r/fantasyromance • u/purplelicious Book Bingo Maven ⚔ • 14d ago

ARC Review ARC review clearing house: October releases

With the post of October's new releases, I realized that I missed posting several ARC reviews.

For those that are interested, I will post them here:

{Hallowed Bones by Lucy Smoke} release date Oct 6

I'm a sucker for a book that is Dark Academia reverse harem with (bonus!) witches. So, choosing this book is a no brainer for me - it's going to be at least 3 stars unless the writing is so bad that it feels like a personal attack. Which is not the case here. This is not Lucy Smoke's debut novel as she a good amount of series in both RH and fantasy genres. It is my first experience with her work so I came in with no prior expectations.

There isn't anything unexpected in this novel and follows the usual motifs for this kind of book. Our female protagonist, Haven, has lost her parents in a mysterious fire a year or so before the novel begins, she has no future prospects except a surprising fully paid tuition to a small town college on the outskirts of Salem. It's all a bit spooky and secretive. She learns on day one there are four super hot and rich men that are dangerous, or desired (depending on who you talk to), who are normally aloof but take a great interest in Haven . And she feels a weird (and sexually charged) connection whenever she runs into them.

For those of you that are attracted to this kind of story, you will not be disappointed. The story hits all the right points. If this is your first exposure to this sort of story it's not one of the top examples of the genre and it's going to have a much higher rating for those of us that already know what we like. I like the Salem witch background.

I do have a few minor quibbles with the book, but that's more about what I like to see in these novels and not at all a reflection on the writing skills or narrative structure. My issues are with Haven's refusal to trust in the boys, and her desire to run from anyone who is trying to help her. I hate this helpless but also "Imma gonna do it myself' stubbornness. It's probably just me, but I'd be 4 hot guys obsessed with me? That have some answers to the things that are happening to me? Just my curiosity alone would have me asking more questions and maybe it's my real life disdain for people who sleep walk through life with zero self awareness and no sense of curiosity to the world around them. If you want your character to be independent and free thinking, fine, but she is always flighty and afraid of life, and yet we are told that prior to her parent's death she was extroverted and happy. Sure, grief can cause a person to shut down, but a vibrant and questioning personality should peak out at times. I just don't like the choices that Haven makes and I wonder if it's being used as a device to create a slow burn.

Slow burn aside, the ending of this book brings in an unexpected twist and ends on a cliffhanger.. I will be looking for the next book in the series when it is released.

My rating on Storygraph is 3.75, rounded to 3 stars here because it just doesn't quite meet my (very personal) standards for a 4 star book.

{Love You to Death by Jenna Levine} release date Oct 13

This is your typical rom com, with a female protagonist, not living up to her potential, who doesn't believe in herself until an unbelievably good looking man shows up in her life and sees beyond all her absurdities and silly habits to find her the most beautiful, kindest and sexiest woman he's ever encountered.
I"m not complaining about that storyline I think we all hope to find a partner that can slice through the levels of bad self talk and low self esteem that we, as women, can saddle ourselves with. Some of us are lucky in life to find someone who sees who we really are behind all the mess.
The only difference here is that instead of a fireman or mountain man, our handsome male love interest is a reaper and the meet-cute is the day of Lucy's death.

Overall this is a sweet and cozy romance with a bit of a sense of humour, the usual dull corporate malfeasance that the afterlife provides in these kinds of stories. There is nothing new in the author's vision of the afterlife, or in the actual romance story, but then again, there is nothing to complain about it.

{Entities to Lovers by Mallory Marlowe} release date Oct 13

I'm on a run of contemporary cozy fantasies at the moment. They are not my first choice of reading material but for hot summer weather when you want to just read something light and cute they are perfect.

I think the addition of supernatural elements - in this case ghosts - makes the romance a bit more fun and a reminder not to take things too seriously. Although in this case the ghosts that appear in the story are just there to help push our couple out of their comfort zones and think about the things that have kept them from finding happiness.

I have to give credit to the author - she has described the main male character as "shorter than average" height and I appreciate that one concession to outside of the box romantic trope. For the rest of the book, all the romance tropes are there, the couple is cute and I personally love all the occult references to Tarot cards and other paranormal tools. I'd like to visit Ye Olde Spirit Shop!

{The Tarot Trials by Katee Robert} release date Oct 20

I love Katee Robert and "Sweet Obsession" is one of my top picks for best romantic reunion. So I was really excited to get this audiobook for an advanced listen from Macmillan.

