Jayne Hawke

Everything in this book was bad except the worldbuilding.
Even the narration of the audiobook was bad.

Previous intentions and promises are worth nothing and nobody cares about even deep betrayal as longs as it aids the plot. Internal consistency of characters (and everything else really) is a foreign phrase to the author.
Absurd and constant lusting after all the males is absurd and constant.

Everything is comically exaggerated to the point of being a caricature. I've used this expression before but I never expected to encounter a book for which it fits so literally. I really can't tell if the author is just making fun of common clichées or if she wrote this in all seriousness. It seems to me this is supposed to be serious.
Oh, and did I mention the protagonist sibling pair is stupid as shit?
If I were in a better mood I might be able to laugh about it but I am not so I am just annoyed.

At least the quality of the book becomes obvious fairly early on.

As bad as the characters might have been, the world and the magic were interesting. It's not the most original setting but one I see far too little of. I very much enjoy contemporary settings where magic is abundant and magical races are commonplace. I hate most of the setups in which the magic is supposed to be secret and all that crap. I have yet to read a single good reason for it that isn't being contradicted within the same book.

tl;dr shallow and inconsistent characters. I don't recommend.… (más)

Frustrating

Hints of a fascinating world buried by clumsy romance. Sloppy world building, random magic, and secrets that are anything but.

It’s frustrating because I can see glimpses of good writing and rich imagination but keep getting tripped up by irrelevancies that litter the yard. Plus, the MC does *not* stay in character. Her lack of agency even while ‘tries’ to hide her magic...between swooning over her employer/owner and talking about food it gets a bit over wrought.

I’m going to try to finish, hoping the ending does a better job of defining the world. So far it’s a rat’s nest of Ooo Shiny.… (más)

Frustrating

Hints of a fascinating world buried by clumsy romance. Sloppy world building, random magic, and secrets that are anything but.

It’s frustrating because I can see glimpses of good writing and rich imagination but keep getting tripped up by irrelevancies that litter the yard. Plus, the MC does *not* stay in character. Her lack of agency even while ‘tries’ to hide her magic...between swooning over her employer/owner and talking about food it gets a bit over wrought.

I’m going to try to finish, hoping the ending does a better job of defining the world. So far it’s a rat’s nest of Ooo Shiny.… (más)