Fell Short of My Expectations: Wanted More Dragons and Phoenixes
CW/TW: underage drinking, violence, death, assassination attempts, child slavery, blood magic, gore, debauchery, and multiple sexual advances
This story is told in dual-POV, present tense.
The first few chapters had me hooked on what I believed would be an enemies-to-lovers slow-burn relationship with political intrigue and a unique magic system in a world of alliances based on magical families and revenge wars. Unfortunately, this story fell short of my expectations. I expected more dragons and phoenixes!!
~SPOILERS AHEAD~
After the initial chapters, the story began to change, and not for the better. We start with a feisty, dagger-wielding heroine who goes behind enemy lines to rescue her father figure, only it turns out halfway in the story, she didn't want to. That the rescue and princes' assassination plans weren't her own? And what happened to the plot of rescuing her guardian? (Also, how could she say she's been dressing herself for the past seventeen years? Babies don't dress themselves and certainly not toddlers. And even though she's seventeen, she's considered an "adult" in this world, making it "okay" to be drinking and involved in "adult" actions, mind you. Also, some of the characters blame others for getting them drunk and not taking responsibility for their actions (completely). And if MC cared about her friend who was murdered by her LI, by the way, wouldn't she have asked about him after his death?)
Also, the romance wasn't slow-burn, but insta-lust, and there weren't any more I-want-to-murder-my-enemy scenes after that first one. The world-building was also limited; we get glimpses of the countryside and know there are feathered drakes, and are told stories about this world, but that's about it. Nothing as immersive as I thought it'd be.
The writing style is strange; there are instances of passive voice when contractions could've been used, and other times, contractions are used, which breaks the flow of reading. The dual POVs also read the same, and I had to check whose POV it was a few times.
I also want to point out the heinous agenda the authors/publisher are enforcing: shaming characters when someone makes "mistakes" when not conforming to degenerate ideologies. This is done through the addition of an unnecessary character, Elias (you'd think from his biological description and name that he's male), but the MC is shamed when she's wrong about his "gender". This confused the HECK out of me when reading his parts. Yet, for every other character the MC comes across, she's assuming them to be either male or female based on their names and descriptions. SO WHY IS ONLY THIS INSTANCE ENFORCED??? The VAST majority of cultures and languages know there are only two genders (a biological fact that molecular geneticists and forensic scientists and anyone with two brain cells will tell you) and default to the male pronouns when regarding someone (whose name and appearance are) unknown or a collective, and no one has had an issue with this for millennia. Why is it now that a certain group of hedonistic liberals is causing this confusion, and forcing their beliefs on others (via bullying, name-calling, and shaming) when most people on Earth don't believe in their ideologies? And please don't say, "it's fantasy" just to get away with it. Such things consumed and relegated as "art/entertainment" are known to corrupt and desensitize you into accepting immorality (and the overall collapse of human society in the long run). Plus, this Elias character, who happens to be as young as the MC, is the Prince Regent's physician?? Is everyone else (you'd think there would be older healers with decades of experience) incompetent to help heal their "mad" prince? No, he was only there as a sex slave for said prince, and everyone in this world is completely fine with it.
There are a lot more problematic things, like how everyone is fine letting their "mad" prince do whatever he wants and using others in his schemes because he's "Chaos-touched" (making it "okay" for people to do what they want which they justify by attributing it to their pagan deities, by the way).
Do not recommend.
This story is told in dual-POV, present tense.
The first few chapters had me hooked on what I believed would be an enemies-to-lovers slow-burn relationship with political intrigue and a unique magic system in a world of alliances based on magical families and revenge wars. Unfortunately, this story fell short of my expectations. I expected more dragons and phoenixes!!
~SPOILERS AHEAD~
After the initial chapters, the story began to change, and not for the better. We start with a feisty, dagger-wielding heroine who goes behind enemy lines to rescue her father figure, only it turns out halfway in the story, she didn't want to. That the rescue and princes' assassination plans weren't her own? And what happened to the plot of rescuing her guardian? (Also, how could she say she's been dressing herself for the past seventeen years? Babies don't dress themselves and certainly not toddlers. And even though she's seventeen, she's considered an "adult" in this world, making it "okay" to be drinking and involved in "adult" actions, mind you. Also, some of the characters blame others for getting them drunk and not taking responsibility for their actions (completely). And if MC cared about her friend who was murdered by her LI, by the way, wouldn't she have asked about him after his death?)
Also, the romance wasn't slow-burn, but insta-lust, and there weren't any more I-want-to-murder-my-enemy scenes after that first one. The world-building was also limited; we get glimpses of the countryside and know there are feathered drakes, and are told stories about this world, but that's about it. Nothing as immersive as I thought it'd be.
The writing style is strange; there are instances of passive voice when contractions could've been used, and other times, contractions are used, which breaks the flow of reading. The dual POVs also read the same, and I had to check whose POV it was a few times.
I also want to point out the heinous agenda the authors/publisher are enforcing: shaming characters when someone makes "mistakes" when not conforming to degenerate ideologies. This is done through the addition of an unnecessary character, Elias (you'd think from his biological description and name that he's male), but the MC is shamed when she's wrong about his "gender". This confused the HECK out of me when reading his parts. Yet, for every other character the MC comes across, she's assuming them to be either male or female based on their names and descriptions. SO WHY IS ONLY THIS INSTANCE ENFORCED??? The VAST majority of cultures and languages know there are only two genders (a biological fact that molecular geneticists and forensic scientists and anyone with two brain cells will tell you) and default to the male pronouns when regarding someone (whose name and appearance are) unknown or a collective, and no one has had an issue with this for millennia. Why is it now that a certain group of hedonistic liberals is causing this confusion, and forcing their beliefs on others (via bullying, name-calling, and shaming) when most people on Earth don't believe in their ideologies? And please don't say, "it's fantasy" just to get away with it. Such things consumed and relegated as "art/entertainment" are known to corrupt and desensitize you into accepting immorality (and the overall collapse of human society in the long run). Plus, this Elias character, who happens to be as young as the MC, is the Prince Regent's physician?? Is everyone else (you'd think there would be older healers with decades of experience) incompetent to help heal their "mad" prince? No, he was only there as a sex slave for said prince, and everyone in this world is completely fine with it.
There are a lot more problematic things, like how everyone is fine letting their "mad" prince do whatever he wants and using others in his schemes because he's "Chaos-touched" (making it "okay" for people to do what they want which they justify by attributing it to their pagan deities, by the way).
Do not recommend.