A review by kfriend
Little Bird by Jenika Snow
3.0
I love this series and Jenika Snow...and these tropes?! So this should have been a homerun for me, but I found it to fall a bit flat. All the makings a JS story that I'd ravenously consumed...but just not my favorite. Fortunately it's super bingeable, and a fast read- but certainly not the best of the series.
The tropes are all here, the background delicious, SO MUCH of the architecture is just perfect. But I felt like the story never really went anywhere- we spend way too much time in the past, too much focus on characters' whose stories we've already heard (at times it felt more like a bonus story than their own), and the chemistry never evolved in the way I thirsted for- never deepened from the forbidden lusty steam to something some substantial. The dimension and layers I find in my most favorite of Jenika's smuttfests wasn't here, and perhaps because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the premise, my super heightened expectations made something solid feel lukewarm, too. Because I wanted so badly to be obsessed since everything I adore is part of the set-up. Still love this series, though, and excited to see what Jenika creates next.
The tropes are all here, the background delicious, SO MUCH of the architecture is just perfect. But I felt like the story never really went anywhere- we spend way too much time in the past, too much focus on characters' whose stories we've already heard (at times it felt more like a bonus story than their own), and the chemistry never evolved in the way I thirsted for- never deepened from the forbidden lusty steam to something some substantial. The dimension and layers I find in my most favorite of Jenika's smuttfests wasn't here, and perhaps because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the premise, my super heightened expectations made something solid feel lukewarm, too. Because I wanted so badly to be obsessed since everything I adore is part of the set-up. Still love this series, though, and excited to see what Jenika creates next.