A discovery of witches always seemed boring and stupid as hell. How many more stories like "young innocent woman meets abusive man and thinks he's awesome" do we need? And the rest of the description doesn't make better (crying an sea of tears?wtf?). Glad I didn't waste any time with that book....
I’ve read all 4 books and I agree with you on a lot of points. What I enjoy most about the series as a whole, is Diana’s self-discovery and acceptance of who she is.
After reading Deborah H's trilogy, I thinks as an author she make three cardinal mistakes. 1: Three species of the supernatural world. 2: Occupational prestige 3: Balance when it comes to supernatural romances and villians. 3: There is the danger of creating a story that has a supernatural romance which thrives at the expense of the supernatural world, rather than having a supernatural romance which thrived despite the difficulties the Supernatural world might possess. They were so much of the story, such as Ysabeau hunting witches for fun for many centuries, that is brushed under the rug so as to present the Matthew and Diana romance relationship. This is very important because Ysabeau's actions in hunting witches for sport had created hatred in the hearts of people like Knox and Satu. I'm not condoning their actions, but Deamons and Witches are essentially second class citizens in this universe. Vampires are written to be so domineering in the books. Deborah doesn't address why the witches have such hatred for Vampires. Moreover, when Diana meets Mathew, it is like her brain goes out of the window. She lacks a will of her own, she gives in so easily to his demands, etc. 2: I think Deborah H. gave Diana all her academic achievements in exchange for a personality. Sometimes an author writes a high-brow character that is academic but not intelligent. If Diana was intelligent, she would have understood the danger she was in. You find a book literally sought after by many, and you fall for a man you have never met. A man who threatens you over the book??? The moment she knew she was in danger, she should have started diving into her magic to figure out how to protect herself. She is a well accomplished academic, but the Diana character brought no forward moving momentum. This is why Satu (in the tv adaptation) is far more striking and impactful. Satu in the books is so one-dimensional that all we know her is cruelty. This was a missed opportunity to show just how vampires had bullied and burned witches, and how they are fighting back. Anyone can write a one-dimensional character to be evil. It takes forethought and careful planning to write a character that we understand and sympathize with, but don't necessarily approve of. A perfect time to show how monsters create greater monsters. 1: The daemons are too weak and powerless to be a pillar of the supernatural community. Vampires have their senses, speed, strength and life. Witches have their magic, and Deamons have "creativity", an odd minds, and random visions they cant interpret.. The daemons really have no leg to stand on. The concept of them is so unresolved. It is as thought Deborah wanted to write a story about witches, vampires and werewolves, but wanted to throw some random spice in there to differentiate her work. There isn't much of a struggle in the supernatural world, and therefore there isn't enough tension. I would have given Deamons the gift of supernatural charisma. The kind of charisma that could talk you into giving your life savings away if their tried hard enough, or you were exposed to them for long periods of time. The strongest of the daemons would still visons, but they could trigger them to warn them when there is danger.
"nah suck it, you bucket of dust" is going to run through my head now any time I'm waiting for a book to dunk on a character. This is one of those books that's always on my "hm maybe I'll read that one day" list, even more because of the tv trailer. Thanks for this review because now I know I'll probably just stick to one day binging the show (or your recaps, if you do them).
Totally agree with all your points. I grabbed the book after seeing the tv series trailer as I got excited. I got bored so fast that I did not finish it. Actually dropped the book after yoga classes, which was beyond me. TV series is much better. At least during the first half, they cut out all the stupid plot points. Later on, it was 'so so' (you can only do so much with a bad source material - i.e. crying rain), but Matthew Goode is just the best so it was fun to watch :)
THE YOGA. It wasn't even that a paranormal creature yoga wasn't cool or funny. It was the TIMING. They had so much to handle but nope. YOGA. I'm two episodes into the TV series and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. My best friend is similarly into Matthew Goode. He's not an unattractive man, but after listening to 600 pages of the author telling us that Matthew is a GOD, Matthew Goode is... not what I imagined.
@@mynameismarines actually I like it better that way, with Matthew being attractive but not being a Ken doll. It looks like he's been places and done shit throughout the history.
@@mynameismarines but the yoga, man there's no way to defend that. Totally misplaced, glad they ripped off in the series. The relationship between them could be a slow burn, like leave the marriage thing to book 2, for a vampire that doesn't like rushing things marrying in two weeks...
