loishojmark's review against another edition
5.0
I must admit that I was a bit nervous about whether or not these books could bear a re-reading. But I'm still totally addicted to Barrons and I really enjoyed the writing and the storyline.
This time around I "read" the books as audiobooks, and I really hated the female readers version of Barrons in the first two books. The voice gave me disturbing images of Barrons that I didn't want to have in my head. I would have sworn that a non-sexy Barrons could exist...alas it disturbed lots of wet dreams.
This time around I "read" the books as audiobooks, and I really hated the female readers version of Barrons in the first two books. The voice gave me disturbing images of Barrons that I didn't want to have in my head. I would have sworn that a non-sexy Barrons could exist...alas it disturbed lots of wet dreams.
laila220's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like this. The world building is amazing, Mac is the anti-thesis to a lot of female protagonists in YA/NA fiction--she's not a strong Katniss, she's not a book smart Hermione, she's not a clever Annabeth Chase, and she's not a powerful underdog Danaerys . She doesn't have a sad sordid past, she grew up happily in a happy home and seems well adjusted. She's feminine, fun, likes what she likes and likes herself and her body. It was refreshing. Femininity is so often disparaged as "weak" but Mac refuses to let that part of her go.
Its everything else that bothers me and eventually made me give up around halfway through Faefever. The books are slow moving. All the men Mac comes into contact with, her "suitors," are all horribly pretentious men who do not respect Mac, her decisions, or her free will and consent. Jericho Barrons is abusive, V'lane is a privileged sexual predator, Fiona is a jealous woman (color me surprised that women are fighting over a man), the Lord Master is evil and humans are a means to an end to him, Christian is the only semi-decent one but he lied to Mac on their 2nd meeting. There are also too many male characters, not enough awesome women. The women we do meet are pitted against Mac constantly.
I stuck around to the middle of the third book to see if there were any improvements. There weren't. I liked the lore, I wish the characters were better. I can't imagine Mac in a relationship with any of the men she's met. It's frankly disturbing that women are reading this and normalizing and romanticizing the dangerous behavior or Jericho and V'lane. I don't think I'll be coming back to this series and finishing it any time soon, if ever.
Its everything else that bothers me and eventually made me give up around halfway through Faefever. The books are slow moving. All the men Mac comes into contact with, her "suitors," are all horribly pretentious men who do not respect Mac, her decisions, or her free will and consent. Jericho Barrons is abusive, V'lane is a privileged sexual predator, Fiona is a jealous woman (color me surprised that women are fighting over a man), the Lord Master is evil and humans are a means to an end to him, Christian is the only semi-decent one but he lied to Mac on their 2nd meeting. There are also too many male characters, not enough awesome women. The women we do meet are pitted against Mac constantly.
I stuck around to the middle of the third book to see if there were any improvements. There weren't. I liked the lore, I wish the characters were better. I can't imagine Mac in a relationship with any of the men she's met. It's frankly disturbing that women are reading this and normalizing and romanticizing the dangerous behavior or Jericho and V'lane. I don't think I'll be coming back to this series and finishing it any time soon, if ever.
fabpisces's review against another edition
5.0
One of the best paranormal/fantasy/romance series I have ever read.
omj's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
So much wrong with this one. I've added content warnings, but I'm sure I missed some. You have to disconnect yourself from the real world and seeing the characters as flesh-and-blood humans if you want to get through this story. I'm afraid I still enjoyed it, though. Wanted to bash everyone's heads together throughout the series. Everyone but the main character's father seems to have no emotional maturity.
This series is filled with lust, and it distracts from the main story. If you're not distracted, you will probably be annoyed.
This series is filled with lust, and it distracts from the main story. If you're not distracted, you will probably be annoyed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Sexual assault, Torture, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Misogyny, Death, Rape, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Animal death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Stalking, Addiction, Blood, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Colonisation, Classism, Infidelity, Ableism, Death of parent, Infertility, Animal death, Racism, and Self harm
charity98's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
chardy10's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
hooksbookswanderlust's review against another edition
4.0
I have a hard time giving anything a 5 star review, but I think this one deserves all four and maybe an extra half. I reviewed the first book in the series and once I started the second book, I couldn't stop reading long enough to write a review for any more until I'd finished the series. I pretty much ignored my husband and toddler and a couple human necessities like eating and sleeping.
