mspilesofpaper's reviews
889 reviews

Noelle meets Sam when they are both stuck on the motorway during a snow storm and they hit it off right away. Eight perfect hours - at least in Noelle's opinion who cannot stop thinking about Sam and the fact that she will never see him again because she didn't ask for his phone number/e-mail or Instagram handle. However, their lives become entangled in more ways than either thought.

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To be honest: I thought it would be a fast-paced, typical chick lit/contemporary romance with a meet cute and then constant re-meetings until both admit how they feel for each other. Simply the typical outline for most contemporary romances.

However, the book isn't just a contemporary romance. It is also about grief, mental health and the complicated relationships children have with their parents. Noelle is the unofficial caretaker of her mother - who had a stroke a couple of years ago and doesn't dare to do anything outside of the flat anymore - because 'she is the responsible one, she will take care about everything' since her younger brother is the golden child who could never do wrong (even if he is the most annoying man child ever). So Noelle puts her entire life on the back burner. Splits up with her long-term boyfriend instead of going with him to Oregon. Works as a cleaner to earn money, so they could pay bills, instead of purchasing her dream of having a flower shop and doing bouquets for everyday but also special events (weddings, ...). And she utterly suffers from it. As the story unravels, the reader learns that Noelle lost her childhood best friend, that she suffers from anxiety, panic attacks and depression, that she suffers from 'fading into the background' because she does everything for her mother but never for herself. And while Sam doesn't struggle openly with mental health, he admits to his own issues in later chapters, in how the loss of his cousin/best friend messed with his mind, about his relationship with his father, about how he always runs away from relationships, etc. Tbh: both should just go to therapy.

Unfortunately the book is just a 2 star read for me because I don't think Noelle and Sam have any chemistry and the banter is lukewarm. It doesn't help that the majority of their romance happens while they aren't together in a chapter. The constant meet ups happen in later chapters, so the first half of the book drags on, and the reader is constantly in Noelle's mind. After the third repetition, it got exhausting to listen to Noelle's constant worries. Yes, I know that it's her internal battle with her own mental health or dealing with everyone's shit instead of her own (including her other best friend's post-partum depression) but it isn't fun to read about it all the time in a chick lit. I wanted more chapters where Noelle and Sam spend time together. Instead, we get a book where the "perfect eight hours" are compressed into 2 chapters and the rest is just ... exhausting. 

Also, I got really sick of the "he is so tall" and Sam being called Captain America because he's tall (he's supposed to be ~6'4'', so ~1.93m), muscular etc. Noelle herself is supposed to be quite tall, so the constant yapping about his height annoyed me. (And the stupid obsession with dark-haired love interests who are over 6'/1.80m.)

Additional note: the author is supposed to be British/to live in Britain. Unfortunately, at times it felt like the book was written by an US-American. For example, the story is set in Bath/by Bath and Sam works near Mount Snowdon. That's a four hour drive if the motorway is free. That's not "a quick tour" for Europeans. 

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TWs & CWs: grief, panic attacks, mentions of anxiety and depression, post-partum depression, loss of best friend (in the past), mentions of cheating, mentions of suicide, stroke, death of a family member

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Heat/Spice: 0 🌶️ 

Signa cannot die and survived as a baby when everyone else died. It is the story of her life that everyone around her dies while she continues on until she reaches Thorn Grove where she is set into making sure that that family will survive. Yet, a murder already recently happened and she has to find the one responsible to avoid another one.

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I am so fucking fired of shadow daddies who are immortal, portrayed as morally grey, and display predatory behaviour. Signa was a baby, you sick fuck. TWO FUCKING MONTHS OLD. A BABY And instead of keeping his distance (despite being intrigued by the child who cannot die), Death stalks her through her childhood and starts getting to know her when she became of age. Of course, he thinks that she is his mate. While girlie pop gets aroused as soon as a man (with whom she isn't related) gives her a bit of attention. Yes, Signa grew up without a normal childhood and everything but all she's thinking is about a man's body (how it would feel to touch him, ...) instead of paying attention to a murder.

