My Guilty Reading Pleasure: {Bound by Inked Flame} Saga

Ok, so I'm going to preface this by saying I am a day or so away from tearing into the ARC of {Caged by Fallen Crows, Part Two}. But I did not want to drop a review on that without telling you first about my reading journey with this series.

I. LOVE. IT.

Larksen can write very grounded, real characters. Her dialogue is vivid; deep, and rounds out the plot and our main protags.

But the pacing is wild.

Getting better with each book, but still, bonkers. This is a soap opera in book form and, kids, I am here for it. I don't care that the first book takes place over a weekend and yet is so jam-packed with action and huge emotions that I felt like a ping-pong ball smacked back and forth.

I can even look past the uncomfortable emphasis on Nelle's "tininess" and virginity in book one - though thank goodness that fixation is dropped in the second book. The age difference, reassuringly, is also not a problem--I think there's five years between them, even if their experiences/freedom to explore the world couldn't be further apart. Nelle is the sheltered youngest daughter of a powerful underworld famliy--underworld both in its various industries as well as its ties to the demons and monsters that run this world. Grayson is her man-whore of a *betrothed,*and also a seriously moody asshole.

Blood contracts, secrets, betrayal - you can see where this is going.

But all of this to say that these are wild rides of books, and they bring me so much genuine joy because of their flaws. I can't even truly say it's "bad" writing, because it's not--we are given detailed interiority of characters, there is a larger world we can understand and follow, antagonists and supporting characters that are given their own fullness and personalities/motivations... It's the development of the plot, the over the top-ness of it all, the occasional irregularities in motivation or conviction, that is so off that it comes back around to being good.

So while I'm elsewhere championing all-around incredible titles like {death's kiss}, {heir of illusion}, or {the silversmith}, I am just as giddy to open up a new Of Crows and Thorns Saga.

More to come.