Kat

I was very fortunate enough to receive an ARC from James to give my thoughts on his upcoming novel.

As someone who hasn't quite delved into the world of fantasy, I was thrilled to read a fantasy book for the first time and wow what a great fantasy book this was! I was stunned by Colsons ability to transport me to the small world he has created in this book. The storytelling in this book is very refreshing compared to traditional ways of narrative that we see nowadays, Colson uses his writing to give us multiple perspectives from different points in time. His ability to give characters a well rounded background fed into the rich plot of this story which for me was a great foundation to create an adventure as I turned each page. I'm positive that most people will enjoy this book as much as I did.

Coming back after taking a hiatus from reading I wasn't quite sure what to choose to break that hiatus. I chose this book after seeing the hype on Booktok. This book is definitely meant for a specific audience who don't mind the many TW mentions at the start of the book. I would say that this book explores very many areas that border on what's morally right (morally grey lovers this is for you). I would wish the characters had deeper backstories, felt as if the story and its characters were more written superficial rather than deep. I felt that this book received its hype because of the reaction for all the spicy moments (which had it had many) but it lacked in having a well written plot.

Definitely a book that just fell short in comparison to the first in the series. As many mentioned, it's filled with very graphic and very disturbing scenes that aren't for the weak hearted. There were many points I wanted to DNF partly because the graphic scenes but mostly because I felt the plot was stale, hoping to find some sort of conclusion that made sense in this series and sadly I didn't find it. Another overrated book that lives more on the reaction of its readers by providing controversial scenes. Since Adeline had so many horrifying experiences I was hoping to see some sort of change in herself as a character and maybe find a deeper look into who she is. I was hoping to see her as a stronger person after that. I was just disappointed how she was written in the end because I felt she could've been so much more.

I consider myself a big fan of Ana's multiple works. Even though these books are considered as stand-alone I really recommend that they're read in order to enjoy the experience of this friend group.

Twisted Lies was possibly my favorite out of all the series, this was my first “fake dating” book that I thoroughly enjoyed. Considering this book was a long one. I felt that both Christian and Stella had great character development in this story and a nice slow build with their relationship. This wasn't a “let's get straight into it” plot where we would see many plots grow stale after excitement peaked too early. I loved how Ana concluded this story by tying in all the couples in the series and giving them all their own cameos and a small peak to how their lives have changed with the time skip.


Overall, I DNF Twisted Hate as I wasn't really drawn into it but I did manage to fall in love with all the other couples and their own stories. This series was well written and I enjoyed reading it.