I remember a couple years ago I bought this book and I started reading it. I got about 120 pages in and I remember being like super confused because there’s this huge thing about Demons and Witches and Vampires and how much danger the main character was in. But then her and the Love Interest™️frequented yoga like 3 times. And not only that but like he was always just hanging around her apartment and being a creep. It was weird.
SO WEIRD. The fact that all these creatures traveled to then just hang around and give Diana time to keep doing her research and going to yoga like guys. What are we doing here? Is this manuscript important or nah?
mynameismarines I always thought maybe I was just dumb and I didn’t get it? All the characters close to the main character kept talking about how much danger she was in but all the creatures did was kinda hang out in the library with her? The book had major pacing issues. Like we would get this huge info dump about the world and then yoga... I don’t know it was weird. Like I said I only got a 120 pages in before I set the book aside to read something else. Lol
After reading Deborah H's trilogy, I thinks as an author she make three cardinal mistakes. 1: Three species of the supernatural world. 2: Occupational prestige 3: Balance when it comes to supernatural romances and villians. 3: There is the danger of creating a story that has a supernatural romance which thrives at the expense of the supernatural world, rather than having a supernatural romance which thrived despite the difficulties the Supernatural world might possess. They were so much of the story, such as Ysabeau hunting witches for fun for many centuries, that is brushed under the rug so as to present the Matthew and Diana romance relationship. This is very important because Ysabeau's actions in hunting witches for sport had created hatred in the hearts of people like Knox and Satu. I'm not condoning their actions, but Deamons and Witches are essentially second class citizens in this universe. Vampires are written to be so domineering in the books. Deborah doesn't address why the witches have such hatred for Vampires. Moreover, when Diana meets Mathew, it is like her brain goes out of the window. She lacks a will of her own, she gives in so easily to his demands, etc. 2: I think Deborah H. gave Diana all her academic achievements in exchange for a personality. Sometimes an author writes a high-brow character that is academic but not intelligent. If Diana was intelligent, she would have understood the danger she was in. You find a book literally sought after by many, and you fall for a man you have never met. A man who threatens you over the book??? The moment she knew she was in danger, she should have started diving into her magic to figure out how to protect herself. She is a well accomplished academic, but the Diana character brought no forward moving momentum. This is why Satu (in the tv adaptation) is far more striking and impactful. Satu in the books is so one-dimensional that all we know her is cruelty. This was a missed opportunity to show just how vampires had bullied and burned witches, and how they are fighting back. Anyone can write a one-dimensional character to be evil. It takes forethought and careful planning to write a character that we understand and sympathize with, but don't necessarily approve of. A perfect time to show how monsters create greater monsters. 1: The daemons are too weak and powerless to be a pillar of the supernatural community. Vampires have their senses, speed, strength and life. Witches have their magic, and Deamons have "creativity", an odd minds, and random visions they cant interpret.. The daemons really have no leg to stand on. The concept of them is so unresolved. It is as thought Deborah wanted to write a story about witches, vampires and werewolves, but wanted to throw some random spice in there to differentiate her work. There isn't much of a struggle in the supernatural world, and therefore there isn't enough tension. I would have given Deamons the gift of supernatural charisma. The kind of charisma that could talk you into giving your life savings away if their tried hard enough, or you were exposed to them for long periods of time. The strongest of the daemons would still visons, but they could trigger them to warn them when there is danger.
The one thing I liked about this book was the authentic description of what it feels like to go out early in the morning and row. As a rower, this spoke to me. It went downhill from there for me and I'm not interested in the other books in the series. I might check put the series just to see how they adapted it.
I agree. It's a shame bc the book really was immersive in the setting, and I appreciated that. The writer isn't bad, but yea I didn't like the vampire romance stuff at all & wouldn't continue
I had to read this book for a writing course in college. When it came to write an essay on it, I focused hard on the story’s use of alchemy because that was the only thing that kept my attention. TFW a story has interesting worldbuilding but is only interested in an uninteresting romance…
Exactly! The actual story was so fascinating and cool but dear god did I hate the romance. The mfc is pretty interesting on her own but Matthew is trash. A straight up Edward and Jacob mixed together copy. I hated everything about them being on the same page together
Thank you! I don't have too much good to say about it. Lots of people love it for being entertaining fluff, but I just found it way to slow for that. Plus it hit a lot of tropes that aren't my favorite. If that's the same for you, UNHAUL AWAY!
