DNF @ 50 % (page 200) — This book wasn’t bad at all! I do think the story was a bit slow-paced, but I’m also in a bit of a reading slump. Perhaps at another point in my life I’d push through. Right now, though, this was a bit *too slow* for me, and I unfortunately got bored. 🙁

I really liked the setting and the concept of this story. The Fourth King of Hell disappears, and his servant (Nikai) thinks it might have to do with a human girl. That girl (Rui) is learning to train her magic and fight monsters at a magic Academy. One day, Rui is fighting a monster and accidentally transfers her magic to a random boy (Yiran), who is actually happy to get powers, because it’ll make his family proud of him.

It sounds really interesting! I was excited to see these 3 paths connect, and see where the story goes from there! Unfortunately, though, it took a reeeeally long time for everything to be established. It’s only at 20% that Rui transfers her magic to Yiran. At 42% the Tenth King of Hell asks Rui to help find Four. At 50% Nikai meets Rui for the first time, and tells her that he wants to help her find Four (because he’s also been looking for him). Basically, it took 200 pages for the book to get to where the synopsis left off.

Was what I read bad? No. Am I curious about where the story goes from here? A little bit! But, I’m sorry, after reading half of a book and basically only getting what I already knew from the 3 paragraphs of the synopsis I read, I got bored. The 1st half of this book feels like the setup for the 2nd half. It could be a great ending! But unfortunately I already lost interest. 😕 Also, this is a series, which means I might not even get a satisfying conclusion in this book. I’m just not gonna put myself through that.

Another thing that disappointed me was the romance. This was advertised as a slow-burn, but I’m not joking when I say that on their *1st SCENE TOGETHER* Rui was already getting flustered by catching a glimpse of Zizi (her LI)’s stomach, and getting jealous because he had a piece of jewelry that could *possibly* be a gift from somebody else………… 😑😑😑 Granted, they were already friends, so it makes sense that they already have a pre-established relationship, of course. The problem is that they both already ***LIKE*** each other (like, romantically) – something that is shown basically every time they interact.

It’s okay to have pre-established relationships in books, but I was expecting this to actually SHOW this relationship grow, so I’m disappointed it was all already developed before the book even began… 😕😢🫠 I’m assuming the “slow-burn” part is because they only get together at the very end, or something, but, like… They already liked each other before the book even started! *WE* are not seeing their romance grow! We’re literally just sitting and waiting for them to admit their feelings to each other, I guess. 🫤 It was just a bit disappointing to me, sadly.

Anyways. As I already mentioned, this book wasn’t bad. I enjoyed the characters, I liked their dynamics, and I really appreciated the representation! I genuinely think the story has potential. Perhaps at a different time I would’ve pushed through the slow-ish beginning to get to (what I’m assuming is) an epic ending. I’m glad other people are loving this! Maybe I’ll come back to it, someday! 😊