happy_shopper

3 hours in: Nothing is happening

Revisado: 04-26-25

The story starts out poorly but gets better over time (until it takes a nasty, boring, bad turn at the end).

There's a lot of cringe. The main characters don't come across as real people. The FMC strikes me as a pouty, bratty Mary Sue. The emotional moments only land ~20% of the time. But somehow I still couldn't put this story down. I skipped a good chunk of the last chapter, though. I couldn't stand the stupid anymore.

It's infuriating when tense, time critical moments are infused with casual banter that wastes time. Real people wouldn't let themselves get distracted that way when they are fighting for their lives. Real people also wouldn't start warmup sequences *after* it is the perfect time for them to make their move. Real people would think about their endangered loved ones within seconds of encountering a horde of zombies - not as an afterthought once the battle is over.

The sequences of events don't always make sense in this book. Stuff happens because the author needs them to, not always because it would naturally happen that way.

I'm writing the rest of this review as I go along:

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90min in, the book is still setting up the FMC's backstory. We are introduced to countless locations and people (who may or may not matter). A lot of the exposition is redundant. We are told on two separate occasions that her shower is broken. Who cares?

The FMC's world feels disjointed to me. On the one hand, she was raised in a wealthy household with strong protectors who still look out for her. In the same breath, we are supposed to believe that the town (or city?) she lives in treats her like trash because she has no magic. It's their version of racism and segregation. You'd think the town would be well aware that they shouldn't mess with her. They'd bring the wrath of her adoptive family down on themselves. Except, somehow that's not how this world works - not consistently, anyway.

It is not explained why some people are overtly, viciously "racist" and others somehow aren't. Why did that one wealthy family take her in as a child? In theory, those people's status should make them some of the most racist people she knows (according to this world's rules, anyway).

The FMC lives in extreme poverty. But somehow she peddles in smuggling expensive (to her?) goods.

The FMC also seems to have an attitude problem at times. I don't think I like her. In general, I dislike protagonists who I am supposed to feel sorry for.

I'll keep listening for now. Hopefully it'll get better. But it's looking suspiciously like a DNF.

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3 hours in: The FMC is really starting to grate on my nerves. She's a pouty brat, but those qualities are being sold to us as traits the reader is supposed to admire. I don't like the MMC either. Their friendship is dysfunctional. Their so-called "banter" feels juvenile and boring.

An important thing happened a little while ago. To me it mostly came across as an academic exercise, not an "event".

It's disappointing that the author chose to begin the story *after* the FMC started undergoing "changes". As the reader, I feel cheated out of experiencing just how rattled the FMC was the first time these things happen to her. Instead, this boring FMC is trying to ignore and downplay what she is seeing. I am "treated" to an exposition dump of the weird things that have happened before now. It doesn't help that the prologue gave away the entire mystery. There is little for me to puzzle out or marvel at. Just the boredom of waiting for the protagonist to figure things out.

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9 hours in: The story is growing on me. I am starting to like the MMC. But overall the FMC and the MMC are acting like children, not like the adults they are.

I still dislike the FMC. She is stubborn and impulse-driven, with minimal brain cells. I would like to smack her for being a useless pain in everybody's behind. She makes everything more complicated than it needs to be.

At this point I assume I am going to finish this book. I might even listen to the sequel - despite some reviews that are warning me off.

The writing could be better. There is still a bunch of redundant, boring exposition. Sometimes, the same topic is covered by 2-3+ different sets of people back-to-back, with lots of repetition, little new information, and zero plot progress.

The author uses too many dialog tags - usually with adverbs. They rub me the wrong way.

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12 hours in: Zombies have appeared. One of my least favorite genres. :( I may not continue this series after all. Can we please get rid of the zombies and continue without them? Or at the very least stick to only 1 wave of zombies at a time? Drawn-out zombie fights are boring. :(

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15 hours in (just under 4.5 hours left): The FMC has just been given loads of compliments by a potential new love interest. It was super cringe because we are once again told how amazing the FMC supposedly is. But all the things we are shown of her and what we are told do not add up to a harmonious whole. The pieces don't all fit together. She doesn't come across as a real person. She is too much like a Mary Sue. She is everything and all the things at once. She is a jumbled contradiction. She is inconsistent.

