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A review by chelsea2020
Fallen University: Year One by Callie Rose
1.0
There was a lot to really dislike about this book, but probably the most infuriating part about it was the fact that probably 95% of the character and plot development happened OFF-page. FAR too much off-page plot and character development with absolutely NO explanation or insight for the readers ON the page. The relationships between Piper and her men happened almost entirely off-page, which left the readers questioning whether they’d missed a chapter or more explaining how they suddenly became such a close-knit unit, and also how their abilities developed at such astronomical rates. One second Piper was dying from lack of sexual activity, and the next she was shifting into whole-ass other people and beings with NO suspicion or surprise from ANYONE else on-page. In one chapter half her guys were debating whether they wanted anything to do with Piper, and then 10 pages later they’re madly in love or something??? Honestly we don’t even know, but the emotional whiplash was almost enough for me to put the book down SEVERAL times throughout my reading it. But I don’t like leaving things unfinished and was constantly hoping it’d get better since the beginning was SO INTERESTING that I nearly was willing to brush off all the ridiculously-spontaneous plot points that the author was asking me to swallow.
It took more than a third of the way through the book for before you even knew what any of the characters’ demonic forms were, and considering how critically important that factor was for Piper, considering she nearly DIED from lack of sex, I would’ve assumed that factor would have been more important to the school when assimilating the students to their new reality in a demon-reformation-academy. Why did the teacher just leave them all to figure out what kind of demon they were on their own? Why did they not have some kind of testing or SOMETHING to help the students figure it out? That clearly wasn’t a safe thing to do for either the students OR the friggin school! Why was more care not taken into helping them figure that stuff out?! Seems like laziness to me. And honestly seemed like the author was just making random abilities up as they went, throwing in whatever sounded good/useful for them in the moment. Piper needs to eavesdrop on her nemesis without being caught? Shape-shifting. Piper needs to calm people down from their hysteria? Persuasion (but isn’t that more of a Siren ability??? Ah fck it, IT’S FOR THE PLOT!).
We NEVER get to actually witness Piper’s progress in her classes. All we know is she is somehow a prodigy with her abilities (the entirety of which we have NO knowledge of), though how we determined this fact, only Rose knows. And at the beginning she could’ve fcked anyone in order to survive, but then towards the middle-end we found out that only lasts her an undetermined amount of time before only the magic peens of HER men will save her, but like what happens if they all fckn DIE, HUH?! And what about the Succubi who only have one or two mates, cause apparently Piper is Über Special for having four mates, lucky her or else the rejection of half her men in the beginning might’ve killed her sooner, amiright? Or amiwrong, cause I genuinely have NO IDEA how ANY of that sheet works. *Big eye rolls*
I feel like the book really sacrificed plot and character development for the sake of fitting as much seggs into the story as possible. And that sheet was NOT enough for me. Seggs is fine when it makes sense, but when you take a character (Kingston) who is ADAMANTLY against the idea of being with Piper and then just randomly throw him into a seggs scene with her cause apparently off-page they got ‘close’ (Or did they even, question mark?), and then in the next page make him all closed-off and sheet again, then it’s CLEAR to me that this wasn’t for the storyline and it didn’t matter whether that sheet actually made sense to your readers. It was all to fill some basic-a$$ fantasy of the author. I really hope those 5 minutes were worth it, cause that sheet was NOT satisfying at all and made for a tragically weak and wishywashy story. Same with most of those scenes with her men TBH. They all really left a lot to be desired.
I was incredibly disappointed with the progression of this book, and that is SO unfortunate because I was really excited to read this book and I was very into Piper’s personality from the beginning. She could’ve been a much better-developed character if it wasn’t for her men causing her to revert back to an obnoxious and angsty school-girl persona, erasing every bit of her fire and take-no-Bshit spirit. I will NOT be giving that second book any of my time if I only have more of the same nauseating storyline and characters to look forward to. Would not recommend this to anyone. It wasn’t worth the read.
It took more than a third of the way through the book for before you even knew what any of the characters’ demonic forms were, and considering how critically important that factor was for Piper, considering she nearly DIED from lack of sex, I would’ve assumed that factor would have been more important to the school when assimilating the students to their new reality in a demon-reformation-academy. Why did the teacher just leave them all to figure out what kind of demon they were on their own? Why did they not have some kind of testing or SOMETHING to help the students figure it out? That clearly wasn’t a safe thing to do for either the students OR the friggin school! Why was more care not taken into helping them figure that stuff out?! Seems like laziness to me. And honestly seemed like the author was just making random abilities up as they went, throwing in whatever sounded good/useful for them in the moment. Piper needs to eavesdrop on her nemesis without being caught? Shape-shifting. Piper needs to calm people down from their hysteria? Persuasion (but isn’t that more of a Siren ability??? Ah fck it, IT’S FOR THE PLOT!).
We NEVER get to actually witness Piper’s progress in her classes. All we know is she is somehow a prodigy with her abilities (the entirety of which we have NO knowledge of), though how we determined this fact, only Rose knows. And at the beginning she could’ve fcked anyone in order to survive, but then towards the middle-end we found out that only lasts her an undetermined amount of time before only the magic peens of HER men will save her, but like what happens if they all fckn DIE, HUH?! And what about the Succubi who only have one or two mates, cause apparently Piper is Über Special for having four mates, lucky her or else the rejection of half her men in the beginning might’ve killed her sooner, amiright? Or amiwrong, cause I genuinely have NO IDEA how ANY of that sheet works. *Big eye rolls*
I feel like the book really sacrificed plot and character development for the sake of fitting as much seggs into the story as possible. And that sheet was NOT enough for me. Seggs is fine when it makes sense, but when you take a character (Kingston) who is ADAMANTLY against the idea of being with Piper and then just randomly throw him into a seggs scene with her cause apparently off-page they got ‘close’ (Or did they even, question mark?), and then in the next page make him all closed-off and sheet again, then it’s CLEAR to me that this wasn’t for the storyline and it didn’t matter whether that sheet actually made sense to your readers. It was all to fill some basic-a$$ fantasy of the author. I really hope those 5 minutes were worth it, cause that sheet was NOT satisfying at all and made for a tragically weak and wishywashy story. Same with most of those scenes with her men TBH. They all really left a lot to be desired.
I was incredibly disappointed with the progression of this book, and that is SO unfortunate because I was really excited to read this book and I was very into Piper’s personality from the beginning. She could’ve been a much better-developed character if it wasn’t for her men causing her to revert back to an obnoxious and angsty school-girl persona, erasing every bit of her fire and take-no-Bshit spirit. I will NOT be giving that second book any of my time if I only have more of the same nauseating storyline and characters to look forward to. Would not recommend this to anyone. It wasn’t worth the read.