Bride of Brutal Hearts - ARC Review

 This book....whew. So, let me start with the things that I enjoyed. I liked the world set up. Even though things are heavily skewed in the favor of the vampires, there is still a lot of cool lore in this book. The Godstars and the craters, the magic system and runes, everything was laid out nicely for us. The way that the King of Dawn and Dusk were set up was also a nice different thing that what I was used to. Now, let's jump into some peeves. I don't really care for extreme power imbalances and this one is extreme. From the fact that Nessa starts out completely powerless to where she ends up in the end of the book. I could almost scream at how frustrating this is. I mean, the back and forth that she has in her mind where she is just all about sharing her body with them but also morally disliking them was low key exhausting. I felt for her but also girl what? Then everything that begins to unfold later one almost threw me for a loop. Like I don't know whether or not I like Luc. His character type is usually the ones I like the most but I am willing to throw that all away for him to just disappear. I feel like at the end of this book you definitely do not like Luc and Jules. In the beginning we kinda like them....then by the middle we are edging towards dislike and by the end I'm teetering on full on hatred. I don't feel like I understand Nessa at all. I almost can't even explain why because I don't want to spoil what happens in the book. And it's a VERY big spoiler. By the end of the book, I'm just exhausted. I want her to do SOMETHING. ANYTHING at this point but there is literally nothing that she can do other than be subjected to what these men are going to do to her. That right there drives me nuts. I don't like powerless FMCs. Not to mention when we discover the truth, HOW are they going to get over and through this? I just, see no light at the end of the tunnel here. We went from reluctant lovers, to lovers, to enemies. I just...my chest hurts.

The spice in this book is abundant. That doesn't make it good. There is just something about how it is written and the situation that they are in that just was not doing it for me. The experience lasted too long and it didn't really feel like it meant anything to any of the parties involved. They were just doing it to do it. So, 4 out of 5 just for the amount of it there was. Quality, not so much. Overall, I'm at a crossroads with my thoughts on this one. I liked it but I also have a ball of what the f*ck and many eye rolls and screaming built up after I finished reading it. I think you have to be in the mood for this type of read or you're going to be upset while reading it. I am mad at it but I also want to see how they are going to be reconciled. Is it going to feel like enough for me, for BOTH parties. It's not even JUST Nessa that I'm upset for. Also for some other characters. I just...idk. I feel tied up in knots and I don't know if I like it. What does one even rate a book like this? I'm just gonna go with a 3 and then will reflect later after reading the next book. Side note...this book doesn't feel like it needed to be as long as it was. But...I guess it allows you time to feel the things I'm feeling about it as well.