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“My Mother’s Lover” by Studio Stellas; My Thoughts

This is a manga / manhwa / manhua / (aka “comic”, by western standards). Every chapter I read was purchased at the official Lezhin website. 

2.75/5 stars.

Ok so let me clear something up: the premise and actual plot of this manhwa is amazing.

"Well if that's the case, mgeereads, why did you rate it so low?"

Thank you for asking, dear reader, LET ME TELL YOU WHY.

So all the manhwa I read, I read on the official (PAID) sites. (I'm poor as f*ck because I'm in college, y'all probably know the drill but I digress), however, I STILL PAY FOR EVERYTHING I READ because I believe that the author/artist/etc should get their credit (money) where it's due. Although it costs me a ton of money, I try to pitch in as a thank you for their efforts. 

Reading it from the official site, though good for the author, is bad for me when they deliver subpar content. Which honestly, it's a risk I take, right? Some things are hit or miss. I'm ok with that, because they tried their best. The plot wasn't my cup of tea, so what?

No reader. This is worse. This author literally padded this entire series with "Filler Chapters". If you don't know what "Filler Chapters" are, it's a lot like those episodes in anime where AN ENTIRE SERIES OF EPISODES have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the main plot. Nothing. Not a damn thing.

That's what happened here. "Oh, but RiceBear, a few chapters doesn't cost you much, maybe a few dollars, so why are you rating it so LoOoowwWw??" Becuase, reader. It wasn't a few chapters. It wasn't even a dozen chapters. It was the first TWENTY THREE chapters. I wasted so much f*cking money, (each chapter cost $0.75, roughly, and there was a total of 74 chapters, so that’s a total of $56.25 in total- without tax. God what the actual f*ck), reading about a tangent side plot that contributed NOTHING to the main plot. 

Of course, it explained a the side characters to a certain extent, but those twenty three chapters were about a character... who was dead. Yes that’s right. They're not even the main character. They’re completely irrelevant to her current plot, and we don't ever even see them. What the heck.

NOT TO MENTION the main plot explains all the details you would have missed had you opted out of the 23 "filler chapters" that wasted your hard earned money. And it's like??? Why even write those filler chapters and waste people's time, if you're going to end up filling in the gaps anyway??? Like??? DO YOU THINK I'M RICH???

That's why I rated it so low.

Ok. Now that I've aired my grievances concerning the atrocities of the author for wasting my damn time and money (God I can't get over how much I hated those 23 filler chapters, I just fucking hate the main FL in those 23 chapters and she's all you fucking see!!!)

Let me tell you about how much I loved the main storyline:

The main character is this girl named Evie. She's the typical Millennial/Gen Z kid. She's flawed, easily swayed by nice things, oversensitive and quick to feel discouraged when things get tough, but I like her. She was real to me. I saw a lot of comments online about how she was a sl*t and slept around with a ton of people but I personally thought that the people saying those things need to grow the fuck up.

She's in college (legally an adult), and she didn't live with her parents (who would have otherwise disapproved of her behavior, I imagine). She's on her own. She lived the way she wanted, and I really liked that. I liked that she was so flawed and that she had shortcomings. She was well written and easy to empathize with.

The plot. OH LORD THE PLOT. It was so fucking GOOD (disregarding those damn 23 filler chapters. bro fuck those chapters.) I don't want to give away too much, but I would definitely recommend this to friends after I tell them where to actually start reading the manhwa so they don't waste so much money reading filler BS.

So at the end of the day, my verdict is this: If you like dark(ish) plots, slice of life, and a story that accurately depicts real life struggles, growth, and trauma, YOU SHOULD READ THIS.

My final rating: With the filler chapters: 2/5 stars. Without the filler chapters: 3.5/5 stars. (I’m not giving it a solid 4 stars because I would have liked to see more of the character she ends up with in the story.)

[mgeereads]

“Duel of Fire” by Jordan Rivet; My Thoughts

Alright. I wanted to like this. I really did. The writing was good, the chemistry between the characters was good, heck, even the antagonists were written well.

But, (and DAMN, it's a big but), the whole story centered around a subject matter that I simply didn't care for; fencing.

Swordsmanship was framed as the only activity Dara (our main character) was good at. Her home life, though not miserable, was trying. She had a stern, unlikable mother, a dead sister, and a father who cast a long shadow. So in hopes of filling the large shoes of her gifted sister, she wants to be good at a craft that's just hers.

