I just thought the inverse of the post this morning would also be fun!
OP: [What is the lowest rated book on Goodreads, Storygraph, etc. that you gave five stars?](https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyromance/comments/1vsjoga/what\_is\_the\_lowest\_rated\_book\_on\_goodreads/)
This rant brought to you by the first 20% of Six of Crows.
I'm really not trying to be ageist here, but as a... no-longer-young person, I simply DO NOT believe that any of these people are teens, and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise. Like, yeah ok sure buddy, you're totally 17 the same way that 25-year-old Tom Welling was supposed to be a FRESHMAN IN HIGH SCHOOL in CW's Smallville.
Like, you're telling me EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU is a COMPLETE BADASS MCCOOLGUY and ALL OF YOU are 17????? Is everyone in the world either 17 or incompetent? 17 YOS ARE BABIES!!! LITERAL BABIES!!!
Idk man, this is so stupid and petty, but every time I meet a new character and they are also 17, my brain is doing an exponentially longer sequence of dial-up internet noises. If one more person in this stupid crew is 17, I low key might dnf 🥲
I AM FLABBERGASTED?????
Do no other ages exist?!?@?@?&
help me
I'm looking for a long series (3+ books) with the same main characters, and I'm struggling to find a new one. Please help!
Series I LOVED:
Kate Daniels, Hidden Legacy by Illona Andrews
Empire of the Stars by Mellisa Cove
Blood Grace by Vela Roth
Tale of Stars and Shadow by Lisa Cassidy
Lord of The Fading Lands by CL Wilson
Villians and Virtues by AK Caggiano
Bridge Kingdom by Danielle Jensen
Mages of the Wheel by JD Evans
Series I read but didn't like:
Kushiels Dart
Legends of Thezmarr
ACOTAR & TOG
Daughter of No Worlds
I don't like love triangles or immature characters, but beyond that, anything goes! I looked through some older rec posts here but I have read most of the recommendations already.
✨Welcome back to another week of genre discussions!✨
Let’s chat unpopular favourite series. What’s a series you have rated 5⭐️ on Goodreads or Stroygraph that is rated the lowest?
Hoping for some validation here because my book, that’s chronically trashed by the mod team, won this round 🤣
Bonus points if you can explain why this is five stars despite the overall low rating from your reading platform!
I’m confused about the “Grishaverse” and wondering if I need to read Shadow and Bone before Six of Crows. Is it necessary?
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen and review this Advanced Listening Copy (ALC) {bodies of Magic by Freya Marske}
Before I get into the actual review of the novel I have to mention that the narrator, Saskia Maarleveld, is fantastic. At times I forgot that this was one voice actor as the character’s voices were so distinct and her male voices did not sound like a woman talking deep. And for a book like this, that has five characters and we jump from character to character, this was so well done.
But the audiobook comes with a caveat – there are many characters that are sometimes referred to by their first names or their last names, plus there are descriptions of anatomy and medical procedures. This book is a standalone, so there isn’t a lot of time to introduce each character and the reader is expected to pick it up as the story goes. Some readers may find it easier to keep track of characters in text.
This is my first Freya Marske novel although she has been recommended to me many times and has been sitting on my TBR list for a while. Because of the people who recommended her work, I expected an elevated level of story telling and writing for this genre and I have to say that this book met those expectations. I am almost disappointed that I experienced this as an audiobook because some of the writing was so good I wanted to spend more time with the prose on the page. And it would be so easy for this book to be caught up in medical terminology, or lengthy explanations of how the magic works which is quite unique.
At its core, this is a mystery novel. The story opens on the first morning of the final exams in the only medical academy in this world. These are practical exams, where 6 students are randomly selected to work as a team to diagnose and heal a real case, a different case each day for 5 days. If one student fails, they all fail. This is the culmination of five years of intense studies, lack of sleep, hours of study of both magic and practical anatomy and medicine, where graduation is merely another step in a long, arduous career path, where some mages are obligated to take foreign posts as part of their scholarship requirements, or to step up to positions dictated by parents and expectations, or merely to continue working long hours and grueling schedules for more experience. It seems like modern medical school and that’s no surprise as it turns out that Marske is a doctor. Her experience allows for a more intimate view into the lives and psychology of her characters.
