i read an entire fantasy forced marriage series so you dont have to | booktok rant/review

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The dirty talk was so... Under no circumstances are you to ever  lay eyes on me! It's so funny how everyone   [ __ ] hates the elf king. Hello hello hi  hello everyone - my name is Cari, welcome to   my channel or welcome back. Today, you guys probably  read the title, I'm going to be reading all of the -  what's it called again - married to magic  books. If you guys watched my what I read in   August, you guys know that I pretty much  devoured the series called the Air Awakens.   I literally read three of the books in 24 hours  and it severely damaged my eyes and brain and I ended up having like low-key vertigo for the rest  of the day...And it is by an author named Elise   Kova. What's interesting about her books  is first of all she - okay sorry I've had a mosquito   in my house for like days, this is an immortal  mosquito, it's probably some fairy prince -my   redheaded fantasy protagonist story is finally  beginning. But anyway I thought I just saw him...   he lives to see another day. She first of all has  a ton of books okay - she has the air awakens series   with five books, it's like vortex chronicles which  is another series that's related to air awakens   and that has six books in it, the loom saga which  has four books in it, the trial of sorcerers which   isn't finished yet but it's gonna have three books...  I mean she's got, she writes a lot okay and I think   that she writes in a very easily digestible way. I  would definitely recommend if you are just kind of   if you were just kind of hungry for a  fantasy but - I'm so- I know you can't hear   it but my neighbor is singing. Anyway she, if you're  hungry for a fantasy and you've kind of run out of   books you don't know where to turn next, I think  that even though she does play very heavily on   tropes and she's quite obvious about it, like I  don't think her work is groundbreaking in any way   shape or form but her writing is definitely - like  I said I read those first three books, ate them up   so quickly. It gets the job done. I got a little  tired as I mentioned at the end of the air awakens   series. I thought the last two books weren't that  good but at the end of the day it scratched   the itch that I wanted it to. I read that series  a week or so after I had read a Deal with the   Elf King and this was a book that I had just seen  a ton over bookstagram basically, a lot of people   doing like the deal with the elf king aesthetic  reels and stuff like that. I was getting fomo and   I wanted to know what the hell it was about and I  knew it was gonna be, you know, an enemies to lovers   thing. I didn't love it simply because like I said  she's very open about what trope she is playing on   and in the case of a deal with the elf king,  which is the first book in the series - they're   all standalones but they're within this kind of  family - it was just so incredibly obvious that   it was an enemies to lovers but that you know the  elf wasn't really the bad guy and he's like really   trying to save her and you know, you know the story.  I didn't love it simply because it was so not   subtle you know? But that being said, if you love  that trope and if you are looking for a book that   follows that trope - she writes these for you. The  married to magic books are all gonna be that. So   I decided I'm interested - you know that  I love a good enemies to lovers story   so I didn't love a deal with the elf king which  is the first one (I'll tell you about in it in a   second) and then there is a Dance with the  Fae Prince and a Duel with the Vampire Lord.   The ratings are quite interesting. I'm looking  at goodreads - I pretty much never pay attention   to ratings, I usually don't even check them in  advance but here's what what we've got going   on on goodreads. So a deal with elf king has 60,000 ratings and it's got a 3.77 star rating. The   next one has a slightly higher one coming in at  3.93 but it only has 15 almost 16,000 ratings so   like a quarter of the people who read a deal with  the elf king read a dance with the fae prince. A   duel with the vampire is the most high rated and  it is at 4.11 stars but it's only currently at   about 3,000 ratings. Granted this came out in 2022  so it's been a lot less time - deal with the elf   king came out in 2020. I don't know, could it be  that a duel with the vampire lord is better or   is it just that the fans of this series are the  only ones that have continued the series and thus   they're the only ones at this point rating the  books? I don't know and I'm gonna find out. And   I'm, you know, going into this now knowing her style -  a deal with the elf king was the first book I ever   read by her - going into it knowing her style,  I'm prepared for it to be a little heavy-handed   and that's - I'm gonna be okay with that, I'm not  gonna knock her for it okay? And what else did   I want to say? Oh most important thing about her  work is that her work is all on kindle unlimited!   Personally, as someone who reads a lot and I  don't like to buy books - I get everything from   the library - I thought that it ended up working  out for me in terms of how much I've used it so   kindle unlimited, if you have it, check these books  out. You aren't going to be losing anything from   it. I'm going to start telling you what these  books are about and give you my feelings on them.   