Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The hype around this book was crazy and it was one of my highly anticipated books by the end of this year. Unfortunately it did not live up to the hype for me and I was left disappointed. I know this genre will always share similarities with other books but when the cover is eerily close to one that happens to be a huge player in the game it’s hard not to compare the two or overlook that fact especially when you start to find similarities within the story. I really tried not to compare it to the popular book that was released in Spring 2020 but there were too many similarities within the beginning of this story. The cover, trained to fight (I mean this one is pretty common), Princess, has to marry vampire, lied throughout life about vampires, curvy and athletic, prone to stabbing, night blooming roses vs midnight roses, the Blood Forest which blooms from the blood of gods vs the Starless Forest trees that sprang from blood….I mean even some of the sex scenes were the same! Plus I’ve read that series a few times and when I see this unoriginal cover that is a total ripoff of the other book, my mind connects the two. Yes, I know that might be harsh but honestly if you put the two side by side you can’t tell me it’s not almost completely the same. Again, I know covers are sometimes similar but this one is just too close for me. I will say that around the 45% mark that this story started to branch away from the book that was released in 2020 and I stopped finding similarities. However, that was not my only issue with this book. The way the heroine is introduced is not flattering for her. She came off as rude, entitled and someone who looked down on people who were underneath her…literally. This made it hard for me to relate and sympathize her her. If she had such a problem with who Killian was then why did she start the situation to begin with. She couldn’t find someone else to occupy her time? Unnecessary drama. Also, the whole woman vs woman. Why can’t she build other women up instead of trying to bring them down? Why do we have to go all Mean Girls?? Just because you are curvy trained to fight like stabbing people and are a princess/queen that supposedly isn’t like anyone else, it doesn’t give you the right to treat people like crap. It doesn’t make you a bada$$ heroine. It makes you a bully. You can not demand respect it is earned. I didn’t really find and redeeming qualities in the Isolde. The jealousy she had just came off as immature. Adrian, Sorin and Daroc were the only silver lining in this book and even then I was still left wanting. With that said, I even found Adrian a little too quick to chop someone’s head off just because he could. Yes, at times I can understand it is necessary but every time someone disagrees with you is a bit much. The book is also pretty choppy and did pick up around 80% and even though it was pretty predictable the last 20% was entertaining to read. I did have hard time believing a certain someone’s betrayal. In the beginning of the book that person would start a war for you and by the end betray you as such? This to me wasn’t much of an enemies to lovers book. It was pretty insta love. I need angst pain and mystery. I want the main characters to work for their love. I’m all for spiciness but I need a plot too. I know this is the first book in series and sometimes things are slow and predictable. I’m hoping this is just the process of setting up the rest of the series I think I still have hope for it but haven’t decided if I will continue with it. I really wanted to love this book but it was just not in the cards for me. These are just my thoughts and opinions and just because I didn’t absolutely love it doesn’t mean other people won’t. If you are a fan of vampires and fantasy, read it and decide for yourself. I truly hope you enjoy it.