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naturally's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
my third attempt reading this book. i'll hold up my hands and admit that i misjudged the quality of this story based on the prologue/first few chapters.
mackayla lane is a messy heroine, who often strays into unlikeable territory. she views irish (and other European) cultures through a lens of xenophobia, whilst uplifting her southern american upbringing. she's been raised in a bubble. she's spoilt, whiny, superficial. and when finding out the truth about her sidhe-seer abilities, she's reluctant to wholly embrace it for the duration of darkfever. her redemption comes in the form of her unwavering dedication to hunting down her sister's killer. she's stubborn and extremely consistent in her motives. mac's also adventurous, consistently underestimated and loves books - her arc as a young woman far away from home, exploring a new country/culture was written very well, blending seamlessly with the book's supernatural content. yes, she can acknowledge that jericho is attractive, but never to the point where she throws her whole mission out of the window.
same with jericho. he's a POS. however, i appreciate that neither mac, the narrative nor he try to explain this away. he's ferocious in his hunt for the sinsar dubhe, and this tracks until the very end of the book, although we can see occasional glimpses of him beginning to care for mac. the two of them make a compelling, dysfunctional team and i'm interested to see them learn more about each other and the sinsar dubhe's whereabouts. (them calling each other "miss lane" and "barrons" was overdone though. i'm confident this book would be several hundred words shorter, if the rampant uses of these names were cut from the text!)
at times, the plot rambled on...the middle of this book was definitely saggy! however, the overall world we are introduced to is dark, and addictive and near-stellar.
mackayla lane is a messy heroine, who often strays into unlikeable territory. she views irish (and other European) cultures through a lens of xenophobia, whilst uplifting her southern american upbringing. she's been raised in a bubble. she's spoilt, whiny, superficial. and when finding out the truth about her sidhe-seer abilities, she's reluctant to wholly embrace it for the duration of darkfever. her redemption comes in the form of her unwavering dedication to hunting down her sister's killer. she's stubborn and extremely consistent in her motives. mac's also adventurous, consistently underestimated and loves books - her arc as a young woman far away from home, exploring a new country/culture was written very well, blending seamlessly with the book's supernatural content. yes, she can acknowledge that jericho is attractive, but never to the point where she throws her whole mission out of the window.
same with jericho. he's a POS. however, i appreciate that neither mac, the narrative nor he try to explain this away. he's ferocious in his hunt for the sinsar dubhe, and this tracks until the very end of the book, although we can see occasional glimpses of him beginning to care for mac. the two of them make a compelling, dysfunctional team and i'm interested to see them learn more about each other and the sinsar dubhe's whereabouts. (them calling each other "miss lane" and "barrons" was overdone though. i'm confident this book would be several hundred words shorter, if the rampant uses of these names were cut from the text!)
at times, the plot rambled on...the middle of this book was definitely saggy! however, the overall world we are introduced to is dark, and addictive and near-stellar.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Xenophobia, Blood, Stalking, and Sexual harassment
lisacanteven's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
This was just terrible. My first issue from pretty much page one is Mac and her narration. I understand that she is supposed to be a sheltered southern girl, but she never acts older than 14. She replaces curse words with silly words like "petunia" which makes zero sense. She refers to herself as a "hottie" at one point which has never been a popular term. Even when she is talking about other adults, she refers to them as "the grownups" as if she is not a grownup at age 22. She is this obnoxious throughout the entire book. If the author removed all the vain and vapid paragraphs where she goes into mundane detail about her clothes or appearance this book would be 100 pages.
I was asking for a smutty romantic fantasy, and I got this recommendation. There was no romance, and you cannot convince me otherwise. There were sexual scenes, but TW: they were not consensual no matter how you spin it. If someone would have told me that this was the fantasy version of 50 Shades of Gray I would have stayed far, far away. Nothing about rape and non-consensual sex acts are enjoyable to read.
And spoiler alert: we don't even find out who the killer is. That's the one and only reason I kept reading. There was enough about this world to continue on with the series even if we found who the killer was in book 1. I will not be continuing on though.
I'm going to be honest. This did not feel like Dublin. The setting did not feel authentic or purposeful. She made the Irish sound dumb at every corner. And for anyone wondering Highlanders are Scottish, not Irish.
I was asking for a smutty romantic fantasy, and I got this recommendation. There was no romance, and you cannot convince me otherwise. There were sexual scenes, but TW: they were not consensual no matter how you spin it. If someone would have told me that this was the fantasy version of 50 Shades of Gray I would have stayed far, far away. Nothing about rape and non-consensual sex acts are enjoyable to read.
I'm going to be honest. This did not feel like Dublin. The setting did not feel authentic or purposeful. She made the Irish sound dumb at every corner. And for anyone wondering Highlanders are Scottish, not Irish.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Murder
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