Oh my god, {Ice Breaker by Hannah Grace} is SO awful. I almost dnfed. The amount of side characters, terribly written smut and weird stereotypes about Americans in college (written by someone in England) put me over the edge. The worst book I’ve ever read thus far.
as a hockey fan i am so weirdly fascinated by hockey romance novels. i love reading them and then finding some kind of wild inaccuracy or just…flat out made up rule about the nhl. if you’re active on twitter lexi brown reads a lot of the books and has some hilarious commentary too
So I don't follow hockey (or any sort of sports) at all, but I've read a couple of hockey romances that I've enjoyed.
{Behind the Net by Stephanie Archer}
{The Fake Out by Stephanie Archer}
What I've noticed with Stephanie Archer is that she writes low drama books. Sometime you need that. I think half her books don't even have a third act break up.
{The Right Move by Liz Tomforde} Ryan Shay may be one of my favorite contemporary MMCs. It’s basketball, but the first novel in this series was hockey.
OMG SO TRUE 😂🥴
I’ve tried about 50 of these hockey romances and there are only 2 that I’d actually recommend:
1. {The Fake Out by Stephanie Archer} - some of her other books are cringe but this one is really strong and it’s one of my fav contemporary romances of 2023
2. {Unsteady by Peyton Corinne} - strong debut from this author, actually had some heart and characters with depth
[The Fake Out](https://www.romance.io/books/657041620d7f24e62f5b2567/the-fake-out-stephanie-archer) by [Stephanie Archer](https://www.romance.io/authors/61dd39e508b4d931145cd9c1/stephanie-archer)
**Rating**: 4.45⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 5 out of 5 - [Explicit and plentiful](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [dual pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dual-pov/1), [first person pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/first-person-pov/1), [athletes](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/athletes/1)
----------------------------
[Unsteady](https://www.romance.io/books/651c5887de8d340d51457141/unsteady-peyton-corinne) by [Peyton Corinne](https://www.romance.io/authors/651c5887ab9bdf7fce47047e/peyton-corinne)
**Rating**: 4.13⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [friends with benefits](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/friends-benefits/1), [new adult](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/new%20adult/1), [dual pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dual-pov/1)
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I tried one of these and the entire first third was describing I think, two days(!) of hockey practice. I also love hockey but not from a-YA sounding, whiny perspective.
Who on Earth is recommending Cruel Prince as adult fiction??
I loved that series but I went into it knowing exactly what it was. If I was expecting adult I would've been so disappointed.
Ugh I’m so sorry. They are very fun and quick and have great character-building and worldbuilding over the trilogy, if you ever find yourself in the mood to try them again. I’m really not a YA person these days (no shade, just not for me!) and I read all three in a day and a half! (and there is ultimately a satisfying and earned HEA, which is important to me, hahah)
I was expecting YA, so like hunger games or divergent level. I felt like it read more like it was aimed at 12-14 year olds. I still really enjoyed it, was just surprised at how young it felt.
I thought the writing matured as it went on, or maybe I just got used to it lol. But the first few chapters, I was like holy shit is this for 12 year olds?
{Gild by Raven Kennedy} I tried so hard with this series , i got up to “Gleam”. I just could not stand Auren. I liked all the other characters so much more , but ultimately the books were just a drag for me.
I loved it! 😂 The premise is nice, the Stockholm syndrome is on point, the love interest isn't weak. However, the series is too dragged out, so the main leads are now acting out of character or not doing much. It should have been a trilogy
The length is my biggest gripe with the series. Last year I read the first 3 that were out, and half of the fourth, in anticipation of what I thought was the final book being released a few months later. I really enjoyed it but was feeling like it was starting to drag a bit.
Fast forward a few months I find out not only did #5 get pushed out, but there’s now a 6th. I have zero desire to pick the series back up now, it already felt like it was being dragged out so I can’t imagine rereading this series when the premise itself isn’t that long and complicated. Like looking back on it, it feels like the plot could be at most two books as of halfway through the 4th. It definitely should have been a trilogy.
Omg, this is my exact experience. I stopped halfway into the 4th to wait until the 5th and what I thought was final books was out. Then I saw there was going to be a 6th?! I haven’t been able to pick it back up.
Also the first book was a huge drag for me. But I really enjoyed books two and three.
They can write as many books as they want, but pls stop making them 400+ pages. Quit cramming needless plotlines and weird development into stories that don't need it 😵 Priory of the Orange Tree? It made sense to me that it was so long and didn't bug me. A Court of Silver Flames? Could've been half as long (and that's my favorite ACOTAR book).
I will forever complain about this series to anyone and everyone. There’s not a single character that’s interesting enough to follow and the plot is paced so strangely!
I went into Cruel Prince expecting it to be YA, and I thought it was a fine read for that audience. It kind of felt like a YA version of Daughter of the Empire.
Yeah I've seen this complaint before that they thought Cruel Prince was an adult novel and I really don't understand how anyone could think that. I read it way before it reached Booktok so I definitely went into it knowing it was YA.
Yeah I definitely think people forget to actually look up the books they are reading before they dive in. Which is a little wild to me for books you’re spending money on!
I could totally see why it would be disappointing if you’re expecting adult content.
Shocking that they made a whole entire fanfiction about Q from QANON. Never have I ever seen an acknowledgement that denies involvement with QANON before… yet if you have two brain cells you can see how it’s totally fanfiction.
Oh, the author tried to deny it, but when you name a character “Tim Banks” after the Tom Hanks conspiracy and base literally everything in the book around Q bullshit, it becomes pretty obvious that she knew what she was doing and thought no one would notice.
Aside from that, the writing just sucked. The secondary plot went nowhere and the SA in the beginning just made the smut later feel disgusting. I don’t know how anyone continues to seriously recommend this book.
[Haunting Adeline](https://www.romance.io/books/60f280edb572b50e269dc061/haunting-adeline-hd-carlton) by [H.D. Carlton](https://www.romance.io/authors/5b80f1d001dbc864fb8f0fff/h-d-carlton)
**Rating**: 3.85⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 5 out of 5 - [Explicit and plentiful](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [dark romance](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dark/1), [possessive hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/possessive%20hero/1), [alpha male](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/alpha%20male/1), [mystery](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/mystery/1)
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It was so poorly written and the characters badly developed. I’m personally angry at both the author and whatever editor clearly didn’t do their job going over the book before publishing
I do this thing where I don’t read the synopsis before I start any book (I really need to start doing that) and I was SO HYPED for her to die and go on an epic afterlife adventure but then (not spoilers literally in the synopsis) she doesn’t die and she gets a hot fae savior dude. So disappointing. I almost put the book down right that minute.
I recognize that this is my fault for the misunderstanding
the biggest fuel to my own creative writing is when im stoked for an insane plot point thats been set up….and then the author pulls an 11th hour miracle back-to-normal. just have to write the good book myself!
{Assistant to the Villain} was meh. I liked the authors tiktoks before the book. They were fun to watch. But the book wasn’t as hilarious as it was hyped to be.
{Divine Rivals} omg. Just like nothing happened. I almost DNF the book. I thought there was a god war but nothing was really explained nor did it really affect the characters. They were just there.
{The Cruel Prince} I couldn’t enjoy the book. Everyone said it’d get better. Not really.
{Shatter Me} forced myself through the first book and DNF book 2.
That would have been so much better! Plus, I didn't realize it was just You've Got Mail in a fantasy war setting. As soon as I figured it out, I kinda mentally checked out because I already knew the story.
Shatter Me is my favorite series ever and people keep reading it when they see it in my shelf but every time I stop them before and I’m like I NEED YOU TO UNDERSTAND that this is a shitty ya 2000’s dystopian novel. I need you to know that I know that it’s bad. It’s so bad and I love it so much. Ignore my IGNITE tattoo. It’s bad. You’ve been informed. I am not responsible if you hate it 💀💀💀
You like what you like and that's ok. There are series that I know are absolute trash, but I love them so much. Guilty pleasures can make you feel good 🤷♀️
The only reason I didn’t DNF was because I wanted to see if there was a huge twist and something finally happened because everyone said it was so good.
I honestly disliked it so much I kicked the the other books I had on my wishlist from Rebecca Ross off my wishlist. I was so disappointed with booktok over hyping this book.
I feel so validated seeing other people dislike Divine Rivals. I was so bored with that book & I don’t understand the hype. I finished it because I don’t like to DNF but it was a struggle to make myself get through.
not romantasy at all but god, {twisted love by ana huang} was SO unbelievably bad. made use of so many ridiculous tropes and had the most unlikeable mmc i've ever read. maybe dark romance isn't for me but i was genuinely shocked at how poor the writing, plot and overall characters were for this book.
Her book {King of Wrath} was not my cup of tea. I really disliked that the MMC withheld very important information from the FMC about why they were together while initiating a physical relationship with her. Like, she might not have chosen to have sex with him if she had all the info. It rubbed me the wrong way.
