A review by skyzinnia
To Collar a Queen by Zara J. Black, Zara J. Black
4.0
I received an ARC copy of this book to read and review before publishing.
I'm going to keep my review clean for Goodreads' sake, but note in the book it's very graphic and beats around no bushes, lol. Also, this is my first book of this type, so I don't have much of anything to compare certain scenes to.
The bad:
-There are a few parts where the writing itself drops off a little bit. Merrick calls her Jo a couple times before she finally says he can't call her that. Well, he already has several times, so a little late to the party. Additionally, the amount of times "I'm going to screw her until she forgets her own name" and "her hard nipple was showing clearly through her clothes" was very excessive.
-I didn't like how becoming a changeling suddenly made their drive impossible to resist and all that. It felt a very convenient that they all happen to enjoy it and no one ever wants to escape because of how badly they need it. I think it would have been more exciting if that part was taken out. More dark, definitely, but still, lol.
-I wish there had been a bit more to the plot. I'm sad we'll never know what's beyond the Fae Gate or what happens when they cross it. We'll never know what the Fae and the changelings are exactly or what happened with the war and everything. I wish this had been more of a series/duology rather than a standalone so there could be more world-building and character development.
-Finally, I didn't like the whole Stockholm syndrome thing going on. Or that she got clothes and got to speak to people and suddenly she's the happiest she's ever been and wants nothing to change ever.
The good:
-I enjoyed the pacing of the book very much. With what she had to work with, she did extremely well. I never felt like she was rushing through the plot to get to the next scene and I never felt like things were dragging out just to make the book longer.
-I enjoyed the the spicy scenes, minus the aforementioned issue. The very first scene was the best one, in my opinion.
-I really liked how she stayed strong and was able to keep her composure through what she was going through out loud, but we got how she was actually feeling in her head.
-I really appreciated the dual POVs. I thought getting both sides was done quite well and made for a more exciting story when it flipped.
Overall, I did enjoy it, it just had a few hiccups that made it weird or boring at times, and in some cases frustrating that there wasn't more plot. You definitely need to watch the trigger warnings if you have them.
I'm going to keep my review clean for Goodreads' sake, but note in the book it's very graphic and beats around no bushes, lol. Also, this is my first book of this type, so I don't have much of anything to compare certain scenes to.
The bad:
-There are a few parts where the writing itself drops off a little bit. Merrick calls her Jo a couple times before she finally says he can't call her that. Well, he already has several times, so a little late to the party. Additionally, the amount of times "I'm going to screw her until she forgets her own name" and "her hard nipple was showing clearly through her clothes" was very excessive.
-I didn't like how becoming a changeling suddenly made their drive impossible to resist and all that. It felt a very convenient that they all happen to enjoy it and no one ever wants to escape because of how badly they need it. I think it would have been more exciting if that part was taken out. More dark, definitely, but still, lol.
-I wish there had been a bit more to the plot. I'm sad we'll never know what's beyond the Fae Gate or what happens when they cross it. We'll never know what the Fae and the changelings are exactly or what happened with the war and everything. I wish this had been more of a series/duology rather than a standalone so there could be more world-building and character development.
-Finally, I didn't like the whole Stockholm syndrome thing going on. Or that she got clothes and got to speak to people and suddenly she's the happiest she's ever been and wants nothing to change ever.
The good:
-I enjoyed the pacing of the book very much. With what she had to work with, she did extremely well. I never felt like she was rushing through the plot to get to the next scene and I never felt like things were dragging out just to make the book longer.
-I enjoyed the the spicy scenes, minus the aforementioned issue. The very first scene was the best one, in my opinion.
-I really liked how she stayed strong and was able to keep her composure through what she was going through out loud, but we got how she was actually feeling in her head.
-I really appreciated the dual POVs. I thought getting both sides was done quite well and made for a more exciting story when it flipped.
Overall, I did enjoy it, it just had a few hiccups that made it weird or boring at times, and in some cases frustrating that there wasn't more plot. You definitely need to watch the trigger warnings if you have them.