I could not finish this book and did not enjoy the writing style or story. Thank you for giving me a chance to read it.

I love love love fantasy. But... this one fell flat. The plot and world building were hard to follow, even as someone who reads at least 50 fantasy novels each year. I felt like there could have been a better way to get readers to understand that this was modern/dystopian. I do like a morally grey MC, so that was a redeeming quality for this book.

As a handful of other people in the reviews, i did want to like it but i ended up not liking it.
The premise was interesting, but the characters were driving me crazy, was annoying and boring.
Plus the whole magical realm confused me since we suddenly had Cuba and what not.

There’s not much here. No world building, no memorable characters, lackluster plot. It was hard to finish and that’s sad because I was so excited based on the summary!

The publishers and netgalley provided me with an eARC in exchange of an honest review.

There wasn’t anything wrong with this book per say, but I just couldn’t connect with it.
At first I thought the world was fantasy without technology but then it became obvious that it was actually modern but maybe dystopian? It wasn’t clear at all.

Our heroine is well not a heroine. There’s no reason to like her or root for her as a main character because she’s being tried for a murder she definitely did commit. And she isn’t sorry about it.

Our other hero is a broken prince we don’t have feelings for the perfect girl he’s engaged to and likes to take drugs and live dangerously. This sounds like a mash of too many rom coms with a dash of enemies to lovers fantasy. There isn’t consistency in the world and I just could t connect with the characters.

The writing itself isn’t poor but does feel a little long winded at times.

I had high expectations for this book after reading the synopsis, but I feel as if it really fell short. First of all, the world building was completely nonexistent and readers had no true introduction into the world. It felt as if a load of information was dumped, but not information that was necessary in anyway.

There is so much potential behind the idea, but I believe that the author would have to rewrite their story and adjust a few things to make it more enjoyable and draw in more readers.

I initially wanted to read this as I was going through Red Queen withdrawals. The cover is what caught my eye on this one and made me want to read it. It's a good read.

I do enjoy books where the female character is badass. This was a fun read and would recommend it to my friends as something to do for fun.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

Oh this book! It has so much potential, so much potential but it didn’t live up to the blurb! It had the makings of a perfect story but the author just couldn’t execute it.

The world building was nonexistent, the plot severely lacking and the pacing was completely off throughout the entire story. The main characters were so bland and boring that I just didn’t care what happened to them.

I do think the author has potential and I would probably give her another go but this book seemed unplanned, rushed and unfinished.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I recieved this arc through NetGalley for an honest review of my thoughts and mine alone. This novel was very enjoyable, this character growth was impeccable. I really felt myself being amiable towards the characters and could feel myself empathizing with all the emotions they were going through. This novel was very enjoyable. Reminded me of Robin Hood.

This book was a quick read, but honestly not my favorite. The story began super intriguing and could have been made into something great. It really wasn’t something I had not already read before, though. There was nothing special to mark this book as its own.

This was a tough book for me to get through. I kept putting it down and coming back days later to read a few more pages. I originally thought that this was a fantasy, which it sort of is. But it also happens in our world. The main characters are very 2-dimensional and it really effects the way the story reads. There we a lot of ideas that were brought up but not explored - I left with the feeling of having read a fanfiction.

I just, well I really wanted to love this book. The idea is great and of course it’s filled with all the things that check off YA boxes.
It’s the execution for me. Some parts feel vastly rushed while others seem to just drag on with no real reason as to why we are even discussing it. I’m not sure if this is an editing error or what, but it hurts the book. It feels like there should have been more time giving depth to the characters and the actual plot, instead of things that just truly don’t make any sense.

-Stone

I was approved for this title and then it was archived before I could download it.

The premise seemed interesting and I'm sure it's a great book. Maybe I'll get to read it someday.

“Don’t blame the reckless.” By Maddyson Wilson.

An assassin, a prince, warring kingdoms and betrayal.

That is everything I love in a story, it has cliffhangers that keep you wanting to read the next chapter instead of putting in down and doing what you should be doing in life. It has the advantage of having two POV characters so we can see events and situations from both sides giving us more insight into the story.

Unfortunately for me as much as I loved this plot of this story it just felt too rushed, as though it should have been broken up into a few more books so we could be given more information and see more growth of the characters. It moved incredibly quickly that I would often forget about the side characters and that the main characters of the stories emotions and thoughts weren’t fully thought out so we as a reader could understand them. At points such as in the beginning I believed were in a fantasy world not a dystopian world, just a few more details may have cleared that up and it was the same throughout the story with large plot points, a few more details and explanation about situations and emotions would have made it a more enjoyable read

I do believe that it was a great story, I finished it in a day and the author has a great style of writing for me it was just the pacing of the story that was a let down for me.

Title: Don’t Blame the Reckless
Author: Maddyson Wilson
Pub. Date: July 12, 2021
Rating: 2

This will be a mini spoiler free review. Thank you to NetGalley and Zenith Publishing for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Based on the synopsis, I expected to really enjoy this book.
Based on how it started and the first couple of chapters, I was pleasantly surprised and still expecting to enjoy this book.
I don’t quite know or understand what happened, but this book was hard to follow. The characters gave me whiplash with how often they changed their convictions, their moral compasses, their feelings…
And it wasn’t like a character growth thing – it just felt like either the author didn’t really understand who her characters were supposed to be, or she was just trying to make them into people they’re not.

I’m not even going to dive into the unbelievable relationships in this book. I don’t mean shocking; I just mean that I don’t believe in any of the relationships. There was practically no build up, no emotional weights and it felt like we were just supposed to accept these apparently burning feelings between characters.

I also have no idea what the world actually looks like. I had no idea, based on the cover and the synopsis, that this book wasn’t some high fantasy, but more of a SF dystopian. Which, I’m not knocking, but I was expecting a different genre. It also didn’t really feel unique – but more of a conglomeration of Divergent, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, etc. The only reason that I could even remotely envision this world, because I’d read and watched these franchises. I mean, it’s kind of your run of the mill post-apocalyptic, dystopian landscape, with a dash of fantasy in the form of Kings and Empresses.

And while I enjoyed the writing at the beginning, it quickly became annoyingly stiff and formal.
As for the plot – so much happened, and I couldn’t keep track of it all. Nothing seemed to cohesively mesh, plot elements were just left dangling, and weird unexplained time jumps happened and I was left utterly confused and lost.

I feel like this book had the potential to be really good, and the premise is – I just think it needs some more editing and maybe a couple thousand more words to flesh out the characters and the world.
I’m disappointed, but what can you do.

Ember is an assassin that kills in order to save her people from the corruption of the government. When she is captured after trying to kill the Empress, she makesa deal. She has to go to the neighboring country of Angeles and free a prisoner in exchange for her life and the reforms her people needs. While on her mission she meets the Angelesan prince, Roman. Roman is just trying to survive. Together they decide to try and do what is best for both countries while staying true to each other.

I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and had a lot of action. I loved how there was politics involved but it didn't overwhelm the story. The ending caught me by surprise and I am really hoping that there is a second book....

So very intriguing! The world building was great, and I loved all the character dynamics and relationships! I also love anything that includes some spying and stealth! Would highly recommend this to anyone looking for some adventure and high-stakes!

What an emotional rollercoaster that was!

This book had me hooked from the very beginning. I kept telling myself I would read one more chapter only to be greeted with another cliffhanger.
It was fast paced and gripping the whole way through. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to full process my emotions towards this book but wow, it is worth the read.