multicoloredbookreviews's reviews
1023 reviews

 As-of-right-now-DNF-65% (finished 2 books out of 3).

Honestly, I'm not completely sure how I feel about this trilogy.

The first book was not good, the second was better—but I also took a small hiatus in the middle of it to read something else—and I'm not sure I care enough about how the story will end to take the time to read the third book.

Saved by Blood, part 1 of the trilogy, was one of the most boring books I've read this year. For a book all about romance, the relationship development sucked (pun not intended). There was meant to be some intrinsic link between the guys and Willow (because I guess that's how turning works?) but where was the build-up? It was, like, boom! Bite, turn, ergo: insta-lust. Which, no, thank you. We're dealing with a grown-ass—27 years old and divorced—woman here, not puppy love. I want proper chemistry and suitable relationship development, please.

Truthfully, the whole execution of the book was kinda subpar. It relied on multiple POVs, but Jerrett, Sol and Malcom's voices all sounded the same and blended together. No matter who was narrating any given chapter, the three of them shared the same thoughts, feelings and impressions, particularly where Willow was concerned. But also, it resorted to one of my pet-peeves, which is going back and explaining the same events from different POVs. If I've been given the necessary context clues and basic personality traits, I don't need to relieve the situation from the other character's perspective to know how they felt. The repetition is not wanted, need, nor appreciated. Let's just keep things moving forward.

I don't know. Granted, this is not a long omnibus by any stretch, buy it simultaneously felt like nothing happened while dragging at a snail's pace. Like, here's the cliff-notes for Saved by Blood: Willow gets attacked by a "shade", the guys turn her in a last ditch effort to save her life, they "adopt her" to keep her safe (because the shades keep coming after her). She discovers she has some weird powers and the she was never 100% human. The End.

The book lacked tension. It lacked spark. It lacked world and character building. I was bored and detached the whole way through. It was, simply put, another yawn inducing insta-lust PNR.

The second part, Seduced by Blood, felt better. But I'm not 100% clear if that was because it was actually better, or because I read a less than great book during the short break I took from this trilogy, and by comparison, this didn't seem so bad anymore LOL

The change in setting made the story feel more dynamic and interesting, even if the plot still advanced very little. A more real sense of danger and peril got conjured, like Willow and the guys were actually facing off against a powerful enemy they knew almost nothing about. But at the same time, there were messy, smaller little side plots to fill the pages while the main one got developed. Book 2 was a lot easier and less painful to get through.

Still, the characters remained kinda boring, predictable and unoriginal, and the mystery didn't manage to grab my attention. So I doubt I'll be back to finish out the trilogy.

 

Destiny of Ashes , the last and final book was, in a word, disappointing.

I'd hoped this one would be the one where we'd see some massive character development, where Leighton would go from the self-sacrificing, victim-of-her-circumstances girl to someone strong, self-assured and confident in herself and in her relationships with her mates. But, nope. Zero of that took place.

All we got was recycled plot and the same issues of the previous books presented in a different font, so to speak.

Leighton's incessant internal monologue went from "What if I don't have powers?" to "What if I can't control my powers?". It was a constant, never ending cycle of the same thoughts repeating over and over again. This chick was exhausting. I like melodrama but when it doesn't lead anywhere, what else is left but to get tired and annoyed with all the self-doubt, angst and the tears? No one likes a pitiful leading lady.

I desperately wanted her to pull it together, but she never did. Her character had literally no growth arc, and if at the end of all the mess this trilogy threw at her the main character was the same exact person as in the very first book, then undoubtedly something went catastrophically wrong along the way.

The ending was so underwhelming. All the villains they were defeated maybe 15 minutes into the final battle Leighton and the guys entered expecting to be thoroughly decimated. Their victory and happy ending didn't feel earned or properly fought for. It was too rushed.

I still liked Tessa Hale's general writing style and some parts and aspects of this trilogy, so I'll definitely be checking out other of her series, but this one didn't deliver as strong an ending as I would have liked. I hope I'll have better luck with her other books.

 

Anchor of Secrets, the second installment of the trilogy, was another thoroughly entertaining book, and yet objectively there was barely any plot progression. 

The whole thing revolved, much like Legacy of Shadows, around Leighton and her seemingly missing powers, which meant she couldn't anchor the guys—and all her guilt, grief, sadness and other assorted overwhelming feelings over, and related to that—and trying to find a way so that they could all be together as mates and not go insane and die because of the anchor-less-ness. 

Because that was the whole thing about this supernatural world: in order for the powers to not lead them to madness, clusters of supers (such as the one comprised of Colt, Ronan, Declan, Trace and Dash) needed an anchor to balance them out. And because Leighton had never presented as such, she couldn't be their anchor. But because she was their mate, the boys (and Leighton) were faced with the decision to either go insane or face the immense heartache of breaking the mate bond, since the mate and anchor being two separate women was doomed to end in death for them all anyways. Fun times! 

