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clstrifes's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Death of parent
kawaii_rose's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Suicide, Torture, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury
skillyillian's review
slow-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? Yes
1.0
jesus h christ this book had me shaking my head the entire time I read it. Spoilers ahead 🤦🏻‍♀️
WHY are we letting minors into an "arcade" with poker tables, cigar smoking, and a full BAR???? Who is going in there to bet fancy jeeps and condos?!? That's the least of the logic problems here. It's like grown-ups just don't exist in this story hardly at all. A bartender lets Nora actually sit at the bar and talk to her after calling her out for being underage. Why? That's how you lose your licensing and your job, bud. There's a bunch more instances where it makes ZERO sense for a teenager to be where she is or doing what she's doing but it just happens anyway bc why not 🤷🏻‍♀️
This entire story could've been moved ahead by six or seven years with Nora in college and it would've solved half the logic problems here and made Patch a thousand times LESS creepy. I don't mind a fantasy genre age gap, I read Sarah j Maas ffs but patch has hypothetically been around since ADAM AND EVE, but falls in love with a 16/17 year old?????? WHY????? put her in college. They can still be lab partners and she can still be friends with vee and whatever else but for fucks sake she didn't need to be an actual CHILD with someone who's been around SINCE THE CREATION OF MANKIND. half the lore here didn't make sense. The author talked about stuff from the bible that she treated as fact but was very easily disproved with literally a single Google search. I broke her lore in less than three minutes.
The internalized misogyny runs rampant here. Nora's arch nemesis of sorts is, naturally, the cheerleader who "wears half a bottle of foundation" and when she's first introduced it's bc she's mockingly offering for Nora's best friend Vee to model bikinis at her mom's JCP bc she can't find enough plus size lingerie models. WHY ARE YOU HIRING MINORS TO MODEL LINGERIE AND BIKINIS, MA'AM?????? USE A FUCKING MANNEQUIN. gross gross gross. Anyway Marcie (the nemesis) uses Vee's size to bully her, and they go back and forth being catty about weight and size and Nora or Vee tells Marcie she has chocolate ex-lax stuck in her teeth. I cringed viscerally. holy shit oh my god what the hell????? jfc dude can we please move past this trope already??? It's giving "pick me", it's giving "I'm not like the other girls", it's giving "i'm the real victim here" and it's so tired. Stop acting like this shit is normal and okay, no one needs to think talking to each other like this is how it's meant to be.
Absolutely NOTHING of note happens for the first probably 85-90% of this book. You could cut out almost everything from the first probably 26 chapters and still be more or less caught up when the climax of the book hits. I finished this to see if it would get any better and it did not. The final fight made zero sense, stuff that was revealed made me even MORE grossed out with Patch than I was before, and all of the rules on angel powers and shit that had been set up were immediately chucked out the window. Like, at the speed of light, gone. Fallen angels can't possess anyone except for the one time they can, and it's not that time, but Patch manages to do it anyway, just in time to stop Jules from shooting her. How convenient ✨
Anyway this just wasn't it. Patch grooms a minor and disrespects any actual boundaries she tries to set and it was all extremely romanticized in the name of "you said not to but I'm doing it anyway because I know you want it and just won't say it" and that's gross. Vee is an EXTREMELY bad friend and ignored Nora every time she needed help, including when Nora said Elliot attacked her on her front porch and then Vee was at a party with him 12 hours later and trying to get Nora to join them. Yikes. And the first time Nora goes out for the night Vee looks her over and says something like "boys like girls who actually look like girls" like.... What the fuck??? Hello??? Show me where Nora asked. Show me.
TL;DR: There are gaping flaws in the logic throughout the whole book. Problematic behavior is romanticized throughout. This book is meant for younger audiences and a lot of icky shit is justified that impressionable people just don't need to be reading about. It's fine to let men disrespect you and groom you because they're hot and moody, and if your best friend is a dickhead it's just tough love, right? Right?
As my bestie said, "it's giving 2008 self insert fanfic" and they were RIGHT.
Good hell idk how there are three more books after this. I can't even voice all of my frustration without just explaining the whole book. This review is so long and that's after I chopped a bunch of it out. Thank god I didn't read these in high school bc it would've wrecked me almost as bad as twilight did. Never again
WHY are we letting minors into an "arcade" with poker tables, cigar smoking, and a full BAR???? Who is going in there to bet fancy jeeps and condos?!? That's the least of the logic problems here. It's like grown-ups just don't exist in this story hardly at all. A bartender lets Nora actually sit at the bar and talk to her after calling her out for being underage. Why? That's how you lose your licensing and your job, bud. There's a bunch more instances where it makes ZERO sense for a teenager to be where she is or doing what she's doing but it just happens anyway bc why not 🤷🏻‍♀️
This entire story could've been moved ahead by six or seven years with Nora in college and it would've solved half the logic problems here and made Patch a thousand times LESS creepy. I don't mind a fantasy genre age gap, I read Sarah j Maas ffs but patch has hypothetically been around since ADAM AND EVE, but falls in love with a 16/17 year old?????? WHY????? put her in college. They can still be lab partners and she can still be friends with vee and whatever else but for fucks sake she didn't need to be an actual CHILD with someone who's been around SINCE THE CREATION OF MANKIND. half the lore here didn't make sense. The author talked about stuff from the bible that she treated as fact but was very easily disproved with literally a single Google search. I broke her lore in less than three minutes.