Aside from a predator as male main character: the entire story was utterly boring. The characters act like I thought they would act (and were true to their arc). The murder mystery was boring and rather predictable. There's nothing thrilling or gothic about this book. I don't understand the good reviews nor the hype, and I hate myself for buying the two following books of the series when they were reduced to 0.99€ per book.

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TWs & CWs: semi-graphic description of poisoning and its results on the human body, death (as a general topic including afterlife and what happens if Death doesn't approve of your soul), murder, alcoholism, grief

Trope(s): Shadow Daddy, Star-Crossed Lovers (I guess?)

Genre: Young Adult, Romantic Fantasy

Representation: /

Heat/Spice: 0 🌶️ 

Daphne works at a publishing house as a full-time editorial writer but has the chance to become a full-time cover illustrator, which is her dream job and something that she worked toward for a long time. Unfortunately, the male anatomy ... evades her. Whenever she draws men, they look rather animal-like; much to her dismay. Monty, on the other hand, is a self-proclaimed matchmaker who loves happy endings - for everyone else but not himself. Yet, he is tasked with proving that his weekly advice as a columnist works. Daphne needs a model, Monty needs a case study. They make a bargain with each other to help out with the other one's issue until Monty gets his publishing deal and Daphne gets her full-time illustrator job. What could go wrong? Monty already ruined their friendship once.

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My Feral Romance is the second instalment in the Fae Flings and Corset Strings series and features Daphne and Monty; both are characters that the reader already met in the first book. While it's beneficial to read the first book, I wouldn't say that it's 100% necessary because Will and Edwina don't appear on page and are only mentioned in passing. Any required world-building information will be mentioned again, so readers new to the series can start with My Feral Romance right away.

Daphne was a mystery in A Rivalry of Hearts as she appeared as cold, grumpy and reserved there. She's a true delight as a main character and while she stays true to her character, she also gets out of her comfort zone and becomes more comfortable in her seelie form. She tests boundaries, learns who she is and what she wants, but at the heart her pine marten being still shines through. She goes through personal growth and development and I loved every minute of it. In my opinion, Daphne is demi-sexual and demi-romantic. While she had sexual relationships in her past, she realised at one point that she never felt sexual attraction to them. She participated in the flings because it was instinct or expected. I'm always a fan of authors writing characters on the asexual and aromantic spectrum! 

Monty is just as developed as Daphne and falls into the "broken character who believes that no one can fix him". Thankfully, Daphne doesn't plan on fixing him. Monty does the fixing himself and Daphne just pushes him forward in his own personal growth. With each chapter told from his POV, the reader learns more about his soft side and how much he cares about people. 

Then there are the other girls in the competition and most get their own POV for one chapter, which helps a lot in fleshing them out as characters. Of course, they are a bit flatter than Ivy but well enough developed for side characters. Especially in comparison to Ivy's family because I still don't know what to think about Lydia who is lethargic for the majority of the novel until there's one chapter from her POV.

Their romance/relationship develops with each chapter as both struggle with their own issues although there's a touch of instant lust on both sides. It is a bit rushed in the later chapters and I think it could have benefitted from 1 - 2 additional ones there. Also, the issues in the last few chapters to bring the happy end were so useless. Of course, it makes sense from a world-building perspective but I wish the author would have implemented some aspects of it in previous chapters, so the conflict point would feel more natural. 

The third book still isn't about Will's sister and I am so upset about it! I want her as the main character! I loved her in the first book! (And I didn't care much about the newly introduced side character in this one who will become the main character in the third book.)

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TWs & CWs: sexual content, blood, illegal underground fighting (boxing), concussion, blackmailing, emotional abuse by parental figure, light praise kink, mirror/reflection sex, dirty talk

Trope(s): magical bargain, he fell first and hard, slowburn, friends to lovers, dating coach, grovelling, touch him and you die, reformed bad boy, reversed age gap (FMC is 300+, MMC is 28)

Genre: Romantic Fantasy

Diversity: FMC is demisexual & demiromantic, mental health (anxiety)

Heat/Spice: 2 🌶️ 

A new take on Pride & Prejudice as it tells the story that inspired the fictional Jane Austen to write her novel(s). I have to be honest: I never read the original and only watched the film adaptation, which was fun but nothing outstanding. I only learned about Amusing Miss Austen because the author is having an active TikTok presence and ended up on my FYP a few times. Though, the author's used scene for marketing happens so early in the book that it felt like false marketing at the end.

