Jaime Leigh > Recent Status Updates

Don't really love the comparison between this badly wounded war veteran and Beast from Beauty and the Beast. 😬

I'm almost two hours into this and I'm not vibing unfortunately. The writing is good but feels slow. It also just feels depressing and many people have said it only gets more so. The whole "tragic love story" is screaming at me that it's coming and I don't really want that right now. Feel like this is more history than I was originally signing up for too.

A book that has been on my TBR and repeatedly overlooked for a long time. So far, I really like the writing style.

I'm not super surprised because of how dark Foody"s other books are but this is definitely darker than I feel comfortable recommending to lower middle graders. Scary beasts that transform their owners into monsters, lots of discussion of dead parents, PTSD flashbacks and episodes on page and violence. I'd save it for those who are older.

Also

SPOILERS



I didn't love the twist. I don't think it was set up well.

Kind of getting annoyed that Barkley continues to bond with his beast and then has the same moral conundrum and then goes through another trial and it repeats. The same sequence has happened with every trial and its not as compelling anymore.

TW: frequent mentioning of multiple sets of dead parents, public humiliation, some scary imagery (like the roots being described as dead peoples hands reaching out from the earth), villain cuts through protagonists skin multiple times and describes carving his mark out, mention of brutality that monsters/beasts can do if too wild.

Not vibing with this. Finding the character annoying.

Backlist Book Goal

Really enjoying this

I'm sorry. I'm already an hour into this and I literally was like "please stop talking". So that's a hard pass for me.

The writing in this book feels incredibly over writing. Like academic and poshly fancy word vomit.
I'm already getting lost trying to follow these sentences via the audiobook.

This is the part where I preface and say fae books and I usually don't vibe, but I've been on the waitlist for this for six months and it just came in today. So here we go.

Played this audiobook while I was in bed trying to wake up this morning and it was so boring I fell back asleep. So that's my cue to DNF. Also don't love the idea of the two main characters getting together and that's apparently most of the rest of the book.

This book reminds me why I don't often read Adult books.

There is something good in here but it's not the main story and that's frustrating

Yall I really want to like this but it is so boring so far

Oophf. TW: Suicide on page via gun

Thus is a fun easy summer read but I Haye all the HP references

I didn't realize that this was coauthored by the writer of Counting By 7s but that makes me excited. Have had this on my Backlist for a while, keeping it for a summertime read. I'm glad I did, because the vibes are perfect for right now. I already like the writing style, although it can only be read physically, since the audiobook puts an incredibly annoying beep between each email. Hoping I like it!!

This just so happens to be the third book in a row that I've read with a protagonist with OCD. It is making me so happy to see such frequent representation across several different age ranges.

Found a library with the audiobook! Switching over so I can hear the names pronounced aloud 👍

A lot of people have mentioned how much time is spent at the beginning of this book establishing characters and doing worldbuilding. I 100% agree. I'm not loving that I'm almost 3hrs into this and we haven't even gotten to the first major plot point from the synopsis.

Janice's voice is so high pitched and annoying 🙄