The internalized misogyny runs rampant here. Nora's arch nemesis of sorts is, naturally, the cheerleader who "wears half a bottle of foundation" and when she's first introduced it's bc she's mockingly offering for Nora's best friend Vee to model bikinis at her mom's JCP bc she can't find enough plus size lingerie models. WHY ARE YOU HIRING MINORS TO MODEL LINGERIE AND BIKINIS, MA'AM?????? USE A FUCKING MANNEQUIN. gross gross gross. Anyway Marcie (the nemesis) uses Vee's size to bully her, and they go back and forth being catty about weight and size and Nora or Vee tells Marcie she has chocolate ex-lax stuck in her teeth. I cringed viscerally. holy shit oh my god what the hell????? jfc dude can we please move past this trope already??? It's giving "pick me", it's giving "I'm not like the other girls", it's giving "i'm the real victim here" and it's so tired. Stop acting like this shit is normal and okay, no one needs to think talking to each other like this is how it's meant to be.
Absolutely NOTHING of note happens for the first probably 85-90% of this book. You could cut out almost everything from the first probably 26 chapters and still be more or less caught up when the climax of the book hits. I finished this to see if it would get any better and it did not. The final fight made zero sense, stuff that was revealed made me even MORE grossed out with Patch than I was before, and all of the rules on angel powers and shit that had been set up were immediately chucked out the window. Like, at the speed of light, gone. Fallen angels can't possess anyone except for the one time they can, and it's not that time, but Patch manages to do it anyway, just in time to stop Jules from shooting her. How convenient ✨
Anyway this just wasn't it. Patch grooms a minor and disrespects any actual boundaries she tries to set and it was all extremely romanticized in the name of "you said not to but I'm doing it anyway because I know you want it and just won't say it" and that's gross. Vee is an EXTREMELY bad friend and ignored Nora every time she needed help, including when Nora said Elliot attacked her on her front porch and then Vee was at a party with him 12 hours later and trying to get Nora to join them. Yikes. And the first time Nora goes out for the night Vee looks her over and says something like "boys like girls who actually look like girls" like.... What the fuck??? Hello??? Show me where Nora asked. Show me.
TL;DR: There are gaping flaws in the logic throughout the whole book. Problematic behavior is romanticized throughout. This book is meant for younger audiences and a lot of icky shit is justified that impressionable people just don't need to be reading about. It's fine to let men disrespect you and groom you because they're hot and moody, and if your best friend is a dickhead it's just tough love, right? Right?
As my bestie said, "it's giving 2008 self insert fanfic" and they were RIGHT.
Good hell idk how there are three more books after this. I can't even voice all of my frustration without just explaining the whole book. This review is so long and that's after I chopped a bunch of it out. Thank god I didn't read these in high school bc it would've wrecked me almost as bad as twilight did. Never again
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Suicide, Violence, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Bullying, Gun violence, Violence, and Stalking
Minor: Eating disorder
ameydireads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
1.75
“A fairy tale with fallen angels, human hybrids, and sacrificial killings.”
There wasn’t much that I liked about this book, but the overall concept was nice – fallen angels on Earth and what not. From the start I was amused by Patch’s banter with Nora and as the story progressed I started to like Nora and Patch more and more.
But seriously though, what’s up with everyone around Nora?! It's like nobody listens to what she says or takes her feelings into consideration. It already started off weird when Nora complained about Patch to her teacher. She told her teacher explicitly that she wasn’t comfortable and he completely dismisses her feelings. And don’t even get me started on Vee who claims to be her best friend. When Nora tells her that someone physically threatened her, you’d expect her to take Nora’s side over some guy they don’t even know that well. She even goes as far as making excuses for his behavior.
“He was wasted. Maybe – maybe he didn't know what he was doing. Tomorrow he's going to feel horrible.”
"He's like there nicest guy I've ever met. When was the last time he forgot to hold open a door for you? Oh, yeah, that's right... never."
Uhhh… what?! Nope, nope nope.
Unfortunately, I don’t expect to continue with this series. I am curious to know how Nora and Patch will continue, but I couldn’t care less for the other characters.
There wasn’t much that I liked about this book, but the overall concept was nice – fallen angels on Earth and what not. From the start I was amused by Patch’s banter with Nora and as the story progressed I started to like Nora and Patch more and more.
