magnafeana's reviews
278 reviews

I think…I fell in love with small town romance?

I think I fell in love with small town romance.

In a way.

I don’t like Savannah, I’ll tell you that much.

In this story, it goes from lovers to enemies to lover’s again, full circle. And honestly, with the way the MCs broke up ad teenagers, I believe it.

Again, I don’t like Savannah. Nor does Cristine get a pass either.

I’m still not sure about Olivia, though I strongly dislike the quirky best friend trope so my view on her is skewed. If she knew Kallie’s down was ever so traumatizing, why come back here? Same to Kallie. I’m just…lost on that. To be fair, I grew up in a small town and I was the only ahem lady of color outside my biological mother and a few who moved in and out.

But when I moved, even when I was at death’s door, even when I was in horrible situations—never did it occur to me to go back to that small town.

I’m so glad Kallie found happiness and Jacob finally fought for her. While I dislike pushy leads, in some instances I understood his need to push. Kallie did not deserve to grieve alone, but what she went through is very real and very personal to me.

While Jacob isn’t on my list of dream boyfriends (especially when he blames Kallie for him purposefully miscommunicating nor does he stop Savannah or Cristine from their talk), I think he and Kallie had a nice romance story.

I’m rereviewing my review and lowering my rate.

I had this at 4⭐️, but I’m changing my mind and going to 3 based on how angry I am at this entire small town and at the MMC. The amount of drama is just so…absurd to me. I’m now becoming perplexed how the FMC could still like someone let alone look at this man who was all hunky dory with his son and the “OW” when she was forced to birth a stillborn and mourn him alone.

Poor Kallie.

I do not care that Savannah has a book. Why on earth would I sympathize with her? And after reading the blurbs and reviews on the other books, I think it is safe to say Book 1 is my introduction and finale to this series.

I… I’m speechless and that’s a bad thing

So—let me get this straight.

He steals her.

He assaults her.

And…all is forgiven after a bad dream?

Sure, Jan.

Had this been a dark romance and it would have gone to the nitty-gritty, I would have loved it. But this reads like an NA book. I think it is an NA book.

I dislike NA books.

I have no interest in reading about West or Helene. This is like the the Wildflower series all over again. I hate West. He knew what he was doing and hurt Quinn even more. Same to Helene.

This is my first and last read into the author’s writing. I don’t have time to read NA shifter books where I dislike the entire cast.

2.5 ⭐️s rounded down.

Ah. So this series is a Wattpad novel, I see.

I came to that wonderful conclusion when I was forced to seeing an entire mess of a story.

So let me list out this plot as best as I can.

H and h are together, but they are toxic for each other. She laughingly calls herself a strong, independent woman and he laughingly calls himself her everything. They codependently rely on each other with emotions of lust and jealousy and anger and manipulation, but there is never love there.

Of course, trauma porn is a theme. We are told about how much death and grief shakes up such an “unshakeable” Wattpad couple, from overdoses to suicide to miscarriages with hospitals and phone calls a revolving door. But finally, the h has enough. I mean, she doesn’t, but she claims she does after “fighting for him”. And H allegedly will respect her choice.

Let’s not forget that manipulation of not using a condom was in here, a lesbian was sexually harassed at a pisspoor excuse for BDSM as it is very obvious the author is a kinker and not in the lifestyle, and bisexuality was defined as being confused.

I’m bisexual and I’m certainly not confused. I am offended my sexuality was put in as a plot device to get a lesbian couple together.

I am forcing myself to read this series solely because of the third book, but this was utter… I won’t even say it. I can’t even give this 3 objective ⭐️s because it was that bad.

How is a manipulation, junkie, alcoholic, temperamental MMC swoon worthy?

How is an incompetent, stupid, I’m-weak-for-him-and-my-own-autonomy FMC relatable?

I just.

2 ⭐️s. This book deserves at least that.

What the Hello did I just read?

I…

I buddy-read this with a friend, and we are both in disbelief.

This 2⭐️ is the most generous rating, and we had to skim a lot of this to make sure we didn’t DNF.

So let me do a recap:

Tristan (H) and Danika (h) are new adults with their own set of problems. h is a not-that-strong codependent mess with family issues and H is a hotheaded lead singer who can hardly keep it in his pants. They meet, attraction ignites, and they become addicted to each other in every sense of the word but love.

Instead of love, they feel affection, adoration, and anger. They feed off of jealousy, as H punches any guy who breathes in h’s direction and h puts herself in precarious situations to intentionally hurt herself.

