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maddydactyl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I loved this book so much. The development of feelings between the different love stories was completely brilliant - one set falling harder and faster, and the other set fighting it every step of the way. Rat King was truly terrifying, and I loved the use of magic throughout. Also loved the resolution with Drosselmeyer! Did not go how I expected it to at all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
I loved this book so much. The development of feelings between the different love stories was completely brilliant - one set falling harder and faster, and the other set fighting it every step of the way. Rat King was truly terrifying, and I loved the use of magic throughout. Also loved the resolution to the Drosselmeyer situation! Did not go how I expected it to at all.anns_storybound_sanctuary's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I loved the world building. It is so vivid and beautifully written that I could fully immerse myself in the book.
I loved the relationship between Clara and Fin. Both characters were perfectly thought out. Their dynamic was beautiful and balanced.
Lir and Louisa on the other hand drove me mad. I like that Louisa reflects on her carelessness but while Fin and Clara are very consentual and compassionate, both Lir and Louisa are out to hurt each other. I hate when it is so obvious that one character pushes the other away by hurting them deeply just because they struggle or want to protect the other. The turn around was much to fast for my liking.
Lir and Louisa on the other hand drove me mad. I like that Louisa reflects on her carelessness but while Fin and Clara are very consentual and compassionate, both Lir and Louisa are out to hurt each other. I hate when it is so obvious that one character pushes the other away by hurting them deeply just because they struggle or want to protect the other. The turn around was much to fast for my liking.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and War
Minor: Death of parent
druzyquartz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
roro93's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death and Blood
akairondragon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This book, by Rebecca F Kenney, is a spicy fae Nutcracker retelling. I wasn't sure what to expect when I went into it, as I've never read or seen the original Nutcracker story. Nutcrackers themselves give me the willies (I don't know why) so it's not content I've ever been fond of consuming.
Two young women, Clara and Louisa, are drawn into fantastic circumstances when they go to live with their guardian, Drosselmeyer. They end up in the fae realm of Faerie with the Nutcracker and the Sugarplum Faerie, and get into all kinds of mischief while in pursuit of their goal: to lift the curse that was placed on the Nutcracker by Drosselmeyer.
There is a lot of sex and intimacy in this book. Some of the sex is quite dark and even violent in nature, so take heed of the trigger warnings before starting the novel. To be frank, I found the violent intimacy between two of the characters to be alarming and a bit too far outside my comfort zone for a book. Not that I want expressly cozy and lighthearted reads either but that...was a bit much for me. Thankfully the violence was limited to just a few scenes.
That aside, in the end, I found this to be an entertaining story. The personality differences between Clara and Louisa were well done, as were the differences between the Nutcracker and the Sugarplum Faerie. But man, are these characters horny! Haha. The action was good and the Rat King was a convincing villain. The suspense had me turning pages!
Four stars!
Two young women, Clara and Louisa, are drawn into fantastic circumstances when they go to live with their guardian, Drosselmeyer. They end up in the fae realm of Faerie with the Nutcracker and the Sugarplum Faerie, and get into all kinds of mischief while in pursuit of their goal: to lift the curse that was placed on the Nutcracker by Drosselmeyer.
There is a lot of sex and intimacy in this book. Some of the sex is quite dark and even violent in nature, so take heed of the trigger warnings before starting the novel. To be frank, I found the violent intimacy between two of the characters to be alarming and a bit too far outside my comfort zone for a book. Not that I want expressly cozy and lighthearted reads either but that...was a bit much for me. Thankfully the violence was limited to just a few scenes.
That aside, in the end, I found this to be an entertaining story. The personality differences between Clara and Louisa were well done, as were the differences between the Nutcracker and the Sugarplum Faerie. But man, are these characters horny! Haha. The action was good and the Rat King was a convincing villain. The suspense had me turning pages!
Four stars!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Sexual violence
Moderate: Violence
zoesdigitalw0rld's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence
inkdrinkermal's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
mspilesofpaper's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
What a fucking nightmare. Head the trigger warnings if you still want to borrow the book and add rape threat, gang rape, ... onto it because I don't think that those are mentioned in the eBook.
I was told on TikTok that the book would be a dark and spicy retelling with Fae and I got the book via Kindle Unlimited based on this description.
It's not a dark and spicy retelling. It's just a soft porno with fated mates and horrible writing. The only dark thing about it is that it is a nightmare and gave me a headache. It's very crude (e.g., differently flavoured cum whenever he comes) and so non-sensical (e.g., FMC 1 shaves her armpits and legs after nearly dying a couple of times; if I nearly died, shaving off my body hair isn't on the top of my list). Horrible world-building as well (e.g., (2x fated mates trope but the one pairing doesn't make sense as the author themselves establish that "only the royal fae can have a Chosen").
