Jane > Recent Status Updates

Wow … so this is basically all straight up rape??

Jfc this is a slog.

7

so tempted to look up spoilers for this bc i'm pretty sure it's going to end up a reverse harem/poly but in a poorly handled way given The Hints the author is dropping and also am v. tired of heroine being sexually assaulted every 3 pages and suspect that isn't going to stop either.

okay okay so more or less enjoying this so far but OMG having the MC describe the early 17th century as 'medieval' when she's in the antiques business i.e. should fucking know better is DRIVING ME INSANE.

I'm trying so so hard not to get caught up on details that 'don't matter' but I'm supposed to believe a 16yo girl whose mom made $ sewing doesn't know how to sew? in like the 13thc?! she generally doesn't seem to know how to do *anything* - she was an only child of a peasant couple GF would have known how to do all sorts of shit. She would probably been proficient at sewing by like age 7. 😤

There's a lot of "having children is something every woman craves and is literally the most fulfilling experience a woman can have!" going on so far and since this is not a relatable experience I'm... struggling a bit.

I was really digging the intense "enemies-who-detest-one-another-but-reader-can-totally-tell-they're-into-each-other" slow-burn energy but then MMC did 1 nice thing/lifesaving and they were boning within a couple hours so... have kind of lost interest now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Finally got to some dramatic tension but it’s because a character is bleeding internally from massive physical trauma and literally minutes from death and two other characters are taking a moment for a touching goodbye instead of DRIVING HIM TO THE HOSPITAL ASAP FFS

I'm not a big fan of horror but thought 'tis the season, let's give it another try!' and I'm just largely irritated. Characters just have to behave so stupidly to make most horror plots work that I spend most of the plots frustrated. There are good bones in this (lol) but I'm listening to the audiobook & the way the narrator reads the MC makes her so whiny and petulant that I won't be sad if she dies horribly.

Honestly one of the most frustrating things about Victorian novels is how dumb people have to be to make the plots work (though I suppose the same could be said about much of the modern horror genre?).

So far everyone in this book is an infuriating dumbass. Friends I am STRUGGLING. Why do ppl keep falling in love with Bathsheba she’s the WORST. since this is a Victorian novel I imagine she’ll get some sort of overly dramatic heavily moralized comeuppance but jfc this is painful.

I really enjoyed the first book and am now struggling to get through the second, it feels like this was written by an entirely different author :\

every time i pick this up i get kind of pissed that the GR rating is so high, because if the MC were female this book would have been ripped to shreds for having one of the most egregiously Mary Sue leads in the history of high fantasy. :\

**starts reading**
literally page 5: "I watched the other courtesans with morbid fascination. With cinched waists and overflowing bosoms, they danced lithely amongst the patrons as if their corsets weren't slowly suffocating them."

I am SUPER ready for corsets to stop being used as shorthand for oppression by fantasy/historic fiction writers thanks.

I was digging the pure history and contextualizing of certain common themes and references in JA's stories in the front half of this, but I don't *then* need stand-alone synopses of each book...especially when there are plot details in the synopses that are inaccurate. Hoping it goes back to history soon.

So far this book is like 70% exposition, 20% repetitive boring sex scenes, and 10% plot. The only reason I'm as far as I am is because I'm skimming and skipping the first two categories respectively (and it STILL feels like the slowest book ever). Also starting to suspect that Armentrout just straight up has a vore kink.

(p.s. just call them vampires and werewolves ffs, you don't have to make up new names)

Ugh. There's just SO MUCH purple prose + uneven historical accuracy that jars me out of the narrative every few pgs. Like - I appreciate the author knows the term 'camicia' but it wouldn't have been made of lace, and they're trying to steal a Giotto triptych on CANVAS (even with casual interest in art history I was like "no"). Also everyone has SO MANY books - less than 100yrs post printing press books were still $$.

Just picked this up this morning and having trouble putting it down! A+++ so far for excellent snarky banter, mutual pining, enemies to lovers (expected), and my absolute ultimate weakness: prickly, cranky curmudgeons who are actually cinnamon rolls.