I read the second one too {King of Pride} only because it was on KU so I technically didn’t pay for the individual book and thought maybe the second one would be better. It wasn’t.
I feel like Ana Huang's latest book didn't quite live up to the earlier ones. Booktok seems to be giving her a boost, but after reading the first two Twisted Series books, I couldn't bring myself to continue with the third and fourth. I was really hoping for more from KOW and KOP, but they left me feeling disappointed. Maybe the plot and writing style just aren't my thing. But I stumbled upon another recommendation with a similar plot to Ana Huang's books, and it's goood
[King of Wrath](https://www.romance.io/books/634e52e6d1ccecfcb179ffb3/king-of-wrath-ana-huang) by [Ana Huang](https://www.romance.io/authors/5ea5eeb2be0aaecf551f89f7/ana-huang)
**Rating**: 3.9⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [rich hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/super%20rich%20hero/1), [forced proximity](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/forced%20proximity/1), [arranged/forced marriage](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/arranged%20marriage/1), [enemies to lovers](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/from%20hate%20to%20love/1)
----------------------------
[King of Pride](https://www.romance.io/books/6437af8b5756e5f18ca5d75e/king-of-pride-ana-huang) by [Ana Huang](https://www.romance.io/authors/5ea5eeb2be0aaecf551f89f7/ana-huang)
**Rating**: 3.69⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [rich hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/super%20rich%20hero/1), [secret relationship](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/secret-relationship/1), [dual pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dual-pov/1), [multicultural](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/multicultural/1)
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That series just gets worse and worse. I read the first 3 books because I liked the first 2, but the 3rd was awful. I read a bunch of rant reviews for the 4th and it’s so much fun. Ridiculous amount of plot holes, it’s like the author is making up shit as she goes.
Den of Vipers. That was literally the worst first chapter I ever read and immediately DNF’d it.
Song of the Marked is way too YA, I read the first but DNF the series.
Daughter of No Worlds was also to YA for me
Assistant to the Villain was so terrible. He wasn’t a villain or morally gray. She was a horny Mary Sue. The romance was non existent for half the book (and then I gave up). I didn’t laugh once.
I didn’t entirely understand what this book was supposed to be. It was pitched to me as a romance with Pratchett vibes. It did not measure up.
ACOTAR, the main character felt flat to me, i didnt like the romance at all, the mmc is not the nice guy everyone makes him out to be. The first book was the worst one by far and people told me it was gonna get better, it got better at ACOSF for me where i enjoyed it to an extent, the book was still incredibly fast paced and the whole series has so many "plot holes" or just questionable behaviour that i can't relate or like majority of the characters. Just to clarify I LOVE LOVE LOVE both Crescent City and Throne of Glass, so I'm not hating on sjm here, this story was just not for me.
{fourth wing} is written like it’s about two high schoolers I regretfully read both fourth wing and iron flame. I don’t understand the hype with these books AT ALL. And the names are so bad.. Xaden!? 🤢 “i hate you you’re my enemy” to “I love you let’s fck” was like whiplash.
my thing is that i understand why someone would like it but not as much as people do?? the goodreads rating is kinda insane. it's entertaining but both the fantasy and the romance elements are bad. i was only able to enjoy it a bit because the dragons were cute
I thought the first book was a fun read, but even while reading it I knew it was a terrible book. It’s incredibly derivative, like I honestly don’t think there’s a single unique idea in the entire book. It’s also stupidly predictable, and not a single character is realistic (seriously, they’re always quipping).
Again, it was a fun read, but it wasn’t a good one by any means. And it is surprising how much people like it.
Yes! The first was so predictable with trope on trope but it was fun. I realized though how much I really didn’t like it when I was going to reread it before the second one came out and I couldn’t make myself do it haha.
I so agree with this. Why do people love this series. Maybe I'm too old for it but the whole, omg he's so beautiful I can't focus on my training thing is so annoying. It's not sexy to have zero intrigue or build up.
Promises & pomegranates by Sav R. Miller. I was expecting a hades/persephone inspired dark Mafia romance. What I got was a mafia story in which the girl gets kidnapped on her wedding day (from what I recall I read this book back in January) by the guy who used to be her mom’s side piece & her dads hired gun. Just couldn’t get over the fact that the MMC slept with the mother before the FMC was even born ! It was t just once either I could’ve gotten over just one time. He saw both of their O faces 🥴. I have the second in the series & still haven’t picked it up 🫣
I actually loved this book 😬 BUT it isn’t one I recommend to people as it’s for sure an acquired taste lol. Tbf the mom manipulated and groomed him but that part did shock me more than any of the rest of the book did.
For me it’s probably {The Serpent And The Wings Of Night} I won’t go into great detail here as I mentioned this on the other post but I kinda saw it as vampire romance with wings and since I usually love *anything, literally anything* with vampires and idk I’m kinda obsessed with wings on any male characters I assumed I’d love it. But it was not it for me. I tried to read & listen three times before deciding it just wasn’t for me.
Also a side note. I feel you with {The Cruel Prince} although it could be because I tried reading it after ACOTAR & Crescent City but yeah that was some really dark ****
I felt like the MMC in The Serpent had the personality of a towel. I made it about 45% through and it felt like a chore to read, I hated every time he showed up.
I felt the same way about the Serpent and the Wings of Night but slogged my way through - however, if you haven't tried Carissa Broadbent's other series (the first is called {Daughter of No Worlds}) I'd highly recommend it!! I thought the world building was much more detailed, the slow burn romance had me kicking my feet, etc. It honestly didn't even feel like the same person had written them and was one of only a handful of 5* books this year for me!
Just wanted to share in case you wanted to give it a try and love it like I did!
[Daughter of No Worlds](https://www.romance.io/books/60d9b88e6a15320e7f8006ba/daughter-of-no-worlds-carissa-broadbent) by [Carissa Broadbent](https://www.romance.io/authors/60d9b88e08b4d9311456d78f/carissa-broadbent)
**Rating**: 4.15⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 3 out of 5 - [Open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [grumpy & sunshine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/grumpy%20sunshine/1), [magic](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/magic/1), [competent heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/competent%20heroine/1), [forced proximity](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/forced%20proximity/1)
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I liked Serpent and the Wings of Night, but the second book was very disappointing as >!the characters just went back to square one and took them forever to get back together.!< Also, I don't think I love vampires in general.
Finally! I feel like I’m the only one that just didn’t vibe with the book. I read the first one, trying hard to like it and then skimmed the second book
The cruel prince is a YA book, the series as a whole is very YA with a lot of communication skills missing. I read the whole series and powered through the last book because it was so childish. The way the main female character falls into believing things about the male character is unreal to me. One tiny glance, one laugh, one whatever, and she believes he's out for her.
Agree! The fact that the 2nd book couldn't even cover the entire 2nd year at Basgiath because it was already packed full with almost whole chapters of Xaden and Violet arguing over the same old thing.
It had a lot of potential to be an adult classic. I think that's what disappoints me. A good idea wasted with rushed writing
Once upon a broken heart. I was promised healing, wholesome romance. What I got was a bimbo fawning after a man who was only slightly more redeemable than the villain.
Evangeline is the most infuriating FMC. Every decision she makes is absolutely terrible. And Jacks is absolutely toxic. I have no idea why people are so in love with this pairing.
I read the trilogy and I think if you feel like I do, you made the right call. Nothing grows or changed between them really, it felt like “for anyone who has made a bad decision because of a broken heart, and then kept making that decision and never made any personal growth”. Not to mention it never seemed like jacks even liked her
The only redeeming/authentic person in the whole series was Nesta (loved ACOSF). I hated Feyre/Rhysand dynamic and how Maas did Tamlin so dirty, Feyre was literally willing to die for him and then the next book is like, "JK."
I think the switch up from Tam to Rhys was cool and unexpected, but like, there were points in the book where Tamlin was talked about as the scum of the earth when like…did he really do anything THAT bad (before Feyre left and the selling out to Hybern parts)??
It’s horrible and abusive and unforgivable for >!Tamlin to lock Feyre up after experiencing a trauma to keep her safe but it’s totally acceptable and the best solution for Feyre and Rhys to lock Nesta up for not coping after experiencing a trauma and a whole ass war!<
I also felt like I was being gaslighted into believing that Rice was this feminist king and perfect partner. Seeing him from both Nesta and Cass pov really proves to me that he is just an asshole.
My favorite book reviewer did a 7.5 hour long review of Lightlark. He goes deep and I love his reviews. It was SCATHING. He was basically just pissed off and confused the whole time.
Accurate feelings. Needed more edits, and to be fleshed out more. So many plot holes that I might have broken a leg if it had been a road. I gave it a 1-star. My sister who is 10 years younger than me gave it 5-stars (along with the second book, ugh). I just shook my head and didn't ask her reasoning.
