teastime's reviews
97 reviews

adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Shaesarenna Nightven, called Shae, needs protection as he travels up country to banish the demon that gave him the necromancer magic he possess. But to properly do so he needs protection, which is where Author Davorin, a paladin on a year long exile, comes in.

I originally got this book for free, about a year or so ago from one of the Stuff Your Kindle days that goes on, and I'm slightly disappointed in myself that it took so long to get to reading this with how much I enjoyed it. The world building was much better then I originally thought a fantasy that is under 300 pages could be. I was under the impression, especially before the cover change, that this would be another mindless romantasy that the only way to fully enjoy would be to turn your brain off. Instead I was greeted with a world with several gods, a magic system that I'm interested in knowing more about, enjoyable characters, and a relationship that I enjoyed very much.

I saw a few other reviews, walking about how this read like a fanfiction and mean it negatively, but I would say that this read like fanfiction in the best way there can be and I thoroughly enjoyed myself when reading. Though I think we should stop using the fact that something reads like fanfic negatively, but that's a chat for another day.

This could have definitely been longer, maybe a few more scenes growing closer with the few named side characters so whatever happened to them could have a bit more of an impact (iykyk) or a few more domestic traveling scenes between Shae and Arthur without it immediately jumping into action (no pun intended) but at least we got some more domestic scenes after whatever fight or side quest they got dragged into. They definitely had at least some insta-attraction so if slow burn is what you're looking for this is not it, but I didn't mind it at all with how it played out.

I have always been a sucker for the whole black cat x golden retriever type of relationship, and there were some moments that I didn't even know I needed until now. I found myself smiling like a fool at the moments where Arthur just needed Shae to look at him, which ended up with Arthur guiding Shae by the jaw or chin and uhhg it was so good. And I loved the whole thing with Shae needing the touch of other people to continue going on and the fact that Arthur had the warmest, the one that made him feel the most sense. And it was nice that it had an actual reason other then some 'oh they're meant to be together' BS.

Never have I been one to enjoy the whole storyline/trope of "I have these powers that I hate and now I'm going on a seemingly impossible quest to get rid of them" In fact, it's one of the common storylines in fantasy that I can properly say that I hate. I always find it overdone and a bit ridiculous. But even though this was a storyline prevalent in the book I didn't at all mind where it ended up. Or how it started either, with the emphasis on how Shae's magic affected him physically, not just mentally.

I can 100% see myself reaching for the next book, especially considering I read the synopsis and now know who it's about...
Either way, super solid read and I enjoyed myself very much throughout this whole thing. The romance and the actual plot did not fight for dominance like I see in a lot of other romance heavy books, and they actually went along fairly hand in hand for the most part. This is a very fast pace read, which again I see others complaining about in the reviews, and I did notice that after around 50% things were moving very fast. Again, I do wish this were at least a little bit longer to balance that out but everything in the book is really enjoyable and I can almost ignore that fact completely.

If you are sensitive to self harm in any way, I would recommend taking a step back and not picking this up as a large part of the necromancy magic that Tavia Lark envisioned deals with a lot of blood sacrifice. Also loss of parents does come up a lot more in the later chapters, so I would be weary of that as well if that's a sensitive spot.

Content Warnings

Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I don't think I can express just how disappointed I was in this book.
I am usually one to love any and all retellings, queer ones especially, as I know how they end most of the time and that gives me great comfort, however this time I could not keep the frown off of my face as I read. This was filled with poor writing and poor characters, this had the chance to be good and I suppose that is what frustrates me the most about this, but from the very first line I could tell that this was going to be a poor read.

Now, I am usually all for shitty books, sometimes some mind numbing vampire porn or a series that was started in the 2000s that have clearly not stood the test of time, or, honestly, some mafia macho man bs really hits the spot. So at first I thought that is what this is going to be. Which is fine and all, not the first retelling I've read that makes my brain just fill with whitenoise. And then I got just the smallest bit past the first chapter.

