John Desranleau

I'll wait and see (spoilers for this book and final book of Unveiled)

Reviewed: 08-03-24

Hmm. Where to begin? I love Warped. Easily my favorite of the Guild Codex series'. Book 1 of this series will always be my number one of all of it.

Let's start with the good. The book opens *very* strongly. Diving even ever so slightly into Darius and Blithe stuff is welcome and a treat. Although I wish that there was a touch bit more. The missions at the start were phenomenal. Tons of synergy between kit and Darius both combat wise and personality wise were huge treats/pluses.

Kit and Leanna finally deciding to become an official item was great.

Office scene with the phone call and kits extremely clever way of getting through that situation was the best part of the book. Super fun. A real testament to how much further kit has progressed in using his powers.

Now onto my only real gripe - the power creep. The Guild Codex is one of those rare series where the power dynamic for the vast majority of characters within that power system have a fixed set of rules, and through creativity, using tools that are available to bolster your arsenal (alchemy, artifacts, etc.), and honing your own abilities will make most fights go either way despite perceived advantages and disadvantages.

But doing a last second, out of nowhere power jump for kit, giving him all these extra tools with no setup until now seems very last second all for the sake of a forced plot element, which undermines the remarkable near-equality between most members of all mythic classes in terms of those with combat abilities. Nothing was ever too OP besides illegal demon contractors, female demons, and rampant fae lords, etc.

A similar issue happened in the last book of Unveiled (the only GC series I wasn't a huge fan of for a multitude of reasons). The ability to just Imperfect Cell other fae by constantly eating them is an insanely broken ability. Which begs the question why not other fae capable of such devouring feats never thought to just constantly eat weaker fae until you become god level. As a standalone book/one shot style thing, I would've loved it for being fun since I tend to love huge displays of power in entertainment media, but when it breaks the power system in a thoroughly established series in such a last second manner just for the sake of plot is when I find it forced and unlikable.

Hope I'm proven wrong next book.

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Back at its peak

Reviewed: 03-28-24

Kit Morris is one of my many spirit animals in my spirit animal pantheon. Quickly became my favorite character in the Guild Codex Series. Book 1 was my favorite. 2 I thought had some great moments but didn't give me as much enjoyment as 1. 3 was a step up again, and here we are at 4, and Kit is at his best since book 1. Love this guy. Every witty line of dialogue is always a knew slapper - my favorite one that had me rolling was the one with the cookie. That was the best part of the book imo. 10/5.

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Pretty strong finish

Reviewed: 02-13-21

I got into Annette Marie's books by first reading the first demonized book, and I became really immersed in the story and world. The characters, for the most part, were great, although after the second book, I'd say Amalia pretty much didnt have much of a point except to be present and hate on Xylas.

And spoiler warning:


I was pretty surprised that out of nowhere, with no explanation, the female demon was randomly sucked into Xever (if that's how you spell it), without a contract, and he became a demon mage just like that. Even Robin remarked how she had no idea how he did it, and it was just left as that. Perhaps the author wrote herself into a corner? But other than that I enjoyed the series. I think like the spellbound series, this one was at its height for the first half of the series (books 1 and 2 for demonized, and books 1-3 for spellbound. with 4 being ok), and then it tapered off and became less interesting and less exciting.

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Good finish for a great story

Reviewed: 01-09-21

Really gonna miss this series and these characters. The writing, the story, the interactions were all great. Hope Zac gets his own series. There's a lot of room there for background info before the spellbound series, as well as other aspects to his mysterious character.

Overall a solid ending. Surprised twiggy was absent during the previous book and even this entire book until the very end. On to the last demonized book.

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An Essential Guide to Masculinity

Reviewed: 09-02-20

The Way of the Superior Man is both inspiring and challenging; austere, and mystifying in its explanations of the polarity of the sexes, the need for constant growth, the challenge to give your masculine gift fully. to both your woman and the world, and to live a conscious, directed, and purposeful life. At its core, this book emphasizes the need for purpose as a man and to avoid the common pitfalls we encounter in relationships die to our own weakness and unwillingness to embrace the difficulties of women.

True, some women are so in love with their drama that they'd rather seek a cleanex and consistent pity from their thousands of social media acquaintances, as well as from everyone who will entertain their need to be validated in their suffering, in a never-ending cycle of pity-seeking addiction. Yet true feminine women really want to be penetrated by masculine love and gifting, whether they realize it or not, and it's our duty to love and guide them, without being pansy, beta, mr. nice guy's, but to act like a canal to help guide their moods back into their feminine source of true, radiant love. Superior Men see through the turmoil, seemingly sourceless moods of sadness, anger, etc. and recognize that 95% of those moments come from a lack of feeling loved in the present moment. Good women challenge us to be better men and to capitalize on the inherent good traits that attracted them to us in the first place. Women need men like men need women, and through sexual polarity, we enliven and enrich one another to fulfill each other's roles in the relationship.

The only reason I give this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that the preface, as well as one or two instances later on in the book, attempted to undermine its message by appealing to the sexual deviant movement, and minimalizing the fact that masculinity, while present within both sexes, is still at its core rooted in biological men, via testosterone, psychology, and just our very natures. Don't apologize for reality, Deida. It's unbecoming of what a Superior Man should be.

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Much better than the last one

Reviewed: 06-24-20

I'll be honest, this series is incredible but the past book was pretty weak. It didnt quite motivate me the way the other books had, but this one was definitely a strong comeback that really progressed the plot. As is standard with the author's brilliant writing, plenty of pieces have been put into place and I lm confident the payoff will be huge. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in August, and in the meantime, I'll be content with immersing myself in the newest demonized series' book.

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