Through the ups and downs, their obsession and addiction never ends. Not when H’s brother dies, not when h is assaulted and injured, not even during H turning into an abusive druggie. After years of sobriety, they still have a codependent addiction for each other so much so that h self-sabotages a healthy relationship after being brainwashed that H’s behavior is romantic and caring.

Now, here comes the question: do they get children and a white picket fence?

They do.

Even in this toxic, filthy codependent relationship, they do. h sobbingly tells she has a medically necessary hysterectomy and she could never have kids. But apparently, no one ever told her when she woke up from her surgeries that she could still have eggs but wouldn’t be able to carry. So they get children via surrogacy.

And that concludes the Wattpad romance of Tristan and Danika.

My personal, subjective opinions:

I…

What did I just read?

This entire series felt like I was in the trenches and my friend and I were pulling each other through corpse of good plot and characterization. This series isn’t NA; it is YA dressed as NA.

For some reason, jealousy is necessary in every single relationship in this book. “Claim your man” made my friend and I want to return the book.

People, I want to make this clear: jealousy is not a functional, healthy, and/or loving foundation for a relationship, platonic or otherwise. People turning into cavemen and killing someone who looks at their partner is a

Interesting premise and the payoff was great!

This book won me over with the Immortals After Dark series which I am totally not reading in order.

We have Sabine (h) and Rydstrom (H) as our centuries old protagonists on the Lore. H is our Demon King who is just and right while h is a wicked sorceress who would rather be nefarious and wrong. But h is put in a desperate position and needs H to comply:

Breed me or die.

Well, not those words specifically, but the basis is, she wants his protection, her queendom, and a round belly and he wants her trust and, well, her. But when she kidnaps him and becomes a seductress and he lies to her and dishes back his suffering on her, their romance and sensuality gets murky what with all the prophecies and poisons.

I appreciated both these protagonists so much because of how distinct they were in their voice and their motives. Sabine being a liar and the queen of illusions made me admire her strength. I understood her need for lies. But I also understood Rydstrom’s frustration and need to temper his kingdom.

I’m happy with how the miscommunication didn’t last forever and a day. Honestly, it was refreshing. No, they didn’t unload their secrets so quickly, but when the third act struck and I feared we would have a separation arc…it didn’t happen because Sabine understood Rydstrom’s choice!

We stan a conscientious queen.

I has nitpicky qualms with this. I think, considering Sabine, it didn’t make sense how quickly she spoke to Rydstrom after he threw away her gold. It would have been nice to see Sabine go completely silent and closed off and Rydstrom to understand more about sorceri and gold.

I also wish we saw more of the hidden emotional state of Sabine, but that is just me.

And I will just…never like Nix, no matter how hard I try. She is the snarky OP caricature character and I have loathed those sorts of characters since they keep appearing.

4.5 ⭐️s for this. I wonder when I’ll actually read the series in order.

3.75 “Have I mentioned I love this series?” stars!

She was a Valkyire;
He was a vamp;
Can it be anymore obvious?
He was a nerd,
While she killed and slayed;
What more can I say?

This next installment of Immortals After Dark dives into more great world building and a unique couple once more!

Forced to turn into a Vampire centuries ago, Sebastian (H) finds himself on the receiving end of a blade when humans of his new village want him gone. But his executioner turns out to be his Bride, the fated being to give him back his humanity through the blooding—unfeeling Valkyrie Kaderie (h) or, as he lovingly calls her “Katja”.

H and h come to rocky start: Katja’s feelings return with a confusing vengeance that muck up her purpose in life while Sebastian must navigate The Lore and understand the world is much more than mere mortals understand.

Through the Hie—an intensive game of scavenger all to sate a goddess’ passive desires—H and h must navigate their budding attraction among their racial divide and among quite the killer of a competition.

What I enjoy about the Immortals After Dark series is how diverse the plots are. The stakes are always high and the world building deepens. I love that tremendously.

However, while the MCs do have their differences, a lot of them slip into the same tropes. I think the differences are enough that each character would have a distinct enough voice from another, I do. Same to the back stories. In the context of immortals, it truly makes sense for all the cast to go through horrible, horrible things.

I don’t know. It’s just something about the way the MCs and side characters are written that seem familiar. Maybe it’s the humor. I don’t know why, but the humor here doesn’t do it for me.

I found it out that Sebastian, a man who is still hurting from women not genuinely desiring him, dabbles in non-consensual blood play with his Bride because he “lost control”. Same with the bargaining kisses and touches for lifesaving when he was clearly bothered his Bride would feel pain regardless if she heals.