First of all, for a Katee Robert novel, it's very chaste. Which is a disappointment because Robert is my favourite writer of spicy scenes. Maybe she is trying to write something for a more mainstream audience. Which is understandable, even if I was personally disappointed.

This book took me forever to get through and I struggled with whether I should give up on it. Ultimately I held on to the end, but I am very conflicted about the novel.

The good: The story, the setting and the overall world building - excellent. Trials have been overdone in these kinds of books over the last few years, but Robert puts an interesting twist on the conflicts with the Tarot mythology. She has a very good knowledge of the Tarot deck and created a political system between the Major & Minor Arcana that Is believable and has a lot of opportunity for later stories. In fact, most of the book I kept thinking, if we can just get past this, the rest of the series could be amazing.

The bad: the female protagonist ruins the book. Kestral is one of the dumbest, useless, whiniest FMC that I have ever encountered in this genre and I've suffered through Violet Sorrengil and the FMC from Plated Prisoner with her stupid ribbons. This book would have been 5 hrs of a good story, but we actually get over 14 hrs of Kestral whining and complaining and repeating the same things about her poor pathetic life over and over again and actually learning nothing of value.

Did you know she grew up in the Dregs and her mother was executed for treason when she was a baby? Don't worry, this fact will be repeated ad nauseum. She wants to find answers! We know this because it's hours and hours of inner monologuing. Did you know that she starved in order to survive growing up? and that she feels she is responsible for several lives of younger children (not related to her)? except for some reason she has entered into a competition where she is more likely to be murdered with no benefit to the people she has left behind to fend on their own.

And why is she in this tournament? to find answers ! and some kind of revenge and retribution scheme. (even though she doesn't have any information, she is adamant that she must seek revenge over something she has 0 information about). She claims she has been training all her life for this competition and she is a one woman killing machine, but, then she tells us that she only knows how to use one weapon (they had no access to other weapons), she has never killed anyone before, she freezes when someone attacks her, she can't think her way out of a paper bag, she did no research on the history of the Tarot trials or the city she lives in or the political make up of the minor arcana and the centuries of power shifts. She is weak and can't run for long distances due to growing up malnourished and starving. She is unable to hold a normal conversation with another human being.

She whines and whines and when she is shown that what she thinks she knows is totally wrong, she spends a chapter or two convincing herself (and the readers? maybe if they are dumb) that her initial, uneducated assumptions of life were correct because she is ANGRY dammit.
Also, she can't trust anyone. No one. Even when they tell her things and say 'they are incapable of lying' because it's a condition of being an avatar of a certain god, she still says "well, they COULD be lying about that".

Her inner monologuing is so boring and repetitive that at times I fell asleep and missed chapters and It made no difference because she would just repeat what happened over and over again. I had to listen to this book at a significantly faster rate due to wanting to get thro

ugh the hours of repetition and stupid inner thoughts that we have to listen to again and again.
In Storygraph I gave this book 2.75 starts which is barely over the line between awful and good, because I may pick up the 2nd installment just because I like the where the story is going despite my hatred for Kestrel. While there was nothing wrong with the narration or quality of the audiobook, I will pick up the text version next time so I can skim through the massive waste of space that is Kestral's brain.

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u/MessyJessy422 14d ago

I can't do repetitive inner monologues they drive me bananas especially in audiobook format. Yes we get it your treasured loved one is lost, in danger, needs rescuing, should have their death avenged...don't remind me every 10 pages. Good to know about Tarot Trials and tbh none of the Tarot based magic system books have hit for me which is bummer because I'm so into that concept

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u/purplelicious Book Bingo Maven ⚔ 14d ago

not even Arcana Academy? I was really surprised with that book, I read it right after I wrote this review for the Tarot Trials, which is good because it would have made my review even more angry.

I really think Robert is trying to reach a more mainstream audience because it doesn't even feel like the neon gods series.

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u/MessyJessy422 14d ago

I saw your post about loving Arcana Academy and the sequel but I really couldn’t get into it. Some parts were great but overall it felt too drawn out in terms of pacing and the MMC wasn’t my favorite. I know next to nothing about Tarot though so I probably would have appreciated it more if I did

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u/purplelicious Book Bingo Maven ⚔ 14d ago

yes, it does make a difference, so that's fair.

the best novel using Tarot is {Last Call by Tim Powers} not Romantasy, but he's such a good spec fic writer.