Akiva Reads

by H.E. Edgmon

I think there's an interesting and fun book somewhere in here, but oh my goodness the writing is SO BAD. Approximately 20% of the book is describing absurd outfits that the absurd-looking characters are wearing; it's a very 2000s dollmaker vibe. The dialogue is overwrought, the worldbuilding is rickety, and Wyatt's tumblr-speak narration is ungraceful at best.

I liked that Wyatt calls "fated mates" bioessentialist bullshit (sickos, aka me: "yes... ha ha ha... yes!") but the followthrough was lacking. There's too much else going on in this book to really get into it, and anyway the author doesn't really want to systematically destroy the trope because he's having too much fun rolling around in it.

The way multiple characters (including Tessa and Emyr) about-face doesn't 100% make sense, but it's a vibe, and the most entertaining and least silly thing about the book. Briar's storyline was by far the strongest, and a good edit of the book would probably figure out how to introduce it a little earlier.

EDIT: The multiple negative reviews citing how mean Wyatt is to Emyr are blowing my mind. Excuse me, Wyatt is mean to the stalker who is trying to force him to marry him under threat of horrible death? .....Probably what this illustrates is that the book is so badly written that everyone only remembers the bits they vibed with most, so, lol.