You know those books that you anticipate so highly, and then turn out to be dumpster fires? That is the best description of this book. I was so excited for this, and then it ended up being something a hated reading.
First off, this is one of the most convoluted books I have ever read. It should be straightforward, right? Characters must journey across a desert to restore magic. Somehow though, I spent the entire time confused as to what was happening. I had to reread every page so many times just to figure out who was talking, and what was happening.
On top of that, this is marketed as enemies-to-lovers. This was not enemies to lovers. Or, at least, it wasn't good enemies-to-lovers. Good enemies-to-lovers has banter, angst, tension, and leaves me on the edge of my seat. This just had me confused as to where romantic feelings came from... Neither of our characters had anything going for them, so that was a mess. Of course though, the romance wasn't even present for the first half of the book, and then it was full of "smoldering gazes". Even though our characters didn't even kiss until chapter 82, this was somehow still insta-love.
And, both of our characters had the personality of a piece of cardboard. Nasir, our love interest had maybe 20 lines of dialogue in the entire book. Yet, we're supposed to fall for him? His perspective started off so strong, so I was so disappointed! Hes called the Prince of Death for God's sake. I wanted death. I wanted murder. I wanted destruction. I didn't want some stereotypical tragic past about a character with daddy issues. That's been overused.
Zafira on the other hand, wasn't even brooding. I don't even think I can offer a single adjective to describe her. She was just there. She flounce around every once in a while, made a comment about being with a bunch of murderers, and then went back to whatever she did for the almost 500 pages of this book. She was as useless as Elain.
Of course, we also had our comic relief characters. Benyamin, and Altair. (I'm forgetting one, but I don't really care) Don't ask me to tell them apart, because I can't. Once again, they contributed nothing to the plot, and weren't anything special.
It says a lot that this took me over a week to read. Normally, a book will take me, at max, two days. I never wanted to read this, so I just avoided it. Even with the amount of glowing reviews this has, I can't find a single redeeming feature for this book.
Thanks to BookishFirst for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review
First off, this is one of the most convoluted books I have ever read. It should be straightforward, right? Characters must journey across a desert to restore magic. Somehow though, I spent the entire time confused as to what was happening. I had to reread every page so many times just to figure out who was talking, and what was happening.
On top of that, this is marketed as enemies-to-lovers. This was not enemies to lovers. Or, at least, it wasn't good enemies-to-lovers. Good enemies-to-lovers has banter, angst, tension, and leaves me on the edge of my seat. This just had me confused as to where romantic feelings came from... Neither of our characters had anything going for them, so that was a mess. Of course though, the romance wasn't even present for the first half of the book, and then it was full of "smoldering gazes". Even though our characters didn't even kiss until chapter 82, this was somehow still insta-love.
And, both of our characters had the personality of a piece of cardboard. Nasir, our love interest had maybe 20 lines of dialogue in the entire book. Yet, we're supposed to fall for him? His perspective started off so strong, so I was so disappointed! Hes called the Prince of Death for God's sake. I wanted death. I wanted murder. I wanted destruction. I didn't want some stereotypical tragic past about a character with daddy issues. That's been overused.
Zafira on the other hand, wasn't even brooding. I don't even think I can offer a single adjective to describe her. She was just there. She flounce around every once in a while, made a comment about being with a bunch of murderers, and then went back to whatever she did for the almost 500 pages of this book. She was as useless as Elain.
Of course, we also had our comic relief characters. Benyamin, and Altair. (I'm forgetting one, but I don't really care) Don't ask me to tell them apart, because I can't. Once again, they contributed nothing to the plot, and weren't anything special.
It says a lot that this took me over a week to read. Normally, a book will take me, at max, two days. I never wanted to read this, so I just avoided it. Even with the amount of glowing reviews this has, I can't find a single redeeming feature for this book.
Thanks to BookishFirst for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review