Phantasma

"The dark is for people who are too cowardly to face their actions in the light" Ugh. Why is this book so popular? The book description made it sound very Huger Games-ish (which I haven't read so don't come for me if my comparison is off), so I thought it would be cool. The dark magic in NoLa was interesting to me. The OCD/mental health aspect was presented in a different way. And (tugs on collar, clears throat) I was curious about the ghost/mortal romance trope. A lot of potential. But everything fell short. Early on, I decided that the writing was not good. Outside of the explicit sexy talk, the book read like a poorly written YA. From there, it was hard to enjoy anything else. I hated Ophelia and Genevieve. The dangerous quests didn't hold my attention. And the chemistry between Blackwell and Ophelia did nothing for me (Blackwell calling Ophelia "good girl" in the throws of passion was very much the opposite of hot). I just didn't care about anything (including the sex - don't get me wrong... it was fine; I just didn't care about it) that was going on here. But I think what really disappointed me was the plot development. There was too much unnecessary focus, in my opinion, on building heat between Blackwell and Ophelia and not enough on spinkling breadcrumbs leading to the plot twist and resolution. I do get the point; romance is supposed to be the star of Romantasy. But the rest of the dev suffered at the expense of the spice. The end was bit of a surprise, but ultimately... not. I wasn't satisfied with how things tied up. TBH, I don't normally read Dark Romance, so maybe it's just me. (1.8 stars rounded to 2, which I wanted to round down, but math is math)

Took a bit to get into the story- but so glad I kept reading- the games!!

Simply put.. I am obsessed with this book.

I feel so deceived. This book was so hyped up on booktok. The character development felt very shallow and the entire book (with the exception of one ch at the end) was sickening predictable. The dark wasn’t dark enough. The love wasn’t passionate enough. The humor wasn’t funny enough. The action wasn’t intense enough. It all just fell so flat.

What a steamy read. And when I mean steamy… I mean set on hell! Phantasma’s gothic qnd demonic themes paired with ghost pepper hot adult content was right up my alley. COULD NOT PUT THE BOOK DOWN! Read it in 12 hours.