You put all my thoughts about this first book into words. I also had a problem with Matthews behavior but having read the rest of the trilogy it gets better.
oh my gosh, I read this book a few years ago and completely forgot about half of the things you mentioned! I always liked the concept but I couldn't continue with the series after the first novel because of the relationship between the two main characters and how quickly it progresses. Also, you mentioned it perfectly, shes this super powerful character who ends up being (in my opinion) practically useless in regards to her own life and how she fits into the grand scheme of things. I'll be interested to see what you think of the show because I watched it and definitely have opinions!
I'm two episodes into the show and I was SHOOK at that scene in episode one where he is stalking her and then has to be like RUN AWAY I WANT TO MURDER YOU. Jesus. They are going to fall in love soon and he was like one sniff away from killing her. Wow.
@@mynameismarines It makes me so sad because I love the actor so much! But yeah there's a lot of uhhh...odd choices that they kept for the tv series that I think they could have done better on, DEFINITELY.
I thought that the tv show was gonna be this sophisticated, realistic but hopefully still self-aware show about vampires and witches and all that, and at first it seems like it, but then Diana and Matthew are claiming to be mated for life and in love after like two weeks and I lost so much confidence in the show.
That part is exactly like the book. They are just instantly in lurve and the audience has no idea why. I'm only two episodes into the show, so we'll see how long I last!
I completely understand why you had problems with the scholarpart but I actually really liked it because I felt like it created this tension and you felt Diana's world kind of fall through. She turned to academics to get away from magic and then it turned out that she never could get away with it because it's just innately herself and she's going to have to learn how to deal with it. That felt like a much stronger story to me than her just being a good academic. Now she has to work through the emotions of not being exactly what she thought she was, not achieving what she thought she was achieving, and how is she going to move forward from this, does she continue being a scholar knowing that she's cheating everyone else?
The problem with that is that has a second message where the main male hero couldn’t believe this woman could just be good at research and he was proven correct. So regardless of the intent or other ways it created tension, I had an issue with it being true that she was in fact not just smart and good at research. Like…. Lol what…..
I'd already heard a lot of Twilight comparisons, but the series came really highly recommended by a friend. So, I figured I'd give it a shot and, well...Yeah. Is it just me, or is it Twilighty in here? From a technical standpoint, it's vastly better written (not that it'd be hard, give Twilight's...Twilightiness), but I agree with your review--the cool as hell premise just kept getting dropped for them to go do couple's yoga or have wine dates, and Diana's flimsy attempts to be a Strong, Independent Woman just felt like lip-service when she wouldn't follow through and actually DO SOMETHING. I gave up on it.
I found the story and world-building really immersive and raced through the entire trilogy in about a week. I see and agree with all of your points, but I still really liked the series. I feel like that happens a lot, where we can see and call out a book's flaws but still thoroughly enjoy it for what it is.
Thank you for your honest review. I agreed with all your points. I'm about 80% through and, while I started off liking Diana, I didn't like Matthew and both of them as a couple. I try to be objective as a male reader, but it bugs me that these two barely know each other before deciding to go all in and become each other's everything. I was curious to see if there were any reviewers who had the same issues I did. So thanks. You are appreciated.
I just finished this book yesterady. And yeah, the first few chapters hooked me in (I'm a sucker for witches and library settings) but then, it felt like nothing happened for the rest... Quite possibly the worst book I've read this year :(
I love when you read the popular books and give us a honest review. Controlling, drinking animal's blood and sniffing her?! Oh it's DEFINETELY the grownups' Twilight. 😂
I DNFed this book at about 20%. I liked the setting/premise a lot but the writing style had me bored to tears and the way the relationship was portrayed was super cheesy. I also remember being reminded heavily of Twilight while reading it. I might give the TV show a try just to see if they improve the story but I have absolutely no plans of ever getting back to the book.
A developmental editor should have been used, or at least a better one. Or maybe it was the writer not taking the recommendations/notes well or not knowing how to make the fixes and join the two parts of the story?
Oh my, thanks so much for this review. It was the final straw on the back of why I will be DNFing this one. I thought it was just me finding the MCs insufferable and weak in turn.
So I've always thought about reading this book because I'd see it everywhere. I didn't know much of the plot but witches. Then I saw the trailer of the show and I realized it looked veeeeeery romance heavy and I just wasn't here for it. I don't mind having romance subplots but romance just seems to be the main plot...
