marimoose's reviews
1423 reviews

I'm not actually sure where to begin this review, because I'm not even sure what the plot was in this book. With the previous book in The Tattered Curtains trilogy, it was pretty cut and dry that the retelling drove the story to run a certain course. It was a Phantom of the Opera retelling, where the Phantom gets the girl. Here, you get the bare bones of a Romeo and Juliet retelling, in the guise of two warring mafia families (which is no different to many other R&J retellings I've read before), and yeah those are the barest bones. But I have no idea where the plot was going at all in this one, other than the fact that it was going to end happily one way or another!

I know there was an underlying secondary worldbuilding plot where the Keeper is this one person keeping all of the Garde secrets (and this institution constitutes all the mafia families), but it was so hard to figure out how the actual hierarchy works other than the fact that it's soaked in misogyny. The villain was pretty mid, because everything he did made absolutely zero sense and did not match his ambitions; he also lacked finesse in everything he did, and I had to skip chapters because I saw no point in prolonging the pain of reading about the shit he did when he got emotional. The fact that he mostly got away with A LOT had me seeing red. So imagine my ABSOLUTE PLEASURE when the villain got his just desserts.

Don't even get me started on Lacey O'Shea. Girl had little to no agency, and every decision she made had me trying to fight the urge to stab a fork into my brain, because pls sis, THINK THINGS THROUGH. Then I remembered that oh, wait, nobody in this book has much of a brain. I think the only brain cells that existed in Rouge were found in Kian McKennon and his father.

At least the spice was well and truly excellent, and I very much appreciated Kian's "touch her and die" energy. Kian McKennon was the only reason I didn't DNF this book with only 25% left.

List of trigger warnings found here: https://www.authorgreerrivers.com/darkretellings

Decided I'll come back to this some other time. Or not. 

Serial killers that slay together stay together!

But no seriously. I had no intention of reading this book up until two people I know highly recommended this to me for how ADORABLE and WHOLESOME the romance was. And here I sat, trying to wrap my head around HOW adorable and wholesome a book on serial killers could be. Because uh, it was about serial killers?

But here I am. Pontificating this book's praises, because I laughed, I cried, I laugh-cried. Rowan and Sloane are the kind of friends to lovers trope I could get behind: they somehow see the worst in each other and find it beautiful. Also, the banter. THE BANTER!

That said, I can't quite forgive the book for the grossest beginning (up until Rowan showed up and made me laugh, that is) and the ruination of cookies and cream ice cream.

There were probably other things I could nitpick, but Butcher and Blackbird threatened me with a good time, and these two characters delivered. That is the important takeaway after all.

The fact that we finally get a Murderbot novel, not just a novella had me squeeing with absolute glee. And Martha Wells did not disappoint. I absolutely love the return of ART, and pls I need more of ART and Murderbot just going at it with each other like arguing humans. Especially because Murderbot has to deal with its feeeeelings towards its humans and ART in general.

DNF 17%

Between the ick I'm getting from the MLI grooming his ward, and the ward having the hots for her father figure but also being really erratic with all her decisions, it's a no thank you for me.

I don't know why I turn into the most obnoxiously unwell romantic sap that I do when I read an Ali Hazelwood book. Without fail. In Ali I trust!

But no, seriously, this book. First of all, it's a dual POV, which means I get to see an actual Ali Hazelwood man simp so hard for the girl, and Eli is no different in that respect. However, I love the fact that the grumpy/sunshine trope is reversed here, and Rue is actually a tall woman standing at 6 feet (though Eli is still taller, just not by a marginally large difference), who is very sex positive, and a more somber, less excitable character than many of the other female main characters in Ali's other books. But that's okay, because she's the direct foil of Eli, who is very excitable, also sex positive, but also so observant that he is willing to cater to anything Rue practically asks of him. Because, again, he is a big ass SIMP!

Anyway, it's no surprise I loved this book too. I will say I kind of forgot science was involved in this book, because it was definitely heavy on the romance aspect. Also much steamier than her previous books in the same universe. It's also probably why Love, Theoretically still stands as my favorite, but Not in Love is a fairly close second for all the sobbing I did in the last few chapters. I'm telling ya, I'm such an effing SAP.

This was, in a word, adorable! I'm usually of the mindset for shorter cozy fantasy stories, and admittedly this book could have done with less repeated arguments between the two characters. But, I think things do pick up a few times in between the humdrum of Reyna and Kianthe's "easy living" that I wasn't completely bored. 

Honestly, though, all Rena wants to do is have tea and relax by a fireplace. All Camp wants to do is read cozly by a fireplace. Both of them already had me at their dream of creating a book and tea shop/lending library and cafe. But also, lest you think founding Tomes and Teas was an easy picnic; Reyna is also a deserter of the Queensguard and Kianthe is the Arcandor, Mage of Ages. Nothing is quite as easy as it seems to be, and it takes settling into a small and unremarkable town like Tawney to really test their love of dream and each other.

While most of the book really is cozy, there we're a couple of high stakes scenarios that actually had me interested and helped me get through the rest of the book. I'm usually used to Shorter cozy fantasies, so this one was a little over 300 pages and I wondered how the author would be able stretched out the story that far. That said, between dragon attacks, Queendom spies, and the (allegedly) rivals-to-romance drama unfolding between two town leaders (which I honestly ship so hard lmao), there was definitely a lot to look forward to in the book.

Also, also, Reyna and Kianthe are great. I loved that the two communicated with each other constantly and checked on each other's feelings in a more subtle level. I also love the gestures they make to show their love. I did wish, though, that we got a bit more development on their characters separate of each other; their interactions with other characters when they were apart were pretty enjoyable, too.

The book also resolves itself, but does open up to a sequel which I definitely will want to pick up!