It felt like there were two Sebastians: Sebastian the dubcon manipulative king and Bastian the scarred-hearted scholar who would love like no other.

And the time travel thing… I’m sorry, but the explanation was one of those “God-kun” explanations. I understand why it was there, but it felt like it could’ve been explained earlier and the risk factor could have come from ”If you open a door to the past to connect it to the present day, you have a time limit before the door to the present closes and you’re stuck in a new reality”.

I get the time travel explanation was staved off to build drama, but it didn’t contribute as much Ah-ha! wittiness as it should have.

There was some lite OM drama and mentions of possibleOW, but it just felt like blatant plot device and not something naturally occurring between the characters.

I did enjoy this book. The steam level was

Good. Not great. But 3 “good “ stars

First off, I will forever say Black women deserve to be in alien/monster romances. I enjoy getting to read heroes who finally look like me!

But this book didn’t hook with me as much as I’d wished. Granted, I started with Book5 and not Book 1.

This book is much more science fiction with romantic undertones and I looove that! When romance isn’t the focal point but a subplot so there is actual plot and world building? I live. I love. I stan.

But when the romance is insta-love? Eh…

I didn’t care for the insta-love/insta-lust. I wished our couple learned about each other and went in a slow middle burn with their romance to truly build relationships. Now in context of other stories, I enjoy Insta-lust. But in this context, it felt very forced. “And they were soulmates” felt like a weak attempt to force two individuals into a sex-based relationship.

I thought it was neat how he hung back from declaring their matehood, but heck no the mixed signals were not necessary. Just…take it slow. Let the main plot point ride out with sprinkles of romance then when all is said and done? Give me the feels #TWICE

Overall, this was an okay ready. A tad disappointing from the last Abel book I loved so much, but objectively, I understand why people may love this book.

I loved it, I loved it, I loved it…until I didn’t

Justin and Caroline (and Dylan) deserved their happy ending for all the BS that happened to them.

Having said that, I don’t condone either of the MCs’ actions throughout this story.

So in this story, Justin (H) is a rich, attractive hockey player who (as the trope allows) has this huge family to back him up. Caroline (h) is a struggling mother to a great eight year old, and she repeatedly has OM drama as she lets her druggie baby daddy constantly in her life.

Long story short, rich guy meets poor girl, bulldozes his way to her life, and HEA.

So. The summary is out of the way. Onto the MCs’ actions and how much I (personally) disagree with them.

I will never say Caroline is a crap person. She really isn’t. But her mothering style makes me very concerned because she continues to let an abusive person near her son.

Many single parents have abusive ex-partners. Some of them tolerate the abuse on themselves, but if their child is harmed, they are ready to go. Others allow their partners to abuse their children.

I’m a little appalled Caroline cares so much for her child but consistently made bad choices about the father. And I wish this point was brought up more. Dylan does not deserve his things stolen and a lying drug addict around him. Even I would have questioned if Caroline is a fit mother exposing her child to this with some flimsy reasoning of “I just want him to have a positive connotation of his daddy”.

Onto our MMC Justin. I started having neutral, lukewarm feelings toward him when he kept pushing Caroline. Everyone acknowledged he was moving too fast. And he was! It was extremely a savior complex, even if he said he wasn’t. I hated that so much. I hated how he made all of Caroline’s choices and even if they had conversations, he did as he pleased.

I couldn’t get behind their romance because both MCs made so many irresponsible and disrespectful decisions.

From a literary device standpoint, the two epilogues and three time skips… Yeeeeeeeeah. Not to be critical, but my brow sort of puckered when I saw all that. Why not make two more chapters to show a lot more than is told and then an epilogue into the future?

Same to the info dumping. The first couple of pages were just that, info dumping. It would have been nice to see information shown throughout the series and instead of told. That, and I had a hard time following who said what, but maybe this a KU thing?

I love family series’s, but I also hate them because they don’t realize being so tight knit and crowding the “new kid” isn’t always the wisest thing to do.

I sort of wish Caroline had left. I forgot a lot of her ish because we got an info dump, but it makes no sense to me why she wasn’t on EBT/food stamps (since this is US-based?. Considering her work and she states she’s low income, this means she makes enough to qualify for government assistance of some degree.

This book always fruitfully reminded me of my privilege being sterile and I have PCOS and I have my IUD. Not to knock on anyone who accidentally becomes pregnant in unsavory circumstances, but having the “choice” to carry or not or to never carry? Priceless.

Overall 3.5 ⭐️ rounded down. From an objective standpoint, I understand the book’s popularity and draw. From a subjective point, I have my own feelings about it.