I was unable to read this title due to archive date coming before downloading. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thanks to Netgalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Books like this are normally right down my alley, and this book was...okay. Just okay. Everything felt very flat: characters, setting (there was basically no detail), and the plot. Just a very flat book. I couldn't get invested in any of the characters. I know this is the first in a series, and usually first books aren't the best in a series since there is so much to build, but this book didn't really build anything except sexual tension between the two main characters (which is totally fine, just wasn't what I was expecting from this book).

3/5 stars and I won't be reading the rest of the series..

Thanks to Netgalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

1.5 stars

Future readers be aware of the following trigger warning: Rape, violence, kidnapping, and so on...

Okey, so I didn't like it at all, this was a big disappointment for me that's why you should never trust the cover of a book like everything in life but what made me select it was also the intriguing description.

I was going to DNF it after the 50 first pages but I'm a curious person and I respect the hard work of the authors, so I kept reading and I ended up finishing this book. I have to say that the 100 first pages gave me a headache with the main heroine "Alex" and all her questions and her nonsense parsonality, I even started to feel some pity towards the hero "Treyan" that he ended up with such a heroine that kept slapping him. Then, came the bad, very bad stuff with the villain, I mean like a real villain that you won't have a crush on him like the Darkling or something, nope, here we have been gifted with the real stuff that you want to destroy him after what he did spoiler (raping a pregnant woman!!) It was digusting and horrible to put such a thing in our heads without a warning

The story has an absent world-building, you just know that there is two suns in the sky, cool! Let's not start with the characters please, I'm tired. The crap about the Empire, the Annals and the prophecy was just crap nothing interesting. The book needs some editing and corrections.

I went to the second book descriptions and reviews on Goodreads and there were something in a review that made me not interested in reading the next book which was this: "Content Warning: Attempted Incest/Rape, Miscarriage, Death." Well, no thanks.

Dear author, I've nothing against you, it's just that I didn't like your book and I do respect your work. I hope that your future books will be different.

A beautiful blend of adventure and modern, and I found it very different to the rest. This book beat to it's own drum, and it was a very fun read, start to finish.

I was attracted by the wondeful cover and the blurb. The book is not well written and the plot flow, unfortunately I found the characters flat and couldn't care for them
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley
A wonderful beginning to a new fantasy series. I can't wait to read book number two December so exciting and I definitely page Turner.

The premise of the book is really interesting. There were memorable moments. If anyone is really sensitive to sexual violence then I don’t recommend this book for you. With that said, I thought at first the author did a good job in portraying the aftermath of trauma with Alex, but the healing process was super rushed. I think the world building could be better as I’m confused on where everyone came from for the coronation and how the empire is ruled. I’m hoping the sequel will help fill in a lot of blanks and isn’t as rushed as it has a potential.

The decription and cover made me want to read this book and I had high expectations. Unfortunately it didn't work out like expected. There were a lot of typo's, weirdly flowing sentences and simplistic lines. There was a lack of world building and the the characters were not very well fleshed out. Treyan is a dark and brooding prince I suppose, but in actuality he is an arrogant, oppressive kidnapper and it makes absolutely no sense that a strong willed young woman all of sudden falls in love with him. Combined with the easy way she accepts that she is the Empress and needs to leave her whole world behind without any reasonable explanation made me roll my eyes a couple of times. In fact, my eyes got a good workout since a lot of the choices Alex makes are weirdly out of character. Or at least the character I think the writer meant to give us.
I did struggle towards the end, but suffice to say that I won't be going for the second book in this series. Oh, and there should be a content warning somewhere.. Aside from an assault attempt there is an actual rape in this book and this could be a trigger to some people.

***An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a hones review. ***

I was kindly gifted a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I will preface this review with a trigger warning: attempted rape.

Spoiler free TL;DR:
If you like your fantasy books with no depth but bubbling with sexual tension, this is the book for you. However, if you want some plot with your porn, like I do, this isn’t it.
22 year old Alex goes from being a normal barista in Boston to the Empress of the Empire, destined to marry the Crown Prince Treyan, but Treyan’s evil twin brother Reylor wants Alex for himself.

Full review with spoilers:
Okay so I didn’t like this book.
In terms of characterisation, the MC Alex is immediately unlikable, always choosing the wrong decision and needing saved by a man. There are a few times when she shows strength but they are few and far between. Honestly there are so few characters in the whole book and none are actually likeable. I found all of the men creepy and why is everyone smirking all the time?

In terms of the plot, there honestly doesn’t seem to be much of one. The introduction of Alex to the Empire is awkward and feels jarring to read, out of place compared to the attempt at a high fantasy setting. So much happens so fast and literally none of it is interesting or engaging and never makes you want to read more. The magic system has no attempt at groundings in understanding, it’s just there; the “telling-the-future crap” (direct quote) is in fact, crap. There are plot holes and at least once, Alex learns the same thing twice at different times and is only shocked by it the second time.

There is no world-building . As the reader, you learn nothing about the Empire which seems vague, empty of life, and tiny (contradictory, given it’s supposed to be an Empire).

