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ells___'s review
Did not care for authors termage and style of spice writing. The romance felt like too much of a 180 from hard no to take me know. First big spice scene also felt a bit to close to non-con and being drugged. Would have been a great scene for later in the book once boundaries and know of eachother is established.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Stalking and Injury/Injury detail
carlaabra's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This was meh.
Tropes: Fated mates/instalove/insta-sex. Interracial (black FMC). Gary Stu. Touch her and die.
🌶️ not well written imo but: spiderweb shibari, fang biting, venom is an aphrodisiac. He has a human form.
MMC is your typical half-spider guy. His character is pretty flat, imo he’s just a scaffold for wish fulfillment and a Gary Stu (he can manipulate camera footage magically? Learns anything super fast, so he’s a great cook and is happy to make her dinner when she gets home from work, the doting husband. super attentive “I exist to make you happy” blabla. Cute and goofy sometimes, hot and sexy all other times, eight-pack. Obviously deadly and saves FMC a few times from the harassing men at her workplace. Seemingly endless amounts of money. Sex god, his venom causes orgasms). OTHER BIG GRIPE: he can transform into a human form, siiiigh. He has a tragic past *eye roll* involving him losing control and harming someone.
The FMC was a bland self-insert imo, she was black but most anything that would make her feel like a real black woman was excluded (cough hair maintenance, she takes a shower with no mention of it; she has unspecified “curly” hair). Besides ofc one or two mentions of her “espresso” skin. For me nonwhite characters are great and their race doesn’t have to be a big part of the story, but to just ignore it in relevant scenes, like showers, also seems weird.
The writer is a novice and it shows in the flat characterization and weak descriptions. Some of the sex scenes were kinda bizarre (he bites her clit??). I swear she orgasms ten times a session. Also not a fan that the first time they have sex he uses his aphrodisiac venom, so she’s begging and down for anything. She agrees to it but idk, for a first time to have your partner basically roofied is not great imo.
And the end, don’t even get me started. Their completely novel solution to prevent him from starving to death (he needs to eat humans) is for him to hunt criminals! It’s Spider-Man but with his spider form, let’s go with Man-Spider. The central conflict in the book is him agonizing over potentially hurting her due to his need to feed — I guess it never occurred to him that he could eat OTHER people instead?? Dumb.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Violence and Sexual harassment
Dudes sexually harass FMC (including the beginning of the book being her boss trying to rape her) but she escapes and then MMC kills him. So vengeance is completed and FMC is ultimately unharmed.kittykels's review
challenging
fast-paced
4.0
The writing could use some better editing, but otherwise this was a very quick and spicy read. I was expecting more monster smut but it felt like normal smut given his human form.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Violence and Blood
Minor: Sexual harassment
xoxlululuxox's review
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
This started off so strong, the first chapter really drew me in. Within this first chapter there is an attempted sexual assault followed by some violence, where our female main is injured before the meet-cute between Rihanne and Sephtis. The idea that this could have be the perfect hurt/comfort monster romance had me plowing through the rest of the book before I knew it.
However, I did have several issues with what was presented in the rest of the book, which is why I had to drop my rating down from what would have been a 4.
I felt that it was lacking in building the characters, in that we were told more than shown how they were from their own perspectives. And they had some strange motives and questionable behaviour for the sake of creating drama that wasn't necessary.
The romance was pretty much insta-love, which wouldn't have been terrible if the events of the first three quarters of the book didn't take place over 3 or 4 nights, which is occasionally mentioned as an after thought. The short time period with insta-love really makes it hard to believe how they, particularly Rihanne, feel for each other.
While I didn't find this too explicit in terms of the spicy scenes, they were reasonably frequent so I would personally rate the spice a 3/5 (a good balance between spice and plot).
I did really enjoy this book despite the flaws I felt it had. The concept was right up my alley, and I really enjoyed Lexi's writing style. I would definitely pick up another of her books in future.
However, I did have several issues with what was presented in the rest of the book, which is why I had to drop my rating down from what would have been a 4.
I felt that it was lacking in building the characters, in that we were told more than shown how they were from their own perspectives. And they had some strange motives and questionable behaviour for the sake of creating drama that wasn't necessary.
The romance was pretty much insta-love, which wouldn't have been terrible if the events of the first three quarters of the book didn't take place over 3 or 4 nights, which is occasionally mentioned as an after thought. The short time period with insta-love really makes it hard to believe how they, particularly Rihanne, feel for each other.
While I didn't find this too explicit in terms of the spicy scenes, they were reasonably frequent so I would personally rate the spice a 3/5 (a good balance between spice and plot).
I did really enjoy this book despite the flaws I felt it had. The concept was right up my alley, and I really enjoyed Lexi's writing style. I would definitely pick up another of her books in future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content
Moderate: Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Death, Eating disorder, and Injury/Injury detail
weelasswithabook's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
CW: Stalking, gore, spiders, violence, assault, graphic sexual content, death of a loved one
⭐️ Monster romance
⭐️ Interracial romance
⭐️ Fated mates
🌈 Black heroine
🌶 Restraints
This was a quick and easy monster romance between a human and a spider shiftery type creature.
It was fast paced, fated mates (the only instalove I'll ever allow), and ultimately a HEA. I wish this had been a full length novel as we didn't really get an opportunity to get to know the characters very deeply.
But the hero and heroine were sweet, conflict was resolved at a reasonable pace. I have to admit, I didn't see that conflict coming. The little plot twist from the hero's past? Yikes 👀 Jaw dropped.
⭐️ Monster romance
⭐️ Interracial romance
⭐️ Fated mates
🌈 Black heroine
🌶 Restraints
This was a quick and easy monster romance between a human and a spider shiftery type creature.
It was fast paced, fated mates (the only instalove I'll ever allow), and ultimately a HEA. I wish this had been a full length novel as we didn't really get an opportunity to get to know the characters very deeply.
But the hero and heroine were sweet, conflict was resolved at a reasonable pace. I have to admit, I didn't see that conflict coming. The little plot twist from the hero's past? Yikes 👀 Jaw dropped.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Car accident
Minor: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
jadorelecafe's review
dark
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
discarded_dust_jacket's review
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Listen it was good; it was cute. It was a short, steamy little monster romance palette-cleanser. It was better written than a lot of similar stories I’ve read. Was it extraordinary? Well, no, but you don’t go into a KU novella like this expecting an elaborate plot or fleshed-out, nuanced characters. You go into it expecting a good time, and this book was a good time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Stalking, and Sexual harassment
jessie_h's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
2.5
This was okay.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment
romanceschmomance's review
3.75
I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be reading a spider/humannoid romance, but here we are. Normally spiders are a major meh for me, but the humanoid factor in this one really helped. Plus, we get some nice webbed bondage play ;-)
Threads of Fate is an insta-love/fated mates erotic romance. I loved the steam between them, but the author added a bit into the plot that ended up taking me out of the story a bit.
Even with little things here and there that didn't quite work me, I enjoyed this one overall!
Threads of Fate is an insta-love/fated mates erotic romance. I loved the steam between them, but the author added a bit into the plot that ended up taking me out of the story a bit.
Even with little things here and there that didn't quite work me, I enjoyed this one overall!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
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