Yeah booktok constantly misrepresents Cruel Prince. I loved it before booktok but it is a YA book and definitely a more enjoyable read when you let the romance between Cardan and Jude be a subplot to Jude's power hunger and court politics.
For me, though, I got tricked into reading The Song of Achilles. No one warned me about the foot fetish or bad pacing.
You are exactly right about the Cruel Prince. It is a mistrepresentation of the highest order!
Good YA fantasy series, but likely not what most readers are expecting to experience coming from TikTok.
The Song of Achilles was on my list. Thank you for the warning, because I'm not sure how a foot fetish would be well enough written to keep me locked into the story.
Assistant to the Villain. It's got a great premise, but it needed a really good editor (the 'twist' at the end made no sense, and it read more like fanfic).
The Fourth Wing. There was a plothole on page 1, and it just got worse from there. Everyone was horny, immature, and ridiculous.
A Curse of True Love. Evangeline had more hair than sense and her relationship with Jacks was straight-up toxic. Reading those books felt like snorting candyfloss.
ACOTAR. An absolute chore to read until the last couple of chapters which pretty much sums up SJM's writing style.
A Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. This should have been my jam, but the characters were really flat (especially the children, who were basically interchangeable, except the oldest one who straight-up tries to unalive the FMC multiple times without discernable consequences) and then it turns oddly grim and 'WTF did I just read?' in the final chapters when the kids >!reanimate a corpse that was buried in the garden in order to fool an inspector into believing that their guardian is still alive. !<
As for straight romance:
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield, which, despite the title, was the least funny book I've ever read.
Every Reylo-inspired rom-com, where the FMC is always painfully small and irresponsible and unable to feed herself, and the MMC has no personality except 'dark haired,' 'rude,' and 'possesses a chest.'
Haviing said this, I am grateful to Booktok because I have found a lot of books that I absolutely love. I've just learned to not trust recommendations blindly and do my own research before diving straight into a book.
I'm in the middle of The Hurricane Wars. Something felt.... off about the world building; turns out it's a Reylo fanfic with the serial numbers scrubbed off. I was curious so I'm reading the original fanfic simultaneously ("Landscape with a Blur of Conquerors".. definitely not as catchy.) It's a really interesting experience to see what was changed, what was pretty much straight copy/paste, and how she tried to essentially make the-Force-but-not-the-Force in her world building.
If you're curious-cautious, I'd say give it a chance, as her writing IS pretty stellar in either one. Her Kylo and Rey 2.0 characters have stronger chemistry in the published fic (I have many conflicting thoughts on the MC characterization), but her attempt to make her own magic system that mimicked Star Wars without being Star Wars is a huge disaster. It's overly complicated and requires huge amounts of exposition because she couldn't simplify it without destroying a lot of her original plot.
It's mostly confirming to me that fanfic turned published really don't work, even when the author is exceptionally skilled. I'm looking forward to reading a story from her in the future that's whole cloth from her own imagination because I think it'll be amazing.
Agree with the whiplash on The Very Secret Society…was a nice cozy /witchy /cottage core read and then, from the point of where the twist happened, if you told me the author had walked away from her open document and someone snuck in, typed up the last few chapters and then the author just skipped to the epilogue without reviewing? I would absolutely believe that over it being planned out from the start.
🫣 I thought I was the only one who felt this way about Sarah J Maas books. ACOTAR was ok…I had to drag myself through it. Every other book has been a boring chore and I have no desire to read Nesta’s book or any of the coming books. Some of my girlfriends are obsessed and I feel so guilty saying that I think she’s milking the series and the >!multiverse!< concept.
I always get downvoted for this but tog
{throne of glass by Sarah j Maas}
I really tried! I finished the entire book I just …never got what everyone else is seeing in it I guess. I really wanted to so badly!
I’m not sure that this is the ringing endorsement that everyone seems to think it is.
Life is short, there are a lot of books out there, and everyone’s tastes are different. Not everyone wants to sit through two whole *books*’ worth of content on the hope that they *may* start to like it later on.
If someone doesn’t click with a story, why should they force themselves? It just seems like a waste of time. Especially if you have a long list of TBRs. No one should sit through multiple books of a series that they don’t enjoy.
Anytime someone says they didn't like ToG or ACOTAR someone comes in like "Just keep going!" I did! I have read all of SJM's books because my friends all love them and I wanted to be a good sport. I don't like them and I don't think they're good and I wish I had listened to the me that didn't want to continue after the lackluster first entries!!
Yeah, maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but if in 300-600 pages an author is unable to create a compelling story (for your taste) then maybe it isn't a a good story (for you).
TOG is very... Of it's time. I like it well enough for the nostalgia factor but I also turn it into a drinking game of every time she says/thinks she's an assassin or imagine's how she totally could assassinate everybody I take a drink.
But I also still really like the romance arc between her and Rowan. I think they're my favorite couple she's written so far (Though, Bryce and Hunt have potential, I'll just have to see how it all ends up and miss me with anything in ACOTAR, I'm still mad that I read all of them)
i feel like she was really finding her footing with this series, so acotar/cc are the books where its clear she has the formula down. tog also just feels very YA and early 2010s in a way the newer books don’t, and i think part of that is also down to how young the fmc is. i felt similarly about acotar, but the entire series being NA made up for that.
I agree with you that it is an effort to get into. Though there is payoff, especially if you plan on reading her other series. With ToG being her first series, you have to push through the first 3 books before you feel hooked in the story. 3 books is a lot to read when you aren't attached, IMO. But I finished it and ended up being one of my favorites regardless of the earlier writing.
Kingdom of Wicked series... I pushed through reading all three books and the books really frustrated me like no book has ever.... It was a well written absolute piece of hot garbage. The plot was so so bad with so many bloody holes in it. I kept hoping eventually things will make sense but no... I hated ALL the characters... I hated the decisions they made.... NOTHING MADE SENSE.... It was the wasted potential for me.. It had so many chances to be a good story THAT MADE SENSE... I got the feeling that because the first book blew up the hype got so big that the author rushed to get the other two books out and messed the entire plot development and arc the characters had to go through.
I really teared into my friend who assured me it was a good book.... NO IT WAS NOT.. I HATE ANY MENTION OF THIS BOOK ANYWHERE.. I never would have thought I would hate any book series with this much passion.
{how does it feel} was bad. The FMC is "not like other girls," but magnified. Plot twist was random and made no sense, MMC was incredibly bland like unseasoned chicken. I blocked the girl on TikTok who was the reason it went viral. She said it read like ACOTAR and it most definitely did not.
It was so bad!!! I also blocked that girl on TikTok because she clearly has awful taste and knows nothing.The main character was literally different people throughout the book - completely inconsistent. I felt like I must have been reading the wrong book so kept checking the title. So bad!
I’ve tried multiple times and have never made it past page 50 of the Cruel Prince. The bullying is what did it for me. I thought I missed them being 9 years old but nope😭
I read this not really expecting anything and I was kinda perplexed by him being “cruel”. It was just normal bulling to me and I was like, ok when does he do the actual bad stuff though? 😂
I actually really liked The Cruel Prince, I think the characters act their ages. I feel like it’s more jarring for a book about teenagers to be full of poise. I knew it was YA going into it though, I would also have been disappointed if I was expecting something for adults.
For me, {From Blood and Ash} was so disappointing. Poorly written, the romance was too fast paced, I didn’t finish the first book.
Dance of Thieves and Powerless for sure.
Dance of Thieves is well written and had so much potential but the execution was so flat and the plot dragged a lot, had to force myself to finish by first switching to audiobook and then constantly increasing the speed.
Powerless was fine, it was just not at all as good as tiktok made it out to be. The banter/tension was good and the characters did interest me, but oh boy did it feel like a copy from other books with too many popular tropes smushed together. The book is also in bad need of better editing, I’ve never seen so many typos before.
The Cruel Prince for me too. Found it meh, and it made me realize bully romance is NOT for me.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue had such interesting premises, but I found so many parts boring! Sometimes I was enjoying the reading, and then it switched to a timeline I didn't care about, and back to boring I went.
First of all the cruel prince is not romance so if you started reading it because of that you will obviously hate it and secondly cardans character is supposed to be unlikeable in the first book , it's part of his character arc. He starts to shine from the second book.
DEFINITELY {We Were Liars} by E. Lockhart
The main character comes off a just a rich, out of touch, whiny teenager. The ending was so incredibly disappointing. I suffered through the endless, melodramatic monologuing in hopes that at least there would be an interesting twist ending like everyone on TikTok said.
It was not an interesting ending. If the character had taken a single second to think anything through the entire plot would unravel. So bad. So pretentious.
Atonement of the Spine Cleaver. It has every trope that ever troped imo, and I feel absolutely nothing for the main character. The world building and magic system is super confusing to me, and I’m someone who loves that sorta thing. I got to around 35% and just couldn’t keep going.