Sniffing, yoga tea.. you forgot to mention "wine".... trust me I was already thinking if they describes a new kind of wine again.. I will stop reading..:D
2 stars for me, as well. I love paranormal romance, but this was not the tea. I feel like a more "literary" version of a genre fiction should elevate common themes or tropes, or maybe subvert them. But this... was boring. It worked neither as a higher order/literary fiction or genre fiction -- it was weirdly in the middle. The only real highlight was vampire yoga. And even that was played for the fun that it should have been
If you have started watching the show, can you please tell me if the characters are as insufferable as they are in the book? I won't watch in fear of that lol.
I'm so happy I'm not the only one who finds this series problematic! I only watched the TV series, but my biggest beef is what seems to be a prevalent issue with female historical fantasy authors: strong female characters who melt like wax for a dominant and even abusive male love interest. If I wanted cheap romance, I'd read those flimsy romance books for desperate housewives. Why? And why do so many female writers do this? I'm a female reader who WANTS to support female writers, but I find it hard with most of those in the historical fantasy genre.
Yeah it sounds like a lot of Twilight. Well, True Blood was like that with the annoying Bill and Sookie thing😑 ...I want to ask you a question. Do you has read Son of No One? It is a book that I brought,but I found out that a part of Dark Hunter books. I haven't own any of those books and I just bought Son of No One because the cover (I love dragons),but I heard It's dark fantasy/romance and I am worry that it will turn out to be the other dark version of Twilight.
Thank you, you put my thoughts into words. I disliked Diana and Mathew both equally as much. Neither of them are very good people and their relationship never made sense. Diana was not a role model and Mathew was not a hero. I fear for young girls who read this and think this is the life and love you want.
Listen, I don't think you are missing much. I know lots of other people liked it, but I just think there wasn't enough here to sustain you through way too many pages.
Oh no😲 I just saw your title and the fact that you gave the book 2 stars. I recently purchased this book and I'm sad that someone says it's a 2 star read. Anyway I'll come back to this video after reading it.
I actually really enjoyed this book. Maybe its the historian in me but I enjoyed the world very much. I think a lot of people dislike this because of the main couple's dynamic but honestly I feel like it makes sense considering the vampire race in this series is more likened to Wolves than people. Its not for everyone obviously but I did.
the sniffing...??! I just. Hm. Yeah, not into that. Okay I was actually waiting for a Milkshake/boys joke and YOU DID NOT DISAPPOINT Yeah, I am also finding I have a much lower tolerance for asshole guys in fiction as I get older! I feel like unhealthy or weird relationships are disguised as angst/hate-to-love way too often. Like, there are ways to write a romance with chemistry (even antagonism) that isn't super controlling and messed up. It can and has been done! so I get frustrated when it's romanticized and treated as the necessary trade-off for slow burn romance.
*cry death is gr8. & thr are plenty of academics w terminal degrees that are very mediocre, even in thr sub-field.* the controlling biz is over the line & so so weird. _JC
"These two were sniffing each other all the time!" LOL!
a l l t h e t i m e
A discovery of witches always seemed boring and stupid as hell. How many more stories like "young innocent woman meets abusive man and thinks he's awesome" do we need? And the rest of the description doesn't make better (crying an sea of tears?wtf?). Glad I didn't waste any time with that book....
I don't understand the fascination with making super bland females fall in love with jerks for no discernible reason.
@@mynameismarines if After and 50 Shades tell us anything, it's because they sell well unfortunately.
I’ve read all 4 books and I agree with you on a lot of points. What I enjoy most about the series as a whole, is Diana’s self-discovery and acceptance of who she is.
Coming into power stories for the win! I just don't know if I can handle 3 more books of all the rest of it...
After reading Deborah H's trilogy, I thinks as an author she make three cardinal mistakes.
1: Three species of the supernatural world.
2: Occupational prestige
3: Balance when it comes to supernatural romances and villians.
3: There is the danger of creating a story that has a supernatural romance which thrives at the expense of the supernatural world, rather than having a supernatural romance which thrived despite the difficulties the Supernatural world might possess. They were so much of the story, such as Ysabeau hunting witches for fun for many centuries, that is brushed under the rug so as to present the Matthew and Diana romance relationship.
This is very important because Ysabeau's actions in hunting witches for sport had created hatred in the hearts of people like Knox and Satu. I'm not condoning their actions, but Deamons and Witches are essentially second class citizens in this universe. Vampires are written to be so domineering in the books. Deborah doesn't address why the witches have such hatred for Vampires. Moreover, when Diana meets Mathew, it is like her brain goes out of the window. She lacks a will of her own, she gives in so easily to his demands, etc.
