CCW

Cut the middle third out

Revisado: 06-26-25

Not worth the credit. Dragged on and the middle was pointless. I like detailed stories, but this author added wandering through a desert for many chapters just to increase the page count with almost no actual story development.

The FMC is too blinded by her own greed to make common sense choices that just end up causing her to get into more and more trouble/danger - annoying, especially since she is supposed to be street smart.

The eventual MMC (I’m guessing by the book description) is barely in the book, and no development of their story.

This should have been thinned out a lot in the middle and have been the first half of a book. And more interaction between the main characters - they only have 4 brief interactions!

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Weak FMC.

Revisado: 05-25-25

Everyone else is doing all the thinking and work for the FMC. She comes across as needy and weak and kind of clueless. I can’t even finish it - I’ve forced my way through 12 hours and just can’t keep listening any further.

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Reverse Harem/Polyamory

Revisado: 05-21-25

Not indicated in the description that it is reverse harem. I generally do not like these because there is so little character development because the pages are split between multiple relationships so none get the level of depth than two person books do. It makes the relationships seem shallow (not true poly)

That being said, the story was unique. I feel the last couple chapters were unnecessary and didn’t fit the rest of the book.

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Good but not what implied

Revisado: 03-03-25

The story was good, but it’s not exactly what the description implies. The description is of the trope of a bargain marriage to a fae king that turns into love. Nope! (Ch 1, not a spoiler) The friend that is ill is her BF who is in a coma after an accident. The whole time she is just trying to get him healed and get back to him. Sweat PG story.

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I had to study to keep up.

Revisado: 01-12-25

I really wanted to like this!! But it needs a cheat sheet!

I’m very intelligent and well educated and I still had to take notes like I was back in college in order to keep up with this book. It started out great and I was loving it, but halfway through I had to go back to the beginning, re-listen and take notes!

There are tons of politics (fine) and part of the book is all about an election campaign (ok) with all the candidates at different levels of government, and existing government members, and everyone’s entourages (oh boy!). Plus continental politics and players (ugh!).

My notes include: family trees, figured out a map (still can’t understand the coastline and why the peninsula is strategically worth being invaded), made a list of who characters are and different places. Also, an entire chart of characters, gods, type of magic, and more for each of the city-states, just to keep track of what was going on. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad but so many of the names were nearly identical!!! Like: Oona, Ooneer, and Oomeer. Or Zohar, Zataar, and Zoohea. (As this is audio, I’m guessing on the spellings.)

It became more work than pleasure and I kind of lost interest ¾ of the way through. It’s a really good story!!! And I really like the characters - especially the MMC - such a great guy! It was just too much work to keep track. It needs an accompanying PDF with a better version of the notes I took (not included at time of this review). Even re-listening and taking notes, there are details I’m still unclear about that make it confusing. And there are characters that never seem to get actual names, like the MFC’s parents. Not alive but always discussed.

I just counted and my notes have over 50 names! (People, places, gods, etc.) Be ready for some intense concentration! Maybe all of this is available online somewhere. I didn’t think to Google it (that it was that bad) until I’d already gotten too deep in my own note taking.

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Mostly good; worth the 3-for-1 credit

Revisado: 01-12-25

This series was mostly good. But a few things stuck out because I’m a picky reader. If you’re not nit-picky, it’s a good series and I recommend it. I did more or less binge it in under a week. If you’re picky, decide how much the following issues interfere with your enjoyment.

——

There were some points where it got a bit long, unnecessarily drawn out, and I felt like, “Just get on with the story already.”

One character’s story is not cleared up, implying another book/series about that character, but it’s not a big cliffhanger - minor character in this story so it feels kind of like “Whatever.” at the end.

In the second book something was hinted at but never panned out and it was frustrating, like “When is going to happen already?” It felt like the author was keeping her options open but hadn’t actually decided by the time book two went to press. And then never brought up in book three. Frustrating!

The second book introduces a second couple, which at times felt like filler, but it was ok and I ended up liking the couple well enough, I’m just not a fan of couples who fall for each other after three days of non-stop <intimacy>. Lust does NOT equal love! (I take issue with this for bigger reasons than a review, which are a genre wide concern - although it has improved greatly in the past 20 years.)

The <intimacy> got excessive because it was almost always exactly the same! With both couples! It got boring and tedious. More “Just get on with the story already.” It was like the author only knew one way to write that type of scene.

Consent: Depends upon how precisely you define it. Does a bite that drugs a woman with lust interfere with her ability to truly consent? That’s a genre wide debate though.

