Just Finished Quicksilver By Callie Hart And My God It Was Good! Why Do I Keep Finding These Great Unfinished

January Reads (forgot to post)

Took this from my instagram, but these were my reads for January. All 5/5 for me. Loved them.

I discovered Lily Mayne at the end of December and I devoured these two series of hers in January.

Can’t wait for Lyri to come out and continue the monstrous series!

Have you read any of these?

So I just finished Heat of the Everflame…. Wtf? Just happened?😂 I’m so confused by the ending. Like where was the loophole? I can’t wait for the next book!

The Villains Beast by Kate Hawthorne

Had a great time with this one. The spice was spicing, the angst was angsting. This is a bit of a dark read, definitely check the trigger/content warnings before you read, but I really enjoyed it and I didn’t want it to end. I wanted more time with alle the characters. I loved how their relationships developed and the different dynamics they all have with each other.

Have you read this one yet?

What is your fave mm dark romance?

Currently Reading

I just plowed through the first two books in this series and am just staring this third one. I’m obsessed!

I forgot how much there was I got frustrated by in Iron Flame, like Varrish who fills me with rage in every scene he is in and Jack fucking Barlow.

I also do get fed up with both Violet and Xaden with their communication issues, but I try to remind myself of how young they are and that helps. Although Violet is the one who annoys me the most with all the hypocrisy and the full disclosure bullshit.

I think it bothers me the most because she has grown up in a military environment so she should know that some things aren’t for everyone to know. She is fine with Mira telling her “you can’t know that, it’s classified”, but it’s not fine when it’s Xaden, like because she’s in love with him she should get to know things that aren’t his to tell?

He also has a bunch of things that he could have told her, but he has his whole you have to ask thing going on which is also annoying.

It’s kinda hard for them to know how to be in a relationship with healthy communication though cause they don’t exactly have a lot of great examples around them😅

Still love this book though and I’m beyond excited for the release of Onyx Storm next week!

This one was so good! I’ve seen in around on booktok and here on insta and I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet, but boy am I glad I did! I tore through it like two days, I couldn’t put it down, I just wanted to know what would happen next.

I’m obsessed with Xaden, talk about a shadow daddy🥵

I loved how Violet grew throughout. I love that she has a chronic illness, made me relate to her more cause I have one too (not the same one, but one where accommodations sometimes need to be made for me to do the things I want or have to do) so that was great.

I liked the relationships both platonic and romantic ones. And the mysteries were intriguing.

Tairn was hilarious, love him and Andarna is precious and must be protected at all costs🥺❤️

That ending had me shook! Didn’t see it coming. There were a lot of things I did see coming throughout the book, but that ending, no. It was surprising for me.

5/5 for me. I had a great time reading it.

And to quote fantasy fangirls pod: 🎶God fucking damn it Dain🎶

Is it just me? (Onyx Storm - no spoilers)

I’m seeing so many Onyx Storm reviews the past few days where people talk about how confusing and scatterbrained the writing was and I didn’t feel like it was at all? Like there were parts that I was a bit confused because we’re supposed to be along with Violet, but it wasn’t to the point where I felt like I understood nothing and nothing made sense.

Then I was thinking, maybe it’s because I’m adhd and it’s just written and paced in a way that works for my neurospicy brain😅

I know Rebecca Yarros is adhd too, so maybe it’s something to that? But also, this was the third book in a five book series. If we got all the answers in this one that would just not make sense?

Everyone’s different, and every experience is valid, I’ve just been seeing a lot of this late and couldn’t relate at all😅

The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy

I devoured this in like two days. It was a great read and I love that it was more about the couple growing as people together and that the problems were mostly external. Like no stupid third act breakup just for the sake of it like I feel like too many romance books do.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was fun to get the little cameos from the OG generation too.

Also, Ryder was top tear! I’m obsessed with him. He’s just my type of book guy.

I had like one thong that annoyed me, which was the fight between Gigi and Ryder where she pushed him to talk about why he was upset and he didn’t want to and then she proceeded to not tell him why she was upset. Like he’d snapped at her which he apologised for, but she was still angry with him for not opening up and just expecting him to know that was the reason she was mad.

She should’ve just communicated that to him. Like dude, come on. She knows he’s not a talker. That he’s not used to sharing shit. Don’t expect him to be a mind reader.

The talk he had with his teammates girlfriend should have been had with Gigi.

But other than that I didn’t have any major annoyances or anything.

I just get frustrated when there’s poor communication😅

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)

The Hunt by Z W Taylor, to buy or not to buy?

I’m so conflicted. Book 2 comes out pretty soon and I don’t know if I want to get it or not.

Here’s the thing, I read the original trilogy when they were wattpad book and the third one was still being released.

I loved them, and have read them several times. The world and the characters just felt so immersive and the story line was so good! Yes there were parts that maybe needed a bit of editing, like grammar and just redundant sentences and stuff, but it was good!

When it was announced that it would become real published books I was so excited. I thought it would be the books just polished, you know? I pre ordered the paperback and couldn’t wait to dive back into this world.

It was like I wasn’t even reading the same story. It felt flat, drawn out and like nothing really happened in the whole book. And apparently it’s going to be a whole long series now instead of a trilogy which it was originally.

I found it hard to care about any of the characters, it was like all the life was gone from them. I just felt so disappointed. And I was honestly kind of bored the whole time. I think I might have enjoyed it more if I’d never read the originals, but alas.

I’m hoping the second book will be better, that I will like it more, but I don’t know. I’m so conflicted!

Anyone else have the same experience? Did you read the original wattpad series? What are your thoughts on the new version?

Fourth Wing - Graphic audio|I have some.. thoughts

So I’ve been listening to Fourth Wing and will do Iron Flame too in preparation for the Onyx Storm release next week and I chose the graphic audio version since it sounded like a cool concept and I also didn’t vibe with the narrator of the normal audiobook from the sample.

Overall I’m really enjoying it, but there are some things that definitely takes me right out of the story every now and then

- Xaden’s voice actor is not great. He has moments where lines are delivered very well, but mostly he sounds kinda obnoxious and flat. Like he said “I’m on my way” or something to that effect in which the narrator says he had an edge of panic in his voice right after and he definitely did not. Like he had no emotional inflection in his voice at all and this tends to happen often.

Xaden is supposed to be cocky and arrogant, yes, but he’s also charismatic and confident and the voice actor doesn’t really pull that off. Like I said he just aounds obnoxious a lot of the time, like one of those trustfund baby stereotypes… makes me cringe a lot. He does have some moments here and there that he really delivers a line well though, so it’s not all bad

- The excessive moaning when they’re just kissing. And Violet low key sounding like she’s being tortured when they’re doing the deed.

I was so taken aback when I got to their first kiss because the moaning was just too much. The second the kiss started they sounded like they were about to finish if you know what I mean… it just was so weird to me.

And their first time, as mentioned Violet mostly just sounded like she was in pain. She did have some parts that sounded like she was enjoying herself, but mostly it sounded like a torture scene and that made things very weird for me

- Lastly, Tairn. I’m disappointed in his voice. I wish it was grittier, like a bit more like the voice actor for Professor Kaori (don’t remember if that’s the correct spelling), but at least he delivers his lines pretty well. Like my only issue is the sound of the voice, not the voice acting itself.

All this being said, I still am enjoying it a lot (I’m almost at the end now) and I will be doing the graphic audio version of Iron Flame too.

Have you listened to the graphic audio version? What did you think about it?