2: I think Deborah H. gave Diana all her academic achievements in exchange for a personality. Sometimes an author writes a high-brow character that is academic but not intelligent. If Diana was intelligent, she would have understood the danger she was in. You find a book literally sought after by many, and you fall for a man you have never met. A man who threatens you over the book??? The moment she knew she was in danger, she should have started diving into her magic to figure out how to protect herself.
She is a well accomplished academic, but the Diana character brought no forward moving momentum. This is why Satu (in the tv adaptation) is far more striking and impactful. Satu in the books is so one-dimensional that all we know her is cruelty. This was a missed opportunity to show just how vampires had bullied and burned witches, and how they are fighting back. Anyone can write a one-dimensional character to be evil. It takes forethought and careful planning to write a character that we understand and sympathize with, but don't necessarily approve of. A perfect time to show how monsters create greater monsters.
1: The daemons are too weak and powerless to be a pillar of the supernatural community. Vampires have their senses, speed, strength and life. Witches have their magic, and Deamons have "creativity", an odd minds, and random visions they cant interpret.. The daemons really have no leg to stand on. The concept of them is so unresolved. It is as thought Deborah wanted to write a story about witches, vampires and werewolves, but wanted to throw some random spice in there to differentiate her work. There isn't much of a struggle in the supernatural world, and therefore there isn't enough tension. I would have given Deamons the gift of supernatural charisma. The kind of charisma that could talk you into giving your life savings away if their tried hard enough, or you were exposed to them for long periods of time. The strongest of the daemons would still visons, but they could trigger them to warn them when there is danger.
The tv show was worse I finished the book
I've heard so many people mention this book but no one has said it's adult twilight but then when you describe it. I mean, Matthew is Edward.
why were people hoarding this knowledge of this being Twilight kin? I was bamboozled.
Iirc it was marketed as Twilight for adults which is why I haven’t gotten around to reading it. Plus, Diana seems like yet another bland self insert.
"nah suck it, you bucket of dust" is going to run through my head now any time I'm waiting for a book to dunk on a character. This is one of those books that's always on my "hm maybe I'll read that one day" list, even more because of the tv trailer. Thanks for this review because now I know I'll probably just stick to one day binging the show (or your recaps, if you do them).
Totally agree with all your points. I grabbed the book after seeing the tv series trailer as I got excited. I got bored so fast that I did not finish it. Actually dropped the book after yoga classes, which was beyond me. TV series is much better. At least during the first half, they cut out all the stupid plot points. Later on, it was 'so so' (you can only do so much with a bad source material - i.e. crying rain), but Matthew Goode is just the best so it was fun to watch :)
THE YOGA. It wasn't even that a paranormal creature yoga wasn't cool or funny. It was the TIMING. They had so much to handle but nope. YOGA. I'm two episodes into the TV series and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. My best friend is similarly into Matthew Goode. He's not an unattractive man, but after listening to 600 pages of the author telling us that Matthew is a GOD, Matthew Goode is... not what I imagined.
@@mynameismarines actually I like it better that way, with Matthew being attractive but not being a Ken doll. It looks like he's been places and done shit throughout the history.
@@mynameismarines but the yoga, man there's no way to defend that. Totally misplaced, glad they ripped off in the series. The relationship between them could be a slow burn, like leave the marriage thing to book 2, for a vampire that doesn't like rushing things marrying in two weeks...
I remember a couple years ago I bought this book and I started reading it. I got about 120 pages in and I remember being like super confused because there’s this huge thing about Demons and Witches and Vampires and how much danger the main character was in. But then her and the Love Interest™️frequented yoga like 3 times. And not only that but like he was always just hanging around her apartment and being a creep. It was weird.
SO WEIRD. The fact that all these creatures traveled to then just hang around and give Diana time to keep doing her research and going to yoga like guys. What are we doing here? Is this manuscript important or nah?
mynameismarines I always thought maybe I was just dumb and I didn’t get it? All the characters close to the main character kept talking about how much danger she was in but all the creatures did was kinda hang out in the library with her? The book had major pacing issues. Like we would get this huge info dump about the world and then yoga... I don’t know it was weird. Like I said I only got a 120 pages in before I set the book aside to read something else. Lol
Sounds like someone had a good idea and just wasn't experienced enough to pull it off.
Makes it more annoying because the idea was definitely there!
Maybe one good editor and some beta reviewers would've helped.
After reading Deborah H's trilogy, I thinks as an author she make three cardinal mistakes.