It was considerably more intense than book 1, more bloody, traumatic and violent. Leighton and the guys' enemies are steadily getting more and more unhinged. And the teen angst ratcheted up, too! The whole thing was low key trashy, but in the best possible way. A litany of deranged fun packaged in short, wonderful chapters. 

 

I downloaded Legacy of Shadows , the first book in the Supernaturals of Castle Academy trilogy, during one of the Stuff Your Kindle events of last year. And, not gonna lie, even it had juvenile melodrama for days, it was still a fun read.

I mean, considering Leighton, our leading lady and sole narrator throughout all three books, was only 17 years old (as were Colt, Ronan, Declan, Trace and Dash, all the guys in her harem), I could cut them some slack on the adolescent behaviors.

This first book was mainly driven forward by secrets and mysteries and while I'm always frustrated by, and never fully get the reasoning behind keeping the FML in the dark—wouldn't she be safer if she knew what to look out for?—between the answers not being forthcoming in the very least and the sheer drama of it all (so much pain! so much anger! So many feelings!) I was very entertained throughout.

But also, this book was so easy and quick to read that by the time the reveal rolled around at around 80% of the story—way to put it off!—I was so hooked and curious to finally be clued in as to what type of PNR Legacy of Shadows would turn out to be, it barely felt like any time had passed. I absolutely devoured it.

On the not so awesome side of things, considering the fact this series is about teenagers, I was inescapably made wildly uncomfortable when things eventually got spicy. The group scenes were fairly tame—thank goodness!—but still plenty hot. But there's never any getting around the weird and uncomfortable feelings tied to reading about the sexcapades of highschoolers. Also, I didn't think it was nice of the guys to get intimate with Leighton while they were still keeping massive secrets from her.

I liked the whole world-building, the mix of supernaturals, and other of the typical PNR tropes used. While not original, it was still a great book. The cliffhanger at the end was an absolute killer (hated it <3), and left me desperate to start the next one. 

 DNF 51%

PSA: women are so much more than walking incubators, synonyms exist and excessive exclamation marks have no business being in smut.

Longer review on my blog: http://multicoloredbookreviews.home.blog/2024/04/20/dnf-alien-princes-mate-fated-mates-of-the-seed-1 

 While I really love books written around the ABO dynamics, wolf shifters are not something I'm drawn towards, so I tend to skip those stories. But I was looking for my next read and nothing sounded appealing until I came across Carnage Island, so I went with my gut feeling and let my instincts guide me—Tieran would be proud LOL—and I wasn't disappointed!

This book was a bit like the first and last installments of a trilogy rolled into one. Jumping into Carnage Island felt a little like diving into a story that was near it's completion but missing the last important piece to spark the last arc. And that last piece happened to be a fierce little Omega named Clove.

I enjoyed the balance between the savagery and brutality of the character's animal instincts and the care and protectiveness brought about by their mate bonds. It was sweet to see these fierce Alpha men get all gentle and soft when it came to their Omega. There's always something irresistibly charming about strong, intimidating dudes going all gooey inside over the woman they love.

The universe building was a little confusing and chaotic—perhaps because this book is part of a collaborative series of standalones by different authors?—, but really that didn't much matter. The pace of the story was so break-neck quick that I didn't have time to dwell on questions before we were onto the next thing, and eventually the details became sufficiently clear to where all major questions were answered. Plus, the smut was nice and spicy!

If you're in the mood for a quick, intense, easy read and like shifters and reverse harem, I'd recommend Carnage Island. 

 It was a sweet story. Cute, lighthearted, easy to read. But nothing new. 

 

Yay for Penny Reid and her STEM heroines!

It’s been a hot—like surface of the sun hot, or two-ish years if we’re talking time—minute since I last read anything by the lovely, talented miss Penny Reid, but as I’ve grown to expect, I’m once again left with warm and happy feelings upon reaching the conclusion of yet another one of her works.

I’m a science nerd, more of the chemistry variety, specifically, but a nerd non-the-less and physics is intrinsically related to my preferred field of study, so of course I got excited about getting to read a love story featuring another fellow science nerd. These ladies speak my language.

For those unfamiliar with the Hypothesis series, books #1 through #3—Attraction, Heat and Capture—are bundled in an omnibus called Elements of Chemistry, and the next three in the series—Motion, Space and Time—make up this second one: Laws of Physics. The first trilogy follow Kaitlyn and Martin (who happen to make a small appearance in Space), while this second one is about Mona and Abram.

Similar to the chemistry series, this one also centered not only around the relationship development of the main couple, but also them dealing and coming to terms with personal issues. Admittedly, Kaitlyn and Martin were exponentially messier and more toxic than Mona and Abram, but I think I liked this second couple better as charactres.