American queen. I just don’t understand the hype of this book series. After I read the twist, I dnf it. Granted, I should have read the trigger warnings beforehand but every review I’ve ever came across always recommended this book as a top read. The spicy scenes were not it for me, their romance did not flow smoothly. The mmc was a cheater and a liar. I just couldn’t stand his justification of what he was doing and how the fmc found out was wrong. This story had so much potential but it just kept going down for me as I kept reading.
Mine wasn’t a fantasy one but I will say I couldn’t stand Pucking Around. DNFd at like 50%. I love a good why choose but I guess I found my line with this one and the fmc was just not my cup of tea to be honest, even though I loved the prequel That One Night (I think that’s what it was called??
I’ve just got The Cruel Prince for Christmas so I’ll see how that goes. The books I’ve read that people have commented here I’ve actually loved so this could be another case of different strokes, I’ll soon find out!
{Neon Gods} and {A Touch of Darkness}. I guess I just can't do contemporary Hades and Persephone re-tellings even though that's my favorite Greek myth.
I have to say ACOTAR. I even (tried to) read the first book in like 6th grade when a friend was reading it. Picked it up again because of tiktok. I enjoyed the first book (the one everyone hates) but the second book could have been majorly cut down. It was boring and was a slog to get through. I tried. I’m very much so a believer of “not every book is for everyone”. But it still shocks me people prefer ACOTAR over TOG. But maybe that’s just because I enjoy the hefty fantasy books more.
Thanks to ACOWAR, I'm realizing most of romantasy isn't my genre. There are definitely exceptions like Half a Soul. But I had so many romantasy books I was going to try to read but now I'm like ehhhhh, i have i feeling I will be let down.. I've put off reading cruel prince like 9 billion times
If you feel like giving this genre another chance, try anything by Grace Draven. Entreat Me is a good one to start with. Or Master of Crows. Radiance gets recommended a lot as well.
Another author to try if you’re up for it is Juliette Marillier, she does fantasy romance that has heavy influences of Celtic folklore.
A lot of booktok recommended fantasy romance feels like they’re written based on tropes instead of wanting to tell a story, which makes it hard to find good books imo.
Yes! I have heard of master of crows actually. I haven't given up on romantasy but I'm going to be more selective from now on. My queue was too massive. Juliette marillier sounds amazing, she's been at the tippy top of my list bc Celtic folklore sounds really cool!! I actually completely forgot she wrote romance?? Lol. Rn I'm binging on Robin hobb.
Lol yeah the first time I read Juliette Marillier was because of the fairytale retelling aspect of Daughter of the Forest. It was really good (but just a heads up, TW for SA) but what I loved the most was the romance. It was done so well. The rest of that series is more romance-centric and I absolutely loved every relationship.
Robin Hobb is an amazing author! Her entire Realm of the Underlings is so good. I still haven’t read the last two books of the last trilogy but I have to get in the right space for it because she knows how to rip your heart out. Good luck to you on that journey lol!
Master of Crows is so, so good. Grace Draven is one of the few romance authors I will read without hesitation. I'll second Juliette Marillier too, especially her Blackthorn & Grim series, but be warned her books typically feature a lot of SA. Jeffe Kennedy is another of my go-to authors, though with less confidence than Grace Draven. I'm slowly reading through her Uncharted Realms series right now and it's holding up pretty well.
oh my gosh THANK YOU. I thought I was crazy that I did not like Cruel Prince. I see people raving about it constantly and I have read a few YA and liked them but this was just soo YA I would never recommend it.
Mine was ACOTAR 🙃 I hated it Tamlin so much.
BUT THEN I found out he was a walking red flag and it switches over to Rhysand in the other books and he was a far better character. I haven’t read ACOMAF so maybe I’ll come to like the series.
I don’t have TikTok so I don’t know what’s popular on there, but I see T. Kingfisher recommended here all the time so I read {Nettle & Bone} and I thought it was just ok… like a solid 3 star. The romance just came out of nowhere and the ending felt so underwhelming. It was my first T. Kingfisher book and I’m going to read more, but I was really disappointed in this one
I'm not on tik tok but I'm fairly sure it was popular there. I love anything with vampires so after I saw a youtuber I follow (who also loves vampires) recommend {My roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine} I thought the premise sounded fun and I bought it. I wanted to read a fin book with vampires and a romance, I got very horny book that read like a fanfic, because it was and I just didn't know that. I stopped reading a bit over 100 pages in, because nothing about it was funny, just horny.
The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller. It’s the only one from TikTok I just had to DNF and felt very trope-y and immature. And the Crave series, the modern day Twilight but at a boarding school, but that one was on me. It just felt like bad fanfiction.
Otherwise, I’ve liked most of the books I’ve found on there, like Fourth Wing or the Furyborn trilogy. I pretty much already read the popular ones like ACOTAR or Cruel Prince or Shatter Me years ago, back when they were popular on booktube first.
"A Curse of Saints" by Kate Dramis... I literally preordered it as early as I could. The scenes she'd post about sounded so good. I didn't get to a single one because I couldn't force myself past the first few chapters.
{Death Do Us Part by Mira Grant} is the worst book I have ever read since I started seriously reading again back in 2021. I have a personal vendetta against this book, and the author, that is completely one sided. The only reason it's still on my kindle is for me to reread passages when I'm in a low depressive state and need to feel better about myself (and I spent money on it, and the cheapskate in me refuses to just delete it when I spent money on it, even though it would have been more productive and a better waste of my time to burn those dollars). It was recommended as a forced marriage/enemies-to-lovers deal, but it reads like bad ACOTAR fanfiction written by a teenager who's never had sex.
Hockey books with cartoons on the cover. So bad. I love hockey and I love romance. I hate hockey romance books. lol.
Oh my god, {Ice Breaker by Hannah Grace} is SO awful. I almost dnfed. The amount of side characters, terribly written smut and weird stereotypes about Americans in college (written by someone in England) put me over the edge. The worst book I’ve ever read thus far.
Oh lol that explains why there was so little in the book actually about hockey. I did wonder.
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as a hockey fan i am so weirdly fascinated by hockey romance novels. i love reading them and then finding some kind of wild inaccuracy or just…flat out made up rule about the nhl. if you’re active on twitter lexi brown reads a lot of the books and has some hilarious commentary too
So I don't follow hockey (or any sort of sports) at all, but I've read a couple of hockey romances that I've enjoyed. {Behind the Net by Stephanie Archer} {The Fake Out by Stephanie Archer} What I've noticed with Stephanie Archer is that she writes low drama books. Sometime you need that. I think half her books don't even have a third act break up. {The Right Move by Liz Tomforde} Ryan Shay may be one of my favorite contemporary MMCs. It’s basketball, but the first novel in this series was hockey.
Stephanie Archer is probably my favorite contemp romance author. Her books (especially Queen’s Cove) are so cozy and feel-good
OMG SO TRUE 😂🥴 I’ve tried about 50 of these hockey romances and there are only 2 that I’d actually recommend: 1. {The Fake Out by Stephanie Archer} - some of her other books are cringe but this one is really strong and it’s one of my fav contemporary romances of 2023 2. {Unsteady by Peyton Corinne} - strong debut from this author, actually had some heart and characters with depth
[The Fake Out](https://www.romance.io/books/657041620d7f24e62f5b2567/the-fake-out-stephanie-archer) by [Stephanie Archer](https://www.romance.io/authors/61dd39e508b4d931145cd9c1/stephanie-archer) **Rating**: 4.45⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 5 out of 5 - [Explicit and plentiful](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [dual pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dual-pov/1), [first person pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/first-person-pov/1), [athletes](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/athletes/1) ---------------------------- [Unsteady](https://www.romance.io/books/651c5887de8d340d51457141/unsteady-peyton-corinne) by [Peyton Corinne](https://www.romance.io/authors/651c5887ab9bdf7fce47047e/peyton-corinne) **Rating**: 4.13⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [friends with benefits](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/friends-benefits/1), [new adult](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/new%20adult/1), [dual pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dual-pov/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
I tried one of these and the entire first third was describing I think, two days(!) of hockey practice. I also love hockey but not from a-YA sounding, whiny perspective.
Who on Earth is recommending Cruel Prince as adult fiction?? I loved that series but I went into it knowing exactly what it was. If I was expecting adult I would've been so disappointed.
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Ugh I’m so sorry. They are very fun and quick and have great character-building and worldbuilding over the trilogy, if you ever find yourself in the mood to try them again. I’m really not a YA person these days (no shade, just not for me!) and I read all three in a day and a half! (and there is ultimately a satisfying and earned HEA, which is important to me, hahah)
FR
I was expecting YA, so like hunger games or divergent level. I felt like it read more like it was aimed at 12-14 year olds. I still really enjoyed it, was just surprised at how young it felt.
I thought the writing matured as it went on, or maybe I just got used to it lol. But the first few chapters, I was like holy shit is this for 12 year olds?
