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A review by koistyfishy
Scarred by Emily McIntire
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Everybody loves a bad boy and when that bad boy happens to be a disgustingly sexy SCARRED prince with black hair it is totally fair to say expectations are pretty high and I’m not ashamed to say I had skyscraper-level expectations for this. Unfortunately, this didn’t even peak at a two-story condo.
This is nothing "Lion King". The description was actually right! It is an embraced reimagining of Hamlet and if anything it would be a prequel to The Lion King, except in this one Mufasa is a cruel vindictive dick who beats on his brother and murdered his father. So said brother wants to get him back where it hurts most…stealing his crown and kingdom.
The main problem with this book was the writing! It was incredibly messy, like imagine on the level of a high school paper that you’d written the night before the deadline and had to come up with 5000 words at 2 o’clock in the morning. The general descriptions, the sentences and how things were laid out at times made no sense. I get EXTREMELY frustrated at books when I am forced to re-read sentences. If it happens once or twice I can overlook it; BUT in this the entire first 20% of the book, I was in a perpetual state of confused-mess. This made it very difficult to get into the story as I was constantly rereading stuff and needing to go back and try and put together in my mind what was fuck was going on because it wasn’t clearly communicated.
The pace and plotline of this were choppy and chaotic. I am not sure if it just felt this was because of the mediocre writing but things would happen off-page and then as the reader you are just thrown into the mix again - I had to page back a few times to make sure I WASN'T SKIPPING CHAPTERS by mistake.LIKE the whole kidnapping of Xander, and Tristan's capture by Michael....WHY COULDN'T WE ACTUALLY SEE THESE EVENTS HAPPEN ON PAGE????? We are just shown the repercussions of these events, which is bad plot design in my opinion!
Next... in the BLURB and Author's note at the start "It is a fractured fairy tale: NOT FANTASY" - Genres on Goodreads - FANTASY???? Like what are you?? Honestly, this read like a fantasy, but there wasn't enough world-building to feel that this WAS FANTASY! There is this made-up kingdom that is close to FRANCE???? And they have guns and automobiles BUT they also use swords!!! I had no idea what time period this was in or what world.
The one thing I liked though is Tristan and Sara, but I didn't love them! I think I have been spoilt recently in ACTUAL fantasy where the characters have so much depth to their characterisation and the relationships are complex and convoluted. These are just two people who are horny and slightly psychotic that their attraction borders on obsessive possession... Again, like Hooked, this felt 100 pages too short to explain how quickly these characters say "I love you". BUT I don't think I would have been able to survive another 100pg of this!
As I alluded to in my mini review - I liked this more than Hooked only because I connected slightly more with the characters and agreed with the motivations they had - Also the way Tristan was with Simon was adorable! BUT I preferred the writing in Hooked...
So right now I am left underwhelmed, unsatisfied and disappointed that this was not amazing! I wanted the trend to be true that if you didn't fully love Hooked, you would like this - but sadly this one didn't do it for me either.
Would I still recommend this?
Yes - it's not terrible and I can see why people love this for what it is. It's a good way to pass the time - the smut was also fine, nothing scary and dark... just a few candle wax drips to excite you!
This is nothing "Lion King". The description was actually right! It is an embraced reimagining of Hamlet and if anything it would be a prequel to The Lion King, except in this one Mufasa is a cruel vindictive dick who beats on his brother and murdered his father. So said brother wants to get him back where it hurts most…stealing his crown and kingdom.
The main problem with this book was the writing! It was incredibly messy, like imagine on the level of a high school paper that you’d written the night before the deadline and had to come up with 5000 words at 2 o’clock in the morning. The general descriptions, the sentences and how things were laid out at times made no sense. I get EXTREMELY frustrated at books when I am forced to re-read sentences. If it happens once or twice I can overlook it; BUT in this the entire first 20% of the book, I was in a perpetual state of confused-mess. This made it very difficult to get into the story as I was constantly rereading stuff and needing to go back and try and put together in my mind what was fuck was going on because it wasn’t clearly communicated.
The pace and plotline of this were choppy and chaotic. I am not sure if it just felt this was because of the mediocre writing but things would happen off-page and then as the reader you are just thrown into the mix again - I had to page back a few times to make sure I WASN'T SKIPPING CHAPTERS by mistake.
Next... in the BLURB and Author's note at the start "It is a fractured fairy tale: NOT FANTASY" - Genres on Goodreads - FANTASY???? Like what are you?? Honestly, this read like a fantasy, but there wasn't enough world-building to feel that this WAS FANTASY! There is this made-up kingdom that is close to FRANCE???? And they have guns and automobiles BUT they also use swords!!! I had no idea what time period this was in or what world.
The one thing I liked though is Tristan and Sara, but I didn't love them! I think I have been spoilt recently in ACTUAL fantasy where the characters have so much depth to their characterisation and the relationships are complex and convoluted. These are just two people who are horny and slightly psychotic that their attraction borders on obsessive possession... Again, like Hooked, this felt 100 pages too short to explain how quickly these characters say "I love you". BUT I don't think I would have been able to survive another 100pg of this!
As I alluded to in my mini review - I liked this more than Hooked only because I connected slightly more with the characters and agreed with the motivations they had - Also the way Tristan was with Simon was adorable! BUT I preferred the writing in Hooked...
So right now I am left underwhelmed, unsatisfied and disappointed that this was not amazing! I wanted the trend to be true that if you didn't fully love Hooked, you would like this - but sadly this one didn't do it for me either.
Would I still recommend this?
Yes - it's not terrible and I can see why people love this for what it is. It's a good way to pass the time - the smut was also fine, nothing scary and dark... just a few candle wax drips to excite you!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder