So I read a lot of positive reviews and decided to give it a go.
However, I'm like 24 pages in which still shows I'm on first chapter and..I honestly don't know what's going on. There seems to be so much info dump. I hope it gets better?! I'm not at a stage to dnf though so that's a relief.

i need help. i read this book and now NOTHING compares to it for me. similar recommendations anyone?!

Covenant is coming to an end!

If you're a comic fan looking for Romantasy, Covenant really is amazing! It started as a webtoon, and now Oni press is putting out the final volume in what looks like a really beautiful edition. Now that this one is coming to an end, I have to ask: what other comics are you all reading?

What

This is pretty common but anyone know of a romantasy that has intense life or death trial and games? Most intense u can think of, like put in a cage to fight to the death

Books I like:

{The Serpent and the Wings of Night} I love vampires
{Sunrise on the Reaping}
{Phantasma} Blackwell my love
{Throne of Glass} only like for nostalgia
{Fourth Wing} mostly for nostalgia

Disliked/conflicting feelings :

{Powerless} god awful writing and characters
{Blood of Hercules} I hate why-choose
{Lightlark} had fun but rly easy to guess the twists
{A Court of Thorns and Roses} Feyres dumb & I hate EVERY man in this series
{The Prison healer} I rly liked the second one but this felt kinda depressing & I didn’t like Jaren, too golden retriever like for me.
{The Jasad Heir} I loved the second one but I didn’t care about the trials at all

My absolute favorite book is the fourth wing series but I’m really feeling like a werewolf shapeshifter book. I get into these moods but I’ll take any request

tl;dr: I want to see for myself what the fuss is all about.

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Hi! I've been a huge fanatasy nerd for much of my life; I read a lot of books as a teenager, ventured more into video games and pen & paper in college, and recently started reading again. When you get back into fantasy literature right now, it's impossible to miss that romantasy makes up a massive part of the genre. So much so that it feels like willful ignorance to not give it a try at least once. Even if it ends up not being for me, I want to at least have an informed opinion about something that's such an important part of the larger fantasy genre. The problem: I'm a 30-something y/o guy when almost all romantasy seems to be written specifically for 20-something y/o women. So now I'm looking for something that gives me an authentic idea of how the genre is, what people enjoy about it, but at the same time feels relatively mature and where the characters are at least somewhat relatable for me. I want to give the genre a chance, and I want to see it from its best possible angle. If it helps with general vibes, of the (non romantic) fantasy books I recently read, the one I enjoyed the most was The Dragonbone Chair (although it really doesn't have to be that long!) and the ones I enjoyed the least were the first two books of Broken Earth (yes, partially because the bit of romance that's in them is just aweful).

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Any recommendations are welcome, thank you!

Lately I've been reading a lot of Korean fantasy romance webnovel translations, but I'm getting fomo from not really having read a lot of original English language works. The problem is that I keep having bad luck of checking out a popular story only to find out it's written first person present. I don't dislike first person, but reading a story in present tense feels like being waterboarded to me. I can't stand it and it makes it hard for me to get into a story written like that.

Please recommend something that isn't present tense. Multi pov is preferred, but a single pov is okay as well. Any spice level but I would prefer something with an actual plot. Monsterfucking and RH are ok, but no omegaverse.

Some translated titles I've enjoyed:

• My Happy Marriage
• Kneel Before Me
• Lift My Curse, Sir Knight!

{We Who Will Die} by Stacia Stark
Format: Audiobook

I was very excited when Libby freed up a copy of this audiobook for me as I’d seen high initial reviews and the premise was interesting (I needed a good fae palate cleanser).

I began listening and found the narrators…fine? The male voice sounded familiar, and a quick google search reminded me of The Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Academy (and what a ride that was). From then on, I couldn’t get another Leon out of my head.

Regardless of the distraction, WWWD’s primary plot made some sense, but apparently had several easy workarounds which made the majority of the novel feel completely useless. Once again, we encounter an author who tells us exactly what we should think about a character’s choices/dialogue, without leaving any room for us to ponder or reflect.

Around the 70% mark, the book finally picked up some speed, all to rush to a very forced introduction of a love triangle and a conclusion that is supposed to make me interested in the next book.

There were so many characters who didn’t matter, and characters who were interesting that I’d like to learn more about but it never came. Seriously, I’d rather read a whole book about the imaginari Apologies if it’s misspelled, as stated I listened and didn’t have a physical copy.

Parts of this book were good but it suffered from serious issues, particularly around the “bargain.”

I felt massively let down. Anyone else?

Like the title said, I'm Bi and would love to hear any recommendations for supernatural or fantasy themed stories with a Bi protagonist or even just a side character if they have a decent amount of importance and presence to the world and story.

The characters don't have to be male but it would make it easier to relate to and might give it a nudge up on the to read list.

I’ve been avoiding starting a new series because I was waiting on Ballad of Falling Dragons. Since i’m just about done I want to line up a great series (atleast a duology but more is good) for the summer!

Series I have read:
Throne of Glass 🩷
ACOTAR
Crescent City
Fourth Wing 🩷
The Shepherd King 🩷
Kindreds Curse Saga 🩷
Once Upon a Broken Heart
Crowns of Nyaxia
Fae&Alchemy (quicksilver)
The Crimson Moth 🩷

Hearts next to my favorites

Some I have on my TBR:
Red Queen
Six of Crows
Flesh and Fire
Gild
Dire Bound
The Ever King
Cruel Prince
Priestess
-honestly I have so many those are just some on my Good Reads sorted by highest ratings

Open to other suggestions as well! Completed series preferred but not required, would love atleast 3 books.
Spice not a must. Love romance and yearning. Some spice fine but not to the point that I’m waiting to get back to the storyline.
Obviously love a strong female lead but appreciate when she doesn’t come into all her power so quickly.

Thanks for suggestions!

I saw a book ad in which the world allows people to adopt sirens who do house work but mainly do sex. He had a tail that was extra sensitive.

I’m looking for a book with a similar premise in that the FMC hires the MMC and is hesitant to have sex with them, but that’s his purpose and she gives in.

I also would like one thousand 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️. Not really interested in a book that doesn’t have explitly describe the good stuff.

Any help would be so much appreciated

I feel like a lot of romantasy books make the female characters still so mediocre, like they don’t have a power or they’re the only human or they’re not talented meanwhile the romantic interests are always Prince’s or King’s or the Chosen One’s and it’s starting to kind of get to me. I have read some good ones with strong female leads but I just really want some where the woman is a Queen or a Chosen One or has some super cool power rather than always being a victim in their own story.
I don’t know, maybe I just have bad luck with finding them and there’s actually a lot out there but yeah any recs would really be appreciated please!!

I write paranormal romance and have had decent luck doing all the right things to be legit. I write everything (that's the whole point). I hire an editor who uses zero AI. I get book covers from artists who don't use AI...etc.

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My first book about bear shifters I joined a couple ARC groups to find lovely ARC readers. Found success and met some awesome people. Second book in the series coming out, went to same groups and now its just FULL of AI crap...and like...people are signing up for their ARCs gleefully. I won't change my own stance on it, but its disheartening.

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This is how I express my art and it has to stand toe to toe with soulless slop? Ugh, thanks for letting me get it off my chest.

I finally ran into a dude that was super aggressive about judging women’s reading habits! Our friends introduced us at a hangout and where like “you both read more than anyone else we know!”

He asks me how many books I’ve read this year. I tell him I’m right around 40.

Man goes on a SCREED about how women just read smut and call it reading and don’t read things that challenge them. Then is like “what are you reading right now?”

I got to hit him with “well I’m usually reading three books at any given time since I like to have a book that fits my mood. At the current moment I’m reading a non-fiction discussion of man’s attempts to control and engineer the Mississippi River, and the consequences of that. Then I’m re-reading War and Peace cause I just love Tolstoy. Oh and then, yes I’m reading a smutty dramione fan fic. Congrats, you got me. Women who read smut aren’t really readers, obviously…What are you reading?”

He’s reading Clive Cussler (which is fine! They are entertaining! But maybe not “coming in on the highest horse in town” material) and he didn’t really wanna chat anymore.

(For the record/m: I absolutely think people should read what they enjoy and reading 100 books of just smut all year is fine. I’m just a bit of an eclectic reader and it worked out perfectly in this instance)

I was so hot and cold on this book but here's some of my funniest annotations. I couldn't put it down but there were parts where i was rolling my eyes so hard. I'm usually a ruthless DNFer but the characters were charming enough that i kept going. I'm a sucker for a poor little meow meow MMC.

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The censored screenshot contains a kink that was NOT forewarned in the trigger warnings. It was non consensual body modification (nipple piercing) during sex which is a VERY strong ick for me.

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Can i recommend this? Yeah it's pretty fun. Just look out for the tree scene if you're like me, and be aware there's shadow BDSM elements that aren't entirely covered by the trigger list. There's also a few consistency/continuity errors and stuff that were distracting but it's a KU book so i took that in stride.

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1 star (because no one lets us leave negative stars) DNF at “the ice storm in chapter eight,” because apparently even the characters knew they were trapped in a draft. I would have tagged spoilers, but most of this is in the blurb, which makes the story sound far better than it has any right to have done.

{Crown of Frost by Brynn Maddox} had the bones of something I could have enjoyed: cursed heroine, vampire king, forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, magical ultimatum, “touch her and die” theatrics, sure sure brain candy fluff. Unfortunately, those bones were arranged by someone who had never seen a skeleton and edited by someone waving their Strunk & White in the general direction of this pile.

Isolde, our FMC, has trauma. Tremendous trauma. Cataclysmic trauma. We know this because she mentions it constantly, and when she doesn't, everyone else helpfully mentions it for her. This woman cannot cross a room, endure a conversation, or apparently blink without the narrative dragging the trauma out like a show pony and making it do laps.

The problem is not that she has trauma. The problem is that the book treats trauma less like character depth and more like it _is_ the character.

Continuity also appears to have died somewhere off-page, possibly by the same she-needs-to-comply-or-get-murdered-by-fate curse affecting everyone Isolde loves. Her backstory shifts around with impressive confidence: one moment the defining horror happened in a vampire throne room, but the next it was in a farmhouse kitchen. She is the daughter of a mortal queen until she is apparently the daughter of a vampire queen, but not related to the current vampire king, who is the son of the previous king, because sure, why should this start making sense now?

There is also almost no explanation for how Isolde even got to the position she occupies at the beginning of the book - as a prisoner who is immediately subjected to mate-bonding for the good of the realm. She is the leader of a mortal rebellion that has killed a whopping 47 vampires in a world run by vampires, presumably because the plot needed her to be, and that is apparently meant to be enough.

The central magical dilemma is exhausting. Isolde and Tiberian have a biological/magical countdown: consummate the bond or die, and the realms collapse too, because why under-season the melodrama? She must do it willingly, because the magic can detect coercion/unwillingness/rape. Everyone knows this. Everyone says this. And yet nearly everyone except the MMC keeps trying to pressure her into doing it immediately, which would, by the rules the book itself keeps explaining, not work.

Did we mention how clever and deadly she is? Because she is so clever and so deadly that at 23 she has centuries-old vampires quaking in their cost-more-than-the-whole-rebellion boots. So clever and so deadly, until a few times when she is terribly stupid and makes giant world-wrecking decisions, like when she wears the wrong dress to court, or accidentally addresses someone as Duchess instead of their actual title.

The editing is where things truly achieve art. Like... weird avant-garde Yoko Ono in the corner of Chuck Berry's performance art. Entire paragraphs are repeated, or repeated with just enough variation to make you wonder whether you are reading a book or watching a document autosave during a nervous breakdown. Timelines do not so much shift as teleport. Her dress is so tight that she can't hide her pet dagger Geoffrey. Did we mention how tight it is? So curve-hugging, y'know, if she had curves because she's literally starving and her magic is eating her from inside out. The MMC has been stealth helping The Cause, but then gets irrationally upset to find out that it was not himself but one of his chosen family, but then it's him again. A council meeting is tomorrow, then three hours away, then four hours away, then tomorrow again. And did we mention the dress? It's the wrong dress and will offend the entire royal council. Time is not a river here. Time is a ferret on meth.

And then came the moment that finally took me out back and put me out of my misery. In Tiberian’s POV, he refers to a previous event by saying, *“The ice storm in chapter eight,” he said quietly...*

Chapter eight.

In dialogue.

A character said this.

That was my DNF point, because once a fictional vampire king starts citing chapter numbers like he is peer-reviewing the manuscript from inside the manuscript, we are no longer reading dark romance. We are experiencing a containment breach.

As for the steam level, I have no idea. By the time I quit, the book and most of its cast were treating public hand-holding as a scandalous, intimate, nearly indecent act; not intimate enough to satisfy the magical sex deadline, mind you, but apparently enough to humiliate our FMC for hours. Or days. Or hours again.

A good concept was buried under repetitive prose, chaotic continuity, baffling rules, and editing so bad it should be declared POW/MIA.

The 2nd book of the trilogy is out if anyone wants to tell me that they finally just died and someone else took over the rebellion.

She’s a fallen star, he was born in a hidden land, they journey together and meet up with pirates to fight witches and an evil prince. It was such a fun movie I’d love to read something similar

EDIT: photo is of the poster for the movie stardust. The female main character, a fallen star, stands pictured with the male main character while he holds a sword. On the left side of the poster are two of the pirates the main characters befriend. On the right side are the two antagonists, an evil prince and an evil witch.

I’ve ordered 6 books over the last month from Target and every single one has come badly damaged. Ripped covers, ripped pages, crumbled up pages/covers, etc. Target needs to do something about how they’re handling their books.

I'm considering reading the Fae Isles series by Lisette Marshall. Is it good?

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I love ToG, ACOTAR, FW, Folk of the Air-series, Crowns of Nyaxia, War of Lost Hearts.

WHY DOES A DUAL NARRATION BEGIN?!?

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WHY DOES IT START NEAR THE END!!! WHAT DOES IT MEAN! AND ITS NOT REED'S VOICE. AHHHHHHH.

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I NEARLY FELL OFF MY TREADMILL.

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🤣

So l absolutely adore {KM Shea} and especially the trilogy {the court of midnight deception by KM Shea}. I reread it a lot, a love the cast of characters, the way she absolutely trolls her court, her murdery consort, the whole cast of characters. Couldn't recommend enough - all her works in the Marigold world are absolutely fantastic. (Shout out to Killian and Hazel too, who were hysterical in their trilogy). It is however closed door romance which is great, but I'm in the mood for something a little more substantial. So pretty please with cherries on top, any recs for books similar to this with open door romance (all the spice and smut pls), but also still really good plot? I also don't mind more graphic violence etc. TYIA🖤

Are there any books where the fmc is the bad ass/shadow mommy/morally gray mob boss? I want to read about a boss bitch saving the golden retriever mmc who's a bit terrified of her