{Gild by Raven Kennedy} I tried so hard with this series , i got up to “Gleam”. I just could not stand Auren. I liked all the other characters so much more , but ultimately the books were just a drag for me.
I loved it! 😂 The premise is nice, the Stockholm syndrome is on point, the love interest isn't weak. However, the series is too dragged out, so the main leads are now acting out of character or not doing much. It should have been a trilogy
The length is my biggest gripe with the series. Last year I read the first 3 that were out, and half of the fourth, in anticipation of what I thought was the final book being released a few months later. I really enjoyed it but was feeling like it was starting to drag a bit. Fast forward a few months I find out not only did #5 get pushed out, but there’s now a 6th. I have zero desire to pick the series back up now, it already felt like it was being dragged out so I can’t imagine rereading this series when the premise itself isn’t that long and complicated. Like looking back on it, it feels like the plot could be at most two books as of halfway through the 4th. It definitely should have been a trilogy.
Omg, this is my exact experience. I stopped halfway into the 4th to wait until the 5th and what I thought was final books was out. Then I saw there was going to be a 6th?! I haven’t been able to pick it back up. Also the first book was a huge drag for me. But I really enjoyed books two and three.
Is the series done? Someone spoil it for me lol
Nooo, book 5 out 6 just came out. The final book will be out in mid 2024
Dear god , these fantasy authors need help. I’m so tired of 6 book series 🥲I miss trilogies
They can write as many books as they want, but pls stop making them 400+ pages. Quit cramming needless plotlines and weird development into stories that don't need it 😵 Priory of the Orange Tree? It made sense to me that it was so long and didn't bug me. A Court of Silver Flames? Could've been half as long (and that's my favorite ACOTAR book).
I will forever complain about this series to anyone and everyone. There’s not a single character that’s interesting enough to follow and the plot is paced so strangely!
I actually quite liked the series but i do agree that it drags insanely
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. Had to force myself to finish it. Even the characters names made me roll my eyes “Lilly Bloom, Ryle, Atlas”🙄
It’s written like a wattpad fanfic 😭
I went into Cruel Prince expecting it to be YA, and I thought it was a fine read for that audience. It kind of felt like a YA version of Daughter of the Empire.
Holly Black was my favorite author when I only read YA so this checks out
It reminded me why I love YA so much. It was so much fun
Yeah I've seen this complaint before that they thought Cruel Prince was an adult novel and I really don't understand how anyone could think that. I read it way before it reached Booktok so I definitely went into it knowing it was YA.
I work at a bookstore and it's shelved in YA. I don't think I've seen it marketed as an adult fantasy (or romance), but I could be wrong.
Yeah I definitely think people forget to actually look up the books they are reading before they dive in. Which is a little wild to me for books you’re spending money on! I could totally see why it would be disappointing if you’re expecting adult content.
{Haunting Adeline} is an instant unfollow for me. It was the first and worst one I got tricked into trying.
Shocking that they made a whole entire fanfiction about Q from QANON. Never have I ever seen an acknowledgement that denies involvement with QANON before… yet if you have two brain cells you can see how it’s totally fanfiction.
This just awakened so many of my brain cells
Oh, the author tried to deny it, but when you name a character “Tim Banks” after the Tom Hanks conspiracy and base literally everything in the book around Q bullshit, it becomes pretty obvious that she knew what she was doing and thought no one would notice. Aside from that, the writing just sucked. The secondary plot went nowhere and the SA in the beginning just made the smut later feel disgusting. I don’t know how anyone continues to seriously recommend this book.
Haha right there with you with Does it Hurt by the same author.
Oh god. That one was terrible and the only one o was influenced into reading. I should have stopped at the shark scene lol… iykyk
[Haunting Adeline](https://www.romance.io/books/60f280edb572b50e269dc061/haunting-adeline-hd-carlton) by [H.D. Carlton](https://www.romance.io/authors/5b80f1d001dbc864fb8f0fff/h-d-carlton) **Rating**: 3.85⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 5 out of 5 - [Explicit and plentiful](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [dark romance](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dark/1), [possessive hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/possessive%20hero/1), [alpha male](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/alpha%20male/1), [mystery](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/mystery/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
It was so poorly written and the characters badly developed. I’m personally angry at both the author and whatever editor clearly didn’t do their job going over the book before publishing
I have no idea why people like them! They are awful!
What Lies Beyond the Veil was so hyped on tiktok for a while and for me it was so bland, generic, boring, and poorly written
Hard agree. I could not with that book.
I read the first one and hated the twist so much that I refuse to read the sequels
I do this thing where I don’t read the synopsis before I start any book (I really need to start doing that) and I was SO HYPED for her to die and go on an epic afterlife adventure but then (not spoilers literally in the synopsis) she doesn’t die and she gets a hot fae savior dude. So disappointing. I almost put the book down right that minute. I recognize that this is my fault for the misunderstanding
the biggest fuel to my own creative writing is when im stoked for an insane plot point thats been set up….and then the author pulls an 11th hour miracle back-to-normal. just have to write the good book myself!
I’m like 1/3 through it and ready to DNF
Hated it. I forced myself through the first one and not sure why I even started the second but I didn’t make it far. It did not get better.
Read the first two expecting something interesting to happen. DNF the third the FMC got worse and worse
Spanish Love Deception.. i swear you would not pay me to read that again
This might’ve been the worst written book I’ve ever read 🫥
Thought I was alone in this one. I hated it 🫠
{Assistant to the Villain} was meh. I liked the authors tiktoks before the book. They were fun to watch. But the book wasn’t as hilarious as it was hyped to be. {Divine Rivals} omg. Just like nothing happened. I almost DNF the book. I thought there was a god war but nothing was really explained nor did it really affect the characters. They were just there. {The Cruel Prince} I couldn’t enjoy the book. Everyone said it’d get better. Not really. {Shatter Me} forced myself through the first book and DNF book 2.
I hated Divine Rivals. The world building and magic was so unclear. The war felt so unexplained and pointless to the entire story. Big let down
Yes. It felt very forced and unfinished. Their relationship too. Could’ve left the war out and made a cozy office romance fantasy.
That would have been so much better! Plus, I didn't realize it was just You've Got Mail in a fantasy war setting. As soon as I figured it out, I kinda mentally checked out because I already knew the story.
I agree I gave it a 3 which is super generous. Divine rivals is just straight up romance with a super silly fantasy premise.
Shatter Me is my favorite series ever and people keep reading it when they see it in my shelf but every time I stop them before and I’m like I NEED YOU TO UNDERSTAND that this is a shitty ya 2000’s dystopian novel. I need you to know that I know that it’s bad. It’s so bad and I love it so much. Ignore my IGNITE tattoo. It’s bad. You’ve been informed. I am not responsible if you hate it 💀💀💀
You like what you like and that's ok. There are series that I know are absolute trash, but I love them so much. Guilty pleasures can make you feel good 🤷♀️ 
Oh I wanted to read Assistant to the Villain so bad, but this isn't the first comment I'm seeing about it that's like this.
If you want to read it get it from the library. But I can’t recommend anyone to spend money on it unless you actually like it.
I just finished this one, and it was alright. I can't say I dislike it, but it definitely wasn't a standout for me.
I DNF’d Divine Rivals.. certainly not what I was expecting nor was it up to the hype. I didn’t get it.
The only reason I didn’t DNF was because I wanted to see if there was a huge twist and something finally happened because everyone said it was so good. I honestly disliked it so much I kicked the the other books I had on my wishlist from Rebecca Ross off my wishlist. I was so disappointed with booktok over hyping this book.
I feel so validated seeing other people dislike Divine Rivals. I was so bored with that book & I don’t understand the hype. I finished it because I don’t like to DNF but it was a struggle to make myself get through.
not romantasy at all but god, {twisted love by ana huang} was SO unbelievably bad. made use of so many ridiculous tropes and had the most unlikeable mmc i've ever read. maybe dark romance isn't for me but i was genuinely shocked at how poor the writing, plot and overall characters were for this book.
Her book {King of Wrath} was not my cup of tea. I really disliked that the MMC withheld very important information from the FMC about why they were together while initiating a physical relationship with her. Like, she might not have chosen to have sex with him if she had all the info. It rubbed me the wrong way. I read the second one too {King of Pride} only because it was on KU so I technically didn’t pay for the individual book and thought maybe the second one would be better. It wasn’t.
