Pixieated Reviews...

books & fanfics Next time on pixieated reviews... Some Draco/Hermione fanfics Some YA/NA fluff books... Remember... EVERYONE is entitled to their own opinions. I might not like what you like. I might love what you hate. I didn't make this to be hateful towards anyone. These are my opinions and I want to share them with people who read the same things I do. We aren't always going to see eye to eye, but that's okay.

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Could you review Magical Orphans by mrsaturtle on FFN?

Ooo this is a new author for me! I’ll read it and post my review soon. Thanks for the recommendation!

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So you just created this blog to pass judgement on fics? And what makes your advice worth taking? I mean are you literary critic, an English major? Why exactly should your opinion matter?

I review because I want to. Didn’t ask anyone to take my advice. My opinion matters to me, it’s honestly not my problem if anyone doesn’t like it. Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and everyone is entitled to post them if they’d like.As for what I majored in, English lit was one of my majors, but that was many years ago. 

I review on this blog the same way I review on goodreads. Some I find good, some I find bad. But that’s just my opinion. It shouldn’t change the way you think about a story you like.

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It Ends With Us

whIt Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

My Rating: ★★★★★

TL;DR: Holy Shit. Worth the read.

I went into this blind. Completely blind. Didn’t know what it was about, the heavy topic Nothing. Just that it was by Colleen Hoover and I tend to love most of her books.Then I began reading.

Meet Lily and Ryle. They are literally perfect for each other. They’re written sexy. The sex is hot. Everything about them is hot. She wants to open up a flower shop. He is about to become a neurosurgeon. Friggen brain surgery!

Literally perfect.

Anywho. Lily is going through some old journals, which tells the story of Atlas. A boy slightly older than her that she fell in love with when she was 15/16 years old. He was around 18. His mother had kicked him out. Homeless, trying to make the best of it. It’s later revealed that she saved his life without even trying to. And not even talking about her bringing him food, blankets, clothes, and giving him a place to shower. Just someone who gave a damn about him. But he was joining the army.

Oh, did I mention her dad was a piece of shit to her mom? Lily’s dad was an abusive husband, but thankfully, an alright father. He beat the living shit out of Atlas.

Back to Lily and Ryle, things are moving (in my opinion) somewhat fast for someone her age. They’re married within a year! But I can ignore that because he seems perfect. Unless he’s angry.

He blacks out. Doesn’t remember pushing her. Shoving her down the stairs. Punching her. The more of Ryle’s black out moments happen, the more excuses she makes for him, for herself. And I feel for her. Loving someone and having that person break your heart is not something that you process from one moment to the next.

The fairy tale of LIly and Ryle is broken and I’m close to tears, but I keep reading. Except now she’s pregnant with Ryle’s baby.

I’m sitting here praying that this does not make them get back together. He can’t control himself. And thankfully, they don’t. I love, love, love the fact that Lily had to struggle to come to that realization. That it wasn’t from one day to another. But still, in the back of my head, I’m thinking when the baby is born, things might change. Ryle seems to be really trying to get his shit together.

When she gives birth to their baby, I feel a little bad for Ryle. He had all this false hope within him. “There’s no such thing as bad people, we’re all just people who sometimes do bad things,” is a quote that perfectly describes Ryle. Like Lily, I fell in love with him in the first part of their relationship. When she finally ask for the divorce, that whole conversation. That entire scene. I was so happy for her, but at the same time, so sad for him. For her. For them. And I’m a mess.

I’m nearly at the end, there’s no way that it can get more tear jerky than that. But I carry on. Months have passed by in the epilogue. She and Ryle have shared custody of their daughter. And she runs into Atlas (literally). And that’s it. I wish it continued, but at the same time, I’m really glad it ended right there. It was a good place to end.

The author ended the book with an author’s note in the end speaking about her own personal experience with domestic abuse and I’m a crying mess again. I am so happy that her mother got herself out of that situation, just like Lily did. This book needs to be read. It was an amazing experience with a real life issue that unfortunately effects too many of us in some degree or another.

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Wardrobe Malfunction

Wardrobe Malfunction by Samantha Towle

Rating:  ★★☆☆☆

TL;DR: Predictable, easy to read romance novel. Overall, it was alright. I won't read it again, but I didn't hate it. Basic poor girl meets rich boy who has been hurt formula (like literally, it opens up with that. NO WAY I’m going to see that by the end of the book). 

Fast forward to the end of the book when he realizes he loves her, he thinks he’s cheating on her, is embarrassed his shit is out in the tabloids, has a tantrum, breaks up with her.

Color me surprised! But anyways, obviously, he comes to his senses, get together, live happily ever after. Predictable. I didn't find it funny, for all the humor that was supposedly within the novel. As for the sex scenes...

