I wish I could give it nothing. Worst $15 I ever spent. Nothing made sense or was cohesive.

It’s like the author had a bunch of one off ideas and just shoe horned them into a story.

The writing style is not consistent. You can tell when she actually wanted to write something and when she was just trying to “get to the good part”. It’s giving YA writer that wanted the adult age rating and decided to throw in some curse words and some really unnecessary r4p3y, really “kinky” erotica just out of no where. No tranistion, no lead up, no sense really, just threw it in there like she wanted the shock factor; or just doesn’t know how to write decent build up scenes.

The characters are supposedly collage aged, but act like they are in 9th grade. There are a lot of behaviors that just make no sense for the characters or scenes.

The author provides very weak and flimsy explanations for events that make no logical sense in any setting, that amount to something like “the magic does what I say it does cause I want it to.” Which only works if you are 5 and playing fairies at recess.

The author also tends to use the same two or there words/descriptors at least once per chapter, like she is using her entire vocabulary, no real variation. It’s like she thinks it will eventually land like she wants if she writes it enough times? It’s lazy.

The female main character is a copy paste of every other plain toast fmc in every other booktok smut novel or twilight-want-to-be story. She isn’t compelling or interesting, does nothing to earn her chances to “change fate” she just complains and acts all “woe” is me. Even though the author has hinted that fmc has the means to change her situation herself with out any “outside help”.

Author also did zero research on snakes; She writes the snake like it’s a cat or dog and, as a snake owner, it’s insanely infuriating. It’s like she watched Jungle Book and thought it was a nature documentary.

Oh, but she clearly enjoys researching constations and Plato, because you can tell she had fun writing all that (there is that consistency issue again). Cared enough about that to be annoyingly long winded about it. I feel like a lot was spoken, but nothing was actually said in some of those scenes.

The ending was disappointing, very sudden and felt like a “all that for absolutely nothing” situation. Like she didn’t even try to tie everything up, she just wanted THAT situation to exist because she wanted it to. It was 100% unnecessary with at least a little effort.

This should have never left whatever internet blog it was originally posted on. It doesnt deserve to be printed on paper (that tree is entitled to financial compensation) and much less in a book store along with far more deserving authors.

I’ve already put in a return request online as I don’t feel comfortable donating this and running the risk of it accosting some poor soul just looking for a cheap book.

Don’t waste your time or money here.

Also, tip; The “author review” on the back, Ironically, is better written than the whole book. However, that author isn’t published and if she truly believes what Sydney Shields wrote is genuinely good, I’d question her skills heavily.

Currently have all the volumes published as of early 2026. Looking forward to reading more! ^.^