What a ride! This series was great. KMM did a fantastic job at creating the world of the fae and expounding upon it. I thought her characters were extremely well developed from southern belle Mac 1.0 to the kick a$$ and fearless Mac 5.0, as well as the dark, dangerous, controlling and oh so sexy Barrons. Seriously, this was like Rose Hathaway (Vampire Academy - if you haven't read it, i strongly recommend) and Christian Grey (if you don't know where he's from, you must be living under a rock) if they got together. The supporting characters were also well developed and had a human quality to them even if they weren't human, showing many facets of human nature like desire, jealousy, ego, and a thirst for power as well as love, tenderness, remorse, and sorrow.
This series runs the gauntlet and keeps you on the edge of your seats, and just when you think you have everything figured out (much like Mac trying to figure out who she really is), you've only just scratched the surface. If I have any cons about this series, it is that KMM was a bit superfluous in some of the descriptions that did nothing to really further character development or storyline. And there were a few loose ends that didn't get tied off as neatly as I'd like, but they are such minor things that I'm pretty sure I'm just getting nit-picky.
Awesome series, but WARNING - highly addictive. I'm looking forward to Dani's series next!
What a ride! This series was great. KMM did a fantastic job at creating the world of the fae and expounding upon it. I thought her characters were extremely well developed from southern belle Mac 1.0 to the kick a$$ and fearless Mac 5.0, as well as the dark, dangerous, controlling and oh so sexy Barrons. Seriously, this was like Rose Hathaway (Vampire Academy - if you haven't read it, i strongly recommend) and Christian Grey (if you don't know where he's from, you must be living under a rock) if they got together. The supporting characters were also well developed and had a human quality to them even if they weren't human, showing many facets of human nature like desire, jealousy, ego, and a thirst for power as well as love, tenderness, remorse, and sorrow.
This series runs the gauntlet and keeps you on the edge of your seats, and just when you think you have everything figured out (much like Mac trying to figure out who she really is), you've only just scratched the surface. If I have any cons about this series, it is that KMM was a bit superfluous in some of the descriptions that did nothing to really further character development or storyline. And there were a few loose ends that didn't get tied off as neatly as I'd like, but they are such minor things that I'm pretty sure I'm just getting nit-picky.
Awesome series, but WARNING - highly addictive. I'm looking forward to Dani's series next!
sowaneed's review
5.0
SOOOOO GOOOOD!!! Haven't gotten hooked on a series like this since Karen Chance and Kim Harrison.... look over it!!!
mehak_ds's review against another edition
1.0
I give it one star for some very specific reasons.
Maybe my self hatred of being a brown girl has decreased and I find these things distasteful instead of agreeing with them, or they're a lot more blatant than I'm giving them credit for being.
Maybe as a non-POC reader, you might not notice the things I noticed, and if you did they might not strike you as odd or uncomfortable like they did for me. But as a WOC, I gave it the benefit of the doubt for the first two books, and quit at book 3. I was almost 1000 pages in before it got to be too much and I quit.
1.) There's some very weirdly worded white-supremacist, southern sympathizing and antebellum-glorifying attitude laced throughout.
Um.... WHAT? By "We lost everything once", is the author referring to the Civil War - oh, sorry , I mean The War Between The States™ That Definitely Wasn't About Slavery. Is the author implying that that loss - aka, the wealth and privilege accumulated through the LITERAL ENSLAVEMENT OF AFRICAN AMERICANS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS was some kind of main-character-backstory 'loss of something something important, like my mom or grandma' and not BLOOD MONEY that my family has had for centuries?
Ah yes, Southern White Men, famous for the chivalry that magically resulted in thousands of enslaved women having children much lighter than them. That's nice.
3.) There's a lot of not-too-mild racism, far too many uses of the word 'exotic', and lots of the white protagonist dressing up and pretending that dyed her makes her exotic and I quote, "Arabian Nights"-esque.
This description showed up, almost word-for-word, about six or seven times so far.
So now we're adding Orientalism to the mix too, got it.
This description shows up four times! Yes, Arab blood! So famously savage, animalistic, and NON-HUMAN that SEVERAL CENTURIES LATER a random white descendant has just enough of it to look 'exotic' BUT DEFINITELY STILL A WHITE MAN DON'T YOU WORRY.
4.) There are some horrible remarks about rape, rape culture, cat-calling, and unwanted sexual attention in general.
For context here, he did definitely ASSAULT her here because he controls her mind with magic woo woo and makes her strip in front of him.
Hahaha, stupid female! Stop being PC and sensitive you idiot SNOWFLAKE! He didn't rape you! If he had raped you, we'd know because the female body shuts that sort of thing down! /s
But seriously, rape is still rape if you don't fight back. Rape is still rape if you had an orgasm during it. Rape is still rape if you don't show any physical signs of it afterwards. Rape is rape as long as you AREN'T CONSENTING.
