prettyphantastic's reviews
497 reviews

The art of this comic was really pretty and I love how they brought back the iconic outfits from the animated movies I grew up watching! I did think the storyline was interesting and had some cute messages, especially the storyline about Valentine. 

However to me this did not feel like a Monster High Story. It didn’t really follow the lore or presets listed relationships from the movies. Seeing the friendship over and different ships felt like I was reading a fan fiction more than a cannon storyline. The mystery of the disappearance was interesting but I feel Ike this should’ve been marketed as a darker mystery take on Monster High rather than a continuation of where the movies left off, as they do reference some of the movie like Boo York. 

I also kept getting taken out of the story with the excessive amounts of puns and changing of words to be more monster theme like “maul” for “mall”. This was happening on every page and it just got old and cringey really fast. It was a cute nod to the movie dialogue but when it’s on every page it’s just so distracting. 

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

The positives: I really enjoyed the world building and magic system, as it was pretty unique, and it was easy to follow the FMC’s magical journey. The story was relatively easy to get though and was mostly enjoyable. 

I didn’t really care for the relationship between the two leads, especially the way Thorne treated her and talked to her when they first met. Yes, he went on a journey to change his views and see her as a person, which is the point of the book, but it I really disliked him in the beginning third of the book. At the end I also dislike the way he kept leaving her and not apologizing or really changing his behavior, when she’s expressed her fear of abandonment. I know he’s also dealing with the lies he’s believed his whole life but if they can’t properly communicate, it’s not a good foundation for a relationship. 

The story started out a bit slow and I did feel the end was a little rushed. The final battle at the end and the aftermath felt like it ended and was “solved” so quickly. The ending also left me unsatisfied. I’m assuming the villain getting away and her new “job” at the end left the story open to have a sequel, but the story arcs of the main character felt completed for now and I was unsatisfied with how the villainous characters didn’t really face any consequences. Willow seemingly got away and she’s she was banished but it kinda felt like “that’s it? No other on-page consequences?”  And don’t get me started on Jett. The way she mistreated the golems, especially Brick annoyed me to no end, especially when Marina was supposed to somewhat be her friend she has no qualms about her cruelty and mistreatment of the people she got to know at school. I would of loved to she her get to know Brick and change her mindset like Thorne, but she was cruel and bitter until the end. The dismissal that she was lied to by Willow, so that makes it okay for her to still have her position at the Guild and face no consequences for her mistreatment left a bitter taste in my mouth. I understand the author is trying to say that we should give people the benefit of the doubt to learn and change for the better, but unlike Quill or Thorne, Jett’s character had no actual growth or repentance to make getting away unscathed be a satisfying ending. 

Thank you to Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I couldn’t put this book down, it was just the romantasy book I was looking for! 

The familial relationships and friendships in this book was a major standout for me. I felt that each side character was developed and dynamic, and it made the tension and the relationships between the characters that much more compelling, as it really drove the story and made me feel for the characters. 

I will say that I wish the romance side-plots and the competition aspect were a bit more fleshed out. I still believed the tension and stakes of the competition and felt that the connection between the laws were strong, but it would’ve been fun to explore that relationship and have more competitions on the page. 

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait to read the next installment!

This was my first manga classic and I really enjoyed it. I’m a such for Anne of Green Gables adaptations (I love the show Anne with an E) so when I saw there was a manga adaptation I knew I had to read it. 

The overall story was very faithful to the original, but the manga format gave the story a fresh take. The art was super cute also. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Udon Entertainment for giving me a digital ARC I’m exchange for an honest review!

Loved the audiobook version and getting a glimpse in Mark and Gemma’s relationship. It’s so fun reading tv series tie ins in the form of fictional books made “real” in our world. 

Thank you to Netgalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Initially the title, cover, and plot intrigued me. I love a good transmigration plot point where a character gets transported into another world. No where in the synopsis did it hint that this was going to be a book about aliens which I was surprised about. Going into the book I expected it to be a fantasy, so reading about the sci-fi elements caught me off guard. 

