Reviews

There's a lot of good stuff here, but I was also really frustrated. Starting with the good, I like the universe. I like the mix of magical races and a magical town. I liked that Mariel had friends and her friends seemed like decent people. I liked the plant magic Mariel specialized in. I liked Ozroth's descriptions of the demon plane and his upbringing. I thought the audiobook narrator did a good job with everything apart from the male character voices, I really think the book would have benefited from a male narrator for the sections from Ozroth's perspective.

Unfortunately, I did spend most of the book feeling exasperated. The cartoonish portrayal of Mariel's family, her mother in particular, made the entire character journey

of standing up to her family

feel cheap and forced. The romance was okay most of the time, but became unstable in the later section of the book. The author seemed to condone

Mariel's complete lack of faith in Ozroth and immediate acceptance that he would betray her, despite him having never given any evidence that he would do so and having always been honest with her. The book treats the physical and emotional pain he faces afterwards as justified, even when the misunderstanding is cleared up.

I found most of the book predictable, but that doesn't tend to bother me unless things are so obvious that the characters look like idiots for not figuring it out themselves.

Content Warnings

melrule31's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

3.75

vilmati's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Magic, pumpkin spice and romance what else to ask? I wasn’t prepared it to be spicy but overall a nice autumn book!

paig_lizabeth's review against another edition

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5.0

I'll say it: I loved this book. It was a light-hearted, feel-good, easy read. This is the type of book you pick up time and time again, especially when you need to get yourself out of a reading slump. I would consider this book lightly spicy, but definitely still satisfying in that aspect. This book is sex and body positive, but also recognizes that people have dry spells and I gotta say I appreciated that.

I've never really read any books with fake dating tropes before, but I would say it was done OKAY. The focus doesn't really lie there entirely for the plot so if you're judging this book by its title you might be a little let down. It's more about the forced proximity I would say.

I think it's the little things here and there, the fine, but clever details that Sarah Hawley includes in her main characters that brings them to life and makes you care for them so deeply and their outcomes. I will say, the side characters were all very lacking. Mothers in this book all suck and are honestly the real demons. The best friends mean well, but it often comes across harsh. They're rough archetypes of characters more than anything else.

But like I said, I loved this book, I can't wait to hopefully pick it up again and reread it a few months down the line and I certainly can't wait for the sequel.

gluly's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.25

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