I still don't like her, especially when her only reaction to her magical "changes" is "Oh no, no, no!" with zero curiosity and 99% denial. She's supposed to be smart. But she's super slow.

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4 hours left: Gah! It's infuriating that the FMC still hasn't shared her secret with the MMC. Why not take a 5 second detour to their room RIGHT NOW instead of waiting until the evening? That's what the MMC would suggest if he were a real person. She is ready to share the one piece of info he's been dying to get from her.

This is yet another reason why I can't believe that the main characters are real. A lot of stuff is contrived and doesn't make sense.

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~3 hours left: More reasons to dislike the FMC. An impulse-driven idiot who doesn't think ahead. Easily tricked. Easily manipulated. Unable to share time critical information. There's no way she's as intelligent as the author keeps telling us she supposedly is. She's dumb. I don't like her.

Also, the author's use of adverbs is beyond ridiculous now. They can't even be taken at face value. When she writes "he smiled convincingly", what she actually means is "the smile might fool some people, but not the FMC - he is creepy and dangerous and definitely not smiling convincingly at all". We are in the FMC's head! Use words that actually reflect what the FMC is thinking / feeling, please!

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2 hours left: I can't wait for this book to be over. We've now switched to another POV. I wouldn't mind this POV if it were doing something interesting. But it's a slow-moving infodump with little relevant new info. I don't care.

I'm debating if I should just end it here. The sequel sounds boring. Book #3 isn't out and may never be. But no, I likely will be unkind to myself and continue listening.

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104min left: The author appears to be doing her best to make the FMC look pathetic, slow, useless, and stupid. The FMC is wasting time thinking about all sorts of crap. Sitting in a tree. Doing very, very boring stuff. She is surrounded by zombies and ISN'T making every effort to be quiet. No, she is talking to a horse. And now she is witnessing old memories, as if she had all the time in the world and weren't close to mortal peril.

I am disliking the FMC more by the minute.

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95min left: FMC and the story are continuing to be slow and stupid. Why do I have to spend 10min waiting for her to make an inch of progress? And now she is reminiscing about some lazy dude who painted a wall a year ago? Who cares?!!!? Nobody! Please get on with the actual story.

The FMC is acting as if she were on a Sunday stroll. But she is in the middle of a zombie-infested landscape. She should be focused on sending a potentially life-saving distress signal. But no, it seems like her actual goal isn't important to her...

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80min left: Attempted rape. :( Not what I was here for. Also, we still haven't learned anything new. And the FMC is still super slow. Her brain is about as vacant as that of my cat. No useful thoughts whatsoever. She does what she wants to do, when she wants to do it. Super shallow and stupid.

Oh, and lots of stuff is happening by chance. Some convenient items exist that were never set up properly. This ending is going to be awful.

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60min left: I hate the FMC. She couldn't be more frustratingly obnoxious if she tried. She is incompetent, clueless, a pain in everybody's behind, unable to soothe the people she loves. I hate her.

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50min left: Bla bla bla bla bla. More crap I don't care about. How is there still so much time left? The story should have ended by now.

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30min left: More arbitrary boring crap is happening. The FMC is learning infodump stuff the reader already knows. Super, super boring. Oh, and we somehow still have time for chit chat while fighting for our life to get away from a bad guy. Trying to run to safety. Yes, keep giving that bad guy more chances to catch up. Stupid, stupid FMC.

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15min left: The FMC continues to be an emotional idiot. I skipped past a chunk of this chapter. It was an overly drawn out battle. Gah. I didn't give a crap.

Now a stupid epilogue has started.

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It's finally over. What torture at the end. I skipped most of the epilogue. I can't stand the new character who was introduced. So now I know for sure that I won't be listening to book #2.

