elysephone_escapes's reviews
191 reviews

I wished there was more adorable ridiculous stuffs and less horny stuff, but that's just me. 

I definitely liked the first half more than the second, as - in retrospect - I can forgive the instalust since I know what genre I'm reading. All the stuff that I thought was genuinely dumb was balenced out by the points of adorable and/or comedic interactions that I genuinely got a giggle from. I could see myself re-reading this during a specific mood for some mindless supernatural rom-com antics, although I'll probably duck out when we get to the final "climax" as that just felt a bit unnecessary to me.

I saw something about the author's next book putting Reginald in the vampire rom-com hot seat and I'll admit that's got me curious. If it means I can see more of the Fredrick & Reginald dry humor buddy-comedy, I'll give it a go. 

Finally getting around to reading some of the books I bought in charity shop hauls from over two years ago.

This one had an interesting and rich concept and tackled lots of thoughtful ideas, but the third act really plummeted for me. It just seemed a whirlwind of conflicting feelings and ideas that completely threw me off. Can't quite place my finger on it. There was also a few questions I had with the world building that I feel were either overlooked or just didn't make sense if you thought too hard about it. The concept isn't flawed, it's a very interesting and intriguing world, but if you're going to explore a story like this I think there are certain things you have to play into or explain. Isn't everyone technically born blank? Aren't marks so ething you put on you in this society - that's why inkers exist? Can you choose to be blank? What is it about the blanks that feel so threatening, apart from what you've been told about them? Surely all the memories you had with your father and mother would bear more weight upon you to make you reconsider what you've been taught? Even if it gives you conflicting feelings, I felt like Lerona swung on a pendulum through the final act between total hate and rebellion. The ending made no sense at all to me as I couldn't tell if she was a successful brainwashed puppet or an upcoming rebel. Maybe I was just overlooking things, but I was definitely confused to say the least. All that being said, it was interesting enough for me to want to read the next book in the series. I genuinely hope it gets better from here because the story is so ripe. 

Also, I've never desired a slowburn more. And I am not a slowburn girly. I liked the love interest, but the chemistry felt so artificial. I know this is Book 1 in a series, I think there should have been no implied romance in this one and kept it for later down the line because it felt so randomly inserted into this one.

Would also have been nice if the stories/fables Lerona read were more original or inspired, rather than just copied of pre-existing myths with unnamed characters. It's not a bad thing to draw on pre-existing texts, not at all, but in a world as rich as this (and the tale of The Sisters being an excellent example), there could have been some good editions to the world building to have some more unique fables.

Biggest surprise was finding my current dissertation supervisor in the acknowledgements. 

I am definitely a mood reader because this one grew on me. 
I can't believe this series is making me actually ship a genuine enemies to lovers romance. I'm actually mad about it. 

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise this was satire. 

This is the start of me going into my streamy fantasy era, isn't it?
University is clearly hitting.