One thing I feel is intrinsic to Penny’s writing is her prose. In all my reviews I can’t help but gush about how much I love her writing. Additionally, this woman knows how to build sexual tension like nobody else. Don’t quote me on this, but this might be the slowest slow-burn to ever slow-burn. I think even I got blue balls reading it and I don’t even have the necessary biological equipment for it.

On the flip side though, I find it’s often the case with her books that they start off with an explosion of awesomeness, but then sort of peter out, settle down and smooth over. They go from upbeat and exciting to comfortable.

To be honest, given the book’s description, I expected Mona to be anal and rigid. I mean, “scheduling fun”? That right there sounds like a Sheldon Cooper thing to do.

And while she most definitely was on the spectrum, as most geniuses tend to be, she was also so unbelievable quirky in the best, most endearing way possible during the first book. And in turn, aloof Abram had no choice but to be unwillingly charmed and reluctantly curious. Motion, told completely from Mona’s POV (unlike the following two parts, which were dual POV) was so full of awesome banter, awesome relationship development and awesome build-up of sexual tension. It was hot, and sweet, and an amalgamation of adorable, peculiar moments that made for a beautiful whole.

The beginning of Space introduced Abram’s voice and, being as he was a lyricist at heart, it was nothing if not poetic. But, barely a few chapters into this second part of the trilogy what had made each of our main character’s respective POVs special, got watered down and somehow lost. The focus got centered too much on the couple at the expense of their individuality.

Things hadn’t ended well between them, so I expected high, oppressive angst, with a little anger, guilt and resentment for good measure, but my craving for drama and tears wasn’t satisfied. It was more of a cold-war clashing than a full exothermic reaction. They avoided, then talked and ultimately worked things out. And thus we moved to book three and the eventual happily ever after.

I like Penny Reid’s books, I like her writing and characters, but as I’ve said, they start explosively and then dwindle down too quick. Even stories like this one, about a prodigal scientific genius and a world famous rock star, somehow end up feeling common-place. Like the struggles the characters face are somehow so universal and mundane they could happen to anyone. It’s hard to put into words.

Overall, I ended up with this warm, cozy, homely feeling even when the premise and the events that kicked off the whole thing between Mona and Abram were kinda nuts and these characters lived lives by no means ordinary. So, if STEM romance is your jam, I very much would still encourage you read it. It may not blow your mind, but I’m sure you’ll still have a good time. 

 As someone who's fallen down the rabbit hole of k-pop just a few years ago, this manga made me wonder how I'd possibly react to meeting the Idols I like in real life.

Getting to lightly explore the complexities of fandom and parasocial relationships and the blurred lines between reality and life in the spotlight, in a quirky, overall lighthearted way was fun.

It was also interesting how all the main characters were female, but the story presented a starkly different variety of die-hard fans: the respectful one, and the obsessive one with no regard for boundaries.

The art was gorgeous. Very dynamic and expressive.

I'd be interested to read the following volumes. 

 **I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ** 

 If The Kissing Booth and High School Musical had a smutty, late-90's/early-2000's rom-com baby with college aged characters, this would pretty much be it.

It had all the stereotypical tropes: the awkward, quirky, unpopular girl; the confident, good-looking, star athlete guy; the "transactional" relationship; the secret crushes and the classical musical anthems, etc.

I'm sure teenage me would have loved the heck out of this book: it's just that perfect blend of utterly unrealistic, charming and hot. Adult me, however, saw it for the silly, over the top story it was. But that's not to say I didn't had an ok time reading it. Much like classic rom-coms give us lovers of the genre that warm, nostalgic feeling, I found myself fondly rolling my eyes while reading Homerun Proposal where I would've been utterly delighted in my younger years.

It was pretty clear that Lane and Hallie were already in love from the very first page, so unpredictable this book was not. The writing also wasn't the best in the sense that the way sentences were structured was kinda wonky, not to mention the significantly cringe dialogues (that were painful to read, but undoubtedly had that 90's-movie, overly explain-y flair to them).

I also had issues with how the major conflict of the story was crafted. The way it was presented, it felt like Hallie was overreacting and being ridiculous. The only moment of doubt she'd had in her relationship with Lane had been at the very beginning, and from that point forward he'd never said or done anything to give her any reason to question his feelings. All the opposite, in fact. The set up for her plot-mandated freak out wasn't there, so the emotion of the moment ended up lacking, too.

The friction with Lane and his dad over his baseball career was also disappointing in its resolution. That conflict was the single side-plot the whole book had, and a significant part of Lane's character inner turmoil, and yet it was resolved off page almost as an afterthought. I didn't like that.

All in all, if you're looking for originality, you most definitely won't find it here. But if you're okay with formulaic, likeable characters, a predictable plot and unexpectedly hot smut, you may enjoy this novel.