Jessica Gunn

The two protagonists are stupid and ridiculously self-sacrificing.
On top of that, they are both arrogant hotheads. I think the author intended to make this into a unique character quirk that drives an exciting romance but this attempt failed miserably on every level imo.
It just annoyed me to no end because the author just wouldn't stop reminding the reader of it over and over again.
Their stupidity and to some degree naive self-sacrificing attitude combined with their short tempers made the characters come across as if they escaped from a YA book. They are supposed to be in their early to mid-twenties but if I had to guess their age I would assume 16.
The writing reads amateurish in places and the author doesn't quite know how to do first person. While I generally prefer first person over third person limited, this book is essentially written in third person but with first-person grammar so, in the end, the writing would've worked much better in third person.
One thing that has to be said is that this is clearly a legitimate attempt at writing an interesting urban fantasy story. It's not one of the hundreds of template copies that just try to cash in on low-effort UF writing.
It didn't work for me and I think the book is flawed but at least the author actually tried which is disappointingly rare nowadays.… (meer)

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Chelsea didn't mean to teleport. But did she mean to be such an annoying character?

Atlantis and Lemuria. Both sunken continents and at war with each other. In this mess Chelsea teleports, to a very secret navy base in the middle of the ocean. But don't worry, only Chelsea is special enough to succeed.

Chelsea annoyed me. If there ever was a character that was so special and had such powers and didn't question anything. She immediately leaves her family and former life behind in order to be with Trevor, her insta-love. The only other thing she finds important is her career in archeology.

I still believe the premise was promising, but since it is one of those blurbs that gives away at least half of the book, it never got really exciting. I've been reading some reviews and they are all very positive so it would seem I was the odd one out, because at times I really was struggling. I never felt the drive to continue and it was fine for me to put it down (even for days at a time). It was not what I expected and frankly, I was a bit disappointed with Gyre.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!… (meer)