Trickery

“Sorry I hit you. I thought you were going to keep talking, and I panicked.”

This series is a complete surprise – hadn’t heard of it until I jumped on the group read bandwagon with the Dust Off Your MacHalo group. It’s definitely unique and not something I’d usually go for – don’t care much for the cover either – but it was pure cheesy fun my mind gobbled up.

Willa is a clumsy gal – sometimes she got irritating, but toss all that out of the window anyway because the side characters just rock. I loved all five of the guys, the dynamics, the possibilities, the jokes, the bonding, the different powers, their inside plans and schemes, seriously fun stuff. Throw in a loyal best friend and a weird, never before seen by show more me.

No one could claim this book had exceptionally layered characters but with how fun it was, it fit and who cares?

The plot is a joy in its way but it’s basically simple stuff wanting to provide a foundation just to display such an odd assortment of characters – and this works fine since its aim was to be fun above anything else.

I’m actually a monogamous gal in my books so with the potential of five – seriously, five – you’d think there would never be a way I’d enjoy this. But seriously you have to READ this to understand because it’s NOT what you’d think and it totally works somehow – seriously, really. Ask any of the other Machalo buddy readers and they’ll back me up  - I’m not the only ‘special one’!

It’s not a romance book but it’s a fun one that’s hard to explain and kind of defies rules and description without apology.

It’s silly but it’s addicting, fun and unique.

I would think it wouldn’t be possible for me to like all the five Abcurses the same but that’s what happened, and it’s a new one for me. They’re all just awesome.

Writing style wise, it’s almost a blend of YA, NA and Adult. Again, not easy to define and that’s completely okay when it comes to this one. It's just....so much weirdness mixed up in one. show less

3.75 stars! I didn't realize that so many people on Goodreads had read this book or that it was so many people's first reverse harem read. I think this would be a good introduction to that subgenre, though personally I am not as huge a fan of RH books involving siblings.

When I first started this book, I thought I had made a huge mistake reading it because of how much I was hating Willa, our main character. She seemed like she was going to be a character who's entire personality is that she's clumsy. That is surprisingly common in books, especially romance, and I always hate it. It also makes it seem like this book was written for a younger audience then most romances. Willa was also incredibly naive. She doesn't know anything about her show more own world which was so annoying in the first part. I don't know if either of these issues entirely went away but they definitely moved to the background which made it a much better read.

I thought our main characters were well written and played off each other well, though like I said I don't love that the love interests are brothers. There is definitely a bit of a power difference in the relationship but the brothers are all respectful of Willa. I actually would have liked to see more relationship stuff in this book. They never get further than kissing which I wasn't expecting but this is the first book in the series. There were some side characters that I would have liked to see more of. There are some people who are introduced and it seems like they'll be important but they are barely in the rest of the book. I hope to see more of them in later books.

The pacing of this book was a little weird at times. There were a lot of short little plot threads that I think were supposed to introduce parts of the world but made some parts of the book feel a little disjointed. I did appreciate that even though this is the first in a series and there is obviously more to explore, this story is fairly self contained. There is also something that is supposed to be a big plot twist in this book that I figured out with very little effort so don't expect to be too surprised by the story.

I will definitely be continuing with this series. It isn't a favorite or anything but I am definitely intrigued and I am loving reverse harem right now so this is a great series to satisfy that. show less

I can see why this book got so popular.
It's well-paced and entertaining. It's easy to read and the writing flows pleasantly.
But it has a lot of flaws as well.
The biggest problem is that it is willing to sacrifice continuity and consistency for a quick laugh or some cheap tension without a second thought.
The book makes a decent attempt at building a pretty big world but its insistence on some terms annoyed me after a while. You don't need to completely replace common words like "day" (with "sun-cycle") to paint a believable fantasy world. Especially such ponderous ones. What society doesn't develop short or at least pleasant-to-pronounce words for things like "day". It's like calling "freshwater" "water-that-is-clean" every time. (That's show more not a particularly good example but I am too stupid to come up with a better one atm.) It's just weird. Idk, that is really just a nitpick but it grated on my nerves to no end.

Especially after reading a bit into the second book, it became even more clear that the world, while having a solid base, really is just a two-dimensional backdrop.
There is very little depth anywhere really.
But I guess the book never tried to be particularly deep so that didn't bother me too much.

While the MC was able to avoid being tstl in the first book the same can't be said about the second one. The dynamic changes from her being brave but rash and just having incredibly bad luck to her being tstl but somehow being saved by her "bad luck" instead.

Beyond that the review by Helen 2.0 describes my thoughts far better than I ever could. show less

A world with gods, sols (that can become gods) and dwellers (slaves) the girl Willa who fumbles everything there is to fumble is called to serve the sols. 5 brothers chose her to be their own dweller...

The beginning was slow and i was tempted to drop the whole book because it was somehow too much that went wrong for the MC. But i am glad i stayed because at a certain point the story gets intriguing.

The author knows how to give the reader some hints that he can use to spin ideas about what will happen. Kind of like you are half a step before the protagonists. I really like books that can do that.
There is a lot of sexual tension in the book.

What annoys me is that the main characters are always called by different names. show more Will/Willa/Soldier/Rock or Strength/Two/Rome... I prefer to see one name and associate that with a character directly. The switching is not really helping. show less

I have gotten very into reading Reverse Harem novels lately. It's super hard to find decent ones that don't just read like fan fiction. This series is really good though. Both the characters and the story are fully fleshed out and well written. I'm enjoying becoming invested in this world and pleased that I discovered this author.

Nice to come back to this series. I lovely light read and my first exposure to reverse harem. The dynamics of the group is also fun to read. Glad that it wasn't full on smut right from the begining too, it's refreshing and wish that it happened more.

It was a really light reading, I would have loved more world bulding and a little more development, but overall, I liked the main character and the Abcurse brothers!