What made me laugh is at some point she felt the frosty ice king's enchantment on her finger because of the ring, and then she "tricked' the enchantment like it's a tangible thing that could be tricked.

I HATED this book!

i thought i was the only one omg!! i agree, i loved the backdrop and the magic, there's so much you can do with it. i love the enemies to lovers trope, but the relationship was a bit forced, especially with the arguments, they were too long and the resolution of their relationship was too fast (i dont know maybe i just like slow-burns)-- maybe ill check out her others books, hopefully they are better!!

I am so glad I found your review. I wanted to DNF but pushed through to see if it got better. It didn't. The amount of stereotypes regarding Nordic and Scandinavian countries... Nope. Gives me the ick. Cozy fantasy and the main character chops off her own finger, and that is described in a very gory and explicit way? Nope. Just nope. The narration being diary entries just made it feel really far away. What they call "neurodivergence" just pushes a very narrow portrayal and narrative of people on the spectrum. Thank you so much for this review. You seem to be the only one saying these things online.

I’m not an avid mystery/thriller reader, so I enjoyed it most of the way through, but the last 60 pages nearly ruined it for me.

I’m just more than half way through and I will visit your KZbin channel again once I am finished. While it is magical and entertaining storytelling I wished I had known it would go at a very slow pace before I started. I feel like I could have enjoyed the journey even more so if I knew this ahead of time!

This book was hard to get into. I’m having g to force myself to finish it.

I actually really liked the first part of this book and enjoyed Emily's character and her strong academic knowledge being a big part of her character. I liked the relationship between her and Wendell, until Wendell proved to be violent, like killing the faeries during their trip and seemingly enjoying it, as well as breaking things when getting mad. I haven't seen many people talking about this aspect of him, but I found it very troubling, that he behaved violently, and in ways that would be big red flags for abusive behavior, and this was mostly ignored and glossed over in the book as being part of his Fae nature. He also altered Emily's clothing without her consent, which seems a bit controlling, even though it was written as a nice gesture, and proposed to her seemingly out of the blue, which to seems like love bombing. I also agree with the plot not being very coherent, but despite that I would have really enjoyed the book, without this behavior of Wendell, which put me off quite a bit.

I thought it was 5 star. I think it’s relative to all readers bc all religions can be traumatic for children. The hell, fire and brimstone crap then the fairytale verbiage if you believe enough …. leaves children with a lot of mush to muddle over later in life.

Naw we chilling today

I’ve always been soo proud of my imagination but while reading this I had such a hard time imagining all the stuff, it almost felt like I was just reading words, I honestly didn’t enjoy that. I did struggle with the first chapters though, but I have to admit I did enjoy the romance. Usually male characters are like tough dudes with no feelings, but Alaric it’s the opposite and I loved that! The sequel is a must read for me ❤

Yep! I'm roughly halfway through it. The concept is interesting

This book was amazing. I'm sorry it wasn't for you. That's art, right? Great book imo.

I just finished this book and came looking to see if anyone felt and thought about this book similarly to me… and you did. I really expected the writing to have more of a Shirley Jackson feel or for the framework to have an OG Hill House feel. Now I want to write a story that *does* have those things! Thank you, I really enjoyed your review.

Did I mention the sporks in this take? I'll just say I was disappointed that the spork thing never went anywhere... It makes sense that there are more important things going on, but still.

I am halfway through and have the same exact feelings as you, don't even care how it ends at this point. It's very basic and as you said perfectly, dumb. Good to know the end was just as dumb as I thought it would be. Thanks for the other recommendation as well!

Agreed! I was so excited to read this book. It was hyped to be cozy and wonderful. I kept reading reviews saying that it was a slow burn and to just a stick with it, so I did. I am a few chapters away from being done and I still don’t like it. I have to force myself to read it. I’ve read other books twice its size during the course of trying to finish just this one. I was struggling because I feel like the world building was lacking, the characters have no substance or like-ability, It is painfully slow paced, and it was written with over the top wordiness where it is hard to even enjoy reading it. Tedious book. I don’t recommend and will not be reading the other 2. 2 stars as well.

