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Novice writing but decent plot

Reviewed: 07-27-24

The author has room for improvement in her writing style. The sentences were not complex, and appeared to tell us what was happening instead of show us by building a picture. The reader didn't help, pausing after each comma or period, making each sentence feel like it was segregated from the others. The characters could have been built up more, and an occasional comic relief would have been nice. The relationship between the FMC and MMC got on my nerves. She kept describing how she felt for him, and it was not constructive to the story. All added up, the story felt a little flat. On the plus side, the plot was interesting enough for me to keep listening to find out what happened next, though I only listened when I was working and half paying attention otherwise the story was too irritating. The overall story was good, but the nuances of writing and building of characters and relationships could be improved. The relationships just seemed flat, and the main character's struggles were overused.

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Great narrator, good plot, too much PDA

Reviewed: 09-13-22

I thoroughly enjoyed the story line of this book, the characters were great, but about half of it was sappy, starry-eyed romance or sex scenes. If you like that sort of thing, then this was a great book, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea.

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Great plot but a sickening amount of romance

Reviewed: 07-31-22

I always enjoy Ilona Andrews books, but this one had a little too much “female fawning over hot male character” for me. Too many scenes where all she could think about was his body or kissing him. It was an excellent plot, just four times as many lovey-dovey thoughts as I’m used to from the Ilona Andrews duo which took me out of the story.

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Good book

Reviewed: 09-09-21

One or two unbelievable parts, one or two awkward transitions, and a whole lot of awesome. Definitely worth the credit. Can’t wait to read the next one!

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1 person found this helpful

Great book, minor flaws, like a diamond with an imperfection

Reviewed: 09-05-21

There were a few awkward moments where the main character did something stupid or unbelievable, but they served to get the story where it needed to get to. It was like the author had part A and part C down, but was struggling with the transition, so the solution was to have he main character do something irrational to get the story where it needed to be. This only happened a couple of times, and was only mildly irritating. Otherwise, the book was fun, fabulous, and definitely worth it. I like how the world Annette Marie has created is developing, and can’t wait for the next book! Oh, and the narrator is amazing!!!

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1 person found this helpful

Great book. Cliff hanger!

Reviewed: 08-20-21

Fascinating world, likable characters, great narrator, interesting plot…but ends in a cliff hanger. It makes me want to get the next in the series to see what happens next! Now, the cliff hanger isn’t too extreme, but it sets up the next book to finish the plot. It is more of a “what happens next?” moment or a “how does the plot end?” type of cliff hanger than a “is he alive or dead?” one. We know where all the characters are at. It’s like the book’s plot was over but the overarching plot has yet to reach its climax. I highly recommend this book, but only if you get the next one! (I have yet to do so.)

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Could have been great

Reviewed: 07-28-21

A fascinating world was created where there pixies, vampires, werewolves, wizards, mages, demons, and everything else. The plot started to feel like a repeat. Most stories ended up the same, and unbelievable power boosts fixed most perilous situations. The worst part was that it was overly sexual. It was just too unbelievable. Every character was sex driven and taking about it all the time. If off handed comments about desire, long discussions about desire, and all other description, profanity, and the like dealing with lust and desire were taken out of the book, then it would be half the length. I’m no prude, but the constant talk about sex was excessive and took away from the story.

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1 person found this helpful

Book or encyclopedia of curse words?

Reviewed: 05-07-21

It’s hard to follow the story through all the profanity. I don’t have a problem with cussing, but this was overkill. Every character and even the narrator. So excessive it distracted from the story.

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Fun book

Reviewed: 02-12-21

This book is great for kids. It does not have a strong language or raunchy parts. The story was entertaining and made me want to read the next book, even though this book seemed to take a while to get started. It wasn’t boring, but not much happened in the first half. By the end of the book, I felt like the groundwork had been laid for the next books. I have yet to read them, but this book felt introductory. Don’t get me wrong, there was a plot and a conclusion that was fun to listen to, but by the end we feel like we are beginning to understand the complex world that is being created, and with that groundwork, the next books should be quite entertaining.

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First book was better

Reviewed: 01-05-21

Khristine Hvam does a good job narrating, my issue was with some of the story line. First, the main character was constantly mooning over men, which got old fast and led to her making bad decisions. And second, towards the end of the book when more stuff happened. There were obvious ways out of the problem, but the characters kept being idiots and getting themselves into more trouble, then it took them forever to finally figure out the obvious. It was a whole lot of build up for something that should have been simple. Not to mention the most obvious, easiest solutions were never used!!! Then there were also a couple loose ends. It wasn’t a cliff hanger, but like the author forgot to mention what happened to a couple...things. You’ll see if you read it, but the end made me feel aggravated.

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