Amusing Miss Austen is like the film adaptation: fun but nothing outstanding. It's a quick read (I finished it within a day) but ultimately, very forgettable. The characters are rather flat/stereotypical, the writing style is odd (in parts it feels like the story is being told to a diary or someone else but the reveal for it never happens) and everything is very rushed.

If you do love Jane Austen's work and rom-coms in general, I suspect that you might enjoy this take as well. 

What if the Wars of the Roses didn't end as we know it but with an immortal fae queen becoming Queen of England? The Rose Bargain plays exactly with that line of thought and is set several decades after the prologue. By now, everyone in the English ton bargains with their fae queen to increase their status. Of course, each bargain comes at a cost but Ivy Benton is prepared to pay everything to undo her sister's bargain with the queen. Yet, her debut arrives with a shocking twist: the Queen's son, Prince Bram, is set to marry, and Ivy sees her chance to save her family from ruin. Yet, every bargain comes at a cost and not all that glitters is not gold.

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The Rose Bargain is an alternative history romantasy and the first book in a duology (which is something that I didn't know when I bought the book, so the book's end hit me over the head). It plays after the Wars of Roses in the 1800s, which puts it in the Regency Era/Victorian Era (well, or it would be in those eras if the connecting kings and queens had ruled instead of Queen Mor). It lends the book a Bridgerton vibe though. It's a relatively quick and fun read, in my opinion. 

Ivy Benton is the female main character and the love interest of the princes. Yes, princes. There's Prince Bram and his human brother Prince Emmett. She's rather headstrong and cunning for a 17/18-year-old girl but often enough equally stupid as well, which makes her a rather realistic teenager. She believes that she is the only one who can save her family by making a good match (and is realistic enough to know that she won't be able to make one due to her family's downfall), so she goes into the competition for Prince Bram with open eyes. And while she loves her family - she equally struggles with them as well because of their internal relationships and her family's bargains with the Queen. This is especially true for her sister Lydia whom she loves and hates at the same time because Lydia is the cause of the family's downfall since she vanished after her unsuccessful season, and came back in tatters and ruins. While I don't have a sister, I have two brothers and I have to say: the relationship between Ivy and Lydia is rather realistic for a sibling relationship.

Prince Emmett is - more or less - the male main character and Ivy's love interest. He's portrayed as the typical princely rogue who flirts with every beautiful young woman and has flings with them. As the story continues, Ivy (and the reader) learns that there's more to him. Occasionally though, he's a bit underdeveloped as a character but I have the feeling that there's more going to happen with him in the second book. Prince Bram, his Fae brother, is the other male main character but he's rarely in scenes and when he appears, he's all charm and manners. A bit of a rake as well but by far more underdeveloped than his brother. Granted, there's a reason for it but I wished that the author would've put a bit more effort into him.

Then there are the other girls in the competition and most get their own POV for one chapter, which helps a lot in fleshing them out as characters. Of course, they are a bit flatter than Ivy but well enough developed for side characters. Especially in comparison to Ivy's family because I still don't know what to think about Lydia who is lethargic for the majority of the novel until there's one chapter from her POV. 

Unfortunately, I found the romance utterly rushed and it lacked the deeper development that would have made Ivy's emotional journey more compelling. It is a sweet romance (very YA-esque aside from the detailed spice) but it could have benefitted from a few more scenes. The banter between Ivy and Emmett is very funny though. Occasionally, extremely modern as well.

My biggest issue with the book is the competition itself. It is central to the plot but technically, only three scenes are truly competition. Everything else is "and they went out to the ball of Duke/Lord/Count/..." or some sports event, which feeds into the Bridgerton vibes but doesn't add too much to the competition itself. The only saving grace of the competition is the growing bond between the six girls. With each chapter, they grow closer to each other and realise how fucked up the Queen's game is. In the end, I would consider them as friends. Overall, it falls into the "girls supporting girls" movement, which we always need. 

