Sarah A. Parker

Interesting world, engaging characters, well developed story. This was nearly 4 Stars for the first two thirds.

But then the flowery repetitive writing style really started to annoy me and the 🌶️ got rather predominant and I dropped my rating to 3 Stars. I liked it more than I expected to but this definitely confirmed I’m not a fan of romantasy.

While this is a Rapunzel-style retelling, I loved the twist of the FMC being the one who traps herself in the tower — it’s such a great starting point for her journey of rediscovering who she is.

We get glimpses of what’s driving her destructive choices, along with flashes of the strength and potential she’s trying to reclaim. It’s a really interesting balance of vulnerability and growth.

The MMC mostly hovers on the fringes and makes a few of the usual mistakes, but since his arc show more isn’t the main focus here, it didn’t really detract from the story for me.

The only thing I struggled with a bit was the level of mystery. I found myself wishing for a little more explanation about why everyone was doing what they were doing — but this book clearly keeps the spotlight on the FMC’s personal journey.

Fingers crossed that book two opens things up a bit more, because there’s so much potential here! show less

I immensely disliked this book and finished it only because I wanted to see what the hype was all about. This was a long and painful read for a book with such good ratings. Incidentally, the overall ratings on Goodreads has dropped since when I first started reading WTMH.

Before even starting the book, I glanced through the glossaries before the first chapter. As with any new read, they didn't need much attention, but I usually appreciate a reference point. While reading, I couldn't for the show more life of me figure out why Sarah has three separate glossaries as well as a pronunciation guide. Why would you not combine all this into one? When reading, you hop to the front glossary and don't find what you need. You stay confused until 200 pages later when you realize you were simply looking at the wrong glossary. This in itself is very telling of the whole book. Combine and compress Sarah!

The second point of irritation is that Sarah has taken it upon herself to pointlessly rename or respell things. 'Cycle' is used instead of 'year', 'phase' instead of 'day', dragons can't be dragons, they're either 'moonplumes', 'sabersythes' or 'moltenmaws' and 'mahmi' and 'pahpi' are mommy and daddy respectively. She renames fruits, like honeydew melon and coconut, but it's very obvious which fruit she's referencing.

The third irritating point., which I've seen in multiple reviews and is definitely the biggest misstep, is that this book is so incredibly pretentious. This is a 690 pager, and Sarah must've spent about 300 pages abusing adjective use and adding unnecessary analogies/metaphors. It was so excessive, that I spent multiple hours rereading paragraphs because I wasn't sure which part was the story and which part was just an obnoxious comparison. It was so incredibly distracting and overpowered the story.

There must be a word for this, but all of the dialogue was generic amongst the characters. One could've switched every quoted word out with another character and it would've worked. The characters themselves were extremely juvenile. It's like Sarah picked a bunch of middle school-aged characters and allowed them to curse and have sex. Every conversation was predictable and over-worded, nothing was left to the imagination. The swoon-worthy character 'Kaan' could've been handpicked out of any of the last 2000 romantasy novels that have been released in the last five years. Raeve was supposed to be an assassin, but the actual assassinating was very limited. She spent most of the book whining, which goes against her "badass" reputation. It's insulting that Sarah couldn't write a strong female lead without her complaining all the time, being extremely stubborn and then openly ignoring issues right in front of her.

And now we're at the plot, which I'm not even sure I can reiterate. There was one 'goal' Raeve had, and it was a pretty weak one. The reasoning behind it was because someone hurt a person she loved, but Raeve also never let said person know how much she cared for her. Raeve felt as if she couldn't let people in because they'll get hurt if she does. I was unclear on what a trope was until I read this book. Also, the climax of the book was so incredibly lackluster. At the end, we get teasers for the next book, but why would I read the sequel when the plot was so weak in this book? Worst of all, Sarah completely spoils these teasers and part of the shock value by putting a family tree in the back of the book.

The spice is mild at best. Most of the teasers are memories. These memories are short 1-2 page chapters from a character that remains unknown to the reader until about halfway through and when it is revealed, one can't help but ask "why?" There was one spicy scene in the last 50 pages and it was eh, almost a bit awkward.

One would think with all my displeasure I'd give this book a one star, but I believe there is a story inside WTMH, Sarah A. Parker just ruined it. If it was edited by the right person with about 300 pages trimmed off, it may work. Secondly, I didn't find any obvious misspells or grammar issues, which is rare these days.

I'm almost angry that I wasted time finishing this book, but as it's a popular read, I can honestly now thwart people from buying it the next time they're reading the description in B&N. show less

This was an enthralling experience. The novel, set in a richly imagined world where dragons shape the skies and fate, follows the fierce assassin Raeve from the rebel group Fíur du Ath. Her life intertwines with Kaan Vaegor, a grief-stricken king on a relentless quest, creating a captivating narrative. Parker's skillful weaving of multiple perspectives and flashbacks adds depth to the intricate world-building, complete with a unique magic system and dragons. The intense battles, high-stakes show more tournaments, and slow-burn romance amidst political intrigue and personal struggle make for a compelling read. With its detailed lore and dynamic characters, this book promises an enthralling series, leaving me eagerly anticipating the next installment. show less