The end.

My only regret?: I am sad that I will likely never see the MMC's happily ever after. He deserves much better than what he got. The FMC is horrible and a drag on his life. And now he not only doesn't have the woman he loves, he likely is tortured by the thought that she is suffering somewhere in the world, in a place where he can't help her.

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P.S. I have "written" myself an alternative "happy" ending:

1) The FMC is too stupid to see the benefit of following even the simplest of instructions. As a result, she never makes any progress on her lessons with the evil queen. The FMC is trapped in that castle for all eternity, suffering from the fear and panic she inflicts on herself via her crappy attitude and shortsightedness. No one except the evil queen will ever be subjected to the FMC's presence ever again. A massive win for the whole world.

2) The MMC will pine after the FMC for a while. But eventually he will move on with his life. He will be much better off without her. Big win for him, even if it takes him a while to see it that way.

3) The world doesn't need the FMC to beat the zombies. They'll make more progress now that the MMC isn't distracted by her. The only good thing she ever did in book #1 was to repair and fire that big gun. Other people can take on that role - including the MMC.

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DNF after 2.5 hours

Revisado: 04-24-25

There are a lot of interesting ideas - many of which I enjoy. But overall, the book is too much work to listen to. It is slow-moving, with redundant and repetitive descriptions.

The author spends a significant amount of time setting up the backstory, significance, and character of one person, only to kill him off in the ~next chapter.

A married couple discusses some political / family stuff that both of them are well-informed about. That lengthy exposition involves several "as you know" statements (or similar) that are delivered for the benefit of the reader. These two people wouldn't naturally talk to each other this way.

After 2.5 hours, I can't bring myself to continue listening. It's a shame. If the author had stripped the story of its time wasters, I probably would have enjoyed it. Alas, I will not be finishing this adventure.

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DNF after 7 hours: FMC questions too little

Revisado: 04-18-25

The world is interesting. I like the FMC and the MMC as people.

By the 7 hour mark, the FMC is beginning to realize that she's been lied to. Those lies, combined with the cruelty she endured throughout her childhood, should make her question everything she's ever been told.

At a very minimum, she should be asking what the people around her think of her father and his kingdom. It's a natural question that everybody in her position would ask. That one question would open her eyes in less than 5min. But I don't think she will ask it. She will remain willfully blind while playing with the lives of thousands of people - which is inconsistent with her character.

I can see the big train wreck that will hit by the end of this book. The FMC will make a tragic, idiotic mistake. Hundreds (or thousands) of people will die.

And we are supposed to continue rooting for her for the rest of book #1 and all of book #2. Ugh. I can't do it.

I can't stick around for that train wreck. The FMC is too competent to be this naive and dumb. I can't watch the MMC suffer like that. He deserves better.

I don't enjoy tragedy.

It also stretches credulity that the MMC would give he FMC as much freedom as he has. She has acted suspiciously from day 1. He knows something about her doesn't add up. He knows she is keeping secrets. For the sake of his people, he should be holding firm. He should be the strong leader we see on the page whenever the FMC isn't around. But he turns into a pile of goo around her - even though we haven't been given sufficient reason for him to react that way. She can't be the first beautiful woman he's seen naked.

We are told that he doesn't like the fake persona the FMC has invented for herself. He would love her true self, but that's not what she's giving him.

I don't like that the author basically turned the MMC into a horny, naive buffoon. That's inconsistent with his character. He's better than that.

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DNF after 2.5 hours

Revisado: 04-12-25

I pre-ordered this book a long time ago, when the excellent cliffhanger of book #2 left me wanting more. I remember book #1 being pretty good, and book #2 being OK. Both with a bunch of cringy cliché moments, but with enough good stuff to keep me going.

I am 2.5 hours into book #3, and I can't get myself to continue listening.

