CB12 > Recent Status Updates

What was the point of the vest …is the pacing weird and character’s motivations undercooked, yes but still having the time of my life

Very niche black DMV and religiously traumatized west African immigrant references that I understand ….but I’m the niche this book was written for, and I think most people will be like these characters are annoying

Idk I’m a Maryland supremacist

Started crying and lost the Libby book to my loan limit and just said fuck it run that shit from the top

😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

The FMC is a religiously traumatized child of west African immigrants growing up in PG county and a redacted at 28… *Olivia Wilde nods aggressively.*

Nikki if you can hear me Nikki, save meeee

Yeah the romance is very good but unfortunately most of the book is about the magic system/FMC’s lineage, which is a blend of many things we’ve seen 100 times and are a bit convoluted/non sensical in certain parts
The writer is very talented however!!
50/50 in this moment if I will continue on to the next one idk

Absolutely no clue what is happening in this last trial and why she has access to her magic/is she dreaming - I feel like the attendant turned villain piece is really weak

Also how is having the ability to absorb magic (even if given to him via a curse) not a magical ability within itself

I feel like the ab narrator …completely is just going a brand new accent for Von they she hasn’t done this whole book

And the trials make no sense, why were jadads competing with people with no magic in the first place. Like ofc everyone else hated them lmao

Now she’s a chemist LMAOO

A lot of debuts do this thing where they over describe just how SHOCKED the MC is whenever she encounters new forms of magic

and it doesn’t always make sense why someone who grew up with magic and its potential would feel this way

Like duh he was cursed

Reading books like this makes me appreciate Kate Daniels because in that universe, there’s way less exposition about how shocked everyone is that a random newly introduced form of magic can kill people they’re just like ofc there’s some catch — that’s the nature of magic

And the magical cuffs that stop magic….

Not saying she couldn’t have come up with this idea independently, but ***redacted*** WAS the biggest dark fantasy romance release of the 2020s so far so it a little like …interesting choice idk

anyways, what even is the magic system? Telekinesis? Elemental magic? Dream magic? Enchantments? It all seems very loosey-goosey to me.

I would put this in the cannon of the many books I’ve read in my life were utilizing magic is described like someone vaguely trying to push out a fart…but instead it’s her opining about the pressure in her cuffs over and over again

She’s so intense with the threats but she’s killed like 1-2 people this entire time

Idk I’m just over the stabby FMC in these books and trials, always with the trials

Girl these trials, what is going on and why

The descriptions of food have the potential to be good, but the narrative is more interested in naming it then describing what it’s made up of

The culture from the kingdom with dark skinned/ black people being sexually promiscuous?

There’s something about this that feels like these unique kingdoms are meant to represent different countries in the Gulf region

Also again with all these YA books magic systems being vaguely described telekinesis powers

There’s actually a lot of potential here for this to be a halfway decent political fantasy story… If she utilizes the various rebel groups and ruling kingdom dynamics properly

“Not my story to tell”

*proceeds to disclose his gf’s child abuse story while she’s asleep *

The concept of the little girl and the old man having matching canes 😭😩😭😩😭

unhinged woman with nothing left to lose ready to end it all but her enemy breaks his cold exterior for 5 seconds to stop her from ending herself tho he can’t explain why 😩😭😩😭😩😭😩🍽️

the magic system is kind of like major info dump and the main conflict is just like ok whatever you say girl… but this first fight scene ???

REAL enemies to lovers is BACK!!

So the gods/ founding magic fathers whatever are obviously waking back up

Narrator is eating down though

And there’s this cute/light tone I wasn’t expecting

Vibing – but is there anything super unique about this? Main guy hates the main girls people because they probably killed his mom. Mean girl shunned from her kingdom for her magic. Enemies to lovers/semi colonizer romance. Ehhh at least this is better written than most of what I typically read so far

“I’m not killing my fake plant, im cultivating its fighter spirit” 😂