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alykbooks's reviews
118 reviews
The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent, Carissa Broadbent
3.0
3.5/5… I wish I could say that this series gave me the same feeling as ACOTAR like everyone on tiktok said it would but I just didn’t feel it.
Oraya and Raihn’s love was cute and I liked the little enemies to lovers back to enemies then back to lovers, give it a nice little twist.
I can’t move past that fact that both of them were constantly on the brink of death every single time they fought. I feel like anytime they went into battle I knew one of them was going to be practically dying.
There wasn’t an extensive amount of world building which I guess is okay but it made it hard to visualize the places they were going unless I looked at the map.
Overall, it’s a good fantasy book that you can throw yourself into but it’s not ground breaking.
Oraya and Raihn’s love was cute and I liked the little enemies to lovers back to enemies then back to lovers, give it a nice little twist.
I can’t move past that fact that both of them were constantly on the brink of death every single time they fought. I feel like anytime they went into battle I knew one of them was going to be practically dying.
There wasn’t an extensive amount of world building which I guess is okay but it made it hard to visualize the places they were going unless I looked at the map.
Overall, it’s a good fantasy book that you can throw yourself into but it’s not ground breaking.
A Ruin of Roses by K.F. Breene
1.0
When an author makes their acknowledgement: "You wanted more spice. You wanted me to just go wild. You got it. Let's hope you don't regret it." I am expecting the raunchiest, craziest smut I've read... What I got was below subpar.
The first thing that threw me off about this entire book (before I get into the smut) is the overuse of swear words and the odd combinations of them. For example:
"dick hole"
"dickfaced cumsplat"
"assclown"
"diva cuntface"
"butterfucking cuntcycles"
"dick swingers"
"broody mcfucker"
"bum trinket"
and plenty more that I'm sure I missed.
Then it was the oddly modern terms that were mixed in with what felt like an older timeline. I wasn't really clear on what time period we were in, given that they had running water and electricity at some point. They also used terms like trousers, wash basins, elixir, draught, ect. but then also had jeans and she's using modern slang. There were multiple phrases in this book that just really threw everything off:
"Damn it, now I was thinking in dad jokes"
"Was he checking out my birthing hips?"
"I clutched the books to my chest as though they would protect me - classic bookworm reaction",
"Are you into butt stuff?"
"I have to go get my nut off"
"Fat chance"
"Be your badass bitch self after today"
"It's for the lady beard"
"give yourself a little meow, meow"
"some smart fucker with daddy issues"
"big girl panties"
"Wham, bam, call me ma'am"
"My cooties are long gone"
"lets get cracking"
"Call me hagbag again and I'll punch you in your beanbag"
"I didn't think it was possible to be saltier than me"
Even if I could've ignored all of that, there was more... the plot was a mess, half the time I didn't understand what was going on or we were repeating the same plot for the 4th time over the last 3 chapters. It's also predictable that they're obviously mates. The other aspect of that is her "animal", it makes no sense that she has never had any interaction with this "animal" inside of her but she is now able to just handle it's magic and control it after the first interaction with it? Makes absolutely no sense. This honestly drove the entire smut plotline and it still didn't make any sense.
Since the author said at the beginning that this book was about to make me "clutch my pearls", I was expecting some crazy smut. What I got was them making out, him fingering her once or twice, and her giving him a blowjob. They didn't have sex once in this entire book despite them always begging each other to do it. It got to a point where every time they started doing anything I knew nothing else was coming out of it. It felt too dragged out and not even worth reading.
I'm one of those people that can't DNF a book because I have too much hope that it will get better. I didn't like this book but I'm half tempted to buy the rest of the series and read it just so I can see if it gets any worse. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone unless I wanted them to laugh at how ridiculous it was with me.
The first thing that threw me off about this entire book (before I get into the smut) is the overuse of swear words and the odd combinations of them. For example:
"dick hole"
"dickfaced cumsplat"
"assclown"
"diva cuntface"
"butterfucking cuntcycles"
"dick swingers"
"broody mcfucker"
"bum trinket"
and plenty more that I'm sure I missed.
Then it was the oddly modern terms that were mixed in with what felt like an older timeline. I wasn't really clear on what time period we were in, given that they had running water and electricity at some point. They also used terms like trousers, wash basins, elixir, draught, ect. but then also had jeans and she's using modern slang. There were multiple phrases in this book that just really threw everything off:
"Damn it, now I was thinking in dad jokes"
"Was he checking out my birthing hips?"
"I clutched the books to my chest as though they would protect me - classic bookworm reaction",
"Are you into butt stuff?"
"I have to go get my nut off"
"Fat chance"
"Be your badass bitch self after today"
"It's for the lady beard"
"give yourself a little meow, meow"
"some smart fucker with daddy issues"
"big girl panties"
"Wham, bam, call me ma'am"
"My cooties are long gone"
"lets get cracking"
"Call me hagbag again and I'll punch you in your beanbag"
"I didn't think it was possible to be saltier than me"
Even if I could've ignored all of that, there was more... the plot was a mess, half the time I didn't understand what was going on or we were repeating the same plot for the 4th time over the last 3 chapters. It's also predictable that they're obviously mates. The other aspect of that is her "animal", it makes no sense that she has never had any interaction with this "animal" inside of her but she is now able to just handle it's magic and control it after the first interaction with it? Makes absolutely no sense. This honestly drove the entire smut plotline and it still didn't make any sense.
Since the author said at the beginning that this book was about to make me "clutch my pearls", I was expecting some crazy smut. What I got was them making out, him fingering her once or twice, and her giving him a blowjob. They didn't have sex once in this entire book despite them always begging each other to do it. It got to a point where every time they started doing anything I knew nothing else was coming out of it. It felt too dragged out and not even worth reading.
I'm one of those people that can't DNF a book because I have too much hope that it will get better. I didn't like this book but I'm half tempted to buy the rest of the series and read it just so I can see if it gets any worse. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone unless I wanted them to laugh at how ridiculous it was with me.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
3.0
I'm giving this author one chance to step it up in the 3rd book before I don't even bother finishing the series.
I really liked Fourth Wing and was so excited to read Iron Flame and then it was just... eh. The whole plot just felt like despite them being young but grown adults
The smut in this book was okay but and what is in the point in that?
Overall, I think the plot was okay but this book just feels like the building up for something bigger in the next book. I also feel like some of this had to be written using ChatGPT because there is no way these characters should've been saying some of the phrases they did. All in all, it feels like the author is trying to be the next SJM but it's just not hitting the spot.
I really liked Fourth Wing and was so excited to read Iron Flame and then it was just... eh. The whole plot just felt like
Spoiler
Xaden and Violet arguing the whole time and getting no where with a resolution,The smut in this book was okay but
Spoiler
it felt like when they couldn't talk it out, they just fucked it outOverall, I think the plot was okay but this book just feels like the building up for something bigger in the next book. I also feel like some of this had to be written using ChatGPT because there is no way these characters should've been saying some of the phrases they did. All in all, it feels like the author is trying to be the next SJM but it's just not hitting the spot.