multicoloredbookreviews's reviews
1023 reviews

Part one didn't blow my mind, and this other half of the duet didn't wow me either.

Again, the whole thing felt very mundane. There were some sparks of unusual events, but they ended up diluting and settling back into the flow of everyday life. It felt like watching everything happen from really far away. I could acknowledge the shocking nature of the incidents sprinkled throughout the novel, but I was so far removed from the whole thing I was completely emotionally detached.

It was all a little corny and veering towards sickly sweet territory. The was very little struggle, very little angst; just highly farfetched events perfectly arranged to ensure a fanciful ending: a rom-com through and through.

Again, this book was also a super quick read, but I think both tomes of the duet could have been condensed into a single novel. 

 I already know RH is not a genre that works well in a contemporary setting, yet, I keep choosing to read these RH hockey romances only to end up disappointed.

These Pucking Boys: Part One was very insta-lusty, and pretty much insta-lovey as well. Already, not my fave. The characters were also very cookie-cutter. Everyone was hot, June (the FL) was clumsy and quirky, and Jake, Ryan and Lachy (the MLs) were charming and suave. They felt neither unique nor original.

The plot also didn't really feel like it went anywhere. Everything moved super fast—it was a very quick read—and the smut was hot. But the fact that they were all smitten with each other from the very beginning and the characters were exceedingly commonplace turned this novel into a bland and unexciting book.

In a word, I'd describe it as "forgettable". 

See? Now, this is what I call a well-written book! Engaging and fun; still a little confusing and plot-hole-y in its worldbuilding, but this time around the number of typos and punctuation errors was insignificant.

Champion of Midnight picked up right where Protector of Midnight had left off, with Drayton and Serenity leaving to visit the Sanguinata and confront their leader about his minions recruiting humans to join their house when they weren't allowed to. And girlypop came in guns blazing and acting like a moron, ignoring every single warning and piece of advice Drayton had given her about how to deal with the other factions so as to not upset Midnight's tenuous balance. Thank goodness she has plot armor, because at times she severely lacks in the self-preservation department.

Much like the last book, this one too had no idle moments. The plot was constantly chugging forward and there was always a new problem or event that needed dealing with. We went from the Sanguinata, to investigating a cold case that linked to some problematic disappearances, then there was an ambush followed by a hostage situation, followed by escape, and anotherhostage situation. And then we were back to the Sanguinata and the house games, where we took a little detour into a bit of Norse Mythology with the visit of the Wild Hunt.

It's kind of wild how many legends, myths, and beliefs this series mixes up—the world continues to expand and take form. There's the religious bit, with the fight between the White and Black angels, God, and Lucifer. There's the Arthurian bit, tied to Merlin and these super powerful magic weapons. Now, Norse Mythology got sprinkled in along with the confirmation there are other dimensions where supernatural beings also reside. It's all a bit chaotic and whacky, but fun nonetheless. With how many things are always going on, it's impossible to get bored reading the Chronicles of Midnight .

However, I gotta say the "free will vs safety" plotline makes very little sense to me. 100 years is between 2 and 3 generations, so unless all the humans that entered Arcadia got their memories wiped or had new memories implanted, it's virtually impossible no one in there would have any memories of the outside world. The knowledge couldn't have been erased by the passage of time. Something like 500 years would have been more acceptable, but then the urban fantasy angle would have been the one with plot holes.

But other than that, it was a great book! More threads continued to get added than those that got resolved, the Order of Merlin is gaining importance, and there's always some new problem to deal with and mystery to uncover. I am excited to see where this series will take us next, and ready for the smut to commence LOL

 To everyone who said the writing in this was good: Guys. Guys, c'mon. I have two whole pages of mistakes in my notes and highlights and I didn't even mark all of them. I mean, sure, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and continuity aren't the only elements that make writing good or bad, but they certainly play an important role. And I'm sorry, but a book that misspells "breathe" SEVERAL times, forgets to use dialogue quotations and question marks, misplaces commas all over the place, and never uses italics to convey inner thoughts simply can't be considered to be well-written. The bar needs to be higher.

That being said, I liked the story even if the editing left a lot to be desired and the world-building was a little confusing and chaotic at times.

If I understood correctly, the events of this novel took place in a territory called Arcadia, which was sort of a supernatural, one-way bubble inside the real world. Every 20 years or so, the forest of Arcadia spat out an indeterminate number of people, but no one has ever been able to traverse it to get out. Weirder still, this slice of supernatural world was divided into three areas: Dawn, Sunset, and Midnight; each region stuck in the time of day it was named after, and independently-run from the other two. Dawn was controlled by the White Wings, creatures that demanded people give up their free will in exchange for entrance into the sanctuary that was their area. And that was because Dawn and Midnight were affected by the scourge, something I'm imagining is similar to a zombie virus that randomly infected people and turned them into mindless, violent, dangerous creatures.

And our FMC, Serenity, just so happened to be a police officer in Sunset, which meant dealing with these creatures was routine work for her. But unlike the rest of the human population of Sunset, she was keeping a secret, an inner darkness that constantly hungered for energy (my first thought was succubus, and I wasn't far off). Before long, she got found out and exiled to Midnight, where the majority of non-humans resided, and welcomed into the Protectorate—the supernatural version of Midnight's police force.

Protector of Midnight was set up similarly to a pilot episode of a TV show: major players got introduced, some groundwork was established, and there was a major case that got resolved, while various others were left set up to further develop in the future. It was a great way to flesh out the world while including a smaller arc contained to this one book that provided a sense of completion.

Interestingly enough, for a series that will have to eventually develop multiple romantic relationships, since Chronicles of Midnight is categorized as RH, surprisingly little time was dedicated to that aspect. The romance and smut side of things took a seat so far back that if this book was a bus they would have been on the penultimate row, with action and mystery being front and center.

Anything physical was so far down on the list of priorities, that I'm struggling with the character casting for the Pinterest board I created since I have a better idea of what everyone's personalities are like than what they look like LOL But I kinda loved that more emphasis was allocated into creating solid, unique characters than gushing about how hot all of the guys are. It made the book feel deeper and not as juvenile.

And that's pretty much it for now. The book could certainly have been a lot better from a purely technical point of view, but I enjoyed the tone and the content and I'm curious to see how the story will continue developing and how many men will end up conforming Serenity's harem. 

 In my review of the previous book, Sparking Magic, I'd said that even though the book was super rough, the intrigue built throughout had been enough to compel me to keep going—I'd even taken the time to create a Pinterest board for it, for crying out loud!

Well, that's decidedly not the case anymore.

The preceding title in the Protectors Academy series had been quite bad on the editing and proofreading fronts; this one was leaps and bounds worse. It wasn't just the grammar, punctuation, repetition, and missing words; the exposition through dialogue was extremely heavy-handed and almost unbearable, and even plot points changed.

Aiden had been the shifter of the group previously, with a distinctly sharp sense of smell that allowed him to scent the change in the guys after their Fae magic had been unleashed, and an ability to change into different creatures. Now, it was Declan who could shift into a wolf—just a silver wolf—with no mention of any enhanced abilities whatsoever. But lo and behold mate bonds were suddenly a thing now, which his non-shifter mother seemingly knew all about.

But even worse than that was the fact that even though it had already been established, in the first book of the trilogy, the identity of the four guys that had that magnetic pull towards Sadie, this book decided none of them had any idea their group was supposed to be a quintet and fully played ignorant of the fact it had already been settled that Aiden was to be the fourth boyfriend. These books are under 200 pages long. Am I really supposed to have forgotten Declan and Aiden had a full conversation where both of them had confirmed they felt the irresistible draw towards Sadie? And that only they, Cole, and Fergus reacted in that way?

And it's not like the amazing storytelling was enough to keep me engaged enough to overlook all these glaring mistakes, either. There was virtually no plot progression on anything I hadn't already guessed.

The book was so badly paced I have no words to describe it. Sadie would be like, "I'm so worried this spell is eating away at the guys' brains and will leave lasting damage. But first, let me go have dinner before I go try to help them". Girl. Girl. WTF is wrong with you? You tell me you're worried, but you act anything but. And that, right there, is how the whole book was: one thing would be told and a completely different one shown. And the conflicting messages made reading Defense Magic very unpleasant. Not to mention how half the time the descriptions given of specific events were impossible to picture and make sense of.