And I get it. I do. But although it's a passion of hers, it's just a pastime.

She isn't dueling to feed her family, she's not learning the skill to save a kingdom, there's simply no sense of urgency to her hobby, and that's where it falls flat to me because so much of the book is centered around long winded narratives on every detail of her fencing. And you know what? I could not be assed to care. Not a whit.

But god, this could have been good had the author made the center of the plot some large conflict of which she either had to fight some large force; maybe her inner self, circumstance, or another kingdom, something for her to be INVESTED in, and for it to SHOW.Because honestly, I don't really think she cared about any of the events happening around her. Occasionally, the writing would give tidbits of Dara's thoughts, and would narrate her actions, but this entire book lacked feeling. It was the classic case of when a book TOLD you what happened, instead of showing you. What a shame. It was a missed opportunity.

As it stood, even the "romance" fell flat. It was an afterthought WHICH I NORMALLY FIND TO BE A GOOD THING, but with absolutely nothing else to propel the storyline and the characters outside of fencing??? I needed something better to tide me over.Great writing style, but the (lack of) plot and feeling lost me.I'll probably try another one of the author's later works, in hopes that maybe those books will be different.

So, ultimately, I give it 2/5 stars, and I would only recommend to friends that love fencing.

[mgeereads]

“From Blood and Ash” by Jennifer L. Armentrout; My Thoughts

DNF at 50%.

How... how is the rating for this book so high? So many of the fanfics I’ve read when I was twelve were better written than this garbage.

I want to start off by saying that I did not hate this book. For me to hate this book, I would need to have had the opportunity to invest my feelings into its plot, characters, prose, etc.

This book ended up being the worst thing a book could possibly be: vague.

From the get go, it introduces us to Poppy who is very special and pure and doesn’t fit in. She has scars on her face that supposedly disfigure her, though the Duke and her personal guard tell her constantly that she’s beautiful.

BUT WAIT! She is also a super secretly skilled fighter who is very witty and violent, (or so others characters say she is, because I, for one, was never witness to such a thing), and she wants nothing to do with her super privileged position of power, because reasons.

She’s missed out on so much in her life, being sheltered, but breaking rules (because she’s special and sneaky like that, even though she’s literally got a whole guard who’s sole purpose is to watch her every move because she’s THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER IN THE BATCH OF PEOPLE TO “Ascend”.) She’s so special. So. Special.

What’s Ascension, you may ask? What time period are they in? Where does she stand in the current hierarchy of her surroundings? What do ANY of the characters, (other than her or the main guy, Hawke) look like? What is the main plot? What is the conflict that she is fighting against?

Lol fuck if I know. And see, that’s the problem. I got through HALF of this book, and I don’t know any of that.

Poor world building, poor characterizations (other characters only exist to play as a plot device for Poppy’s story- WHICH I STILL KNOW NOTHING ABOUT), poor everything.

What even was this mess.

Anyway. Not worth your money.

I stopped trying to finish it when I literally chose to watch an ant crawl up my tree over reading the drivel in these pages.

0/5 stars. I wouldn’t wish this book on my worst enemy. What a damn disappointment.

[mgeereads]

“We Are All Works In Progress” by gemjam; My Thoughts

Hi. 

Let it be known that I am the type of person that can count the number of times I’ve cried in the past 8 years on one hand, due to personal and extended childhood trauma and my sheer bullheadedness and propensity for being stubborn, (aided by the fact that I reach for anger as an instinctive reflex over sadness or fear. So no, I don’t cry.)

However. This fic? It made me cry. (It was GOOD, reader. DAMN GOOD.)

For an extended period of time. (Because it wasn’t enough for that one chapter to move me to tears once, but instead, the author chose to KEEP ME THERE the way Peter kept Sti-)

So buckle in, dear reader. We’re about to get wrecked. This one’s gonna be wild. 

Before we get started, let me list the trigger warnings: (this is not for the faint of heart)

Kidnapping

Dubious (edging, EDGIIIIING on non) Consent for some scenes

Rape (a.k.a. “noncon”) in other scenes

Stockholm Syndrome

Coercion

Codependency

Emotional Manipulation

Subspace

Depression

Suicidal Thoughts

Sexual Slavery

Forced Daddy kink

Ok wow. This list by itself is what nightmares are made of.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into it.