I lived at the Cecil, and I knew Amy and Pedro well. They were both very kind.

I was really looking forward to this after reading The Seven Year Slip by the same author and enjoying it… well, I feel similarly to you 😂 I gave it 3 stars and while I didn’t loathe reading it or anything, it was just kind of blah. I wish she cranked up the Addams family vibe, made the romance spicier, and the story less corny in general. She has a new book coming out this month which I was excited for and will probably still check out.

I tried to read this 3 times and I just can't. I really wanted to like the book. It was good for learning new vocabulary words though.

There's peach Pepsi

It seems to me that if you're reading the book because people said it was popular and it had romance, and you just wanted in on the hype, those people seemed to have hated it. But the people who wanted a cozy fantasy read absolutely loved it. I think some people also thought it would be a literal encyclopedia of faries. Instead, they got journal entries.

I agree … dumb is a good word to describe it.

I would put black cat on the room, let the other cat in❤❤❤❤

lmaoo exactly my cat the first day he met out new cat

Crowley was ready to fight😂

I adored this book and have read and re-read it mutiple times. It doesn't sound like you paid very close attention to her details. The Character developmant is strong. The dialogue entertaining and the romance dangerous and intriguing. I think you have done this work a great disservice in this review.

That’s one of the things that confused me reading. Was that they could see other people’s colored dots and other colors even though they can only perceive a certain color.

OMG! I can't believe I forgot to rant about the inconsistencies! There were SO MANY! How does ghost Ben sit on benches and lie on beds but pass through walls and can't pick up books or other objects? Why does Carver have a Rolex most of the time but then a smartwatch in one scene (a scene in which he ALSO is wearing a Rolex? Is it a Rolex smartwatch?)... The hotel has a keycard but also keys hanging from hooks? AND... I so hated the name dropping of authors and books too... This just needed a better edit for sure.

Thank you! I started wondering why everyone everywhere I looked praised this book - I found it so tedious! And I really wanted to like it - I love real life mythologies and folklore, but for the world where Fey are real, the book is surprisingly dull. And don't get me starter on Emily!

I discovered your channel through this tag video. Happy Reading! 😎📚👍

Nice

Plz post prt 3 soon :)

There should be a book or film written from the perspective of the killer.

Another thing that gets bypassed by the movies: Paul and his mother can't just leave Arrakis because they've become addicted to the spice after so much exposure. Leaving would mean terrible withdrawal at best and possibly death unless they can be continually provided with spice.

I know this is an older video, but I wanted to say I love your review. I’m an 18 (straight) girl, more than likely not the typical audience for such a book, but I loved it. The letters were written well, and I liked sensing each character. One thing I wished the authors did differently was the retelling of times they spent together, or even separate. The letter form could remain intact for some events they were apart from each other, but the word-for-word thing just is unrealistic. I wish that the author took breaks from the letter writing now and then, when they were getting closer, and spent more days together. The age gap I didn’t really mind for the story, I also thought that Kurl being held back was kind of unimportant and the story would’ve been fine without that part, the fact of him being seventeen rather than eighteen would be more crowd-pleasing, I’m sure. I believe that the writer being female shouldn’t be a problem. To me, though I shouldn’t have much of a say on this as I only write for a hobby. I don’t share my writing with anyone, but I believe that any writer of either gender or any sexuality should be able to put out whatever story they want to, despite any differences between the author and said story. I also think that people can be a little uptight on whether the author correlates themselves sexuality-wise to the characters. I like to separate my characters from myself, personally. A lot of times I end up writing characters of whom are the polar opposite of me. Of course I respect others opinions on the topic, but I just would like to share mine as well. The consent part to me wasn’t that being of a problem. In stories I believe that the consent between them can be received however, and written however. The way the other described some of the sexual scenes grossed me out, but I am kind of a prude, haha. The abuse storyline to me was interesting, and a good twist, but there are a lot of common sense ways it could’ve been resolved quickly, and they just kept it in for more added interest. Also, in my eyes, I believed that Kurl was stronger than Uncle Vick, so why not fight back? Why not talk to the police, why does he, for lack of a better term, ‘lean’ into it? I guess i don’t understand some of those parts. Over all, it’s a story I really enjoyed. I am not much of a reader, despite the fact that I love writing, I always have been that way. But this story, I stuck with, and binged. I finished it within three days. But anyway, I just wanted to say I am happy to hear your reaction to the story, and I am a new subscriber. :)