Within this stressful environment we have our five students discover who they are working with, as they know each other over the last five years and have various bias and expectations of each others abilities. When they walk into the exam room, they find their 6th member, the most promising student of the academy, dead on the exam floor. Suicide? Burn out? The team has very little time to ponder this as the exam must continue. Despite the dead body on the floor they manage to pass their first exam.
It’s after the exam that some strange events occur that don’t seem to line up. The five students may not have been selected randomly and it appears that our dead student may have had something to do with it. And even though they are dealing with a myriad of intense emotions that normally come with the exams (and love, and grief, and anger and fear), they know they can do one thing – they are well trained in examinations and diagnoses. So, they get to work on figuring things out.
Along the way, they uncover secrets about each other and learn to work as a team, pull from a well of magic and knowledge that they didn’t know they were capable of and perhaps change the inevitable course of the next years of their lives, if not their entire lives.
On the surface this seems like a very YA novel. A group of young people about to move into the adult stage of their life and realizing what that sort of adulting entails – pushing against the expectations of one’s parents or the greater society, being rebellious in small ways, trying to get out of their crushing debt to society, idealistically wanting to bring change to the world, realizing that they will be held responsible for the mistakes of their youth and finding love. I hate these coming of age novels. Call me a cynical,grumpy, gen x old lady or whatever, the exuberance of youth does not appeal to me.
And yet, I did not have one instance of eye rolling throughout the entire book. Marske has written a coming of age novel for adults. The kids do not change the world or shove off the older generation. They don’t start a rebellion or even a following. They find a way to exist within their world, using the tools at hand to make a better life for everyone but most importantly they gain individual freedom by coming to terms with what life has to offer them. Maybe they will finish their bonded service to give back what they owe, but it’s only temporary. Even the relationships are dealt with in a mature fashion. No virgins or first loves, but the ability to look at someone and realize what you already have, or what you need is right there. I found the growth of our characters, over a five day period mind you, to be realistic and still carry a lot of weight emotionally. No tears were shed over romantic entanglements, which is my go to measure for romances, but this is not really a romance book – it’s a fantasy with a strong romantic sub plot. The author does not shy away from sex either. While we don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on our characters sexual lives, the scenes we do get are explicit. Our cast of characters are diverse in sexuality and gender norms, but this is not about discovery, the characters know who they are already, again a deviation from YA, which focuses on discovery and self acceptance.
A quick note on worldbuilding: Magic is something one is born with but not genetic. It is tied to the geographical region one is born in. So, healing mages are born to one region and so one realm is flush with healing mages, where other, more far flung realms are not. And, of course, healing costs money, the rich would like private mages to heal their wrinkles and reverse aging and the poor may get the basics, so may have to live with pain all their lives. Cities and regions that are far from the healing centre will sponsor mages for medical school in return for several years of work in remote locations, where the young talented mages feel isolated and return to the main healing city where they are revered and payed well. Families immigrate to the healing cities to have children with the wish that they inherit healing magic and can return to the lands of their parents to continue healing work there. And those born with healing magic by accident of birth are not given the choice as to what they would like to do with their magic – they are also forced into medical school because it’s expected and needed at a time when there is so much need. Added to that is the arrogance of the healers because they are so needed, and the unrest among the non healers, because they are untouchable in the eyes of the law. If you are not a healer, you are treated as a second class citizen, worse if you are a mage in another aspect of magic, that is required to support the healers, but treated as servants or worse.
Obviously this is a commentary on the current health care situation but it’s in the subtext, simmering under the surface of the actual story throughout. Marske never lectures or has characters make long commentaries about the injustice, which I’ve read in other books. The story is about our five students and the mystery of their murdered classmate.
I could not put this audiobook away, and while I tend to save audiobook listening for chores, or driving or other activities, I found myself chilling out on the coach listening to while my Kindle sat idly by, unused.
5/5 stars.
This is by Whit Stanfield and is slated to come out September 3, 2026. It is book 4 on in the Naiads of Julie series, which starts with A Sea of Songs and Sirens. This is the last book in the series, and is preceded by two books and a prequel (that is not necessary to read but adds context to the story). Whit is an indie author and I appreciate her selecting me to read this ARC.
I don’t see this series mentioned often, so I’ll write a more general review of it first, with no spoilers. Book 1 was probably about a 4 star read. The writing was decent; it was entertaining in the way of a standard romantasy title. The characters were likable, the worldbuilding was phenomenal (with a nod to Polynesian culture), and it had an arranged marriage (one of my fav tropes). The lore/background was thorough, but in some ways a little too much as there are a lot of names and places to remember. FMC is a human living on an island who ends up convincing sirens to save a man from drowning. She then finds herself in the middle of kingdom politics, and shit goes down.
Book 2 was not as good, at least in the beginning. There were some pacing issues as well as repetitive interactions. The first half was slow but things picked up, culminating in a mad cliffhanger, so I knew I’d be reading the next book.
Well, the next book turned out to be a prequel following two sisters that we’ve read about but don’t truly know. I liked it more than I thought I would, and I felt like it stood alone as its own, emotionally impactful story.
Anyway, now on to the actual ARC review: book 4 and picked up right where book 2 ended. The horrible cliffhanger. I felt like this book had a lot of things going on, but some did feel like filler and/or repetitive interactions. These were somewhat necessary to drive the plot forward, but it could’ve been toned down. The world building continued to be massive. I was impressed that there was even more to add, lol.
I liked that there were some chapters from MMC’s POV. In this way, he actually has a role and motivations (unlike in some other stories) aside from just worshipping FMC. There were some moments where you could feel some tension and fear in the relationship, which I thought was well done. It mimicked real life where not everything is sunshine and rainbows between a couple. There were also some interactions (not necessarily between the main characters) that I did not see coming, and elements that I found to be really moving. I actually found the ending to be kind of bittersweet in the way the end of TOG was (actually, I felt like there was a parallel with TOG with how much FMC was made to deal with, like Aelin).
The book did a good job of tying up loose ends with the main pairing but leaving it open for future books about other characters. I think if you’re looking for a decent siren story that has some moving components, but maybe isn’t the most unique romantasy title out there, this would be good. Just go into it knowing there are some imperfections. I’d also say that given how many names and places you have to remember, it’s probably a good idea to read them all kinda one after another. I’d say this was about a 3.8 star read for me.
I'd like to see a book where the FMC is in a leadership role and the MMC is a subordinate, eg: she is a queen and he's her advisor, she's a military leader and he's one of her soldiers etc. I basically want her to give orders and for him to accept her authority.
When I look for this I find recommendations where he's her protector/bodyguard/muscle, and thats not quite the vibe Im looking for.
Here are some other books I see recommended for this prompt but they're not quite what I want.
The Clocktaur War duology by T Kingfisher. Im currently reading and enjoying this and it does have the FMC in charge, but not to the extent I wanted. The MMC still thinks about protecting the FMC a lot and even tells her what to do at some points for safety. Understandable given the situation but not what im looking for.
The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow: I already read and loved this book, but wasnt exactly the vibe Im looking for either, since the MMC had the upper hand at times because he came from the future/present.
His Secret Illuminations by Scarlet Hale: This book sounds amazing but I'm not a fan of the solely male POV. I prefer female or mixed pov.
"What appeal can reason have in the face of your tears?" {The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem}.