It was very obvious from the get go that the main character, Jak, was supposed to be quite intelligent but maybe a tad bit sheltered due to his up bringing. Instead it came across as though everyone should be incredibly surprised that he made it this far in life. He was written like the author was trying too hard to make him come across as smart, which instead had the opposite effect.

The base idea of the story was good - though I disagree that it should be marketed as a retelling and instead it has more similarities with a work that would be inspired by - but I'm afraid that was all that was good.

The sex scenes were mid, using the same language far too much and somehow making vampire sex boring and skippable, and there was inconsistency after inconsistency in both plot points and in characters. I felt little to no connection between the characters and their romance felt rushed. All of the 'twists' and reveals were easily seen from miles away and probably should have taken more build up. Grammatical errors and sentences that simply didn't make sense butchered any impact that some scenes attempted to have. If this were maybe one or two hundred pages more and with a better author I probably would have rated this much higher.

Originally I was going to consider continuing with the series, as my love for retellings holds out above my own taste often times, but if this is the out come of the other books in the series I don't see my self reading any other book from this author. I found this author originally from booktok and I think that some people should just stay readers.

Dani's Obsession by Jenna Kent

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relaxing fast-paced

2.0

I've read several of Jenna Kent's books by now and so I generally know what to expect. Her books are all usually fun and a quick read good for a palette cleanser. Instalove and sapphic and ridiculous.

But I must say that this book is one of my least favorites of hers. The voices of the two main characters kept accidentally melding together to where at points I couldn't tell who's POV I was reading, and the big climax kind of fell a bit flat.

Of course my general 2 star rating is that the book is okay. Not good but not bad, and I stand by that here. I read it, but the probabilities that I will think of it within the next few hours.

Curvy Girl and the Monster Next Door by Jessa Joy

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Eternally Hers by January Rayne

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dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

As for my usual two-adjacent star reviews, this book didn't have any problems nor did I think it was particularly bad. I enjoyed it for the most part!

I did get the e-book for free on Amazon's Stuff Your Kindle day, and as such I admittedly don't have a high expectation on the e-books I usually get in those events but I was pleasantly surprised. I do not know if I would continue on with the series, but the 70 or so pages I read were quite enjoyable for the most part.

I did really enjoy the vampire lore for the most part, however I felt like the difference between beloveds and highly compatible mates could have been a bit more distinct, there were the occasional anecdote about the differences or small mention past the first chapter. But I feel as though for a prologue, as someone who hasn't dipped into the world beyond, it was fairly decent.

It did, at times, get more heteronormative than I assumed for a novella claiming in the first and second chapter that "vampires don't care about gender" which did throw me off but I feel even if it's a more "love is love" paranormal romance some macho man bullshit is to be expected.

All in all I did enjoy my read but I don't think it's something that'll stick in my head, but I am at least a little bit interested in reading the first full novel of the series.

*Edit- Also despite the book being largely set in the early 1800s and early 1900s it felt very modern, and yes I understand the idea that Vampires are more evolved (I can't think of the word I truly want to put here) compared to humans but I don't necessarily think they'd be talking like they're from the current era.

