.

read a review here before reading and i was apprehensive whether the i'd like the book. but i really did. it was angsty & i did cry. honestly, i understood both the MC & the ML, and i especially could relate w millie, she was such a sweet character. most men (in fiction & otherwise) are anyway pretty bland to me, and though i didn't like fitz, i did understand that he was in love w an idea of what his life could have been. i feel like friendship before love is the sweetest thing to explore in books, and i appreciated how the author showed that. i was NOT a fan of all the sleeping around the guy did, but it seems pretty typical for the that historical period. even the ‘other woman' was not demonised which is pretty rare imo.

ayo wtf was this now?

the author is great so the writing was obviously good bUT WHAT AN EW MALE CHARACTER

like the constant back & forth between wanting her & then acting like he doesn't or can't be with her was so so annoying, which made me so mad because i think i would've liked the book otherwise.

i liked jules, she was so cute and i wish we went a lil more deeper into her whole childhood and stuff, it was actually worth exploring. the guy, max, was hot. and that's about it. idk what was the rest of his personality, because that's all literally everyone was hung up on.

i just didn't seen any romantic development? it was all very oMg u're so hot.