After constantly buying extra credits on Audible, I was looking for something cheaper and stumbled upon Storytel. It seems like their catalogue in the US is very limited, but in some EU countries they have tons of old and new romantasy and fantasy audiobooks, even some Audible exclusives. Not sure how this works, but The Will of the Many, for example, was available on Storytel for a limited period of time.
For me, it was 9.50€/month for the first 6 months and 19€ afterwards, with unlimited listening time. It’s great for long series, graphic audiobooks where every book is split into multiple parts, or trying out books that you wouldn’t purchase otherwise.
Since this might be a great option for potential ACOTAR rereads, I just wanted to share this with everyone who, like me, had never heard of Storytel before and has limited Libby access.
Edit: The language selection depends on the country of your subscription. In Germany I can choose from 11 languages but unlike the library, they have predominantly English audiobooks.
solved
Hey friends,
Long time lurker...
So I remember reading a few pages at the back of another book as a teaser and really thinking it sounded great. I like to think I saved the book... somewhere... in some list.... yet I cannot for the life of me remember the title. So please bear with me and my vague recollection...
Her uncle/family member threw her down a hole into this underground world. She is royalty or upperclass. She is found by a group of rebels (?) And taken with them. They were out looking for food or maybe to break into a place but have to stop because of her. They take her to the village, the leader of the gang is seems like he is the MMC.
His mom is like a fortune teller and I think she was blind?
The camp follows some lights around as its the only way to grow food, and food is very scarce. I feel like it was mentioned the purpose of females is to have babies but maybe thats a different book and my memory is mixed.
Its vague, I realize but I stayed up really late last night obsessed with finding this book yet... here I am lol.
Thank you in advance!!!!
Title: A Deal with the Shadow King, Curse of the Fae Book 1
Author: Anya J. Cosgrove
It’s not very often that I feel compelled to write a review about a book because let’s face it- the books are becoming repetitive and lack in substance. But this one excited me enough to write about it. This is a critique as well as a gush rave. (Who am I kidding it’s mostly gush) In my title, I recommend it to both of the fans and the enemies of ACOTAR. And I say enemies, because eesh that book had some issues. If you loved the book ACOTAR, then that means you are easy to please, here for a fun time and, you’re just down for the ride- and with that I say buckle up because this is a fun one. If you did not like ACOTAR for reasons that include, but are not limited to: the female lead being insufferable, the incessant dumb decisions, a cheesy love story that reads like a high schooler wrote it and, last but not least, extremely predictable plot. Then I would say this book has only half those problems! Jk but yea I won’t say it’s perfect, she literally gets the pet name “kitten” (discord relationship much). But it grew on me so now I’m cheesy too. It’s not the same story by any means, but there are enough similarities that you can’t read it without thinking of the other, and where ACOTAR flopped, I would say this book soared.
GENRE
It is fantasy based, but I would say this book is more romance than anything. Critique moment!There’s no adventure storyline and little world building beyond the kingdom and its subjects so if that’s not your thing, then I will say it is ok to pass on this book. There’s not much action/fighting in this book. It’s sort of all builds up for the end I haven’t read the second book yet so I’m not sure if that changes in the series but I wanted to write the review for the first book before I put a new information in my brain. But I would say for the Romance category it hits those requirements beautifully.
STORYLINE
It’s set in a Multiverse, where there is a Faerie World and the human world is split between the New World that we know and an Old World. The female main lead is a princess in the Old World, so she’s born into all the misogyny, and strict rules of the past. Her dad the King makes a deal with the Shadow king of the Fae world to save his wife’s life and in exchange, his unborn child has to spend half of the year in Faerie starting their 18th Birthday. The exact terms of the deal on how you win or lose are unclear to Penelope but she wants to win the deal so that she can return back home save her kingdom from being taken over by the Shadow King and marry her childhood sweetheart. The Shadow King wants to win the deal so that he can take over the Old World and defeat an enemy who plans to take over and destroy his kingdom.