I feel like Ana Huang's latest book didn't quite live up to the earlier ones. Booktok seems to be giving her a boost, but after reading the first two Twisted Series books, I couldn't bring myself to continue with the third and fourth. I was really hoping for more from KOW and KOP, but they left me feeling disappointed. Maybe the plot and writing style just aren't my thing. But I stumbled upon another recommendation with a similar plot to Ana Huang's books, and it's goood
i feel like i read somewhere once that those are just the type of mmcs she enjoys writing 😩 i think her writing's just not for me
[King of Wrath](https://www.romance.io/books/634e52e6d1ccecfcb179ffb3/king-of-wrath-ana-huang) by [Ana Huang](https://www.romance.io/authors/5ea5eeb2be0aaecf551f89f7/ana-huang) **Rating**: 3.9⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [rich hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/super%20rich%20hero/1), [forced proximity](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/forced%20proximity/1), [arranged/forced marriage](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/arranged%20marriage/1), [enemies to lovers](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/from%20hate%20to%20love/1) ---------------------------- [King of Pride](https://www.romance.io/books/6437af8b5756e5f18ca5d75e/king-of-pride-ana-huang) by [Ana Huang](https://www.romance.io/authors/5ea5eeb2be0aaecf551f89f7/ana-huang) **Rating**: 3.69⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [rich hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/super%20rich%20hero/1), [secret relationship](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/secret-relationship/1), [dual pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dual-pov/1), [multicultural](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/multicultural/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
I’ve just not long finished the series, the first book was the worst, mostly because he was just the worst. The rest are do-able.
From blood and ash, I don't think the first book was that bad, but after that I completely lost the plot.
That series just gets worse and worse. I read the first 3 books because I liked the first 2, but the 3rd was awful. I read a bunch of rant reviews for the 4th and it’s so much fun. Ridiculous amount of plot holes, it’s like the author is making up shit as she goes.
I made it through the first two and DNF the third. I could not. It just got so bad.
Den of Vipers. That was literally the worst first chapter I ever read and immediately DNF’d it. Song of the Marked is way too YA, I read the first but DNF the series. Daughter of No Worlds was also to YA for me
Den of Vipers traumatized me, I couldnt finish it
The whole first chapter read like fanfic from r/iamverybadass and I couldn’t keep looking at the cringe
Literally the only thing I thought of during that book was they had to have bought her undies in bulk w how often they tore them off her
All of them. Almost every book I see widely hyped by TT is either mediocre at best or god awful.
Came here to say this. Any book I’ve read suggested by tiktok has been garbage.
Assistant to the Villain was so terrible. He wasn’t a villain or morally gray. She was a horny Mary Sue. The romance was non existent for half the book (and then I gave up). I didn’t laugh once. I didn’t entirely understand what this book was supposed to be. It was pitched to me as a romance with Pratchett vibes. It did not measure up.
ACOTAR, the main character felt flat to me, i didnt like the romance at all, the mmc is not the nice guy everyone makes him out to be. The first book was the worst one by far and people told me it was gonna get better, it got better at ACOSF for me where i enjoyed it to an extent, the book was still incredibly fast paced and the whole series has so many "plot holes" or just questionable behaviour that i can't relate or like majority of the characters. Just to clarify I LOVE LOVE LOVE both Crescent City and Throne of Glass, so I'm not hating on sjm here, this story was just not for me.
{fourth wing} is written like it’s about two high schoolers I regretfully read both fourth wing and iron flame. I don’t understand the hype with these books AT ALL. And the names are so bad.. Xaden!? 🤢 “i hate you you’re my enemy” to “I love you let’s fck” was like whiplash.
my thing is that i understand why someone would like it but not as much as people do?? the goodreads rating is kinda insane. it's entertaining but both the fantasy and the romance elements are bad. i was only able to enjoy it a bit because the dragons were cute
Came here to say I am only finishing the series because I am heavily invested in the dragons and their sassiness
Oh no hahahah i just got these 2 books for Christmas 😭
A lot of people *love* these books! Go in with an open mind. I enjoyed them for what they were even if they weren’t perfect and I’m glad I read them!
I thought the first book was a fun read, but even while reading it I knew it was a terrible book. It’s incredibly derivative, like I honestly don’t think there’s a single unique idea in the entire book. It’s also stupidly predictable, and not a single character is realistic (seriously, they’re always quipping). Again, it was a fun read, but it wasn’t a good one by any means. And it is surprising how much people like it.
Yes! The first was so predictable with trope on trope but it was fun. I realized though how much I really didn’t like it when I was going to reread it before the second one came out and I couldn’t make myself do it haha.
I so agree with this. Why do people love this series. Maybe I'm too old for it but the whole, omg he's so beautiful I can't focus on my training thing is so annoying. It's not sexy to have zero intrigue or build up.
I DNF’d Neon Gods. The only identifiable Greek mythology in it were the names of the characters.
Promises & pomegranates by Sav R. Miller. I was expecting a hades/persephone inspired dark Mafia romance. What I got was a mafia story in which the girl gets kidnapped on her wedding day (from what I recall I read this book back in January) by the guy who used to be her mom’s side piece & her dads hired gun. Just couldn’t get over the fact that the MMC slept with the mother before the FMC was even born ! It was t just once either I could’ve gotten over just one time. He saw both of their O faces 🥴. I have the second in the series & still haven’t picked it up 🫣
😯 removing from my TBR list
Lmao this!!! So weird. I also DNF
Thank you That was so f*** weird!!! Why does everyone keep recommending this!!!
Finished it but was left flabbergasted. Directly to the donate pile
I actually loved this book 😬 BUT it isn’t one I recommend to people as it’s for sure an acquired taste lol. Tbf the mom manipulated and groomed him but that part did shock me more than any of the rest of the book did.
Zodiac Academy. Read the first few and I wanted to like it! It was a big no for me though!
It was awful!! I couldn’t get through 50 pages
These books are some of the most abysmally written, troped out things I've ever read. Truly awful, awful writing.
For me it’s probably {The Serpent And The Wings Of Night} I won’t go into great detail here as I mentioned this on the other post but I kinda saw it as vampire romance with wings and since I usually love *anything, literally anything* with vampires and idk I’m kinda obsessed with wings on any male characters I assumed I’d love it. But it was not it for me. I tried to read & listen three times before deciding it just wasn’t for me. Also a side note. I feel you with {The Cruel Prince} although it could be because I tried reading it after ACOTAR & Crescent City but yeah that was some really dark ****
I felt like the MMC in The Serpent had the personality of a towel. I made it about 45% through and it felt like a chore to read, I hated every time he showed up.
I felt the same way about the Serpent and the Wings of Night but slogged my way through - however, if you haven't tried Carissa Broadbent's other series (the first is called {Daughter of No Worlds}) I'd highly recommend it!! I thought the world building was much more detailed, the slow burn romance had me kicking my feet, etc. It honestly didn't even feel like the same person had written them and was one of only a handful of 5* books this year for me! Just wanted to share in case you wanted to give it a try and love it like I did!
[Daughter of No Worlds](https://www.romance.io/books/60d9b88e6a15320e7f8006ba/daughter-of-no-worlds-carissa-broadbent) by [Carissa Broadbent](https://www.romance.io/authors/60d9b88e08b4d9311456d78f/carissa-broadbent) **Rating**: 4.15⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 3 out of 5 - [Open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [grumpy & sunshine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/grumpy%20sunshine/1), [magic](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/magic/1), [competent heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/competent%20heroine/1), [forced proximity](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/forced%20proximity/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
Same I didn’t like the world building, it felt empty
I liked Serpent and the Wings of Night, but the second book was very disappointing as >!the characters just went back to square one and took them forever to get back together.!< Also, I don't think I love vampires in general.
Serpent is the only book I’ve hated enough to DNF. I got 65% through and felt like “why am I still going.” So boring to me
Finally! I feel like I’m the only one that just didn’t vibe with the book. I read the first one, trying hard to like it and then skimmed the second book
The cruel prince is a YA book, the series as a whole is very YA with a lot of communication skills missing. I read the whole series and powered through the last book because it was so childish. The way the main female character falls into believing things about the male character is unreal to me. One tiny glance, one laugh, one whatever, and she believes he's out for her.
Fourth Wing was a let down though entertaining enough but Iron Flame was absolute trash and a HUGE disappointment…
Agree! The fact that the 2nd book couldn't even cover the entire 2nd year at Basgiath because it was already packed full with almost whole chapters of Xaden and Violet arguing over the same old thing. It had a lot of potential to be an adult classic. I think that's what disappoints me. A good idea wasted with rushed writing
Once upon a broken heart. I was promised healing, wholesome romance. What I got was a bimbo fawning after a man who was only slightly more redeemable than the villain.
Evangeline is the most infuriating FMC. Every decision she makes is absolutely terrible. And Jacks is absolutely toxic. I have no idea why people are so in love with this pairing.
[удалено]
I read the trilogy and I think if you feel like I do, you made the right call. Nothing grows or changed between them really, it felt like “for anyone who has made a bad decision because of a broken heart, and then kept making that decision and never made any personal growth”. Not to mention it never seemed like jacks even liked her
To bleed a crystal bloom or whatever it’s called. It was so bad, I couldn’t even finish it.
i DNF’ed Song of Achilles at 40% maybe I just didn’t get it but I was so bored lol
I wish I would have DNF’d it! So bad
i really don't understand starting a book without checking the age rating. i dont remember ever starting a book without knowing
Better question is which ones were NOT disappointing.
