begging chloe gong to take a break from her success and go on a years long retreat in the woods (a la christopher mccandless) to hone in on her craft instead of churning books every single year because this? this was not it.

and after that years long retreat she should start writing historical romance because her dedication to history research is great and her romance is actually halfway compelling! (again. that thing about honing in on her writing ability and all) and pleaseeee take a step back from fantasy, mystery, and all other elements. my god.

i don’t want to get too much into it because god this book was a drag and a half, but certain plot points only emphasized the weakness of her character building because like i mentioned in my review of the first book, stripped to his bare bones orion is nothing but a cookie cutter book bf who “smirks, flirts, and grins” which came across even further in this one!! and AGAIN, rosalind does not face any on page tangible consequences for the issues she caused in the tvd duology, nor do we deeply explore her regret and guilt. the rest of these characters also just fall so flat! every single character evoked the same reaction within me as a piece of cardboard. the little tvd reunion we got wasn’t appreciated or needed it just cheapened the entire message of her previous books. the interesting political context of this book and the backgrounds of the characters are again sanitized for this sake of such ridiculous plot (genuinely what the hell is going on. how is in any of this plausible. every time i thought about it, i was like HOW are they even doing this?? nothing is properly explained we’re going off of vibes and duct tape. genuinely i mean it what the HELL is going on plot wise) and altogether since foul lady fortune was enjoyable but lacked substance, the sequel intended to build upon the aforementioned lack of substance was sooooo below par. there were a few lines (again her romance could compel if she took a step back and NURTURED HER CRAFT instead of pumping out books one after the other) that i enjoyed but overall, what a SLOG!

also i just want to say the statistics of rosalind having the same blood type as orion based PURELY on the fact that she has the same blood type as oliver and theyre siblings is a HEAVY HEAVYYYY gamble and not the obvious fact she made it seem. like siblings don’t magically get the same blood type it’s based on ur parents’ blood type and as always the roulette that is genetics. im B+ and my brother is AB- and that is BECAUSE my mother is B- and my father is A+ like its possible to be the same but it just pissed me off that she made the assumption that it would be almost impossible for it not to be the case. esp considering they don’t actually SAY what blood type like he could be O- for all we know! that’s it rlly i just wanted to say that. i don’t play abt my blood and chloe gong needs to study up if she wants to impress me considering my stints in research labs and hospitals and my certifications.

anyway. now i will now be finishing my arc of her new book with my expectations properly through the floor 🫡

begging chloe gong to take a break from her success and go on a years long retreat in the woods (a la christopher mccandless) to hone in on her craft instead of churning books every single year because this? this was not it.

and after that years long retreat she should start writing historical romance because her dedication to history research is great and her romance is actually halfway compelling! (again. that thing about honing in on her writing ability and all) and pleaseeee take a step back from fantasy, mystery, and all other elements. my god.

i don’t want to get too much into it because god this book was a drag and a half, but certain plot points only emphasized the weakness of her character building because like i mentioned in my review of the first book, stripped to his bare bones orion is nothing but a cookie cutter book bf who “smirks, flirts, and grins” which came across even further in this one!! and AGAIN, rosalind does not face any on page tangible consequences for the issues she caused in the tvd duology, nor do we deeply explore her regret and guilt. the rest of these characters also just fall so flat! every single character evoked the same reaction within me as a piece of cardboard. the little tvd reunion we got wasn’t appreciated or needed it just cheapened the entire message of her previous books. the interesting political context of this book and the backgrounds of the characters are again sanitized for this sake of such ridiculous plot (genuinely what the hell is going on. how is in any of this plausible. every time i thought about it, i was like HOW are they even doing this?? nothing is properly explained we’re going off of vibes and duct tape. genuinely i mean it what the HELL is going on plot wise) and altogether since foul lady fortune was enjoyable but lacked substance, the sequel intended to build upon the aforementioned lack of substance was sooooo below par. there were a few lines (again her romance could compel if she took a step back and NURTURED HER CRAFT instead of pumping out books one after the other) that i enjoyed but overall, what a SLOG!

also i just want to say the statistics of rosalind having the same blood type as orion based PURELY on the fact that she has the same blood type as oliver and theyre siblings is a HEAVY HEAVYYYY gamble and not the obvious fact she made it seem. like siblings don’t magically get the same blood type it’s based on ur parents’ blood type and as always the roulette that is genetics. im B+ and my brother is AB- and that is BECAUSE my mother is B- and my father is A+ like its possible to be the same but it just pissed me off that she made the assumption that it would be almost impossible for it not to be the case. esp considering they don’t actually SAY what blood type like he could be O- for all we know! that’s it rlly i just wanted to say that. i don’t play abt my blood and chloe gong needs to study up if she wants to impress me considering my stints in research labs and hospitals and my certifications.

anyway. now i will now be finishing my arc of her new book with my expectations properly through the floor 🫡