I haven't hated a book this much since forever that I almost feel bad writing this review because I'm complaining over a lot of stuff. The only good thing about this is the realm they stay in and how magical it is.

The most thing I hated about this book is the main character himself, Vencin. Every other character exists just to make him look better. Everyone is so superficial and Vencin is the only person who's "deep" though honestly it's more obnoxious than anything. He feels bad and sympathizes for everyone and goes to say "why is the world like this?" God I hated it so much, he felt so fake to me. Especially with his whole obsession with being gentlemanly and all. And what is this superpower with knowing the exact race and age of every person he meets before they even tell him? There was another character called Rubeo who is the one who saved Vencin and then suddenly in the middle of the book, he got unexplained beef with Vencin, like out of nowhere! They made Vencin the leader obviously since he's the main guy and honestly he hasn't lead them to do anything besides to go down because of his attack. The other characters were the one who plotted and made plans and he just agreed. While training, Vencin was so good at everything but when the real deal happened, he did nothing! The other characters did so much more than he did, he was so useless. Every hug he had with a guy was called a man hug. What's the difference between a hug and a man hug? The unspoken no homo part?

For the other characters, they were so-so. They barely had any character and were just so superficial. As I said, they were just there to make Vencin look good. And the problem I had with them is how they had to represent everyone? Like I felt it was overly represented that it feels sooo forced. They were almost all mixed races, had some physical disabilities like one was blind, one had skin conditions, one was in a wheelchair (who turns out to be lesbian) and one was dealing with her huge scars. I'm saying this in advance but I'm not white that I'm complaining like this. It was honestly too forced and the Scottish accents was so horrible I barely could understand it most of the time. And most importantly, no character development obviously because the whole book is just Vencin and Vylie and their relationship.

The plot itself was soooo slow, the action happens in the last 70-80 pages. Moreover, it was mostly summarized and so many time skips. It was so focused on the romance between Vencin and Vylie that the other characters are barely there besides to boost Vencin's ego and just call their relationship cute.

There was this whole thing about veganism and usage of natural treatment it almost sounded like propaganda to me. It was so shoved in your face that you can't unnotice it. And apparently using technology is how the evil mastermind mind controls you, wow so unique.

Lastly for the writing style, it was fine but so much extra word and over explanation just to increase the word count. Too many repeated description of the whole realm over and over again. The jokes were so lame that I eye-rolled at every one of it with some cringe. The last chapter was such a mishmash of all POVs despite the book being in Vencin's POV (though third POV). Furthermore, Vencin was barely in the last chapter since it focuses more with the other characters.

Overall, I will never recommend this to anyone nor will I continue with the series.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

The premise of this book has promise and with some editing and I can see it reaching greater heights. It was hard to follow in this format though but overall I liked the ideas and the story-line. I also thought the characters were good. I look forward to seeing what the second book brings. I think these authors will only get better in time.

#Awakening #NetGalley

I received this via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it guys. This book was just what I wanted It to be. The world building was fun and enticing. The characters were very well flushed out. I loved the plot of this. I can not wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book.

A passionate and creative story. The authors are describing beautiful and amazing universes. I can't wait to read the next book of this trilogy.

#Awakening #NetGalley

The concept of this book is interesting, which was what made me read it through to the end - that and my dislike for not finishing a book! Unfortunately, the writing is just not very good and stops the reader from being able to be truly immersed in the world that has been created. The writing is wordy, with a lot of telling rather than showing, including a lot of repetitive elements that have been told to the reader before. The misuse of a lot of words is jarring - this could be the English teacher in me coming out, but it really does stop the story from being enjoyable. It is such a shame, as the concept is really interesting for a YA market.