FEMALE LEAD
I would say that she is a refreshing female lead because she doesn’t start off strong by any means, but she has an inner drive, and a curiosity that has been originally stifled in the environment she grew up in but now, in a land where those rules don’t apply she’s able to come into herself and explore her magic and being allowed to train with weapons. Critique moment! There’s not much training that actually happens and that’s a fault of this mainly being a romance. Penelope is also a bit of a prude but that’s because she grew up in a hyper religious cult society. There’s another woman from the modern day and she wears leggings and sports bras etc and Penelope starts to shed her limiting world view and start to question where her own morals lie. The author doesn’t rely on cheap tactics to make the female lead strong like having to rebuke her feminine side to be respected. I will say she’s modest but as she comes into her confidence she starts to explore in more ways than one.
PLOT TWIST
I love a story with a good unexpected twist, and this book has two. One of them starts getting hinted that pretty early in the book. And if you’re good at foreshadowing, then you’ll be able to solve at least a piece of the mystery in the beginning to midway through. I found that to be extremely fun to try to figure it out before the story tells you and even after I figured out a piece of it, I still didn’t get the whole situation until it was finally dropped. And I had to place the book down because I was like. Oh! my! gosh! and my brain spiders out to connect all the missing pieces to make a clear picture. And when I tell you, the second plot twist, I had no idea it wasn’t even on my radar, because I was trying so hard to figure out the first one, and when that came to light, I had chills. I won’t give any more hints or clues. The fact that I said that there were two plot twists is more of a spoiler than I would like to give, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
SPICE LEVEL
I will say, if you thought ACOTAR was spicy then you might need to mentally prepare before you get here because this book has actual detailed scenes. I could be wrong but I remembered reading ACOTAR and being like y’all thought that was spicy?? I feel like reading this I was like OH! so we’re doin that! alright! If you’re against spice, I will say there’s only two instances of something happening with the main character, and then her eavesdropping on a situation that happens with a different character. But the two of the scenes that happen are not vanilla so be prepared to test your limits. (no BDSM or abuse in this book though) so you won’t have to worry about that. Please try to push through I thought it was a great time.
MALE LEAD
I know you’re all wondering about the male lead because I didn’t describe him yet but that’s because there’s multiple. But no one is a cliche shadow daddy because we’re all exhausted from that trope. If you hate love triangles, and normally avoid books like that I would say read this anyway it’s imperative that you do and if you do enjoy the uncertainty of who wins in the end then this book is perfect for you.
FINAL NOTES
I really didn’t want to give too much because I don’t like when the entire story gets told in a review and then it feels pointless to read it so if you’re still left questioning, to that I say READ IT!!
Hey everyone!
I’m desperately trying to find some amazing books to get me out of a reading slump! I’ve been stuck in one for the past few months and, no matter how much I want to read, I just haven’t been able to commit to a book for very long. 😭
I’m especially looking for those “I couldn’t put it down,” “stayed up way too late reading,” “I’m still thinking about it” kind of books.
So please, give me your best recommendations! I’m open to anything with great romance, drama, fantasy, morally grey characters, angst, addictive plots… honestly, if you think it’ll pull me straight out of this slump, I NEED IT. Bonus points for books that had you completely obsessed! Thank you in advance — I can’t wait to add approximately 500 books to my TBR and pretend I’ll actually get through them all. 😂❤️
Here are some of the books/series I’ve read and absolutely LOVED:
LOG Series — Rina Kent
Shatter Me Series
Once Upon a Broken Heart Series
Crossfire Series — Sylvia Day
Brutal Hearts Series — Lilith Vincent
In Her Shadows — Lilah Raine
Empire of Royals — Emilia Rossi
Maple Hills Series — Hannah Grace
The Folk of the Air — Holly Black
Red Queen — Victoria Aveyard
Lancaster Prep — Monica Murphy
Obsession — Harley Beck
Dark Verse — RuNyx
Notice — K. Webster
The Book of Azrael
Knockemout Series — Lucy Score
Chestnut Springs — Elsie Silver
Miles High / The Right Move — Liz Tomforde
Belladonna Series
And a few books by Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood & Ana Huang
​
Hi everyone!
