this one was super fun and paradoxical. and it had a great set up for more characters that i'm very interested in reading about in the future

i think there was just too much plot explanation for this one in book one, that the author was sort've written into a corner about the events that had to take place here. some of it was cool and some of it just really made me hate/question characters that i didn't before lol

this was really cute and broke some m/m stereotypes in a way i really enjoyed. it does have some TWs for domestic violence survivors

i didn't think i would like this at first, but it was fun, quirky, and i am now officially invested in these portal realms.

was great until part three dared to tell me how i'm supposed to feel about legit issues haha. it could've been a much more pointed allegory but instead chose to hide it with rage-bait 🤷

the audio for this was like sitting down for a good yap. amanda, please be my friend.

the setting was very cute and creative! the romance elements were lowkey though sometimes suddenly very jarring in comparison to the tone of the rest of the book lol.

this had wonderful disability rep across the board. the worries of the MC about being a mother with one 'normal' hand, ML's worries about being unable to keep up with a prothesis - it was great to see. the sexy scenes and epilogues though . . . i can't say i was a huge fan lol. i think there's a reason that most romance authors don't write 'the wedding' scenes. they're BORING.

interesting start but the plot just devolved by 70% and got worse before ending with smut so everyone would forget about the half-assed mystery and Vampyre lore that was teased but then left to rot just like the rest of the story and characters lol

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit books for an ARC!

The profound disappointment I had with this book is really hard to articulate. It is a shallow addition to the "isekai'd into a book" genre that was made popular by Korean webnovels/manwhas. It's advertised as an adult novel but it's very YA coded, from the humor level, the choice in dialogue, to the character motivations. I suppose it could be adult, but very cringe adult - it goes too far to be camp. Anyway I guess the easier way for me to get thoughts out would be to make a list instead of rant.

Pros:

- The last 3 or so chapters. It actually became serious! No one mentioned how big Rae's tits are (a miracle!).

- Marius and The Cobra. Actually I think the entire novel should have been about them considering they were the most rounded, provoking, and sympathetic characters in the entire book.

- I did like Rae's real life background (before coming to book world), her motivations, illness, and sisterly love and frustrations were tragic, gorgeous, and you can tell it was extremely personal to the author. I wish it had actually translated into Rahela post-transmigration beyond a few moments of "I know what pain is" and "everyone betrays you when you're about to die" thoughts.

Cons:

-The humor is more on the younger side; things like 'poor little meow-meow' (probably the worst offender), naming a snake Victoria Broccoli (ALSO NOBODY CARES THAT THE SNAKE DIED? rude.), a lot of modern slang thrown around that no one for the life of anything ever bats an eye at despite having no idea what the fuck it means.

- Also in the humor category but deserves its own bullet point: the constant talk about Rahela's boobs and how HUGE they apparently are, and how CURVY she is and how much all that must WEIGH. In fact the beginning chapters insinuate that curvy = fat in prettier words. I was so tired of reading about Rae's boobs (she NAMES THEM), that not only was it not funny after - ok it was never funny - but when it started in on the idea that women built voluptuously were always seen in a specific, adulterous light, I no longer could bring myself to care because Rae spent 4 chapters falling over from "being top heavy". Gross.

- None of the MCs are actually villains; or evil. Surprise! More like social outcasts, but rich ones so they can't be tossed to the curb of court, you know! Of course it does that flip floppy thing where the evil one is actually the "hero" of the story - there's also a sociopath, but that's like saying sociopathy is innately evil, so nah to that. But Rae walking in and saying "let's be evil" then commences to do.... extremely non-evil things, is lowkey laughable.

- The ballroom scene where they break out into a musical as a "distraction". I did not know I could possess so much secondhand embarrassment in my body until that moment. Imagine: two people singing acapella, in a huge ballroom full of people who begin chanting (how can you even hear them by this point?), a lady who 20 pages ago kept tipping over because her tits were "too heavy" is suddenly doing hand springs and landing on people's shoulders? I just - I cannot suspend my disbelief that far. In fact that scene broke my disbelief so wide open that I had to beg my friends and family to convince me to not DNF and see it through to the end like a good little soldier.

Anyway, I would like an explanation as to why Rahela gets stabbed in the face in the middle of the book where she saves Lia and herself from assassins, and it says (twice) her face is torn open and bleeding and so forth, but there is no mention of it again afterwards - not even a scar! Wow!