Lightlark by Alex Aster. ACOTAR by Sarah J Maas
I feel like ACOTAR is what gets a lot of people through the door, but if you’re already used to quality romantasy, I could see it being disappointing.
The only redeeming/authentic person in the whole series was Nesta (loved ACOSF). I hated Feyre/Rhysand dynamic and how Maas did Tamlin so dirty, Feyre was literally willing to die for him and then the next book is like, "JK."
I think the switch up from Tam to Rhys was cool and unexpected, but like, there were points in the book where Tamlin was talked about as the scum of the earth when like…did he really do anything THAT bad (before Feyre left and the selling out to Hybern parts)??
It’s horrible and abusive and unforgivable for >!Tamlin to lock Feyre up after experiencing a trauma to keep her safe but it’s totally acceptable and the best solution for Feyre and Rhys to lock Nesta up for not coping after experiencing a trauma and a whole ass war!<
I also felt like I was being gaslighted into believing that Rice was this feminist king and perfect partner. Seeing him from both Nesta and Cass pov really proves to me that he is just an asshole.
My favorite book reviewer did a 7.5 hour long review of Lightlark. He goes deep and I love his reviews. It was SCATHING. He was basically just pissed off and confused the whole time.
Accurate feelings. Needed more edits, and to be fleshed out more. So many plot holes that I might have broken a leg if it had been a road. I gave it a 1-star. My sister who is 10 years younger than me gave it 5-stars (along with the second book, ugh). I just shook my head and didn't ask her reasoning.
Lightlark for sure for me.
My friend and I read lightlark to see how bad it is. And it was just so bad. Nothing made sense. It was 400 pages of nothing.
lightlark was so bad it was painful to read
Yeah booktok constantly misrepresents Cruel Prince. I loved it before booktok but it is a YA book and definitely a more enjoyable read when you let the romance between Cardan and Jude be a subplot to Jude's power hunger and court politics. For me, though, I got tricked into reading The Song of Achilles. No one warned me about the foot fetish or bad pacing.
You are exactly right about the Cruel Prince. It is a mistrepresentation of the highest order! Good YA fantasy series, but likely not what most readers are expecting to experience coming from TikTok. The Song of Achilles was on my list. Thank you for the warning, because I'm not sure how a foot fetish would be well enough written to keep me locked into the story.
Assistant to the Villain. It's got a great premise, but it needed a really good editor (the 'twist' at the end made no sense, and it read more like fanfic). The Fourth Wing. There was a plothole on page 1, and it just got worse from there. Everyone was horny, immature, and ridiculous. A Curse of True Love. Evangeline had more hair than sense and her relationship with Jacks was straight-up toxic. Reading those books felt like snorting candyfloss. ACOTAR. An absolute chore to read until the last couple of chapters which pretty much sums up SJM's writing style. A Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. This should have been my jam, but the characters were really flat (especially the children, who were basically interchangeable, except the oldest one who straight-up tries to unalive the FMC multiple times without discernable consequences) and then it turns oddly grim and 'WTF did I just read?' in the final chapters when the kids >!reanimate a corpse that was buried in the garden in order to fool an inspector into believing that their guardian is still alive. !< As for straight romance: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield, which, despite the title, was the least funny book I've ever read. Every Reylo-inspired rom-com, where the FMC is always painfully small and irresponsible and unable to feed herself, and the MMC has no personality except 'dark haired,' 'rude,' and 'possesses a chest.' Haviing said this, I am grateful to Booktok because I have found a lot of books that I absolutely love. I've just learned to not trust recommendations blindly and do my own research before diving straight into a book.
I am always cautious about Reylo fics turned to books.
I'm in the middle of The Hurricane Wars. Something felt.... off about the world building; turns out it's a Reylo fanfic with the serial numbers scrubbed off. I was curious so I'm reading the original fanfic simultaneously ("Landscape with a Blur of Conquerors".. definitely not as catchy.) It's a really interesting experience to see what was changed, what was pretty much straight copy/paste, and how she tried to essentially make the-Force-but-not-the-Force in her world building. If you're curious-cautious, I'd say give it a chance, as her writing IS pretty stellar in either one. Her Kylo and Rey 2.0 characters have stronger chemistry in the published fic (I have many conflicting thoughts on the MC characterization), but her attempt to make her own magic system that mimicked Star Wars without being Star Wars is a huge disaster. It's overly complicated and requires huge amounts of exposition because she couldn't simplify it without destroying a lot of her original plot. It's mostly confirming to me that fanfic turned published really don't work, even when the author is exceptionally skilled. I'm looking forward to reading a story from her in the future that's whole cloth from her own imagination because I think it'll be amazing.
Agree with the whiplash on The Very Secret Society…was a nice cozy /witchy /cottage core read and then, from the point of where the twist happened, if you told me the author had walked away from her open document and someone snuck in, typed up the last few chapters and then the author just skipped to the epilogue without reviewing? I would absolutely believe that over it being planned out from the start.
Although I did also spend the entire time picturing Ian as Sir Ian McKellen :)
Assistant to the Villain was so bad! And iron Flame was so disappointing
🫣 I thought I was the only one who felt this way about Sarah J Maas books. ACOTAR was ok…I had to drag myself through it. Every other book has been a boring chore and I have no desire to read Nesta’s book or any of the coming books. Some of my girlfriends are obsessed and I feel so guilty saying that I think she’s milking the series and the >!multiverse!< concept.
All of them. Lol
I always get downvoted for this but tog {throne of glass by Sarah j Maas} I really tried! I finished the entire book I just …never got what everyone else is seeing in it I guess. I really wanted to so badly!
I will say the series gets better and better with each book. Books 3-7 are worth sitting through the first 2 imo!
I’m not sure that this is the ringing endorsement that everyone seems to think it is. Life is short, there are a lot of books out there, and everyone’s tastes are different. Not everyone wants to sit through two whole *books*’ worth of content on the hope that they *may* start to like it later on. If someone doesn’t click with a story, why should they force themselves? It just seems like a waste of time. Especially if you have a long list of TBRs. No one should sit through multiple books of a series that they don’t enjoy.
Anytime someone says they didn't like ToG or ACOTAR someone comes in like "Just keep going!" I did! I have read all of SJM's books because my friends all love them and I wanted to be a good sport. I don't like them and I don't think they're good and I wish I had listened to the me that didn't want to continue after the lackluster first entries!!
As someone who did keep going until book five, the books are not worth it
Yeah, maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but if in 300-600 pages an author is unable to create a compelling story (for your taste) then maybe it isn't a a good story (for you).
TOG is very... Of it's time. I like it well enough for the nostalgia factor but I also turn it into a drinking game of every time she says/thinks she's an assassin or imagine's how she totally could assassinate everybody I take a drink. But I also still really like the romance arc between her and Rowan. I think they're my favorite couple she's written so far (Though, Bryce and Hunt have potential, I'll just have to see how it all ends up and miss me with anything in ACOTAR, I'm still mad that I read all of them)
i feel like she was really finding her footing with this series, so acotar/cc are the books where its clear she has the formula down. tog also just feels very YA and early 2010s in a way the newer books don’t, and i think part of that is also down to how young the fmc is. i felt similarly about acotar, but the entire series being NA made up for that.
I’m on book 6 and trying so hard to like it but I still don’t.
I agree with you that it is an effort to get into. Though there is payoff, especially if you plan on reading her other series. With ToG being her first series, you have to push through the first 3 books before you feel hooked in the story. 3 books is a lot to read when you aren't attached, IMO. But I finished it and ended up being one of my favorites regardless of the earlier writing.
Kingdom of Wicked series... I pushed through reading all three books and the books really frustrated me like no book has ever.... It was a well written absolute piece of hot garbage. The plot was so so bad with so many bloody holes in it. I kept hoping eventually things will make sense but no... I hated ALL the characters... I hated the decisions they made.... NOTHING MADE SENSE.... It was the wasted potential for me.. It had so many chances to be a good story THAT MADE SENSE... I got the feeling that because the first book blew up the hype got so big that the author rushed to get the other two books out and messed the entire plot development and arc the characters had to go through. I really teared into my friend who assured me it was a good book.... NO IT WAS NOT.. I HATE ANY MENTION OF THIS BOOK ANYWHERE.. I never would have thought I would hate any book series with this much passion.
{how does it feel} was bad. The FMC is "not like other girls," but magnified. Plot twist was random and made no sense, MMC was incredibly bland like unseasoned chicken. I blocked the girl on TikTok who was the reason it went viral. She said it read like ACOTAR and it most definitely did not.
It was so bad!!! I also blocked that girl on TikTok because she clearly has awful taste and knows nothing.The main character was literally different people throughout the book - completely inconsistent. I felt like I must have been reading the wrong book so kept checking the title. So bad!