I have no expectations the final book in the trilogy will be any better than this one, and I have no desire to spend time or money on such careless work. Frankly, if the author is unwilling to spend her own time and money in perfecting her publications (or, at the very least, making sure at least the plot continuity is there), then I certainly shouldn't be expected to, either. 

 As a prequel, I don't know that this book added a whole lot to the main story. Granted, it was super short and consisted of nothing more than a short glimpse into Sadie's life "before", as a human, and a short—very colorful, very unexplained—sex scene.

But what really cemented my low rating, was how rough the writing was. It was full of spelling and punctuation errors, the dialogues were terrible, and the flow was, quite honestly, awful. This novella felt very much like a first, uncorrected draft more than anything.

It could easily have been added as a flashback scene on Sparking Magic, given the book is not that long to begin with. But, at least it was free. 

 Sparking Magic was a bit of a wild experience: from the chaotic and confusing beginning to the extreme horniness, to the short timespan covered by the book, to the big questions—with what I'm guessing will be predictable answers—that are yet to be unveiled.

Honestly, this novel needs a fair bit of work. There was a lot of repetition going on, the dialogues felt like a vehicle to dump exposition—making them unnatural and not organic—and there was a myriad of mistakes ranging from missing commas to weirdly placed periods, to grammar and spelling mistakes, to switching characters' names and other continuity mishaps here are a few examples.

It was also very insta-lusty, but since that aspect was fueled by the magic binding Sadie and the guys together, I can forgive it.

Speaking of the guys, I kept calling Fergus "Tristan" in my mind, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because Disney's Brave had me thinking red hair, sexy brogues, and the rolling green hills of the Scottish highlands every time I read Fergus—said in a quintessentially Scottish accent—instead of the California surfer boy he was described as.

As I can already predict each of the boys will be tied to one of the famous fae courts, here's the name/court match-ups I would have done for them:

● Winter, Aiden.
● Spring, Fergus.
● Summer, Cole.
● Fall, Declan.

But they each would have needed looks to match. Cole's frosty blue eyes and white-blond hair were well suited for winter, but I feel his name would have gone better with a golden-skinned, cerulean-eyed dude with longish, sun-bleached, wavy hair, which is what I picture when I think "Summer". For Spring, rich, dark brown locks—the color of fertile soil—and shamrock-green irises, and Fall would have gotten hazel eyes and tousled auburn hair.

Anyway, I've been playing around on Pinterest and making a mood board with character castings and other things based on the descriptions I remembered, so I can attempt to override my brain's biases.

In any case, while the magical powers of Sadie's vagina have unlocked the dormant magic inside Cole and Fergus, the harem is not yet complete, since Declan is still on the fence—and in his feels about making a move on his BFF's girl—and Aiden is wary and unwilling to trust anything Sadie says or does.

Trouble is on the horizon, there's still people after Sadie, things with the Fae may not be as mages were led to believe and the Council parents are sure to oppose their valuable baby boys dating a girl of no standing with unusual and dangerous powers. I can guess where this story is going, and even if the writing leaves a lot to be desired, what with the range of mistakes big and small, the repetition of ideas and feelings, and the bits of plot that were not explained clearly, I'm still intrigued enough that I decided to rate this a very generous 3 stars and will be picking the second book in the Protectors Academy series. 

 In a word, this book was CHAOTIC.

I think the thing I liked the most about Secret Witch was the cute chapter art. It was also a fun change reading a book with British spellings—even if seeing lawyer instead of solicitor or barrister threw me for a bit of a loop.

The harem got introduced fairly early on (at least most of it), and from the very moment Eirik and Meal kicked down Elzora's door, things never stopped being wildly chaotic and, at times, confusing. I mean, even the names were weird and impossible to know how to pronounce: Eirik, Zohar, Ciar, Mael, and Ryes (plus three others, whose names I didn't write down and don't remember).

The guys were all weirdly volatile and mercurial, and even after finishing the book I'm unsure whether that was done on purpose or not (I'm leaning towards 'not'). And since they all behaved the same and had virtually the same personality, it was very much a struggle to keep them apart. They were all so INTENSE all the time.

