Laura Flanagan > Recent Status Updates

Looking for palate cleanser after a series of dystopian books - the dedication “for those who need a break and a second glass of wine.” Perfect. No notes.

The writing is extremely passive and expositional. A lot of talking about things that happened or will happen but not a lot actually happening ON the page. While the world, magic system and premise are fascinating - I’m finding myself wanting to skip ahead.

Our FMC complains A LOT and talks tough but basically does nothing.

I love a good prologue! But the first chapter threw me too far I have whiplash. If the premise is going to rely on our FMC having wraith skills then I would have liked to jump into that action first before running for refuge into the selection. A wanted poster and a retelling of what happened is feels like lazy character development. Show don’t tell.

Beautiful exploration of women with disabilities, grief and mystery

Pretty sure I figured out all the mysteries … so hopefully our FMC figures them out soon… I hate when I’m left waiting and waiting for the book to catch up to me. I really enjoy what will be the plot twist… but it needs to happen ASAP to be interesting.

Really loving the narrative so far but not a huge fan of the FMC falling first. Her obsession of our MMC feels juvenile like writing hearts around his name in a notebook. I know it’s supposed to be indicating some deeper soul connection, but it’s not working for me.

While it’s well written and enjoyable to read, I have absolutely no idea what the story is. Because there is no real plot through line the pages often feel disjointed. It feels more like reading a delightful slice of life rather than a romantasy novel. I do love the focus on mental health though. Just hoping some plot shows up soon!

I still hope she picks none of the MMCs.

Between These Broken Hearts / One Dark Window vibes.

Starting to get pretty tired with our FMC constantly fawning over the Prince. It was cute at first, accepted as a backstory, but now it’s derailing the rest of the story which is a shame.

I hate when the FMC is all vibrato. She’s supposedly some tough warrior who trusts her instincts and bonded with a snake dragon thing who kills large groups of men…. And yet she didn’t recognize the main bad guys name? She didn’t prepare for an attack after literally saying she thought there might be one? Nope. This will probably a DNF.

Beautifully written! Utterly boring characters. One MMC is an arrogant idiot. The other MMC a martyr. And an FMC who’d be better off without either if she could only find her own strength and personality.

While our FMC has a lot of badass skills… her brain doesn’t seem to be one of them.

I wish there were more flashbacks of Kassia rather than Ti. Velle is so much more effected by her best friend yet we’ve seen nearly nothing of their relationship.

This is a book that could have benefited from a glossary up front. Cause what in the alchemy is going on?

I don’t think I’ve ever said this… but the first 75% of this book was WAY better than what I’m currently reading. There’s typos, inconsistencies in the character development, plot holes, etc. I have so many questions. It’s like the characters got to shore and the author forgot how to write. The beginning was BEAUTIFUL!

Maybe it’s just me, but the word “panties” should never used in a new adult romantasy. I feel like the author disliked writing the smut scenes as much as I disliked reading them. They felt out of place, jarring and almost like AI wrote them.

Absolutely loving this book! Tiny issue with the FMC’s inconsistency in decision making when it comes to sharing information. But otherwise I’m on the edge of my extremely comfy and large reading chair…

Beautiful expansion of the world

Definitely slow in its progress because of how it details the days, but honestly I don’t mind. The characters and relationship are so fun.

Listening to the audiobook and clearly the male narrator had to redo the dogs name cause every time you can hear the insert. Otherwise, so far a delight! Great mix of character and political plot.

There’s a lot of exposition and FMC inner thoughts that I don’t need. I have read enough romantasy to know that the MMC is talking about her when he says things like “only you”

Setting: Hogwarts. Magic System: One Dark Window. Lore: Last Airbender. World Building: Mistborn. And somehow the author makes it MORE complicated with her story timeline and order of info reveals.

This timeline makes no sense to me and I feel extremely disoriented. The academy has only been around for four years? And the FMC was in jail for the last year - while her sister completed her first year of school - so how could she have been smuggling supplies out to our FMC? Also, if this has only been the system for the last year - what was it like before for Arcanists? How was their mother marked?

While I understand the appeal of having a rag tag team of underdogs, I think the story would have been better served with our FMC serving as both tamer AND winger so she has more of a pivotal role during the races and a stronger adversarial relationship with our MMC.