Content Warnings

残疾暴君的掌心鱼宠 (The Disabled Tyrant's Pet Palm Fish) by 雪山肥狐

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I would like to clarify that I did start reading this because so many people on Twitter were loosing their minds at the fact that this is starting to get traditionally published by Seven Seas. The amount of "He does WHAT to a fish??" and "so you're telling me the fish gets pregnant not once, but TWICE???" on my timeline was kind of obscene. So, obviously, I had to read it. The first "book" was already out at that point but I knew that the web version would not at all be hard to find and download to my kindle. And I was right. I ended up reading the first "book" before switching over to the fan translated version because I didn't want to wait several months, possibly a year, for all the other books in the series to come out and whether or not I'll read the official translations when they get published is up in the air.
That being said! I did enjoy my time reading it and would probably have finished it up much faster (spending three months on a book no matter the page count is unheard of for me) if I didn't get hit with a slump right in the middle. Because despite all the screaming about it on Twitter it was actually quite tame. Any "spicy" scenes were fade to black and the relationship was actually quite tame and cute. If you consider tame to be the fact that one of them is a fish for a decent part of the story. For it being such a long story there are different villains throughout that cause at least a decent chunk of trouble. Though to the length in some sections it did seem to drag on a bit. But the beginning was wonderful, I liked it a lot, and the promise of drama and weird stuff kept me going. Though the weird stuff was minimal.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I do think that my favorite end for a villain was one of the first ones that is encountered in the book, the idea that you can drive a man literally mad for being a human-like fish is very amusing, and to be fair since he tried to eat our main character multiple times it's probably deserved. However I would say my least favorite is definitely what happens to the 6th prince, not because he didn't deserve it but more so because it felt lacking and simple for what he did throughout the rest of the novel. Death felt like to simple of a punishment. Along with the fact that it caused another female character to be gently pushed to the side. Most female characters featured in this book don't have a proper name or, if they do, are a villain or an asset to a villain. Except for the main character's eventual daughter who's name gets mental once before given a nickname like all the other children, the main wet nurse, or a singular side character that is important for a singular scene in the beginning of the book. Not to say it does a disservice to woman, as in the end it seems as though the author did try to make up for the fact, add a bit of feminize to make up for it. I jest lightly of course, it's definitely not as bad as I'm making it out to be, it's just that the lack of names for non evil female characters did make me raise an eyebrow when I noticed it. Though I also understand considering this book is a book set in a fictionalized version of ancient China and woman weren't quite seen as the wonders they deserved to be.
On a more amusing note I had found that, yes, the fish main character, who is a man, does in fact get pregnant. Not once, but twice. First as a fish (the dirty was not done as a full fish, do not worry) and had come four boys, of which my favorite was definitely the runt of the litter, and the second time in human form and having a singular girl. The "tyrant" in the title is very soft and caring and despite his more questionable actions towards the beginning he does just love to pamper his husband. It's truly not as weird as the people giggling about it on Twitter make it out to be. The relationship is wonderfully healthy (or at least as healthy as a relationship can get between a fish and a man destined to rule with an iron fist) and quite cute. Another thing that I did like was that the "system" in this book was more quest/game-like compared to SVSSS (the first danmei I have ever finished, this being the third), with prizes for finishing a quest and the threat of death for failing. Wasn't a huge fan of the whole mute reveal, that the love interest was only mute due to a poison that affected him the womb that he eventually gets medicine for to cure. Admittedly I did know that it would happen, I did get spoiled, but ever since that chapter ended I always found myself slightly... startled? almost? when he would speak after 100+ chapters of the silent communication that I was used to. I much preferred the silent communication, considering that it showed how much of a bond the two main characters had and how close they were. The love interest didn't speak much in the grand sceme of things even after getting "cured" but I was still never a huge fan of this trope. One that I think did it well was a webcomic I have sadly forgotten the name of, who has a character with a leg disability and when it's her turn to shine she doesn't get it magically cured. I find it much better when characters are loved despite whatever is considered a "flaw" disabilities included.

Content Warnings

Muppets Meet the Classics: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, Erik Forrest Jackson

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

Obviously not in my age range, but still decided to give it a shot. Some things in the book have already aged very poorly and I feel as though you very much can tell that the writer is a man (more so because he doesn't really know how to write more dynamic female characters, not at all due to sexualization). However the humor in the book is very in tune with the muppets for the most part, but it occasionally tried far too hard.

In the Cards: A Queer Romance Novelette by Lilyann White

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.

I'm not a fan of the whole "someone is getting married but they're thinking of someone else" it feels like almost cheating and iiii don't like it.

Jade & Jess by C.J. McKnight

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lighthearted fast-paced