One plot hole that is a minor detail but it just really annoyed me: one vial of snake venom makes enough medicine for an entire continent?!?!? And how was it made into the cure??? Really, really minor detail, but it just bothered me.

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Would have been 5 stars, but…

Revisado: 12-27-24

The story is great. Totally new idea, not the same old genre plot regurgitated. I like the characters and the world building, etc. I’ve even gone on to read the next couple books. But there was one big problem I had with this book that almost caused me to set it aside: when first getting to know the MMC, I really questioned the author and character’s understanding of CONSENT. And especially after what the MFC had been through in the slave camp, it is very unrealistic that she would react the way she does and would accept the MMC at all. The author doesn’t understand trauma. But considering the books that have inspired the author’s pen name, and her choice of male narrator, it shouldn’t be surprising. This issue alone costs this book an overall 2 star loss in rating from me. This day and age, the author should know better.

But the plot and MFC were compelling enough for me to keep listening and eventually the issue ceased (even if unbelievable), and I got lost in the story. I just want the author to learn from this and not repeat it in her future writing.

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Writing could use development

Revisado: 12-27-24

The story idea and plot are decent, even refreshingly new, and some characters and parts are pretty good, but the writer needs to work on her craft a bit more.

No complaints about the performance.

The MFC is inconsistent and not all that likable, TBH. The MMC’s voice (language not performance) in conversations seems realistic while the MFC’s voice (language not performance) is all over the place. If it weren’t for the fated mate aspect of this story, I don’t know why he would ever be with her. (Not a spoiler: She wants him to open up but then when he’s about to, she won’t shut up! Over and over! I wanted to scream at her.)

More MFC character development earlier in the story would have helped explain what she did and didn’t know about the world. Instead, the author drops in an explanation every time she suddenly knows something or not, like the author is making it up as she writes, rather than knowing her character from the beginning. Letting the author know she had a tutor from the beginning of the book, instead of dropping that in a third of the way in, would have made more sense. (Not a spoiler: It actually seemed from the beginning that she had NOT had a tutor. Also, the guard teaching her to fight and living, while the tutor was killed for teaching her history, seems inconsistent.)

There is also a lack of other characters (very few and very brief interactions).

Then there is the actual writing that needed editing. Although no obvious grammatical errors, it is the repetitive bits, which get worse as the book goes, like she was running out of energy or time to edit correctly. How many ways can you write the same concluding sentence of the book, just reordering the words without the saying anything new? Five? I was just thankful it was over.

Luckily the ending isn’t as much of a cliffhanger as unfinished business, so I’m fine with reading this as a standalone. I wouldn’t pay for the next book. This one wasn’t really worth a credit. Maybe a <$7 sale or freebie.

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More steam than plot

Revisado: 11-12-24

Made it half way through and was getting fed up with the lusty scenes and minimal plot, character, or relationship development. I’m ok with some steam but there needs to be a balance and the plot/characters need to be taking center stage. Performance was good. But if you are looking to get lost in a world and the adventures of great characters, this is not it.

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Not as described!

Revisado: 05-21-24

15 chapters in and the description of the book is completely different - no clue where they came up with it! If it didn’t have the same character names I would think it was a bad link or such. Did the person who wrote the description even read the book???

Description is from the male POV, but the book is from the female POV.

Not that unique of a world - just Spain (roughly c1400) with a different history influenced by the presence of fae.

“Stealing her innocence” implies either something unforgivable or simple being naive. Thankfully the first hasn’t happened and the later is far from describing the character.

——

A better description….
20 years ago a veil came down separating the human and fae realms, trapping many fae on the human side. Most have integrated into human society. The MMC leads a group of rebel fae (no more is known as we don’t hear from him again, but I’m only a few hours in.)

The younger of two human princesses, whose mother was secretly fae, wants to wear pants and sword fight, not an arranged marriage. When she was a child she witnessed a man (unclear if fae or other) use magic to kill her mother. He was going to kill her father and the girl suddenly had magic and saved the king. She thought she had destroyed her mother’s murderer. Never had powers again.

The bad guy shows up, kills her father, and someone betrays her. She is sent to an arranged marriage with a violent scary man.

——

The book is fairly interesting so far, and I have theories about who people are and what they have done, and I will likely finish the book, but I hate when book descriptions are so completely different from the book. I go in expecting one story and then am confused because it doesn’t match the description. Then, I’m often disappointed by the actual book. So I’m currently wondering what will happen to ruin this story.

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