It was hard to get into book #3. It definitely isn't a standalone novel. It took me a while to remember who is who. The book starts off with waaaay too much angst and internal dread - which was hard to stomach when I was trying to re-find my reasons for caring about these characters. It felt long-winded and boring.

Paedyn... I can't stand Pae in this one. I don't remember how much or how little I liked her in the previous books. But so far, in this one, she's an entitled brat with temper tantrums who does stupid stuff. Based on one other reviewer who finished the book and summarized her behavior as "ew", I take it she'll be like this for the entire rest of the book.

I love Kai and would like to see more of him. If I do ever decide to continue listening, it would be for his sake only. I'm tired of how much pining and internal monologuing he's done so far, though. He's lost Pae to his brother. He wants to find a way to get her back, but doesn't know how. We get it. Either move on and start problem solving, or stop whining in my ear!

Kit... I don't know how to feel about Kit. I think he's being a childish idiot. He's been engaged to Pae for at least 24 hours. There should have been at least one scene of the two of them alone together, so Kit can explain himself to her in person. He wants to marry her. They need to have a relationship. So far, he's made zero effort in that direction. Maybe the author wants to hide some of his longing for her, so Pae can stew in her "he hates me" thoughts a bit longer. That would be unnatural behavior for Kit, though.

But another reviewer said that there's never any tension between Kai and Pae - never any real doubt that they'll end up together. Which makes me think that Kit never truly attempts to win her back. Or that Pae doesn't have the ability to be a responsible, loyal adult and fully commit to her fiancé. She could chose Kit over Kai even if in an ideal world she would have preferred Kai. She got along with Kit well enough in book #1.

Pae's thoughts and behaviors are inconsistent between scenes too. One moment, she's overwhelmed and on the verge of a breakdown. The next, she is verbally berating a big guy and having a girl boss moment.

There's also a scene where she is wearing a fancy dress (I'm pretty sure) and still manages to quickly jump out of a carriage and knock a professional soldier on his ass with a leg sweep. Without any mention of her ripping her dress or anything like that. She then has a weepy moment holding a bloody, dying child - without any soldiers rushing forward to pull her back to safety. I stopped listening after that.

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FMC is a pathetic idiot. DNF.

Revisado: 04-06-25

I am 1.5 hours into the story. I am skipping the rest of it. After reading reviews for the other books in the series, I am skipping those too.

The FMC is weak and helpless - which is reinforced by the narrator's weak, breathy voice. The book is hard to listen to.

Early on, the FMC chides her grandma for taking loans from loan sharks instead of taking a proper loan from a bank. 5 seconds later, the FMC is repeating her grandmas mistakes. She is 100% gullible and doesn't ask for any legal proof. Even after a sexual assault, she thinks she can make the bad guys go away by giving them the money they are suddenly claiming she owes them. She doesn't go to the police. The FMC has zero street smarts.

She leads a pathetic life, lies about it, and won't accept help from anyone. In addition to refusing any and all help from her friends, she decides to embezzle money from a company she works for, owned by a good friend. What a terrible human being.

In her current financial state, I don't understand how she can afford sausages and dog food for a giant stray animal.

I decided to read a bunch of reviews for this book. It sounds like the FMC will continue to be awful, and we barely learn anything about the MMC. I won't be finishing this book.

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Kept me engaged. But it also felt like a letdown.

Revisado: 04-06-25

I finished the book in less than a day. It kept me at the edge of my seat for most of it. I wish the FMC weren't such a helpless, incompetent ditz.

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I'm just over 2 hours into this story. So far, the FMC has proven herself as a helpless, incompetent ditz many times over. She's also being treated like trash (or worse) by 2+ dudes.

We're supposed to feel sorry for her sad state in life. Her Dad never said enough nice things to her, which is why she's still stuck at the same entry-level job at age 27. She kinda wants to do more in life, but she's never done anything about it. She has zero drive. Even her crappy car was gifted to her by her abusive ex.