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TWs & CWs: sexual content, blood, mention of suicide, kidnapping, abuse by Fae (the Fae are the typical "beautiful but cruel" ones), general physical and emotional abuse/torture of young women (by the Queen), mentions of hunting

Trope(s): marriage competition, fae bargains, forbidden love

Genre: Alternative Historical Fiction, Romantic Fantasy

Diversity: 2x BIPOC female side characters (Japanese and Ghanian-English), bisexual & lesbian female side characters

Heat/Spice: 1.5 🌶️(it is fully detailed smut, which is utterly weird because it's supposed to be YA) 

Thank you to NetGalley for granting me an eARC.

Born as the first daughter of the clan after over a century of being without a Queen, Aemyra bides her time until she can take her rightful throne. Yet, when the coup happens, she is thrown into a game of politics that she isn't prepared for. 

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I was utterly hyped for the book because I've been following the author for quite some time on Instagram now. Bisexual adult female main character? Yes, I'm in. Scottish/Celtic-inspired world-building? Hell yes! Unfortunately, the book just fell flat for me. The plot idea and the world-building are interesting on a superficial level, but if you think too much about either, it just unravels and leaves you with more questions than answers. I could forgive shoddy world-building if the writing style and the characters were great, but neither is great either. The writing is extremely wooden and sometimes reads like a first draft. The dialogue is cringy. The characters, though? Oh dear. Oh dear. 

The side characters are utterly flat or fall into stereotypical tropes. I can forgive either if it were just one or two side characters, but it concerns every side character. There's no depth to any of them. (This is utterly sad because a bunch of them are the FMC's family.) The two main characters though? Haha, no. Aemyra is stupid, single-minded, utterly ruled by her emotions (to the point of never thinking about what she is doing, so she always ends up in worse situations), never listens to anyone, stubborn, so fucking arrogant and full of herself, acts almighty and edgy while also belittling everyone else, and doesn't behave like a 26-year-old woman. She acts as if she is 16 years old and is a typical Mary Sue character. She has special hair & eye colour, she is utterly powerful (to the point where she can't even control her power because she's so emotional), and she gets a special dragon, too. She is the queen of all pick-me female characters because, for all her feminine rage etc., she looks down on women who aren't like her. If you write a rage-fueled FMC: make her empowering and not looking down on other women.
The MMC has absolutely no character depth. He is loosely inspired by Varys/Little Finger from GoT by acting as if he is pulling all the strings in the background but there's not one single brain cell in his head. Of course, he's a feminist when it suits him. 

The chemistry between them doesn't exist. They are the "enemies-to-lovers" trope and while they do have the "I want to kill you" aspect down, they don't have a logical development from "I want to kill you" to "I want to fuck you/I love you". It just happens out of nowhere and then they fuck like rabbits. The sex scenes are boring as hell, too. 

I'm only giving this two stars because the dragons have more personality than dragons in other recent fantasy novels. 


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TWs & CWs: death, general violence and gore, sexual content, physical abuse of the FMC (by the ends of side characters), the death of parents and a sibling, attempt at a forced sterilisation of the FMC

Trope(s): enemies-to-lovers, feminine rage

Genre: Fantasy

Heat/Spice: 1 🌶️ 

I never thought that I would encounter a boring monster romance book but here we are. It's utterly bland, no conflict (aside from Celeste's constant fear), no world-building and the blandest monster sex as well. 

Thank you to NetGalley for granting me an eARC.

The mortals broke the world with their greed. The skies were filled with smoke and ash, the air grew hot, and Tolemne made his way into the core of the world to ask a book of the gods - to restore the world. The god Kluehnn granted it by restoring the world realm by realm, but restoration comes at a price: half the population will become material for the restoration and the other half will be changed into something better. Hakara and her younger sister Rasha flee from the restoration as it hits their realm but are separated at the border; Rasha stays behind in Kashan and Hakara gets swept into the neighbouring realm.

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The Gods Below is an epic fantasy that's the first in a series/trilogy. It is set in a fantasy world that has multiple realms, and whereas our Earth has lava at its core, their world is hollow and used to be the place where the gods lived.

