A review by imskylow
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

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

2.25

Interesting concept but poor execution. I was a very fast ready but I won’t lie, there’s almost no world building in this book. It really made it hard to be immersed. Maybe this is nit-picky but I can’t be absorbed into if I’m not convinced of the setting. We have suitors, horses, carriages, and balls but somehow a poor character has a shower at home? We have dresses and gowns with lacing up the back and slippers but also only “underwear” and “bralettes”?  We mention lamplighters being a job but also mention light switches? I’m thinking, maybe this is inspired by Victorian era or the Industrial Revolution and obviously it’s not set in our world but class differences, clothing and technology need to make sense. 

On a more serious note there was an infuriating love triangle that made my perspective of the main character sour. Additionally, the ending felt very gratuitous. I could just imagine the author manically laughing and she tortures her characters for no reason. The romance was awkwardly vague. Like it felt like a Wattpad novel where we didn’t want to talk about body parts. And it’s okay if you don’t want your book to be explicit but the intimate scenes should have the right pacing. Something about it just wasn’t it.

All that being said, I was not annoyed enough to DNF this book. The magic system and the plot twists were quite nice.
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