I'm just going to give you what I remember  from deal with the elf king. I'm not going to   reread it so let me tell you what goodreads  says this book is about because lord knows my   memory. This is a quote from the book. "The elves  come for two things: war and wives. In both cases,   they come for death." I gotta say, she starts  off the book with some pretty epic lines   and then - no hate, no hate okay? I absolutely  applaud her for writing as much as she does, as   quickly as she does. You can't keep up that level  of intensity for an entire book, I understand so   I'm just gonna shut my mouth. "3000 years ago, humans were hunted by powerful races with wild magic, until there was a peace treaty formed. So now for  centuries the elves have taken a young woman from   this particular village to be the human queen  and I know what you're thinking - is it this one   elf king that's immortal right? Taking all these  wives? No. Okay, that's what I was worried about.   The elves do die. And the way that you're chosen  is if you start showing signs of magic so our   main girl has been living her life and she hasn't  been showing any signs of magic so she's like whoo   I'm safe! Our main girl's name is Luella and she  has been studying her entire life in herbology and   so she's the town's only healer and there's some  kind of like fever or poison or something going   on in her town where it's very essential that  they have her as a healer saving people so when -  spoiler not spoiler - she gets whisked off into the  fairy elf realm, she's very upset because people   are literally dying because she's not there right? She is taken to a land filled with wild magic   and is forced to be the new queen to a cold yet  blisteringly handsome elf king...Ooh I love this.   Once there, she learns about a dying world that  only she can save. The magic land of midscape pulls   on one corner of her heart, her home and the people  tug on the other. But what will truly break her is   a passion she never wanted." Whoa this is my first  read-through of this, wow okay. It's inspired by the   tales of Hades and Persephone as well as Beauty  and the Beast with a happily ever after ending.   It's perfect for fantasy romance fans looking for  just the right amount of steam for their next slow   burn and swoon-worthy couple. So there's that. I  will say like literally my only problem with the   book was simply that the trope was very obvious, but other than that like I did not mind it.   I think I said this in my review earlier but  it's like if you want to kill time this book   will hold your attention and do the job that you  are asking it to do. I didn't think the writing was   bad, I thought the story was like normally paced,  I thought the world building for a standalone   I'm always impressed by people who can write  fantasy standalones. Overall I thought she did   a good job I just thought like whoa this  is like a villain character - the elf king   is like a person I had read before. He is  a powerful fantasy man written by a woman  - what are you going to do? This is an incredibly  long intro to my video but I am going to start   right now...The dance with the fae prince and I'm  not going to look at the synopsis or anything   like that before I start it because that's how I  roll, crazy like that and yeah so we're going to   start a dance with the fae prince. All I can see  is "she knew her hand in marriage would be sold   dot dot" It's a forced marriage  enemies to lovers series. Okay wish me luck. Okay hi guys I'm back actually  real quick. Upon opening this - also it's finally   like cool enough, it's kind of like autumny time  that I can let my candles. First things first - the   map for this world, there you go, it looks like  a video game map. And I had no idea that this all   took place in the same kingdom of Midscape so I  wonder if we'll have any crossover. I don't know   but yeah I thought first of all I thought that was  funny and then her dedication page is for "everyone   who stays up late reading books about kissing."  I just appreciate an author that understands   their audience and writes for them. I think that  that's great so I'm already, I'm feeling welcome.   I can't wait to begin. See you when I have an  update okay? Greetings everyone so hi. I am only   on page 39, chapter 3, and so far I actually like  this setup, the way that she's telling the story   better than how I remember I felt with  reading duel with the elf king. This has   a bit of mystery to it, I think I am going to  get into spoilers so I've decided this video   will be a spoilery one so this if you don't  want to know anything this is your goodbye bye! This one I feel like she might be trying to  make it like a Cinderella kind of thing because   she has evil stepsisters and her mother and  father have passed away and she's being like   sold off you know? And she was kind of like the  servant of the house and you know anyway...  But other than that, it doesn't, so far it  doesn't match up with Cinderella at all but   I appreciate that I have no idea what's happening.  