The story is told in multiple POVs (5), four of which are set in the present and one in the past. Each POV has a different narrating view (Hakara and Rasha are written in first person, the others are third person), which is odd when you switch chapters and, therefore, the POV because there are rarely two chapters told from the same POV.

Unfortunately, I struggled with the book just like I did with The Bone Shard Daughter - an interesting plot, but the characters and their development are so utterly lacking. All characters are so single-minded in their behaviour, so their POVs became very quickly annoying and sometimes repetitive. Especially Hakara's and Rasha's when they think of the past and the other one. They have the same thoughts over and over and over again. It's something that annoyed me in TBSD as well. I believe I would have cared more about the sisters (and them being on opposing sides of the overall conflict) if they had been better developed. 

Something that I struggled with in TBSD as well: the romances. The f/f pairing and the m/f pairing happen out of nowhere and are utterly shallow. Neither pairings have a true connection with each other, but suddenly, there's yearning and pining in the f/f pairing, and a hint of it in the m/f pairing? The m/f pairing is even more annoying because the male character is still grieving his dead partner and family. Why the fuck is he suddenly interested in a stupid 25 years old girl? Because Hakara isn't the brightest character at all. She rushes into everything, she never thinks through anything, ... - it's very unbelievable and exhausting.

I liked the plot and the world-building (even if the latter can be confusing), but I wish the characters had been better. As it stands now, I don't think that I would continue with the upcoming books (when they are published).

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TWs & CWs: death, violence, estranged sisters, sexual content (fade to black), cannibalism

Trope(s): /

Diversity: bisexuality, genderfluidity, POC characters, aromanticism

Genre: Fantasy

Heat/Spice: 0 🌶️ 

So much "then I did this, then I did that", inconsistent character behaviour and just cringe. 

Being a princess in a tower guarded by a dragon and to be rescued by a handsome prince sounds fun when it's a story. Being stuck on an island, in a tower, guarded by a dragon that doesn't allow you to leave is certainly a lot less fun, and exactly the situation in which Cherry finds herself. It turns out that Prince Charming isn't some noble human knight but another dragon whom she might've drugged to get his help. Turns out, he might not be Prince Charming, but she's his mate, and he would do a lot for her.

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That Time I Got Drunk And Saved A Human is the third full instalment in the Mead Mishaps series, and I would recommend reading the previous two books. Of course, you could treat it as a standalone, but you will have more fun with it if you know the previous stories, as TTIGDASAH has reoccurring characters and builds on existing world-building knowledge. 

Cherry is Cinnamon's sister, and I feel like all siblings come with a bit of extra spice. She's hilarious and doesn't back down, even when she has to deal with her kidnapper dragon (Gideon) and then with Dante. Despite her being a victim of kidnapping for five years (!), she treats it as an inconvenience and is weirdly ok afterwards despite having no actual social connections during those five years. She even forgives her kidnapper at the end, which I found weird.

Dante is a storm dragon, but I don't know. He lacks character? Sure, he's absolutely smitten with Cherry and would do everything for her, and is the embodiment of "Touch her and die", but he doesn't really have much depth to him aside from like 2 - 3 points. 

As for the romance, it's pretty much instant love/lust on Dante's side (as she's his mate) and instant lust on Cherry's side (due to the mating bite). The actual relationship seems weirdly stagnant and drawn out but also rushed at the same time. Unlike the previous books, the spice happens later, with only two scenes. The first sex scene felt pushy and made me uncomfortable because it's public sex (in a garden, they're just hiding) and the result of a bet.

Overall, I have to say that the book was quick and fun to read but it felt like there was no overall plot or end goal, which is a shame because the first two books connected the romance and fantastic quest/adventure very well. The author laid the foundation for another book (with an actual quest) but I think she could have used that plot point easily for TTIGDASAH.

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TWs & CWs: kidnapping, masturbating, oral sex, vaginal sex, kidnapping, blood, alcohol, being drugged against free will, general violence, zombies, shapeshifting, enslavement (for gladiator games), virgin FMC, no condoms, spanking

Trope(s): fated mates, touch her and you die, accidental marriage

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Heat/Spice: 2 🌶️