...again, they were... fine. They weren't check your undies, you're getting excited, but I have certainly read much steamier scenes. Rated PG13 type erotica scenes. Kinda boring, to be honest, considering the hype I went into this book with. However, I really did appreciate that sometimes the sex was glossed over. I feel some authors just toss in sex scene after sex scene and it just fizzes out. That wasn't the case here. Other than the initial time the main couple became intimate with one another, it flowed naturally.

That epilogue, though. Seriously? An Oscar? 

Everything just felt so flat. By the end of it, I was glad it was over. 

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Rebuilding

Rebuilding by Colubrina

263k Words, 300 Chapters

Rating:  ★★☆☆☆ 

TL;DR: It just kept going and going and going and going and going....

Spoilers ahead... 

As usual, Ron and Hermione have broken up. She decides to return to Hogwarts to help the rebuilding of the school. Although the title is ‘Rebuilding,’ it is more about the rebuilding of themselves as their own person, not due to their action or lack of action during the war. Which sounds all great and dandy, buuuutt... I wasn’t joking about this fic being forever and a half long.

At the start, they are actually rebuilding, but you get a glimpse of how fucked up everyone in this fic is. I understand that war messes with people, but not a single one of the central characters were “normal.”  Certainly not if you were in any house but Gryffindor. Every single house had problems. Draco, I believe, being the worse.

He cuts himself to deal with the repercussions of the war. Which normally, let me make this clear, normally I would not care about. But it needs to be done well. He cuts himself to deal with things, but he never admits to himself that it’s a legitimate problem that needs announcing. He tells Theo that Hermione makes it better. So basing your happiness and emotional well-being on a significant other, not going to cause problems down the road at all, but I can ignore that. Not the only fic that I’ve read that is guilty of doing that.

But then, after a few incidents, it never gets brought up again. Bam, wam, and done.

By this point, I’m so used to every single character in this fic being so out of character, I don’t care for that too much. But I keep on reading because I am committed to see this thing through.

Draco and Hermione’s relationship, to me, seemed to be stuck in that puppy love stage trying to be an adult relationship. Again, not a major deal, but everyone’s relationship seemed to be that way.

Susan sleeps with everyone who is interested in a quick tumble in the sheet. That was her coping mechanism until Theo, along with the help of Blaise, pull her out of her depression by being there for her.

Theo ends up with Percy, but had a moment with Neville while Neville was experimenting. His experiments were... I thought the author was going to address the bi-curiosity aspect of the fic more,  but it never goes past the woe is me, I feel used and I am sad because I love you stage.

Speaking of I loves you, people either loved you and you were happy or they didn’t and you weren't.

One of the other girls is anorexic or something close to that and that never gets explored at all! And Theo’s alcoholism? 

The overall story line was interesting enough for me to finish it. I wanted to know what happened to the side characters. Will the doc get her dreams, Susan into the Wizengamot. Will Molly get over her bull.

But honestly, by the end of the fanfic, everyone is so one dimensional and so terribly out of character, to the point you can’t ignore it, to the point where the author only borrowed names and magic from the original, I simply did not care how it ended, I just wanted it to end.

I was hoping to be like....

But honestly, it was more of a...

The author does have potential, though. The ideas were there. Just too much about everything at once. 

Although in their defense, it was written as a series of small one offs. I just didn’t care for it. Not as a whole. If it was to be read as intended, it would have probably been more enjoyable. Reading it throughout the week on the other hand...

If you’re stuck reading this on a long flight, go ahead and read it, the lead up to where each supporting character will end is interesting enough to hold you interest. But I will not be rereading this and will not recommend to anyone past high school age. 

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The Politician’s Wife

The Politician’s Wife by pir8fancier

68k words, 14 Chapters

Rating: ★★★★☆

TL;DR: What you thought was your happily ever after at 20 might not be the same at 40.

Spoilers ahead...

Hermione and Ron have been in a relationship for at least two decades and their relationship has pretty much fallen apart. They have gone from being in love to just being in the relationship for the sake of the amount of years they’ve been together. Neither are happy with each other and neither can tell why. There is no communication within the relationship, no intimacy. They both just stopped trying. But they are both going through the motions.

Ron spends a lot of the story traveling due to his job and Hermione spends a lot of time at the Ministry due to her job. Due to politics occurring within the Ministry, Draco needs to work with Hermione. In private. Top secret stuff.

The usual bantering that is within a Dramione fic is present throughout the fic. Little does our little Hermione know that Draco is wooing his way into her heart. But it’s not like she is cheating on Ron. But more on that in a little bit.