But now a hot dude has entered her life. She's not interested in him because of "reasons." He keeps solving her problems by beating people up. He's just told her that he's a shifter, but her reaction so far has been "eh, I don't really believe you". Or maybe she does believe him and she's just having a very illogical, totally blasé reaction. It's unclear.

There have already been several instances in this book when her actions (or what happens) doesn't make logical sense. It's just what the author needs to have happen in that moment.

I'm going to keep listening, but I might regret it.

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I've finished the book. The FMC remains an incompetent ditz throughout. It's super irritating when the reader figures out a situation ASAP and it takes the protagonist another several pages to have that (minor) aha moment. The FMC came across as stupid and incompetent.

The FMC never has a powerful "I'm a wolf now" moment. She's always the helpless victim when bad guys show up. The never uses her wolf to overpower a bad person. She always has to be bailed out by others. (I just remembered that she technically does have 1 incident when her wolf saves her. But in that instance it's more like an involuntary, passive ability kicks in. She doesn't even remember what happened or what she did.)

It is also irritating that the FMC continuously had an attitude of "you can't boss me around; I have a life; I can do whatever I want" without taking the trouble to learn the nuances of the new shifter world she finds herself in. She just "acts", and usually she does stupid, reckless stuff that men have to bail her out from. Even worse, she restricts her Mom's life choices in the exact same way she refused to let anyone else restrict her. The FMC is a hypocrite.

At the beginning of her story, we're supposed to feel sorry about the fact that she works at a candy store. By the end of the novel, we're supposed to believe that she finds purpose in that store. Even though nothing has changed. Ugh.

The "romance" between the two characters is at its best somewhere in the middle of the story. But after the "heat" is over, the romance fizzles out with it. They lose all momentum. Instead, the author could have let the MMC finally allow himself to truly pursue the FMC, now that the elevated hormones and extreme risk of pregnancy are over.

But no. He chickens out, making the FMC conclude that she means little to him. What a weak man.

He doesn't even try to compete with another wolf who is aggressively pursuing her. Even though that wolf has stolen one of his girlfriends in the past, and the FMC means waaaay more to the MMC than that other girlfriend ever did. No. The MMC restricts himself to protecting the FMC from physical threats (he's kinda bad at that; partially because she's an idiot) and caring for her family. He is waiting for the FMC to choose his pack - without even trying to demonstrate that she would have his love as well. There is one moment when he decides to come clean about his feelings for her, but when he witnesses the other male's gallant display of flowers, the MMC leaves the building without even trying. Which ultimately almost leads to the FMC's death.

The way they finally come together at the end felt like a weak moment too. Even during that intimate event, the FMC lies to him. They never get over their habit of lying to each other to mask their own insecurities (even though a big part of the premise is that he knows her better than anyone ever has). They'll probably struggle with communication for the rest of their lives.

The more I think about this story, the more plot holes and inconsistencies there are.

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Disappointing last ~3 hours

Revisado: 03-24-25

I enjoyed the story up until the climax kicked off. At that point, many characters did stupid things because the plot couldn't have happened otherwise.

I hated who the actual main villain turned out to be. The sudden cruelty came out of nowhere and wasn't believable. Much of it read like man hate.

Sometimes I wanted to slap the author for drawing out tense scenes with elaborate emotional detours that didn't further the plot.

Don't attempt to learn morality from this book. It's twisted, inconsistent, and awful.

The titular Villain's backstory didn't make sense once we finally learned some of what happened. So, one guy you've known for like 5 weeks let you down and said mean things, and now you're going to fully lean into what he accused you of being? Even though you hate yourself for it? Yeah, right.

But until the ending sequence kicked off, it was a fun ride. I'm debating if I want to continue. (Now that I've read the reviews for book#2, I don't want to continue.)

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Cute story. Drags at times.

Revisado: 03-20-25

I finished this story in 1 day. It's cute, but not perfect. Some stuff was cringe worthy. You'll notice this starting from the first chapter or two.