1: Three species of the supernatural world.
2: Occupational prestige
3: Balance when it comes to supernatural romances and villians.
3: There is the danger of creating a story that has a supernatural romance which thrives at the expense of the supernatural world, rather than having a supernatural romance which thrived despite the difficulties the Supernatural world might possess. They were so much of the story, such as Ysabeau hunting witches for fun for many centuries, that is brushed under the rug so as to present the Matthew and Diana romance relationship.
This is very important because Ysabeau's actions in hunting witches for sport had created hatred in the hearts of people like Knox and Satu. I'm not condoning their actions, but Deamons and Witches are essentially second class citizens in this universe. Vampires are written to be so domineering in the books. Deborah doesn't address why the witches have such hatred for Vampires. Moreover, when Diana meets Mathew, it is like her brain goes out of the window. She lacks a will of her own, she gives in so easily to his demands, etc.
2: I think Deborah H. gave Diana all her academic achievements in exchange for a personality. Sometimes an author writes a high-brow character that is academic but not intelligent. If Diana was intelligent, she would have understood the danger she was in. You find a book literally sought after by many, and you fall for a man you have never met. A man who threatens you over the book??? The moment she knew she was in danger, she should have started diving into her magic to figure out how to protect herself.
She is a well accomplished academic, but the Diana character brought no forward moving momentum. This is why Satu (in the tv adaptation) is far more striking and impactful. Satu in the books is so one-dimensional that all we know her is cruelty. This was a missed opportunity to show just how vampires had bullied and burned witches, and how they are fighting back. Anyone can write a one-dimensional character to be evil. It takes forethought and careful planning to write a character that we understand and sympathize with, but don't necessarily approve of. A perfect time to show how monsters create greater monsters.
1: The daemons are too weak and powerless to be a pillar of the supernatural community. Vampires have their senses, speed, strength and life. Witches have their magic, and Deamons have "creativity", an odd minds, and random visions they cant interpret.. The daemons really have no leg to stand on. The concept of them is so unresolved. It is as thought Deborah wanted to write a story about witches, vampires and werewolves, but wanted to throw some random spice in there to differentiate her work. There isn't much of a struggle in the supernatural world, and therefore there isn't enough tension. I would have given Deamons the gift of supernatural charisma. The kind of charisma that could talk you into giving your life savings away if their tried hard enough, or you were exposed to them for long periods of time. The strongest of the daemons would still visons, but they could trigger them to warn them when there is danger.
The one thing I liked about this book was the authentic description of what it feels like to go out early in the morning and row. As a rower, this spoke to me. It went downhill from there for me and I'm not interested in the other books in the series. I might check put the series just to see how they adapted it.
I agree. It's a shame bc the book really was immersive in the setting, and I appreciated that. The writer isn't bad, but yea I didn't like the vampire romance stuff at all & wouldn't continue
😂😂😂😂 something about this comment really hit my funny bone. Love it!❤
I had to read this book for a writing course in college. When it came to write an essay on it, I focused hard on the story’s use of alchemy because that was the only thing that kept my attention. TFW a story has interesting worldbuilding but is only interested in an uninteresting romance…
Exactly! The actual story was so fascinating and cool but dear god did I hate the romance. The mfc is pretty interesting on her own but Matthew is trash. A straight up Edward and Jacob mixed together copy. I hated everything about them being on the same page together
Love this review. You have me cracking up. This has been on my shelf collecting dust of years. I think I might unhaul it.
Thank you! I don't have too much good to say about it. Lots of people love it for being entertaining fluff, but I just found it way to slow for that. Plus it hit a lot of tropes that aren't my favorite. If that's the same for you, UNHAUL AWAY!
Added to my list of books glorifying abusive relationships that I'll never, ever read.
Not missing much! Glad I could spare you.
You put all my thoughts about this first book into words. I also had a problem with Matthews behavior but having read the rest of the trilogy it gets better.
oh my gosh, I read this book a few years ago and completely forgot about half of the things you mentioned! I always liked the concept but I couldn't continue with the series after the first novel because of the relationship between the two main characters and how quickly it progresses. Also, you mentioned it perfectly, shes this super powerful character who ends up being (in my opinion) practically useless in regards to her own life and how she fits into the grand scheme of things. I'll be interested to see what you think of the show because I watched it and definitely have opinions!
I'm two episodes into the show and I was SHOOK at that scene in episode one where he is stalking her and then has to be like RUN AWAY I WANT TO MURDER YOU. Jesus. They are going to fall in love soon and he was like one sniff away from killing her. Wow.
