Thanks to Netgalley and Hachette Audio/Forever for providing me the Audio e-ARC.
Narrated by: Ella Lynch
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, magic users, war-torn, literal enemies, treason
Trigger warning: Human trafficking, auctioning, non-consensual sexual acts, aggression, forced nudity.
I will split this review into 2 parts, the story and the narration.
Narration:
The narration gets a 2.5/5 for me. The narrator was fine. But I feel like this book would have really done so much better with a dual narration style and the male narrator would have suited the story so much more. Any time the female narrator spoke male dialogs, it took me out of the storyline and was absolutely jarring. The narrator was also British ( I believe?) and I had understood Julie Soto be an American writer. I understand that this book was supposedly Dramione fan fic, but if it were being adapted to a wider audience, the book could have been narrated differently
The story:
The story gets a 3.5/5 for me (rounded to 4 because GR does not allow 1/2 stars). I'll share the good stuff first:
1. The outline is pretty cool: Countries fighting right now. They didn't used to. The elite kids went to school together to prevent wars ( clearly this didn't work)
2. MFC is a twin. She has magical gifts that supersedes her male twin, but she has to play nice.
3. MFC is innocent and oh-so-pure, but fantasizes about Toven, the richest boy from behind enemy lines
4. The angst between the leads is nice. There are a couple supposed explicit scenes that were done well. Language alert. Open door explicit
5. The story has a potential to be a block buster.
6. The triggering aspects of this book are thought provoking. It was physically repulsive, but a much needed reminder of how POW have been treated, especially how women have been treated. Made me physically sick to read those scenes.
Problems:
1. There was very little context. From the get-g0 you are thrown into a panic situation with the killing of Rory and the main characters are not given any chance to be developed.
2. The back and forth between present time and the past was super jarring. The panic of the present made me want it to be over and being dragged in the past was like being tortured over and over. I wish the past had been explained in the present instead of as separate chapters. I literally just skipped the past chapters because they added nothing new to the story. You still get the whole context without reading them.
3. The pacing is really, truly BAD. For like middle 1/3 of the book (around 30%), NOTHING HAPPENS to Briony except that she is TIRED, and SO EXHAUSTED, and SO SLEEPY. This literally could have been summarized in ONE PARAGRAPH. As in, "The first month, Briony only slept and BATHED"
4. Which, by the way, HOW MANY BATHS DOES THIS GIRL TAKE? AND IN CAPTIVITY!!!! Too many, if you ask me. It irked me. She is probably the reason why future generations will have a water shortage.
5. The pacing again. Because of Briony's frequent napping and bathing schedule for 300 pages, the last 1/3 of the book is action packed, and (dare I say?) RUSHED. I wish I had gotten more of the last third. It was literally like the author wrote a 2 part series and the editor said, we'll make it a 3 parter and you can insert chapters of MFC just sleeping and bathing.
6. What even is the point of introducing jealousy in the mix, when the MFC and MMC are literal enemies and MFC's life is on the line? So redundant and displeasing (also the MMC and OW is shown to be intimate in front of the MFC -so.... ew!)
7. Why was the OW auctioned? No answers to that. Initially I thought it was because she was gay, but then I guess not?
Overall, it was enjoyable. I wish the story had progressed way more than it actually did. If I had read another novel this long, I'd have expected way more progression in the storyline.
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, magic users, war-torn, literal enemies, treason
Trigger warning: Human trafficking, auctioning, non-consensual sexual acts, aggression, forced nudity.
I will split this review into 2 parts, the story and the narration.
Narration:
The narration gets a 2.5/5 for me. The narrator was fine. But I feel like this book would have really done so much better with a dual narration style and the male narrator would have suited the story so much more. Any time the female narrator spoke male dialogs, it took me out of the storyline and was absolutely jarring. The narrator was also British ( I believe?) and I had understood Julie Soto be an American writer. I understand that this book was supposedly Dramione fan fic, but if it were being adapted to a wider audience, the book could have been narrated differently
The story:
The story gets a 3.5/5 for me (rounded to 4 because GR does not allow 1/2 stars). I'll share the good stuff first:
1. The outline is pretty cool: Countries fighting right now. They didn't used to. The elite kids went to school together to prevent wars ( clearly this didn't work)
2. MFC is a twin. She has magical gifts that supersedes her male twin, but she has to play nice.
3. MFC is innocent and oh-so-pure, but fantasizes about Toven, the richest boy from behind enemy lines
4. The angst between the leads is nice. There are a couple supposed explicit scenes that were done well. Language alert. Open door explicit
5. The story has a potential to be a block buster.
6. The triggering aspects of this book are thought provoking. It was physically repulsive, but a much needed reminder of how POW have been treated, especially how women have been treated. Made me physically sick to read those scenes.
Problems:
1. There was very little context. From the get-g0 you are thrown into a panic situation with the killing of Rory and the main characters are not given any chance to be developed.
2. The back and forth between present time and the past was super jarring. The panic of the present made me want it to be over and being dragged in the past was like being tortured over and over. I wish the past had been explained in the present instead of as separate chapters. I literally just skipped the past chapters because they added nothing new to the story. You still get the whole context without reading them.
3. The pacing is really, truly BAD. For like middle 1/3 of the book (around 30%), NOTHING HAPPENS to Briony except that she is TIRED, and SO EXHAUSTED, and SO SLEEPY. This literally could have been summarized in ONE PARAGRAPH. As in, "The first month, Briony only slept and BATHED"
4. Which, by the way, HOW MANY BATHS DOES THIS GIRL TAKE? AND IN CAPTIVITY!!!! Too many, if you ask me. It irked me. She is probably the reason why future generations will have a water shortage.
5. The pacing again. Because of Briony's frequent napping and bathing schedule for 300 pages, the last 1/3 of the book is action packed, and (dare I say?) RUSHED. I wish I had gotten more of the last third. It was literally like the author wrote a 2 part series and the editor said, we'll make it a 3 parter and you can insert chapters of MFC just sleeping and bathing.
6. What even is the point of introducing jealousy in the mix, when the MFC and MMC are literal enemies and MFC's life is on the line? So redundant and displeasing (also the MMC and OW is shown to be intimate in front of the MFC -so.... ew!)
7. Why was the OW auctioned? No answers to that. Initially I thought it was because she was gay, but then I guess not?
Overall, it was enjoyable. I wish the story had progressed way more than it actually did. If I had read another novel this long, I'd have expected way more progression in the storyline.
