I’ve never been more frustrated in my life. The facts were slapped in her face and STILL she didn’t put the pieces together FOR SO LONG. I WAS SCREAMING THE ENTIRE BOOK

The premise for the book was interesting, but poorly executed. The progression was slow, painfully so at times, and easy to predict.

LOVED THIS

Mama Mia. I'm shook. Fans of the ACOTAR trilogy would rave over this book. No joke. No spoilers just me gushing... I was Legit abt to cry at the end when everything unravelled and omg The AUTHOR!!!! She is one hell of an intelligent swindler. *Because* she took overused tropes and remodeled/revisited them in an ingenious way. I'm just fucking speechless. I'm in awe. I have to warn you that there are elicit scenes and see scenes as well (yes, plural). Anyways, that aside, can I gush over the book? Just keep on reading if this still interests you. Okay first of all the main character: Poppy. She isn't the typical character I would root for but... she grew on me after some time; it's mostly due to how the author often makes a retrospection of her and that made me understand Poppy (though I still love tempered and badass main characters, she became a fave). The plot is well woven through the romance and I didn't feel it too angsty (it was just right). I kept giggling and writhing at the cheesy lines Hawke would pull out. Omg the journal!!! Okay so there is this scene (not a spoiler) where Poppy finds a journal equivalent to fifty shades of grey and Hawke takes it from her which creates a witty banter between them. My stomach hurt from laughing so much. Ugh I just can't keep gushing about this because it'll take years! And I'm very impatient so... ig I'll write a proper review or gushing (whatever) on my reread. Because YES, I plan on rereading this masterpiece soon.

od této knihy jsem kvůli skvělým zahraničím ohlasům čekala vážně hodně. skvělá romantika, dobrý příběh, zajímavé postavy... nedočkala jsem se. ba naopak, tato kniha mě velmi, velmi zklamala. začněme asi u toho méně podstatného, pokusím se to napsat bez spoilerů; děj jako takový byl velice průměrný. hlavní hrdinka je od narození vyvolená, nikdo neví proč, nikdo neví jak. já doteď nechápu vůbec nic, protože autorka se podrobnějším vysvětlováním nezaobírala. celých 400 stran knihy se odehrává v sídle, chvílemi jsem z toho pociťovala až klaustrofobii. posledních 100... sice se odehrávalo mimo sídlo, ale bylo to to nejhorší zakončení, které jsem kdy četla. hodně mi to připomínalo after; hrdinové se k smrti pohádají a zhruba dvě minuty po hádce (já si tady nedělám legraci, vážně to mohlo být jen několik minut) se spolu vyspí. a když už jsem nakousla ten sex; zaprvé nevím, jak něco takového mohlo vyhrát nejlepší romantiku roku 2020 - jejich vztah nebyl uvěřitelný, ale ještě důležitější je, že byl plný násilí. Hawke k sexu Poppy v podstatě psychicky donutil. hned několikrát. při jedné konkrétní scéně bych se ani nebála říct, že jí znásilnil. ale nám je tento vztah pokládán jako něco krásného a romantického a jako něco, co bychom v podstatě všichni chtěli mít. prostě... ne?? bylo tam tolik problémů!! Poppy se do Hawkea zamilovala dost možná jen kvůli tomu, že nikdy neměla poblíž sebe chlapce jejího věku. a Hawke? ten byl jen horny a psychicky jí nutil k tomu mít s ním poměr. u některých konkrétních (nejen) sexuálních scén jsem musela až kulit oči nad tím, jaké vlezlosti a namyšlenosti Hawke Poppy říkal, aby jí svedl. a ještě víc jsem kulila oči nad tím, že se mu to povedlo. a ten úplný konec, ta poslední věta? největší hloupost a nesmyslnost, kterou autorka mohla vymyslet. . kniha mě strašlivě zklamala a naštvala. rozhodně jí nikomu z vás nedoporučuji, protože za něco takového nestojí utrácet peníze. do dalších dílů se pouštět nebudu. . 2*/5*, a to hodnotím velice milosrdně.

Knocking off half a star for some grammar/writing mistakes, I still loved the book and will probably read it again

i can't explain you either get it or you don't

3/5 Yeah, I won’t be continuing. "You are an absolutely stunning, murderous little creature"

Very predictable and also somehow employed pretty much every plot twist you could think of. I wish this book did more show as opposed to tell via dialogue. My favorite part was the banter. The spice was mild but tasteful/well-written. I wish the word choice fit the genre a little better. Using words like therapeutic didn't quite fit.