Dalton’s writing style is inconsistent. At times, it’s good, even enjoyable. But more often than not, it’s boring and vague. It relies too heavily on “relatable” metaphors, and falls victim to cliches: “she let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.” There are a couple sloppy typos and the whole thing just seems like a first draft.
This isn’t to say the book is all bad, it just feels like it could have used a lot more refinement and editing before it was ready to be published. Unfortunately it just didn’t do it for me and I pushed through it but I never felt the desire to read more.

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I was very excited about this book. The cover is beautiful, the blurb is intriguing, and the main character sounded Kirk someone I would really enjoy. While a lot of the plot was very enjoyable, I had three main issues with this book. First, I found the word choice and wording very confusing at times. Some of the words just didn't seem to fit and there were sentences that just didn't really mean what I think was intended. It made it very difficult to get into the book. Second, I found the character development fairly flat. I wasn't able to get very invested in the characters. And third, this book contains rape which should have had a warning.

CW: Discussion of rape.
I suppose the place to start with this book is the beginning. When Alex comes home from a birthday party, she finds her house broken into and its promptly whisked off to The Empire by Treyan because she's the prophesised Queen Empress. Despite this predestined fate, Alex is entirely unwilling and considers this a kidnapping, which set the tone of the novel for me. Though this doesn't last long as Alex decides she's actually attracted to Treyan by the 20% marker.

While she doesn't decide to actually stay until later, this sudden reversal of her previous feelings left me questioning where the novel would take their relationship. Not only is she being kidnapped, she also has to put up with Treyan being smug about the whole thing from the very beginning, which grew increasingly irritating. I suppose Treyan is supposed to be this dark and brooding prince, but there's a lot more build up needed character-wise.

Another character that lacks build up is the villain. At first, Reylor is presented as this evil man out to destroy The Empire. His awful behaviour shows up early but it's never fully explained why he's actually trying to bring the system down, making him come off as cartoonish for the first half. Even during the chapters with his POV, he's lacks nuance as he's consumed with revenge.
A final point on this aspect of the book: Two Thousand Years by M. Dalto contains multiple instances of assault and attempted rape, which I could grudgingly ignore but it also contains on page rape. Now, when I came across this, I went looking in the book, the author's website, goodreads, and even netgalley for content warnings that I might have missed but there were none. While it's not described in great detail, the lead up to it and the aftermath are.

Plot wise the book got better after this as the story delved into deeper issues, though I don't agree with how the rape was handled.
However, despite the potential this book had, I cannot trust that this won't happen again in a future book of the series, therefore I cannot continue. I only made it to the end of this one in order to review this.

It was irresponsible not to include trigger warnings when this book was released and remains irresponsible in 2021. I shouldn't have to rely on reviews (most of which do not include this trigger warning by the way) to know whether or not I will come across a traumatic such scene. This is the bare minimum, do better.

Thank you, NetGalley and The Parliament House for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was hooked once I read the blurb and thought that was the book I was searching for for a long time and it turned out I was right!

The story was packed with actions; not a dull moment. However, although the writing was lush and beautiful, I found some paragraphs- especially at the beginning - were slow a bit. Sometimes when I really wanted to read more about what would happen next, I found myself reading about a lengthy inner thought of Alex. This annoyed me at first, but then I understood the necessity of this technic. Since Alex had never been to this place before and she never saw Treyan before, she needed to be wary of him, even when he felt familiar for her.

I liked all of the characters, and they were round enough to be believable. Treyan annoyed me at the beginning when he refused to tell Alexa anything about her or how she came to be the Empress. He kept telling her: “trust me.” And he was frustrated when she didn’t! I mean, I wouldn’t trust a stranger either, even when I felt that I knew him before.

I have a note regarding Alex's name: Alexstrayna could simply be Alexyana or Alextyana-- it would be easier to read her name!

Overall, I recommend this book to everyone who likes unique NA fantasy books.

There was a lot of grammatical errors that took away from this story. There were a few times where I had to reread a sentence to try and grasp what the author was trying to say.

I think the premise of the book was interesting, however, I felt really detached from the story and the characters which made me feel seperate from the world instead of immersed.

I don’t think it’s a 1/5 read, however, I DNF’d this book so in that respect I couldn’t give it a higher rating.

1.5 stars.
The cover is stunning.
But, the book wasn`t for me. The characters were flatt and did not have much of character development. I really wanted to like it, but just nope. sadly.

When I read the description of this book, I immediately wanted to read it. However, it did not meet my expectations. The plot is not bad, but some of the events were unnecessary. Also, I was not too fond of the characters because the protagonist changes her mind a lot, the love interest was useless, and he did not demonstrate he loved the protagonist by his actions. Another thing that bothered me was that the book never explained the actions of the villain.

Lastly, there were several grammatical errors and no trigger warning for the rape at the beginning of the book, which by the way, I do not think the whole topic was handled correctly.

I had the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review, thanks to NetGalley and Independent Publishers Group.