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ugh i think this gave me cavities

Reviewed: 08-21-24

this book was so unsatisfying!!!! the reunion after all that time had no real tension because they were basically back together from the second day they saw each other. we didnt get an actual picture of what eli was like for the FIVE YEARS that they were able to keeo their hands off each other somehow, and instead we have this sticky sweet couple whose only faults are that theyre too kind and too longsuffering or self denying, but theyre otherwise sooo kind and have soooo much chemistry and are soooo in love. towards the end, everything Eli said made me roll my eyes. sorry but guys that talk/behave that way in real life? kinda performative, usually turn out to be cheaters. show me more of why they sucked together by the end of their relationship! that the spark died, that they were mean and resentful, not just two sad puppydogs looking at each other with halos over their heads who then get back together and get married within a year for no apparent reason. and theyre so young!!! give me this story with actually grown up humans. the breakup shouldve been wayy more dramatic between a bunch of basically teens. ugh!

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narrator not my favourite

Reviewed: 07-02-24

weird long pauses, huge differences in volume that made me keep having to turn the sound up and down in order to understand. also disagreed with her portrayal of a few of the characters (Archibald particularly) and the way she interpreted lines differently from how they were written, ie one character says something "sensuously" and she shouted it like an old timey auctioneer, or the text says the character rolls all their Rs and her narration doesnt do that (i get its a translation but its still in there). shes good, just too many hours in a row of this stuff and it started to really grate on me.

the first two books i loved, this lost me part way through the third.

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1 person found this helpful

narration not great

Reviewed: 04-21-24

loved the accent and pronunciation but this narrator got the emphasis in the delivery of some lines wrong and i had to repeat dialogue a few times in some cases to understand the meaning from it. pet peeve.

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reread for the millionth time

Reviewed: 08-16-23

these books are fantastic, always enjoy re-reading. i will say that i read smut on the regular so it definitely doesnt bother me, but the sex scenes in these get repetitive and get my eyes rolling after a certain point.
i gotta say some things about renee raudmans narration really bother me, i like most of it but her "magic" voices are always just shouting and it gets so tiresome. and sometimes whispering to shouting is verrrrrrry irritating having to turn the sound up and down constantly. relax, renee.

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it was just okay

Reviewed: 01-04-23

i feel like it lost a lot of momentum and i finished this one more out of boredom/habit than anything else

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1 person found this helpful

these are cute

Reviewed: 12-29-22

i like them a lot, though i really wish someone would put aunt sybil in her place because regardless of age if hetta is the Lord then sybil has zero power over her and could be booted out if she wasn't careful just saying

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very cute

Reviewed: 12-01-22

i enjoyed it but I'll agree with others that it definitely starts to drag about halfway through till the end with the little side stories. it could definitely have been half as long. the narrator tended to use a bit of a ditsy voicing for young female characters, with weird overemphasized Ts - the others like louise, the regular narrative voice, and gracewood didn't have it and were easier to listen to.
otherwise a sweet story with nice prose, and I'm so glad it was told.

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a favorite for MZ but still has her quirks

Reviewed: 11-14-22

i feel like these books are what its like to listen to a good story from a lovable ditzy friend with a limited vocabulary. cute and heartwarming, you just ignore the mistakes and lack of sophistication. surely she or her editor could do better than "i hugged the shit out of him" "he kissed the shit out of me" and but not even just once but constantly. likewise with "i didnt like that. not at all." type stuff, its a lot. im not sure if its the narrator or who makes mistakes like saying "parameter" instead of "perimeter" or if its from the text but it makes my eye twitch. anyway, cute anyway.

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this was bad

Reviewed: 11-12-22

i don't know if it was the narration that made it sound lame and stupid, but it did. wish i could have my money back.

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what happened

Reviewed: 10-27-22

i loved book one, this one feels like it was written by someone else. the narration is great obviously but the writing is terrible. it would be one thing if emelia was consciously this stupid because shes a teenager but its not intentional enough for that, its just bad writing.
shes determinedly obtuse about the male lead's feelings but because the book is written from the first person the author can't resist using cliched phrases about his behaviour that make it seem like she knows how he feels. she learns basic stuff about the world and then throws it in the faces of the prince characters who originate there as if she knows any of the cultural implications etc of the weird etiquette rules in hell, or as if they know as little about it as her and need to be reminded.
her plan is vague and unexplained and none of the actions she takes make any sense. id say at least she has a lot of self confidence but I'm not sure the author was able to adequately put herself in the characters perspective enough for that, its just smugness about the character.
this book is a mess and it is such a waste.

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