This fic starts off rough. From the get go, it introduces us to a bleak, yet typical horror scene: Scott and Stiles chasing after *insert problematic monster here*, and they end up separated. 

Stiles is picked up, washed and dressed to be a “companion”, (yes, of that nature), and then shoved in a sterile prison-like facility. He’s unhappy but relatively safe, and as Stiles does, he plots to get away. He is unable to come up with any plausible plan, reader, and shortly after he arrived in his holding cell, Peter Hale sweeps into the scene.

Peter steadily grooms Stiles into being his “pet” (not in the literal sense, as “Pet Play” is not a kink that is listed nor portrayed for this fic, but you get the idea). Stiles is encouraged and discouraged from certain courses of action through positive and negative reinforcement, none of which is of the physical nature. (THIS IS IMPORTANT, READER. THE ALLUSION OF CHOICE IS IMPORTANT IN THIS STORY. PLEASE. HEED MY WORDS.)

It is with this grooming that Stiles inevitable falls into deep and unheathy infatuation with Peter, and although Peter never explicitly “makes” Stiles do anything sexual without his “consent”, the whole damn thing is orchestrated with Peter as the sole person who has ownership of his autonomy, so I’m going to slap a big ass “non-con” tag on this whole fic and call it a day.

This entire fic is dark, and is told from Stile’s perspective, so it really portrays a realistic and heart wrenching view of his rapidly changing mentality throughout the whole journey. But as bleak and as tragic the events that take place are, noting is worse than the joy you feel as you read through this fic because guess what? Things with Peter start to get “better.”

Because, reader, Peter, the monster, the antagonist, the kidnapper (adjacent) in this story? He starts to look like a human. He’s portrayed as a person with the need to provide for someone after having lost his entire family. He’s shown to genuinely care for Stiles. The author fleshes out Peter’s character through his actions and motives, and artfully gives Stiles, (and consequently, you), a glimpse of his past in digestible bits.

Through this fic, reader, Peter is painted out to be a pained, tortured, grieving soul. Gemjam, (this genius fucking author), does something I thought nigh impossible at the start of this fic; Gemjam makes Peter relatable. Understandable.

A lovable monster.

Glorious. (I swear to all that is good, this fic was a religious experience).

I don’t want to rob you of the experience of reading this and spoil too much, but once you sink into Stile’s narrative and you learn to give way to Peter’s wiles in the way that Gemjam knew you would, (BECAUSE THEY ORCHESTRATED THIS. THEY ARE A MASTER CONDUCTOR AND I AM NOTHING BUT A SAD AND SIMPLE TRIANGLE, CHIMING TO HER TUNE-), the story will come to a painful and drawn out close, and nothing of your heart will be left.

Gemjam, I don’t know your pronouns, but you, sir/ma’am, gripped what life has left of my heart, and stomped on it past the point of pain.

This was a masterpiece. Of course, of course I wish it had ended differently, but that doesn’t make it any less of a miracle of a literary work.

You need to get published, Gemjam. In fact, I might just get this fic printed out and bound, (with your permission), if only to keep it forever on my bookshelf.

Saying goodbye to this fic hurt, especially with that ending. I needed a few days to write this review, else I wouldn’t have found it in me to finish.

5 out of 5 stars.

This is my favorite Peter/Stiles fanfic so far. I imagine it will be my favorite fic till I die.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13536342/chapters/31055277

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[mgeereads]

I FOUND A STETER FANFIC THAT BROKE MY EFFIN HEART. STAY TUNED FOR THE REVIEW BECAUSE I SWEAR TO YOU, I NEED TIME TO PROCESS THIS PAIN.

I hope when you read this coming fic/review I post, you love it as much as I do.

(Though I must say, there will be a lot of trigger warnings for this coming review, as well as the fic)

[mgeereads]

“Do You Like To Hurt? (Then Hurt Me)” by TaylorPotato; My Thoughts

https://archiveofourown.org/works/2103243

Man oh man. I must say that I enjoyed this so much, it physically hurt.

I want to start off by saying I’m already a fan of Steter. I’m not a fan of Teen Wolf, per se, but I’m a huge fan of the Teen Wolf fanfic fandom. So many of the written works, which resulted from that subpar tv show, is better written than a lot of Y.A. and N.A. books I pay actual money for.