But seriously though, what’s up with everyone around Nora?! It's like nobody listens to what she says or takes her feelings into consideration. It already started off weird when Nora complained about Patch to her teacher. She told her teacher explicitly that she wasn’t comfortable and he completely dismisses her feelings. And don’t even get me started on Vee who claims to be her best friend. When Nora tells her that someone physically threatened her, you’d expect her to take Nora’s side over some guy they don’t even know that well. She even goes as far as making excuses for his behavior.
“He was wasted. Maybe – maybe he didn't know what he was doing. Tomorrow he's going to feel horrible.”
"He's like there nicest guy I've ever met. When was the last time he forgot to hold open a door for you? Oh, yeah, that's right... never."
Uhhh… what?! Nope, nope nope.
Unfortunately, I don’t expect to continue with this series. I am curious to know how Nora and Patch will continue, but I couldn’t care less for the other characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Violence, Stalking, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Suicide, and Murder
Minor: Fatphobia, Grief, and Death of parent
sabrinahoffritz's review
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
hkdz's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
This book was boring. The characters were two dimensional and didn’t grow with the book. Everything felt like a plot point, rather than flowing. Details felt messy, privileged, and forced.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Stalking
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse
Minor: Suicide
mercyiscurrentlyreading's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
2.0
Personally, this felt like a chore to read. Normally, I finish through with the book even when I don’t like it however, this was just not for me.
I feel as though this book isn’t for everyone, my friend loved but overall I felt like there was too much going on and a lot of jumping to conclusions from Nora. I felt like it was a desperate attempt for it to feel as though everything has been solved. I felt so confused for the 60% I read. I didn’t feel as though I was immersed into the world Becca created. I obviously wasn’t her target audience and I just didn’t really enjoy much outside of the Vee interactions and Patch really. I feel like a lot was going on and also it was barely moving at the same time. The prologue was utterly confusing even to where I read to.
I feel as though this book isn’t for everyone, my friend loved but overall I felt like there was too much going on and a lot of jumping to conclusions from Nora. I felt like it was a desperate attempt for it to feel as though everything has been solved. I felt so confused for the 60% I read. I didn’t feel as though I was immersed into the world Becca created. I obviously wasn’t her target audience and I just didn’t really enjoy much outside of the Vee interactions and Patch really. I feel like a lot was going on and also it was barely moving at the same time. The prologue was utterly confusing even to where I read to.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
cherrygray's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
this book was fine. that’s it. fine. it was an unoriginal mix of the twilight saga/shadowhunters/and Fated by Alyson Noël. it was messy and unoriginal and uninspiring. it’s dramatic, not in a bad way, but it was predictable and simply mediocre.
the characters themselves were bad too. Vee was creepy, invasive, dramatic, and annoying. Marcie had no substance, she was there purely as the “mean girl” with no other personality. Patch was unsettling, creepy, gross, and also invasive (as was Jules and Elliot). Nora was so basic. oh my god, she was so so basic. she had common sense—something you don’t usually see on main characters—but she was still basic as crap. Also that fact that her mom was constantly gone for WEEKS at a time seems like abandonment/neglect, which i DO NOT roll with. She (Nora) also lacked substance. her whole personality seemed to be rounded around Patch, paranoia, and misdemeanors/felonies.
aside from the characters, it was all just ignorance and excuses with this plot. it was incredibly uncomfortable and the way nora was treated by Patch, her friend, the detectives, everyone was terrible. and it was all overlooked ??? what the hell is up with that. it was excuse after excuse and the characters used those excuses to manipulate and “explain” shit. which was stupid as fuckimg shit.
this is a book without drive or passion, i wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. it was fine. at best.
the characters themselves were bad too. Vee was creepy, invasive, dramatic, and annoying. Marcie had no substance, she was there purely as the “mean girl” with no other personality. Patch was unsettling, creepy, gross, and also invasive (as was Jules and Elliot). Nora was so basic. oh my god, she was so so basic. she had common sense—something you don’t usually see on main characters—but she was still basic as crap. Also that fact that her mom was constantly gone for WEEKS at a time seems like abandonment/neglect, which i DO NOT roll with. She (Nora) also lacked substance. her whole personality seemed to be rounded around Patch, paranoia, and misdemeanors/felonies.
aside from the characters, it was all just ignorance and excuses with this plot. it was incredibly uncomfortable and the way nora was treated by Patch, her friend, the detectives, everyone was terrible. and it was all overlooked ??? what the hell is up with that. it was excuse after excuse and the characters used those excuses to manipulate and “explain” shit. which was stupid as fuckimg shit.
this is a book without drive or passion, i wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. it was fine. at best.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Stalking, and Death of parent
Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, and Abandonment
skymunozz's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-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
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment
readsbyhope's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Murder