A review by carlaabra
Threads of Fate by Lexi Esme

fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was meh. 

Tropes: Fated mates/instalove/insta-sex. Interracial (black FMC). Gary Stu. Touch her and die.
🌶️ not well written imo but: spiderweb shibari, fang biting, venom is an aphrodisiac. He has a human form. 

MMC is your typical half-spider guy. His character is pretty flat, imo he’s just a scaffold for wish fulfillment and a Gary Stu (he can manipulate camera footage magically? Learns anything super fast, so he’s a great cook and is happy to make her dinner when she gets home from work, the doting husband.  super attentive “I exist to make you happy” blabla. Cute and goofy sometimes, hot and sexy all other times, eight-pack. Obviously deadly and saves FMC a few times from the harassing men at her workplace. Seemingly endless amounts of money. Sex god, his venom causes orgasms). OTHER BIG GRIPE: he can transform into a human form, siiiigh. He has a tragic past *eye roll* involving him losing control and harming someone. 

The FMC was a bland self-insert imo, she was black but most anything that would make her feel like a real black woman was excluded (cough hair maintenance, she takes a shower with no mention of it; she has unspecified “curly” hair). Besides ofc one or two mentions of her “espresso” skin. For me nonwhite characters are great and their race doesn’t have to be a big part of the story, but to just ignore it in relevant scenes, like showers, also seems weird. 

The writer is a novice and it shows in the flat characterization and weak descriptions. Some of the sex scenes were kinda bizarre (he bites her clit??). I swear she orgasms ten times a session. Also not a fan that the first time they have sex he uses his aphrodisiac venom, so she’s begging and down for anything. She agrees to it but idk, for a first time to have your partner basically roofied is not great imo. 

And the end, don’t even get me started. Their completely novel solution to prevent him from starving to death (he needs to eat humans) is for him to hunt criminals! It’s Spider-Man but with his spider form, let’s go with Man-Spider. The central conflict in the book is him agonizing over potentially hurting her due to his need to feed — I guess it never occurred to him that he could eat OTHER people instead?? Dumb. 
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