@@mynameismarines It makes me so sad because I love the actor so much! But yeah there's a lot of uhhh...odd choices that they kept for the tv series that I think they could have done better on, DEFINITELY.
I thought that the tv show was gonna be this sophisticated, realistic but hopefully still self-aware show about vampires and witches and all that, and at first it seems like it, but then Diana and Matthew are claiming to be mated for life and in love after like two weeks and I lost so much confidence in the show.
That part is exactly like the book. They are just instantly in lurve and the audience has no idea why. I'm only two episodes into the show, so we'll see how long I last!
I completely understand why you had problems with the scholarpart but I actually really liked it because I felt like it created this tension and you felt Diana's world kind of fall through. She turned to academics to get away from magic and then it turned out that she never could get away with it because it's just innately herself and she's going to have to learn how to deal with it. That felt like a much stronger story to me than her just being a good academic. Now she has to work through the emotions of not being exactly what she thought she was, not achieving what she thought she was achieving, and how is she going to move forward from this, does she continue being a scholar knowing that she's cheating everyone else?
The problem with that is that has a second message where the main male hero couldn’t believe this woman could just be good at research and he was proven correct. So regardless of the intent or other ways it created tension, I had an issue with it being true that she was in fact not just smart and good at research. Like…. Lol what…..
I'd already heard a lot of Twilight comparisons, but the series came really highly recommended by a friend. So, I figured I'd give it a shot and, well...Yeah. Is it just me, or is it Twilighty in here? From a technical standpoint, it's vastly better written (not that it'd be hard, give Twilight's...Twilightiness), but I agree with your review--the cool as hell premise just kept getting dropped for them to go do couple's yoga or have wine dates, and Diana's flimsy attempts to be a Strong, Independent Woman just felt like lip-service when she wouldn't follow through and actually DO SOMETHING. I gave up on it.
For this book, two stars is about two stars too many! The "strong female character" we were promised disappeared after maybe 2 pages. Ridiculous!!
I found the story and world-building really immersive and raced through the entire trilogy in about a week. I see and agree with all of your points, but I still really liked the series. I feel like that happens a lot, where we can see and call out a book's flaws but still thoroughly enjoy it for what it is.
Thank you for your honest review. I agreed with all your points. I'm about 80% through and, while I started off liking Diana, I didn't like Matthew and both of them as a couple. I try to be objective as a male reader, but it bugs me that these two barely know each other before deciding to go all in and become each other's everything. I was curious to see if there were any reviewers who had the same issues I did. So thanks. You are appreciated.
Oh yes. I remember. The vampire doing yoga made me laugh so hard and sent the book to the recycling bin.
I just finished this book yesterady. And yeah, the first few chapters hooked me in (I'm a sucker for witches and library settings) but then, it felt like nothing happened for the rest... Quite possibly the worst book I've read this year :(
Maybe it was setting up for the sequel?
I love when you read the popular books and give us a honest review.
Controlling, drinking animal's blood and sniffing her?! Oh it's DEFINETELY the grownups' Twilight. 😂
Reading your comments over the last few days has brought me so much joy! Thank you for watching??? You’ve been so kind and thoughtful 😭
@@mynameismarines This makes me so happy! 😄
My thoughts exactly... it's hard to take the relationship seriously.
I loved the setting, too, but Diana’s behavior makes no sense and the book just gets weirder and weaker as it goes along.
Truly. They give Diana all this power and F O R W H A T
I DNFed this book at about 20%. I liked the setting/premise a lot but the writing style had me bored to tears and the way the relationship was portrayed was super cheesy. I also remember being reminded heavily of Twilight while reading it. I might give the TV show a try just to see if they improve the story but I have absolutely no plans of ever getting back to the book.
I need “suck it, you bucket of dust” on a t-shirt. That line is pure magic.
A developmental editor should have been used, or at least a better one. Or maybe it was the writer not taking the recommendations/notes well or not knowing how to make the fixes and join the two parts of the story?
Who knows! All I know is that this had a concept but needed help otherwise.
Oh my, thanks so much for this review. It was the final straw on the back of why I will be DNFing this one. I thought it was just me finding the MCs insufferable and weak in turn.
So I've always thought about reading this book because I'd see it everywhere. I didn't know much of the plot but witches. Then I saw the trailer of the show and I realized it looked veeeeeery romance heavy and I just wasn't here for it. I don't mind having romance subplots but romance just seems to be the main plot...