This story did not show up when I clicked my usual favorite tags and filtered through fics the way that I do. I stumbled upon it like some kind of hidden pirate treasure locked away on one of my newly favorite author’s bookmarks list. I read the summary (which was so sparse that I almost didn’t click it), and then decided to take a dive.

BEST.

DECISION.

EVER.

This fic is told from Peter’s 3rd person limited perspective, (it reads 3rd person, not 1st, but it only shows you Peter’s thoughts and feelings, not Stiles’s), and thank god too because you really see the progression of Peter’s feelings and opinions of Stiles.

The writing is very strong, and you can tell the author put in a lot of effort with how the diction flowed and the rhythm of the story. There were many memorable lines, both innocent and not so, but my favorite thing about this author’s writing is how they managed to portray Peter as a fuckin sleazeball little less than gentlemanly.

What’s great about it is that Peter’s nature doesn’t change through the course of the fic. There is no magical scene where he comes to his senses and his outlook on life and feelings line up to what is considered “healthy” for the sake of the plot. He still is a piece of shit. But he treats Stiles well.

It was realistic in the sense that yes, reader, bad people know how to do good things.

And Peter did a lot of good things. Those sex scenes? Oof. I needed multiple glasses of water.

Breeding kink was practiced, feminization was practiced, so was edging, role play, daddy kink, and so many others.

And Stiles wasn’t just a plot device either. He was written true to character; charming, dorky, loyal, and steadfast.

This fic was a joy to read.

4/5 stars. I didn’t give it 5 because I would have liked for it to be longer. ;)

I linked the story below for anyone wanting to read it. :)

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[mgeereads]

my laptop and phone are also pink. normally i’d have a better set up, but i’m going to be moving soon, so everything i buy is mover friendly or has multiple uses.

[mgeereads]

“Primal Sin” (book 1/3) and “Eternal Sin” (book 2/3); My Thoughts

(this is a first impressions review, and I maybe subject to change my opinions should I decide to read through these books again.)

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

2.5 stars out of 5. (I gave it 3 stars on goodreads.)

Gosh that was so difficult to get through. This review is going to be harder to write, still, and it’s going to be long, so buckle up.

Let it be known that Ariana Nash is a decent writer. She has a flare for the dramatic, which suits her fantasy genre quite well, and most of her style relies heavily on character development. I’ll be honest, it works really really well. She’s adept at building both atmosphere and characters to the point of familiarity, she’s wonderful at world building without running the risk of sounding like a bore with her descriptions *cough* J.K. Rowling *cough*, and overall, her writing was engaging and at times, had me both holding my breath and sitting at the edge of my seat.

But, (there’s a but. I know, I’m sorry.) this particular series was lacking in so many areas for me. The premise of the plot was focused on betrayal and love during extenuating circumstances that allowed for both to hurt our main character, Severn. I was promised a war torn setting where I’d be witness to the betrayal, and to events that would later lead to Mikhail (the other main lead) to fall in love with Severn.

I got absolutely none of either.

Admittedly, there was a lot of pining. There was a lot of plotting. But for the most part, the betrayal happens completely off screen. The betrayal already took place ten whole years prior to when we catch a glimpse of the characters withing the first page of the first book. The best we get of the “big even that sets Severn against Mikhail” are ill timed flashbacks that don’t transpire until book two, contrary to the fact that the summary of book one promised me such content.

The most you get are allusions and whispers of suggestions as to why Mikhail and Severn were supposed to be enemies, but nothing concrete. And honestly, I could not be more disappointed. That big event was suppposed to be what had Severn swearing to end Mikhail, and the whole reason for the existence of this series. It was the foundation of their enemies-to-lovers storyline. Yet we did not bear witness to any of it. What a damn shame.

Alright. So I figured, “it’s fine. We still have the riveting slow burn that was promised, and if nothing else, at least I can fall in love with them along the way.” I foolishly held out hope that at the very least, we’d get to see them fall in love.

No, reader. We did not get to see them fall in love because that also happens off screen. Are you fucking kidding me? Apparently, Mikhail realizes 3/4ths of the way through book 1 that he already loved Severn, and he was just now realizing it, although the entirety of the both books 1 and 2 stresses the idea that Angels do not feel any emotion, whatsoever, so this idea is so fuckin ridiculous I couldn’t even tell you how frustrated I felt reading through the confession scene.