Draco loves dressing Hermione and giving little insults here and there about the inadequate man she calls her husband. Although she continuously defended Ron, the jabs here and there were bringing up to the surface things that she did not want to admit to herself. Everything that was wrong with her marriage.

Not that Draco’s marriage was perfect. He married Pansy right after the war, his best friend. After having a child together, they went on having more of a friendship than a marriage. Unlike Hermione and Ron, however, they did not try to sugar coat it for more than what it was. Marriage, for them, was just a document by the time this story takes place. But they both respected each other and knew of the infidelities that occurred within the marriage.

Ronald, on the other hand. Ronald, Ronald, Ronald.

Okay, so their relationship is falling apart, I know this. Hermione and Draco have been having an emotional affair. This, I also know. However, Ron starts an actual affair, okay, I can be okay with this if he fessed up to it. HOWEVER, Hermione finds out from the other woman. Twenty plus years and he lets her find out this way. Then he tries to blame her. AHHH!!!

On the bright side, it did put the batteries in for fast fowarding the end of the relationship that was once Hermione and Ron. And put everything else on a fast track. And oh my god. The wait for Draco and Hermione to finally get together...

But that fast track... it took the author 5 years to write this, and the quality of chapters 1-12 is amazing. The way she told the story is amazing. Until the last two chapters. You can tell it was rushed, too rushed. At the end of the fic, I was disappointed that the final chapters felt so rushed, but at the same time, the quality of the rest of the story was amazing. Well worth the read. Well worth the reread one day.

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Spiral of Bliss [Arouse, Allure, & Awaken]

Pixieated Rates the Series: 4.5 out of 5

Spoilers ahead.

TL;DR: Student and Professor fall in love & marry. Years later, they encounter realistic marriage problems.

Now for the nitty gritty. This book will make you go both...

&

Olivia and Dean have been married for several years. He’s slightly older, she’s young, but not exactly naive. Although the trilogy is a somewhat realistic adult romance novel, and all together, the series is very long, the sex in the book is hot, hot, hot!

Like, if your marriage is crumbling around you, but the sex is that good, the make up sex... oh. my. GOD. Erotica and story quality done right.

Story wise, the novel is amazing. The novel is told in a combination of what is happening in the present and in the past. The main aspect of the novel is how Liv and Dean’s marriage is falling apart and they just do not know how to fix it. 

And it all started with a conversation.

Normally, couples have the conversation on whether or not they want to create a family before they marry. Dean & Liv were no exception. However, when they first talked about it, before they got married, they both agreed they did not want to procreate. 

Then a pregnancy scare. Then the conversation again. Except this time, Liv considers maybe she wants this, maybe she doesn’t. Dean is all

Naturally, this causes tension. Which lead to a spiral of different things. Now neither of the two were perfect. They both had their flaws. Liv came from a broken home, in nearly every sense of the word, and Dean came from a bad marriage.

I sympathized with both characters. I did not like Olivia’s fling (can I even call it that?) with the chef. I did not like Dean’s inability to talk to Liv about important shit. Lying by omission, about a previous marriage, and the reason of that relationship falling apart...

I wanted to smack Dean so often. Especially each and every time he withheld something from Olivia to “protect” her.

It takes THREE long novels, filled with heartfelt moments, and moments of pure rage, but eventually Dean seems to understand that chicks can handle themselves. Olivia can handle herself. 

Honestly, it shouldn’t have taken him as long as it did. But the ride was completely worth it.

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Stepbrother Dearest

Pixieated Rates it: 1/5

Wouldn’t even recommend this to my worst enemy.

This book... I don't even know where to start. Honestly don’t even want to bother finding pictures. This review will be all over the place. The Patrick O'Roarke story line... Maybe that's a common name in Ireland, but if you're writing a romance novel, I think you should stay clear of reusing big fictional names in romance series long established before this... book. As for the book itself, I've read smut and actual novellas that deal with this taboo and this book felt like it was a fanfiction of it. The girl has sex with her stepbrother in high school, 7 years later they are both still hung up on each other that they get back together after spending only a day with one another. Few months later, wam-bam, marriage. Sure, break up with a girl, leave your job, move cross country, cause you couldn't get a one night stand out of your head for nearly a decade. That sounds logical. And the whole being an aspiring author bit... It was fine with the children's book, not going into his work, just reading about his work. Sure, whatever, I'll take it. But his autobiography, which he had been working on for years and read worst than the book itself, had no place in the novel. Sure, it was a cute way to get them together, but it's unrealistic. Also, what aspiring book agent can afford to live in an apartment in her part of NYC with a balcony? Hook a girl up. I read to escape reality for a bit, but this was just too unrealistic. Did not like it, would not reread, would not recommend.