I originally rated this a 4.5 because I was very confused with a lot of the terms and concepts, and I am still slightly confused. But after finishing the book I bumped it up to a 4.8 (minus 0.2 points for the confusion it gave me) since everything clicked into place. I think Hawke is very neat (added him to my list of traumatized babygirls list).

The plot twist got me. I def didn’t see it coming. Hawke is such a simp.

This book was a lot of fun! I definitely had some problems with it. I thought the plot was interesting, but I thought there were some issues in regards to the execution. I didn't fully understand all of the different monsters/characters and what they were until like 3/4 of the way through the book. I was confused for almost the entire book. I mean, I don't think we were supposed to care since the main story line is obviously the romance, which was great but also felt...rushed. It's so weird. I was hooked from the beginning but I also wanted more like, romance in the romance? I liked most aspects of the romance, but it almost felt like the smut didn't line up with the tone of the rest of the novel? I wanted to take this story seriously but then something would happen and I'd be totally taken out of it. Does that even make sense? Also, there was too much flip-flopping with our main character. Constantly going "this or that" which is understandable up until a certain point but then it just becomes annoying. I LOVED the ending though. What a smart ending. I want to read the next one! Overall, not a favorite but such a fun read for a super weird time. Held my attention and took my mind off the world for a bit.

I’m so mad I waited this long to read this, I’m obsessed

SPOILERS What a lovely surprise this was! I am loving this resurgence of vampires.

2 stars

SO GOOD !!!!

love the first book.. the succeeding installments are meh

I enjoyed Poppy’s growth throughout the book. She became more sure of herself and loved her using her training. Hawke is a delight and I really like their banter. I hope the story continues to grow in an interesting way - the world has really nice build up.

i predicted the big plot twists but i thoroughly enjoyed this entire book. really loved it.

So This is hard to review so I’ll try my best. First the good things: I loved the setting and how Poppy didn’t know much about the world as we did. That gave me (who finds it very hard to remember certain facts in fantasy worlds) time to understand everything in a detailed way. Also I liked the writing, how the author described places and characters etc. But sadly I did not LOVE it :/ That leads to the things that were meh: Every damn chapter someone (especially Poppy herself) had to say “You are the Maiden. The Chosen.” till it was annoying. But that is definitely not the worst thing. This book was so predictable, because we got too many hints throughout the story. The plottwists were not the worst but like I said the hints destroyed the suspense kinda. Sadly I couldn’t connect with the characters at all except for one or two but I think this will be better in the second book as we will learn more about their past :) Soo I’m excited but also scared for the next one 🤭

o miolo desse livro é uma desgraça, mas o final fica interessante. eu gosto do mundo que ela criou e gosto do hanke mais do que deveria. algumas cenas parecem que são tudo a mesma coisa, então eu acredito que poderiam ser escritas melhor. enfim, estou dando a autora o benefício da duvida pq eu estou atualmente lendo o livro 2. ps, a poppy as vezes é chatinha pakas.

2.5 stars

** spoiler alert ** This was a surprise release book that left me speechless and wanting more. I have no idea what the next book is going to be released but I do know that I cannot wait for it to come out so I can devour as it fast as I did this one. To be honest, I was extremely confused at the start of the book, because this is a fantasy book, it took more than a few chapters to wrap my head around the world and the meaning behind what Poppy was saying. I was a bit skeptical when I began the book because there were a lot of concept that were being spoken that I didn't fully understand and it wasn't explained fully till much later. But slowly everything started making sense. JLA had a wonderful talent of just keeping you captivate and by the time I was reaching the end it was all worth it. Poppy is such a badass. I love her! She may even become my favorite JLA character, after Alex, of course! My favorite scene is the fight between her and Hawke when he sees her face for the first time. We very briefly met Kieran in this book but I see potential of the character. He is gonna be the awesome, I can FEEL it. I personally love trying to figure out the plot of the book before it happens, and so I guessed that Hawke was to be Prince Casteel. I first guessed it when he was speaking with the girls about Casteel that I got suspicious. Although I was saddened by all the bloodshed that happened at the ball, i understand why it needed to take place and it isn't a JLA book without one of my favorites being killed off 😭😭😭. I cried real tears for death. But I loved that Poppy cut that man to bits a pieces! He deserved it!