Kaleys character was a bit unrealistic at times. I know that the whole point was that she didn’t know she was on an alien planet but how could she be so chill with the blue light chip in her arm and seeing a literal dragon. She was too nonchalant about everything strange going on that I didn’t find her character all that believable. I get that she’s a folklorist and an expert on fairytales but she seems way to accepting of the newfound magic when she supposedly believes they’re just on an island on earth. It’s just so unbelievable that she didn’t notice beforehand. Her biggest motivator was to document new fairytales and find a new topic to write her dissertation on for grad school, but the author spends little to no time fleshing out what specifically Kaley wants to research. It makes me feel detached from her motivations and ultimately her character.

The writing focuses a lot on telling us the characters thoughts and feelings instead of showing us. Particularly when Kaley finds out she’s been lied to we’re told that she goes through the stages of grief but we don’t see that in any of her actions, we’re just told she does and then the story moves right along.

When Kaley does eventually find out she was lied to, she takes it surprisingly well. She doesn’t have a big angry blowup like all the characters assumed she would, so the eventual reveal felt a bit lackluster. There was so much tension built up over how she would react, then she just remained calm and didn’t get mad and accepted everything so easily.

I also don’t like how it’s repeatedly brought up that everyone is trying to set Kaley and Tanek up together. So many characters point of that they would be so good together but we don’t actually see them develop their relationship with deeper one on one conversations that make their eventual confession of feelings seem unbelievable. On Kaley’s side it was mostly lust at the beginning as well. When Tanek first offered Kaley to stay and live with him instead of returning to Earth it just felt out of left-field and more out of convenience bc she gets along with his swans, not so much because he actually loves her. There’s too much telling and dialogue instead of actually showing us and building the relationships between the characters. 

The whole reason I picked this book up was because I was interested in how she would interact and influence the actual fairytales and stories, but the story didn’t really focus on that at all. When an earthen story was mentioned, save for the Hansel and Gretel tie in, it felt like we don’t really spend that much time with it. Or rather we didn’t spend much time in Kaley’s mind as she didn’t really think or analyze why the fairytales she knows are real in this new world. She just acknowledges they’re similar, solves the problem, and then we move on without her ever doing any critical thinking or tying it back to her research goals. She lets all the crazy plot points happen to her without any protest, which is so unrealistic. I get that she’s processing being lied to and it’s a strange new world she’s in, but we don’t spend nearly enough time in her character’s POV to go with her on this journey. 

Everything happens so quickly there is no tension or stakes. There isn’t a lot of world building and the plot moves too quickly. For example when they were on the mountain at the end of the book, there’s no explanation for why some characters appear when they do. And Kaley moves on from these strange occurrences without batting an eye and just accepting everything. It feels like I as the reader am thinking more critically about whats happening while the characters she just accepts everything, making me feel frustrated. The other MMC’s we follow know a lot more about the world, but there is little to no world building from their POVs either so we’re left in the dark. We don’t know anything about the world so I don’t feel a sense of fear or urgency for the characters. Without tension, the mystery falls flat and I feel removed from the characters, the twists, and the story. 

Overall the premise was interesting, but it ultimately fell flat for me. 

A good companion short story to the show.

I picked up this book because the title was intriguing and I enjoy a good morally grey MMC. What I wasn’t expecting was the monster romance aspect and explicit spicy monster scenes. The book felt a bit insta-lovey since the whole book took place over the course of a week or two and their relationship moved really quickly. Despite this, I did enjoy the romance and did feel like the main characters really were a perfect match. The writing was humorous and I enjoyed reading about the demons being fish out water in the human realm. I finished this book in one sitting and I am looking forward to reading about the other brothers. 

3.5 Stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

The premise of this book was super interesting and I always love a reading about a trial. The narrator was fine to listen to, no complaints there. 

The world building was pretty immersive and I did feel like I had a good grasp of the world. However, the characters fell a little flat for me. We didn’t spend much time getting to know the characters and the relationships they developed with the FMC wasn’t strong enough, ultimately leading me to not feel any attachments or have emotional reactions to major plots in the book. Some of the betrayals like what happens with Kader followed a similar formula from other fantasy books, making me feel like some of these reveals were somewhat predictable or not entirely shocking. 

I did have fun listening to it, and I’m sure if you pick up this book you’ll have an enjoyable time listening to it too.