I'm looking for paranormal, fantasy, or sci-fi romance books where the Male Main Character (MMC) shares his mind/body with a literal inner beast or separate entity that has its own distinct voice and personality.
Ideally, I want a dynamic where:
•The inner beast/entity has its own thoughts and actively talks to the MMC.
•The inner beast is absolutely feral or deeply possessive over the Female Main Character (FMC), claiming her as his "mate" or "mine" before the human MMC even realizes it or accepts it.
•The FMC sometimes interacts with or notices the shift when the "other side" takes the driver's seat.
I don't care about the specific species—he can be a werewolf, dragon, fae, demon, alien, or monster. I just really want that distinct dual-mind vibe where the monster inside him is completely unhinged and obsessed with her.
!! My only drawback is monster smut !!
Drop as many recommendations as possible please because I've read many books and can't name all of them 😭Thank you!
Further proof that you can't always trust Goodreads!
I just finished {What Lies Beyond the Veil by Harper L. Woods}, which came out in 2022, although finished isn't a strong enough word.
I *devoured* it.
Estrella is a human peasant woman who lives near the Veil, a magical wall that separates the evil, cruel fae from the humans. She's being groomed by the Lord of the town she lives in, and when she denies him, is chosen as the annual sacrifice for the Veil. Only it turns out her fae mate has something to say about that...
In this world, faes have human mates, and humans have thirteen lives, which means the fae get thirteen tries to lock that mate down and make them as immortal as they are or they'll basically wither away from a broken heart.
Look, you've got fae, you've got fated mates... it's not the most original story. And you see the twist coming from a mile away.
But I still ate this up! It hits all the tropes I love, I really did like the worldbuilding, and yes, I've only read the first book so far, but I know what I'm doing for the next few weeks.
And what bugs me is that this only a 3.5 on Goodreads - what?? I've seen way worse rated way better.
Anyway, 5/5, excellently paced spice, and just good ol’ fashioned fae romantasy.
Just got the news that my cat has cancer so I’m looking for a book to distract me. Preferably not a series with heavy world building because I don’t have the attention span at the moment.
I love a pining, possessive MMC, and don’t care if the FMC is a Mary-Sue or crazy powerful. Also don’t care if it’s not the most well-written book. I just want something fluffy and something that will distract me and make my legs kick in happiness.
Spice is a big plus but no dark romance. Also, preferably no deaths, especially animal injuries or deaths.
I'm struggling a lot with chronic pain at the moment. Obviously most books I'm able to get lost in the story but I just want an easy book that I can just vibe with.
So I am flying through Crown of Midnight and don’t have The Assassin’s Blade ready at the library (but HoF is there). I am on a super tight schedule and trying to fit as much reading in before the semester starts as humanly possible. I’m so tempted to dive into HoF once I’m done with this book. I know the sequence for the prequel is widely contentious but I was hoping for some feedback on reading it after HoF.
Winner of Round 6 (Chaotic Neutral) is The Suriel from {A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas}! The artwork is by Briana Mora (https://brianamora.com/).
This round, please discuss who you think is the most Lawful Evil character in all of fantasy romance. Please state the character and what book they're from, and discuss in the comments below!
The most upvoted character will win the spot, and we will move onto the other character alignments every few days.
Prior winners:
Here are the links to the prior rounds in case you missed the discussions:
So im looking for romance books where a man falls in love with an anthropomorphic woman (furry)
Not kemonos (demihuman) or shifters. Anthros (furries)
Like beast women with snout than a humanoid face.
Pls share a title's name if you might know one, I'll kindly add it to my list if this would fit the type im looking for.
(Also, anyone asking why I didn't asked r/Romance_for_men group about the same thing, I did. I'm asking here too just to find out if this group might know more than what the other group gave)