I also found it strange how completely unaware and unbothered Zoe was not only of their unusual behavior but also of how touchy-feely they all acted with her—particularly considering how, even if she'd spent a few childhood summers with these guys, she hadn't seen them in nearly a decade. Seven years had gone by since their last summer together and now, at 20, they were all hugging her and kissing her head and forehead like it was no big deal. It was weird as hell. At times I couldn't help but frame it as: "the ultimate people pleaser meets a bunch of guys with zero understanding of boundaries".

Even more than halfway through, things remained confusing and drastic. I quickly grew tired of everyone constantly dealing with emotions on the "extreme" side of the spectrum. The guys were always growling, snarling, barking, roaring, hissing, and I was left wondering why they couldn't just be chill for a minute. The sheer chaoticness turned this novel into a less-than-pleasing reading experience for me—even if the plot had some interesting elements. Constantly reading about characters experiencing the superlative equivalents of human emotions left me feeling drained and exhausted.

And I had very little solid ground to hang on to. There were so few physical descriptions, I still have practically no idea what any of the characters looked like. No mention of eye color, hair color, build, height, ethnicity, nothing. Plus, there was a noticeable amount of sentences where words were missing, and the editing/proofreading got decidedly sloppier towards the end of the book.

Secret Witch was too much of a frenzied jumble of baffling events. I don't think I'll be picking up future books in the series. 

 DNF

I gave it a fair shot; got 20% of the way through before calling it quits.

Brimstone Academy: Semester One was just a little too amateurish for my tastes. Every other dialogue was followed by the verb "said", the narrative was very dry and relied too much on telling rather than showing, and the book was full of little mistakes and annoyances—I took the time to highlight and note some of them—and in dire need of some thorough editing

Plus, the two guys that were introduced up to where I read were absolute assholes—and while I dig a good asshole MMC, I like them charming and arrogant, not disgusting and condescending. And Harper came across as dimwitted and floormat-y, which are as far from the qualities I want to see in a romantasy FMC as you can possibly get.

I'll just step off here, because I don't think this novel will get any more enjoyable for me. 

 I liked the writing style. It was simple but evocative and exuberant—perhaps a tad too exuberant at times. Easy to follow and get lost in but, admittedly, it was also littered with malapropisms and a considerable number of grammar mistakes. I also found some of the vernacular used to feel out of place given the medieval context, it was too modern and casual.

I'm a big fan of the RH/Why Choose trope, but The Frost Touched Queen was my first time coming across a novel where the approach taken was to develop the relationships between the main characters on a one-on-one basis.

Kat, our newly crowned Winter Queen, had been dealing with problems born out of the insubordination of the three other monarchs that ruled the lands off to the east, south, and west of her northern winter kingdom. Unsure how to solve the strife with these young kings who had, once upon a time, been good friends of hers during their childhoods, she came up with the idea to offer an alliance through marriage to all of three them and to travel and spend a month in each of their castles to try and win their allegiance back and see which of the Kings would ultimately make the best ally to cement her power as ruler of all the land.

In this first installment of The Winter Queen duet, Kat journeyed off to meet King Levi and King Teodoro, of the east and south respectively, where she spent time alone with them and each pair got reacquainted. Issues and miscommunications that had festered into hate and resentment were confronted. And the resolution of those conflicts and grudges opened the way for love to bloom anew.

While the decision to develop the relationships one at a time was unique and unexpected in the context of reverse harem, it also meant that towards the end of the book, I became a little bored since at any given point there was little going on aside from the love angle. I'm cool with slow burn, and I enjoy the build-up of sexual tension, but my attention starts wandering, eventually, when the narrative is too focused on the characters and little time is allocated to furthering the plot, and that was what ended up happening here, too. I had been promised lots of angst and feels, but rather received grief and tantrums instead.

Luckily, the very last chapter from the POV of the Western king, Atlas, managed to grab my interest right back. Out of the three kings, he was the one I was the most curious about since, based on the flashbacks interspersed throughout the story to enrich the background and provide context, he seemed to be the one that had changed the most.

I liked the book well enough and am glad I took a chance on it during one of this year's Stuff Your Kindle events. I'll be continuing the series to find out how the reunion between Kat and Atlas will play out, and how all these proud, possessive men will deal with having to share the woman they all love.