Yes and not just falling in love romance-- going from "I want to kill you" to "we are mated for life" in weeks. Needed more witches.
Oh wow the tv show brought me here and it made the love interest so much better. I am shocked. Thanks for the warning
I really enjoy your voice and opinions ❤️
Thank you for watching!
Sniffing, yoga tea.. you forgot to mention "wine".... trust me I was already thinking if they describes a new kind of wine again.. I will stop reading..:D
2 stars for me, as well. I love paranormal romance, but this was not the tea. I feel like a more "literary" version of a genre fiction should elevate common themes or tropes, or maybe subvert them. But this... was boring. It worked neither as a higher order/literary fiction or genre fiction -- it was weirdly in the middle. The only real highlight was vampire yoga. And even that was played for the fun that it should have been
Perfectly said. It wanted to take the "high brow" road to paranormal romance except whoops all it did was add tea, yoga and make it boring.
It's sad, Because that sounds kinda interesting, But, It also sounds as if they went about it in the wrong way.
yes, exactly. At least wrong way for me to find it enjoyable. Lots of people love it!
If you have started watching the show, can you please tell me if the characters are as insufferable as they are in the book? I won't watch in fear of that lol.
Adult twilight! Ah man those broody bad boys are everywhere
I'm so happy I'm not the only one who finds this series problematic! I only watched the TV series, but my biggest beef is what seems to be a prevalent issue with female historical fantasy authors: strong female characters who melt like wax for a dominant and even abusive male love interest. If I wanted cheap romance, I'd read those flimsy romance books for desperate housewives. Why? And why do so many female writers do this? I'm a female reader who WANTS to support female writers, but I find it hard with most of those in the historical fantasy genre.
it's very romantic when people are constantly casually sniffing each other wow I love that so hot
"Tell me what I smell like again please! Would like more love and romance." etc, etc, forever. -- This Book
my cousin read this and then told me i probably wouldn't like it...you've just confirmed her prediction 😅
"Diana's smelly blood" lol
Yeah it sounds like a lot of Twilight. Well, True Blood was like that with the annoying Bill and Sookie thing😑 ...I want to ask you a question. Do you has read Son of No One? It is a book that I brought,but I found out that a part of Dark Hunter books. I haven't own any of those books and I just bought Son of No One because the cover (I love dragons),but I heard It's dark fantasy/romance and I am worry that it will turn out to be the other dark version of Twilight.
Thank you, you put my thoughts into words. I disliked Diana and Mathew both equally as much. Neither of them are very good people and their relationship never made sense. Diana was not a role model and Mathew was not a hero. I fear for young girls who read this and think this is the life and love you want.
I agree...with all this....great review.
Thank you for watching!
I'm glad I waited for hype to die down for this book because it's going off my tbr.
Listen, I don't think you are missing much. I know lots of other people liked it, but I just think there wasn't enough here to sustain you through way too many pages.
Oh no😲 I just saw your title and the fact that you gave the book 2 stars. I recently purchased this book and I'm sad that someone says it's a 2 star read. Anyway I'll come back to this video after reading it.
I actually really enjoyed this book. Maybe its the historian in me but I enjoyed the world very much. I think a lot of people dislike this because of the main couple's dynamic but honestly I feel like it makes sense considering the vampire race in this series is more likened to Wolves than people. Its not for everyone obviously but I did.
I forgot about this one. It was a very odd book and not in a good way.
Not. in a good. way.
every line of this book is both absurdly boring and freaking wild
it's almost impressive when you think about it.
the sniffing...??! I just. Hm. Yeah, not into that.
Okay I was actually waiting for a Milkshake/boys joke and YOU DID NOT DISAPPOINT
Yeah, I am also finding I have a much lower tolerance for asshole guys in fiction as I get older! I feel like unhealthy or weird relationships are disguised as angst/hate-to-love way too often. Like, there are ways to write a romance with chemistry (even antagonism) that isn't super controlling and messed up. It can and has been done! so I get frustrated when it's romanticized and treated as the necessary trade-off for slow burn romance.
Awesome review!
Thanks for watching!
*cry death is gr8. & thr are plenty of academics w terminal degrees that are very mediocre, even in thr sub-field.* the controlling biz is over the line & so so weird. _JC
How can you possibly fuck up the goldmine that is magic librarian. Hope I won't...
Hilarious tear-down of what sounds like a very problematic book!
Thanks for watching!