Sylvia Mercedes

This was 240 pages of the main character complaining/being stubborn, no one communicating (literally didn't speak the same language), and very little romance. Then when the romance happened, the main character fucked it up so hard that she ruined everything.

But once everything was COMPLETELY RUINED (people were killed) she realized, oh since now I know he's beautiful and now that I can't have him (because he's now ENSLAVED as a bed companion to some ANGEL QUEEN???????), I KNOW I love him. Then the book ended. What.

No.… (mere)

No. I didn't finish this. Ms. Mercedes' writing may be something for some people, but it's not for me. And I will make sure I don't start another one of her books again by mistake. Her books are not my cup of tea nor are they ever what the summary advertises it to be.

I got this book on Kindle Unlimited and I didn't realize that this was the same author as the Moonfire Bride and Sunfire King--I deeply disliked both of those books. From what I can tell, the author knows how to write budding romance very well, but doesn't know how to write a solid ending without making everything absolutely terrible and borderline creepy first. Not like in an adventurous way, but like "needless murder of innocents, needlessly lying, and borderline non-consensual romance" type of way. All because the author doesn't want the heroine to seem like a Mary Sue. She ruins any sort of budding romance by making the man seem like a genuine, loving book-boyfriend who just wants to be happy and make his love happy and then she makes the heroine the worst example of humankind for no reason other than poorly executed "drama."

So I got about 170 pages in and I realized things were going in a direction that Moonfire Bride did. A King (with relatively modern thinking in a un-modern world that makes you fall in love with him as a reader), just trying to protect his people, makes a choice that he doesn't agree with but does anyway because he must do it for the safety of his kingdom. Then the heroine lies to him (in some way or another because the author thinks they only way to make them interesting is to make them selfish about the dumbest things), making the king make a political mistake that has very serious (two more books worth) of needless drama just so we can have book two turn into a BAD enemies to lovers trope. When I got to the "heartfasting" scene, it started getting eerily similar to Moonfire Bride, and I finally looked it up here on Goodreads.

Seeing that it was the same author using the same bad formula make me immediately DNF it.… (mere)

This is the first book I've ever read by Sylvia Mercedes and I will definitely read her again. While the book clearly resembled the Beauty and the Beast story, the twists were fun. Nelle (Beauty) was indeed beautiful, but uses that to her advantage by wearing poisoned lipstick that puts any man she kisses to sleep. She is also a renowned thief. The mage (Beast) was trapped in a strange place with a Thorn Maiden (yes, she is exactly what she sounds like), wyverns, and a murderous unicorn (although the unicorn surprises him, so maybe that's not a typical day's work). I thought it was hilarious the Nelle, despite her beauty can't sing, although she tries anyway. There was also something that seemed like a love triangle and it revolved around the mage which was another fun departure from the traditional tale. My only complaints were that the story was a little slow to get started and certain parts of the story jumped so quickly, I wasn't sure if I missed something or if they were dreaming, but that could have just been the shift between the main characters. The creativity was fantastic, however.

I received a free audiobook from the author and have reviewed it willingly.… (mere)