The two sisters drove me crazy because they are so fucking stupid but described as genius (especially Louisa with her talent for war strategy). The author considers them as "strong female characters" when there's nothing about them that would make them strong in any way. They're just obsessed with sex; I'm all for sex positivity but being obsessed with sex as the only actual character trait is so cheap. Louisa is very open about her love for sex and how she uses men to her advantage by fucking them while Clara ... she's very closeted about it (Like literally hiding in the closet to masturbate.) but so kinky. Both have ADHD but the author decided that it's something quirky and should work as a character trait instead of something that should be taken seriously. I would like to see more characters with ADHD in books but it should be portrayed well then and not as something quirky to give your characters another trait.
The two male characters are just the male and Fae versions of the sisters and partly mirrored. One is artsy and outgoing, the other one is grumpy but level-headed. It's so stupid, I'm sorry. Louisa bickers constantly with her love interest, it's so awful.
The bad thing about the book is that it started well enough and was close enough to the original tale of the Nutcracker with Drosselmeyer, the wooden Nutcracker. You have a secret room, dark corridors, ... -- bit spooky and certainly dark. As soon as they are in the Fae lands: plot is thrown out of the window and it's all about sex now. Blagh.
I was told on TikTok that the book would be a dark and spicy retelling with Fae and I got the book via Kindle Unlimited based on this description.
It's not a dark and spicy retelling. It's just a soft porno with fated mates and horrible writing. The only dark thing about it is that it is a nightmare and gave me a headache. It's very crude (e.g., differently flavoured cum whenever he comes) and so non-sensical (e.g., FMC 1 shaves her armpits and legs after nearly dying a couple of times; if I nearly died, shaving off my body hair isn't on the top of my list). Horrible world-building as well (e.g., (2x fated mates trope but the one pairing doesn't make sense as the author themselves establish that "only the royal fae can have a Chosen").
The two sisters drove me crazy because they are so fucking stupid but described as genius (especially Louisa with her talent for war strategy). The author considers them as "strong female characters" when there's nothing about them that would make them strong in any way. They're just obsessed with sex; I'm all for sex positivity but being obsessed with sex as the only actual character trait is so cheap. Louisa is very open about her love for sex and how she uses men to her advantage by fucking them while Clara ... she's very closeted about it (Like literally hiding in the closet to masturbate.) but so kinky. Both have ADHD but the author decided that it's something quirky and should work as a character trait instead of something that should be taken seriously. I would like to see more characters with ADHD in books but it should be portrayed well then and not as something quirky to give your characters another trait.
The two male characters are just the male and Fae versions of the sisters and partly mirrored. One is artsy and outgoing, the other one is grumpy but level-headed. It's so stupid, I'm sorry. Louisa bickers constantly with her love interest, it's so awful.
The bad thing about the book is that it started well enough and was close enough to the original tale of the Nutcracker with Drosselmeyer, the wooden Nutcracker. You have a secret room, dark corridors, ... -- bit spooky and certainly dark. As soon as they are in the Fae lands: plot is thrown out of the window and it's all about sex now. Blagh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence
rubiecore's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I was super excited for this because the premise of a nutcracker inspired story with fae is really cool, especially knowing that the next books in the series are inspired by some of my favorite stories. And while I did enjoy it to an extent, I constantly found myself rolling my eyes or having to walk away from it for a few minutes because of cringy dialogue or convenient parts of the plot. I think if I was able to turn my brain off and not think about the dialogue or certain plot points too hard, I could have enjoyed this a bit more.
I want to preface my next point by saying that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sex positivity or being open about sex but the way it’s talked about in this book is just so,, uncomfortably direct? No tension, nothing, just direct “hey yeah my c*m tastes different every single time” and it’s like, okay? I’m sure there were more graceful ways for that information to be presented to us. I think I knew the directness of this book would be a problem for me when we were first introduced to Louisa’s POV and while I tried to give her a chance, I just couldn’t stand her or her “enemies to lovers” relationship with the Nutcracker. The enemies to lovers plotline felt incredibly forced. The Nutcracker and Louisa disliked each other for absolutely no reason, Louisa’s reasoning being as ridiculous as “he isn’t attracted to me!! What’s wrong with him?” like,, be so fr rn. There’s no way that’s why you dislike him.
As senseless as the enemies to lovers plotline was, once the characters involved were together, their characters and relationship became much more tolerable overall. I preferred Clara and Fin’s insta-love relationship a lot more.
Generally, the plot was fine and obviously I cared enough to see it through but there were so many eyeroll moments, either because of a certain plot point feeling forced or because of extensive info-dumping through the character’s dialogue.
I might continue on in the series (bc I found out that Clara and Fin are in the second book lol) if I ever want something fast paced that I don’t have to think too hard about but idk we’ll have to see. I’m a bit bummed that I didn’t love this, especially because the third book is a Wizard of Oz inspired story and I love the Wizard of Oz ☹.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexual violence
Minor: Death of parent
ramakn22's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and War
Moderate: Rape