Yes, I'm petting my cat Crowley while filming!

I forgot to mention that I was low-key impressed that DUNE: PART TWO made me feel a little bit bad for Beast Rabban? He's still evil, of course, but his desperation under the circumstances was somewhat sympathetic...

i’ve been loving Neil Gaiman books. I think anything by him is safe to say will be quality. I’m sure you know him though. I just think he’s awesome and am finally reading more of his works and growing a deeper appreciation. I just finished “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” which has some horror aspects, I loved it. I just love how Gaiman doesn’t lose the intrigue of childhood wonder, which there was a lot of in this story. Whenever I read his books I just feel like they appeal to my inner child, where a lot of adult books don’t do that.

Just finished this newly released, original collection of fairy tales, entitled 'Sillies, Fancies, and Trifles' - it was phenomenal and just perfect for the season. You guys would love it! What's everyone else reading, I want some more recommendations to add to the lovely ones here. Keep up the beautiful videos :)

i hated the percy jackson show. they took all the fun out of it. the books make me audibly laugh. all of the show is melodramatic and taking itself way too seriously. and the shortcuts are horrendous, lots of completely skipping all context to major plot points n characters n just having one of the kids say a speech explaining who the charecter is and what’s going on (when they shouldn’t know) instead of letting the story unfold naturally. show don’t tell. basically all they do is tell in the show tho. it sucks.

Koontz made some anti-Japanese comments in letters directed towards a Japanese film executive, hence leading to the controversy. He was also accused of writing a bunch of erotica in the 1960s and 70s, but I feel that the racism is probably more important.

I'm glad I'm not the only onw who was wickedly bored by this book. None of the characters feel like they have any substance, they are just set dressing for Emily to fumble conversations with. At the 25% mark at best she's talked to one fairy, one changeling, has finally told us her suspicions about Wendell but is still no actual development towards the plot has kicked in. For someone supposedly writing notes to refer back to when she writes her manuscript about Hidden Ones she really doesn't spend a lot of time looking for them. Also I started to suspect this is low-similarity Dramione? It's feels like the asthetics of a woman with untamable hair and a blond posh man is supposed to carry their reasons for caring about one another. It's a DNF for me.

Sadly agree with basically anything you said. Gutted about it! I had really looked forward to reading it with my book club here in February 🫠

It is a bit of a shame the author wanted to focus on convoluted, cliche time stuff rather than any historical allegories and cultural exploration.

Finally....I was so bored that I dnfed this book!!! I don't know what the hype was about. Thank you for your video 😊

I just finished it. I found it a bit hard to stay focused on the read. It was ookkk at Best.

Nothing about this book worked for me. I hated the love interest and therefore the romance and the female lead was not really likable as well. It was my biggest book disappointment of 2023 😅

Agreed - the romance part wasn’t very strong, and you don’t really get anything about why Wendell likes Emily above all others. It’s more like - she’s the main character, so she’s special, but we don’t really get HOW their relationship is more fulfilling for him than others. “She doesn’t like me back fast enough” isn’t a good enough reason

Ugh THANK YOU. The amount of scrolling I had to scroll to find someone reviewing this book who didn’t have a giant smile next to the cover was ridiculous. Emily was the worst. She is basically a sociopath with high functioning autism. At least Sherlock had charm she has none. I agree with EVERY critique you gave. Ugh, worst let down I’ve ever read. This should have been an obvious 5 star book and it’s a 2.5 at best