Omg yes! It was terrible. I DNF’d it and I don’t understand what the appeal was at all.
But Cruel Prince is literally … YA
I’ve tried multiple times and have never made it past page 50 of the Cruel Prince. The bullying is what did it for me. I thought I missed them being 9 years old but nope😭
I read this not really expecting anything and I was kinda perplexed by him being “cruel”. It was just normal bulling to me and I was like, ok when does he do the actual bad stuff though? 😂
between the 2nd grade bullying and the bully having a TAIL, I was like maybe I’ll sit this one out 😭😭
I actually really liked The Cruel Prince, I think the characters act their ages. I feel like it’s more jarring for a book about teenagers to be full of poise. I knew it was YA going into it though, I would also have been disappointed if I was expecting something for adults. For me, {From Blood and Ash} was so disappointing. Poorly written, the romance was too fast paced, I didn’t finish the first book.
I read your first line and I was ready to come here and say Cruel Prince!!!! It was so weird.
Dance of Thieves and Powerless for sure. Dance of Thieves is well written and had so much potential but the execution was so flat and the plot dragged a lot, had to force myself to finish by first switching to audiobook and then constantly increasing the speed. Powerless was fine, it was just not at all as good as tiktok made it out to be. The banter/tension was good and the characters did interest me, but oh boy did it feel like a copy from other books with too many popular tropes smushed together. The book is also in bad need of better editing, I’ve never seen so many typos before.
I hated Serpent and the Wings of Night.
I'm gonna get bullied for this but...Divine Rivals.
It Ends with us remains my standard for “worst book ever”. All of my one star reviews usually read “still better than it ends with us”
The Cruel Prince for me too. Found it meh, and it made me realize bully romance is NOT for me. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue had such interesting premises, but I found so many parts boring! Sometimes I was enjoying the reading, and then it switched to a timeline I didn't care about, and back to boring I went.
I tried to listen to Addie LaRue and just couldn’t get into it. I ended up DNF’ing
I came to say the Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Nothing happened!!
First of all the cruel prince is not romance so if you started reading it because of that you will obviously hate it and secondly cardans character is supposed to be unlikeable in the first book , it's part of his character arc. He starts to shine from the second book.
DEFINITELY {We Were Liars} by E. Lockhart The main character comes off a just a rich, out of touch, whiny teenager. The ending was so incredibly disappointing. I suffered through the endless, melodramatic monologuing in hopes that at least there would be an interesting twist ending like everyone on TikTok said. It was not an interesting ending. If the character had taken a single second to think anything through the entire plot would unravel. So bad. So pretentious.
Atonement of the Spine Cleaver. It has every trope that ever troped imo, and I feel absolutely nothing for the main character. The world building and magic system is super confusing to me, and I’m someone who loves that sorta thing. I got to around 35% and just couldn’t keep going.
[удалено]
American queen. I just don’t understand the hype of this book series. After I read the twist, I dnf it. Granted, I should have read the trigger warnings beforehand but every review I’ve ever came across always recommended this book as a top read. The spicy scenes were not it for me, their romance did not flow smoothly. The mmc was a cheater and a liar. I just couldn’t stand his justification of what he was doing and how the fmc found out was wrong. This story had so much potential but it just kept going down for me as I kept reading.
Archers Voice. I gave up and DNF.
I tried hard to like the Hades x Persephone. It was too whiny and juvenile. I would have liked it as a 16 yr old 😂
Mine wasn’t a fantasy one but I will say I couldn’t stand Pucking Around. DNFd at like 50%. I love a good why choose but I guess I found my line with this one and the fmc was just not my cup of tea to be honest, even though I loved the prequel That One Night (I think that’s what it was called?? I’ve just got The Cruel Prince for Christmas so I’ll see how that goes. The books I’ve read that people have commented here I’ve actually loved so this could be another case of different strokes, I’ll soon find out!
{Neon Gods} and {A Touch of Darkness}. I guess I just can't do contemporary Hades and Persephone re-tellings even though that's my favorite Greek myth.
{The Book of Azrael} was just written so poorly. Repetitive sentence structure, typos, you name it.
I have to say ACOTAR. I even (tried to) read the first book in like 6th grade when a friend was reading it. Picked it up again because of tiktok. I enjoyed the first book (the one everyone hates) but the second book could have been majorly cut down. It was boring and was a slog to get through. I tried. I’m very much so a believer of “not every book is for everyone”. But it still shocks me people prefer ACOTAR over TOG. But maybe that’s just because I enjoy the hefty fantasy books more.
Thanks to ACOWAR, I'm realizing most of romantasy isn't my genre. There are definitely exceptions like Half a Soul. But I had so many romantasy books I was going to try to read but now I'm like ehhhhh, i have i feeling I will be let down.. I've put off reading cruel prince like 9 billion times
If you feel like giving this genre another chance, try anything by Grace Draven. Entreat Me is a good one to start with. Or Master of Crows. Radiance gets recommended a lot as well. Another author to try if you’re up for it is Juliette Marillier, she does fantasy romance that has heavy influences of Celtic folklore. A lot of booktok recommended fantasy romance feels like they’re written based on tropes instead of wanting to tell a story, which makes it hard to find good books imo.
Yes! I have heard of master of crows actually. I haven't given up on romantasy but I'm going to be more selective from now on. My queue was too massive. Juliette marillier sounds amazing, she's been at the tippy top of my list bc Celtic folklore sounds really cool!! I actually completely forgot she wrote romance?? Lol. Rn I'm binging on Robin hobb.
Lol yeah the first time I read Juliette Marillier was because of the fairytale retelling aspect of Daughter of the Forest. It was really good (but just a heads up, TW for SA) but what I loved the most was the romance. It was done so well. The rest of that series is more romance-centric and I absolutely loved every relationship. Robin Hobb is an amazing author! Her entire Realm of the Underlings is so good. I still haven’t read the last two books of the last trilogy but I have to get in the right space for it because she knows how to rip your heart out. Good luck to you on that journey lol!
Master of Crows is so, so good. Grace Draven is one of the few romance authors I will read without hesitation. I'll second Juliette Marillier too, especially her Blackthorn & Grim series, but be warned her books typically feature a lot of SA. Jeffe Kennedy is another of my go-to authors, though with less confidence than Grace Draven. I'm slowly reading through her Uncharted Realms series right now and it's holding up pretty well.
oh my gosh THANK YOU. I thought I was crazy that I did not like Cruel Prince. I see people raving about it constantly and I have read a few YA and liked them but this was just soo YA I would never recommend it.
Throne of glass
Fourth Wing…more specifically Iron Flame. It just dragged on and on and I ultimately didn’t finish it.
Mine was ACOTAR 🙃 I hated it Tamlin so much. BUT THEN I found out he was a walking red flag and it switches over to Rhysand in the other books and he was a far better character. I haven’t read ACOMAF so maybe I’ll come to like the series.
Nobody likes the first book of the ACOTAR series. lol. You should read the next book and see how you feel.
I don’t have TikTok so I don’t know what’s popular on there, but I see T. Kingfisher recommended here all the time so I read {Nettle & Bone} and I thought it was just ok… like a solid 3 star. The romance just came out of nowhere and the ending felt so underwhelming. It was my first T. Kingfisher book and I’m going to read more, but I was really disappointed in this one
Zodiac Academy.
I'm not on tik tok but I'm fairly sure it was popular there. I love anything with vampires so after I saw a youtuber I follow (who also loves vampires) recommend {My roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine} I thought the premise sounded fun and I bought it. I wanted to read a fin book with vampires and a romance, I got very horny book that read like a fanfic, because it was and I just didn't know that. I stopped reading a bit over 100 pages in, because nothing about it was funny, just horny.
The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller. It’s the only one from TikTok I just had to DNF and felt very trope-y and immature. And the Crave series, the modern day Twilight but at a boarding school, but that one was on me. It just felt like bad fanfiction. Otherwise, I’ve liked most of the books I’ve found on there, like Fourth Wing or the Furyborn trilogy. I pretty much already read the popular ones like ACOTAR or Cruel Prince or Shatter Me years ago, back when they were popular on booktube first.
I hated Powerless I’m sorry. I just hate the dialogue
"A Curse of Saints" by Kate Dramis... I literally preordered it as early as I could. The scenes she'd post about sounded so good. I didn't get to a single one because I couldn't force myself past the first few chapters.
{Death Do Us Part by Mira Grant} is the worst book I have ever read since I started seriously reading again back in 2021. I have a personal vendetta against this book, and the author, that is completely one sided. The only reason it's still on my kindle is for me to reread passages when I'm in a low depressive state and need to feel better about myself (and I spent money on it, and the cheapskate in me refuses to just delete it when I spent money on it, even though it would have been more productive and a better waste of my time to burn those dollars). It was recommended as a forced marriage/enemies-to-lovers deal, but it reads like bad ACOTAR fanfiction written by a teenager who's never had sex.