So alright, let me get this straight; we didn’t get to see the big betrayal, we didn’t get to see the war, and we didn’t get to see them fall in love. So what do we get to see, you might ask?

Sex. We get to see sex. Lots and lots of sex. Well written sex, but sex all the same. And alright, i won’t lie, the sex scenes were immaculate. They were the kinds of scenes I wish other authors would write in their long and epic ballads of heroes in their quest to *insert adventure here*. The sex Ariana Nash wrote was the thing of dreams, and the sole reason i gave it as many stars as i did.

But ultimately, this series had been a disappointment because the plot wasn’t supposed to be centered around sex; it was supposed to be about a war, a betrayal, and love (the feelings aspect). I got none of those, but hey, at least i got (great) butt sex!

In conclusion, I would absolutely recommend this to a friend who’s keen on great characters with lots of chemistry, but I would not recommend this series to a typical high fantasy fan.

Maybe I’ll do another read through and a follow up review on how I missed the point of the book the first time I read it. Maybe I’ll love them the second time. But as it stands, it had great characters, a strong beginning, but completely missed its mark for me.

Ariana Nash, you have a gift in writing, and had the summary been a better represantion of the actual contents of your book, I would have given you 5 stars.

[mgeereads]

“The Burning God”; My Thoughts

(WARNING!! contains spoilers!!)

I would like to start this with the obligatory disclaimer: this is my first read through, and the things listed below are simply my initial thoughts and reactions. I’d be willing to do another in depth analysis on this book later, but I had made an entire tumblr page just so I had somewhere “Less Mainstream” to put my feelings, so here we are. 

I AM GOING TO START WITH MY STRONGEST FEELINGS FIRST (which means I’m going to start with that ending because I’m sorry, WHAT the actual FUCK was THAT?!)

R.F. Kuang is an excellent writer. I’ve always thought this, I’m always going to think this, this is not likely to change. HOWEVER. THAT ENDING?!? 

I am not one to believe that killing off main characters reflects poorly on the author’s writing skills. I’m not. BUT WHEN SHE SPRINGS THE DEATH OF RURIN (main protagonist of the entire series) LIKE SOME PISS POOR SURPRISE IN THE LAST TEN PAGES OF THE BOOK, well. I am more prone to be convinced of that argument. 

My frustration with this book isn’t born from a place where I don’t think main characters should die. Because let it be known that when done right, (fictional character) death leaves me in a state of mind, not unlike a hangover, that could last months, no, years. This feeling alone is sometimes the sole reason I pick up books to reread it. 

But there was no foreshadowing. There was no buildup. There were no easter eggs in any part of the series that could allude to the WAY she died. It was like an ill timed fart; wholly unplanned and mortifying, but without the relief that came after. 

It was devastating to me the way that death took place. There was no closure. There was no attempt at it. It felt sloppy, rushed, unfinished. And alright, I’ll admit it. It hurt me. Here I am, invested, supportive (I bought all her books; I’m not on any fancy mailing list that received ARC’s for reviews or what have you), and she chooses to end it like that. 

When I searched the author’s past comments when speaking about the book she wrote, she says, “I’m pretty big on making sure that no one outruns their actions. That everyone answers for what they did.” (This is paraphrased, as the previous tweet she sent out has been deleted.) 

And when I look at it from that perspective, I can’t help but empathize a bit. Rurin did a lot of terrible things. Understandable. It was a war. I agreed with her that Rin should have had to answer for them, but I think she could have done it differently. 

Losing her sanity through addiction (as is the case in Book 2: The Dragon Republic), experiencing betrayal at the hands of those she trusted (literally littered in the entire series so no complaints there) were all appropriate plot devices because everything up to the third book had a premise, a purpose. I thought it was fitting for her end to be something heinous because all her actions were exactly that; Horrifying. 

Instead, she chooses her own death EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS LITTLE TO NO INDICATION THAT SHE HAD THESE THOUGHTS PRIOR TO THE LAST TEN PAGES at the hands of the very man she loved, who later betrayed her for his country. 

She did a great job writing the series. But I honestly could not get behind that ending. That ending literally ruined the whole series for me. 

Well, almost. ;) 

Please comment if you want to see an in depth review of this book, or the two books preceding it.