Caught Between Pages > Recent Status Updates

A Question of Price 2.75/5
This is my least favorite so far. I'm usually a huge fan of political intrigue, but I think this series does fantasy action/adventure a little better. Big fan of the retelling aspect (a blend of the Frog Prince and Rumplestiltskin) and the female agency (Calanthe = QUEEN, despite being judgmental as heck).

The prev story was A Grain of Truth my b
A Lesser Evil 4.25/5
Its safe to say I love the world of the Witcher. Meeting Geralt through these DARK reimaginings of fairytales is effective; I'm getting a sense of the way he acts and thinks and he's p consistent thusfar.
LE=grim!Snow White and it's perfect. Didn't love that sexual assault was such a big pt of R's character, but SW=the fairest, so I guess it makes sense...

...why is Geralt having sex with a shady monster woman?

The Lesser Evil 3/5

Very Beauty and The Beast-ly but with a Grimm ending. Actually, apparently each of these stories are vaguely inspired by fairytales so I can actually count this toward Retellathon

I love Roach (the horse). She's such an anxious babe and her and Geralt don't seem like they should fit together, and yet they 100% do.

Thing I hope for: more women who aren't 1 evil monsters or 2 defined by sex w/ G

3.75/5 The Witcher

Very fast paced (duh for a short story), and a solid introduction to Geralt's character, the world, and the sort of creatures he kills/fights.
I have a feeling that the vignettes/stories in this book are gonna be a little bit like episodes of a procedural TV show a la Supernatural, but I already like this way better.

My heart broke when Ayla came home happy for the first time after figuring out the sling. I want only the best for this child.

I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying this. The writing style is a little simplistic, but that may just be a genre trope/something I'm unused to because I don't read thrillers often. Johnathan is such an intriguing character, and it's fascinating to see how the foot-in-the-door phenomenon has led to his devolution. Ripley confuses me, but that's ok, since this mostly seems to be Johnathan's story anyway.

So. my inner circle polyamory dreams are dead and buried. It looks like everyone is going to be straight and coupled off #coolcoolcool #notideal
I'm SO proud of Feyre's growth throughout this series. I wouldn't even recognize ACOTAR Feyre if she were to show up now. It's wild how much she's changed.
Those Hybern cronies died way too fast to have any sort of impact but w/e.
also. Were they pulling a jaime/cersei? icky

Okay the vibes of "not like other girls" are kinda starting to get to me with Dimple. There is some growth in that she's finally letting herself have girl friends, but... I hope she'll keep growing.

SPOILERS:
I'm also not a fan of the party scene. Coercing Rishi? Not okay.
Neither is punching him after he kind of asks you to stop. "hur dur maybe you should reassess the girls you know" maybe you shouldn't hit him?

Okay, so besides (1) the use of terms I associate with biology class [male, female, offspring...] and (2) Feyre being completely OP [spoilery so I won't say what, but it's clearly some pretty intense wish-fulfillment stuff]... I'm really into this.
I didn't think I would be after book one. ACOTAR was fun and light and easy, but this is Actually Good.
I am what the kids call shook.

People like to get mad at the coffee thing (or at least I think that's what ppl talk about when they say that Dimple is abusive) but tbh I would do the same thing/worse if I was in a strange city and a stranger was like "hi we're gonna spend eternity together!"

This is a rom-com in book form. V light, v fun. I think I'll like it.

Honestly is this just a really good fanfic of the comparatively pretty crappy ACOTAR?
The characters have the same names, but the similarities stop there. It's stopped being a romance with a cover of faeries. THIS is an actual high fantasy. It's fast paced, Feyre has an actual personality, the stakes are high..
I wish TAR was a standalone, and that this was a dif story completely I wanna just forget the canon of TAR

You know what? I'm not even mad. Things are getting heated now.

It kind of feels like all the misogyny/homophobia/slut shaming/etc. was just there to make the first 2/3 of the book feel like more than just set-up, but now that plot is happening it's all virtually gone.

With books like this, you just gotta let things happen if you want to enjoy the reading experience.

Okay, it's still Very Problematic, but I will give it to Brent Weeks: he knows how to rite an entertaining story.

I mean it's basically a novelization of a video game, but it keeps the pages turning.

So this is a romance book but with faeries and that's not what I EXPECTED but I think it's exactly what I WANT/NEED right now.
I don't get Rhys' appeal. He's kind of a huge jerk. Why do y'all ship him with Feyre when she's got a really nice, kinda awk Mr. Darcy-esque canon beau??
Feyre makes some poor decisions. It's kinda infuriating. But I think she'll develop more as the story goes on, so I'm cool with it for now.

Idk why people hate Tamlin so much. He's a little controlling but that's a high fae lore staple, especially when you add Beauty and the Beast to the mix. Also, where is Rhys? Is he just a secondary character that everyone lusts over for some reason?
I think Feyre has a lot of room for growth, which I like in a protagonist, but her motivations feel a bit wonky. Hope that will resolve as I continue on

- the former 7 yo girl is now 17, sexualized, and in love with our protagonist (who is super hot and has only abstained from sex bc he loves her too... though they haven't spoken since they were children)
- there has been one (1) conversation between several women. It did not pass the bechdel test (turns out EVERYONE is in love with our super hot protag)
- j about all other women mentioned thus far are prostitutes