It felt like I was reading (or listening to) the self-insert story of a librarian who invented the most swoon-worthy Hollywood actor possible. A man who has a thing for librarians in cardigans who chide him while looking over the rims of their eyeglasses. Yuck. That stuff took me right out of the story.

The excessive librarian references and some other intellectual lectures in this book felt preachy at times. It felt like the author lives in her own self-righteous little librarian bubble. I wish the detailed psychoanalysis stuff had been left out so the reader could make up their own mind about what the characters might be going through. The poem readings and other crap were so cringey that they were pain-inducing. The opposite of enjoyable.

I hate it when the main characters discover a critical clue and leave the reader in the dark about what they saw on the security footage. Those kinds of delayed reveals are unsatisfying because it feels like I, the reader, am being forcefully ejected from the protagonist's head. It is immersion-breaking. That frustration is compounded when the main characters seem blind to the "obvious" twists, and the author is deliberately steering them down the wrong path. There was one moment when they came to a sudden "realization" out of nowhere, and it was treated like the obvious and only explanation - when it was wrong, and I already knew it.

The ending was drawn out and boring. But this book isn't unique in that regard. Many novels do this. For some reason, the cliche dramatic climaxes with bad guy monologues are treated as mandatory elements of a novel. I grimaced a lot while listening to that segment. The epilogue was long and felt repetitive.

The main characters' big crisis of "there's no way we can be together" was feeble. The way that issue was resolved showed just how feeble their arguments always were. I wish the author had injected a real obstacle that they would actually have to fight to overcome. To fight to stay together. Basically, they ended up solving their "we can't be together" problem with passivity - doing nothing.

Maybe I'll listen to this novel again sometime in the future, but I doubt it. It's worth listening to once, though. I enjoyed the story for the most part.

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I only listened for 90min before quitting

Revisado: 12-23-24

The FMC strikes me as an idiot. When you are guarding the one item that is most important to you, your protection is gone, and you are being hunted by supernatural stuff that can easily overpower you, you should NOT decide to leave your place of safety, and go strolling around unprotected, letting your precious item out of your sight. If you have a choice between A) maybe accidentally falling asleep in a safe place vs B) casually strolling around outside, where you are vulnerable and alone, you pick A!! If you need water, you can get water from the tap in that building. There is NO reason to leave.

Stupid, stupid FMC who needs to be rescued by others over and over again.

The FMC supposedly is a nerd who has been studying supernatural stuff for many years. But given how many unanswered questions she has (including a big knowledge gap about her own abilities / aging), I don't believe a word she says about herself. Or rather, I don't believe what the author has to say about her. What we are told and what we are shown do NOT add up.

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Not sure I'll finish it

Revisado: 12-16-24

I am 3.5 hours into this story, and finding myself profoundly bored. I dislike the FMC. She is whiny and petty.

She thinks of herself as being strong, but she comes across as a weak, petulant child. Bad guys easily and routinely overpower her. Knox is an indulgent Sugar Daddy who overlooks her immaturity. It isn't believable that he would be in love with her. It would be much more believable if the FMC suddenly woke up from a coma one day and realised all of this was a fever dream.

The trope of "I need to fight my own battles or I'll be seen as weak" is getting very old. She would be seen as much stronger if she routinely cultivated and drew upon her alliances with other people. Instead, she insists on doing everything by herself. The concept of teamwork doesn't exist in her world.

Knox gave her a lesson in how to call upon hellfire. I have no idea how he could possibly know how *she* can call upon it. At best, his initial suggestion should have been a guess, not a certainty. It should have been a "lets try this first and see what happens", not " I know exactly how it all works".

As a carry-over from book #2, I continue to be baffled by the lax security surrounding Knox's estate and everything he cares about. He has the means to hire whomever he needs to add spells and whatever else to prevent people from intruding. It's like the author decided that Knox needs that blind spot in order for anything to be able to threaten Harper. Or maybe the author didn't think things through. Given how idiotic and petty many of the plot lines are, I am leaning towards the latter.

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