Also, here's a nice string of street harassment being framed as cute and fun and Sexy, because she dresses Hot™ so that means she asked for it.
Maybe my self hatred of being a brown girl has decreased and I find these things distasteful instead of agreeing with them, or they're a lot more blatant than I'm giving them credit for being.
Maybe as a non-POC reader, you might not notice the things I noticed, and if you did they might not strike you as odd or uncomfortable like they did for me. But as a WOC, I gave it the benefit of the doubt for the first two books, and quit at book 3. I was almost 1000 pages in before it got to be too much and I quit.
1.) There's some very weirdly worded white-supremacist, southern sympathizing and antebellum-glorifying attitude laced throughout.
In the Deep South, we understand pride. We lost everything once, but by God, we held on to our pride. We heaped fuel onto the fire of it, stoked it as high as a crematorium. And we immolate ourselves on it sometimes.
Um.... WHAT? By "We lost everything once", is the author referring to the Civil War - oh, sorry , I mean The War Between The States™ That Definitely Wasn't About Slavery. Is the author implying that that loss - aka, the wealth and privilege accumulated through the LITERAL ENSLAVEMENT OF AFRICAN AMERICANS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS was some kind of main-character-backstory 'loss of something something important, like my mom or grandma' and not BLOOD MONEY that my family has had for centuries?
Down South, a man would have draped a shirt around me. He would have taken a quick glance while he did it, I mean, really, breasts are breasts and men are men, but chivalry is not entirely dead where I come from.
Ah yes, Southern White Men, famous for the chivalry that magically resulted in thousands of enslaved women having children much lighter than them. That's nice.
3.) There's a lot of not-too-mild racism, far too many uses of the word 'exotic', and lots of the white protagonist dressing up and pretending that dyed her makes her exotic and I quote, "Arabian Nights"-esque.
I had a head of shoulder-length, tousled Arabian-Nights curls that framed my face seductively and made my green eyes stand out even more than they usually did.
This description showed up, almost word-for-word, about six or seven times so far.
A deep voice came out of the darkness on my left, marked by that untraceable accent that hinted of time spent in exotic climes. Like places with harems and opium dens.
So now we're adding Orientalism to the mix too, got it.
I knew from Barrons, who knows everything about everyone, that the fierce, ruthless blood of a long-ago Saudi ancestor runs in O’Bannion veins.
This description shows up four times! Yes, Arab blood! So famously savage, animalistic, and NON-HUMAN that SEVERAL CENTURIES LATER a random white descendant has just enough of it to look 'exotic' BUT DEFINITELY STILL A WHITE MAN DON'T YOU WORRY.
4.) There are some horrible remarks about rape, rape culture, cat-calling, and unwanted sexual attention in general.
He rolled hard and fast, and I was on my back beneath him, with my hands pinned above my head, the weight of his body crushing me to the floor, his face inches from mine. He was breathing harder than the exertion merited. “Make no mistake, Ms. Lane, I didn’t rape you. You can lie there on your pretty little P.C. ass and claim with your idealistic little P.C. arguments that any violation of your will is rape and that I’m a big, bad bastard, and I’ll tell you that you’re full of shit, and you’ve obviously never been raped. Rape is much, much worse. Rape isn’t something you walk away from. You crawl.”
For context here, he did definitely ASSAULT her here because he controls her mind with magic woo woo and makes her strip in front of him.
Hahaha, stupid female! Stop being PC and sensitive you idiot SNOWFLAKE! He didn't rape you! If he had raped you, we'd know because the female body shuts that sort of thing down! /s
But seriously, rape is still rape if you don't fight back. Rape is still rape if you had an orgasm during it. Rape is still rape if you don't show any physical signs of it afterwards. Rape is rape as long as you AREN'T CONSENTING.
Also, here's a nice string of street harassment being framed as cute and fun and Sexy, because she dresses Hot™ so that means she asked for it.
There were cute guys all over the place, and I got more than a few catcalls and whistles. A bartender, a young single woman and a music lover, this was my element.
The first time I’d ever walked into this part of the city, I’d gotten whistles and catcalls, and had enjoyed them all. I’d been the kind of girl who dressed for attention, in an eye-catching outfit with all the right accessories.
I stared curiously, interestedly into the faces as they passed by. I offered smiles, collected many in return. I got a few whistles, too. Sometimes the small pleasures in life are the sweetest.
jennundersea's review against another edition
5.0
One of the best series I have ever read. Just get through Mac's leaning curve, and you will grow to love her. Barrons requires no effort to enjoy. ;)