Like with the elf king I kind of immediately knew   there was like a curse and somehow she was the key  to solving it but something bad would happen to   her and so the elf king is trying to sacrifice  himself so that she doesn't get hurt, you know... I like got that from like the very first second  but this I have no clue. There is the woods that   she's not supposed to go into because there's  evil fae stuff and then whoever she married   (the fae prince, I mean...) is busy and doesn't want to  see her. He just wanted this book that her mother   had so we know there's something important  about the book but we just met the prince   and basically he wouldn't come down to see her  he was like "live in my house, I don't want to see   you, I'm very busy" and she was like "uh we just  got married?" She didn't meet this guy like his   his butler signed the papers right? She's like  "excuse me we just got married, can I at least like   see your face my dude?" And so he comes down to  her study and she notices that all the chairs   are like facing away from each other and she's  like that's strange and then he comes in and he's   just like "don't turn around" and she's like "what?" and he's like "I said don't turn around!" His butler   had given her all of the rules of the house and  he's like "there's a final rule that you must know -   under no circumstances are you to ever  lay eyes on me!" He's like I heard that   you wanted to meet me and, you know, I will  oblige, only if you swear to never look at me.   So I had to put the book down at that.  So I have no idea where this is going   but so far like I like the language that she's  using a lot more than the elf king and like I said   I'm just intrigued. I'm 40 pages in and I don't  know what's going on so that's my update see ya! Okay an update I'm on page 129 and I so far  I'm still liking it. I think the main character is   like annoying in a way that she has to be a little  annoying in order to get the plot to move forward   but like she's not super getting on my nerves.  We just learned the main guy's name and at first   they were introducing another character and so  I thought his name was Hol. Like h-o-l. Which is   a character's name but I was like are we  gonna have a romantic lead and his name is   Hol? But it's not don't worry. Overall I think  it's interesting, I think - the dialogue's a   little weak because there was a point where  she literally was like "no I must be dreaming!" and I'm like nobody says that out loud but I'm  enjoying it and they hate the elf prince so...   Hello we are checking in from page 202, no notes  basically since the last time I checked in   except that I think that the romance is just a  little strange. Maybe it's that the our main girl   has been very sheltered and also like yeah she  is technically married to this guy so she's kind   of hoping that she falls in love with him but  like I know that they've had more time together   off the page that we haven't been a part of  so maybe that's it as well but it just kind   of seems like suddenly she's like having a lot  of really strong daydreams about him and there's   many points in this book she has already said like ~the need to touch him~ you know? like they're drawn together. He's got this gravitational pull, kind of  came out of nowhere it feels like. The yearning   bit isn't fully pulling me in but that's okay. I  think I think that the fae prince is a little   whiny brat a lot of the time but I kind of get why  but yeah he's kind of acting like a baby and he's   owned up to it - he has said that he acts like a  like a spoiled child. So good that he knows, but   anyway I might finish this today so I will catch  up with you next time. The book has been finished. So what I appreciate with this is that even  though this is definitely like a fantasy romance   she doesn't put - there's like two or three scenes  steamy scenes right? It's not like the whole book   so i appreciate that. But I will say this book the  dance with the fae prince...the dirty talk was so painful for me to read. I would you know I'm  fine with action words even though she chose a   plundered? What was the other  one that started with a p?   purged? She used a couple questionable verbs. I'm  fine - I'm usually fine with like descriptions   of actions but when there is like dialogue  and she's talking in like thick paragraphs I just - oh man - the cringe was real. I figured  out I figured out what was gonna happen about   halfway through but I appreciated how it ended.  I don't think the romance was super strong but   it had characters that I liked. If I remember  correctly, deal with the elf king didn't have   many characters but this had more people and  and there was like a little goofy boy character   and yeah I appreciated it so I would actually  say I like fae prince more than elf king? And   I also like that a significant amount of the plot  surrounds her childhood horse Misty that she loves. I think I liked the romance a little bit more in  the elf prince or the elf king but I liked the   just in general like plot and other characters  more in this book. What's funny is they were   talking so much [ __ ] about the elf king in here  which was very funny and I remember in the elf   king they really didn't like the fae and then  they also mentioned that allegedly there's   vampires but no one's seen them for centuries.  And the next book in this series is about the   vampires so I will start that maybe tonight. Catch  you then when we have - what is it - duel with the   vampire lord. So it's deal, dance, and duel. Duet, oh  the next one is duet. So you guys with the vampires. Hi guys right before I jump into the vampires, I wanted to read what the goodreads summary   is. Here we go, now that I know what the story is  about. She knew her hand in marriage would be sold,   she had no idea of fae prince was the buyer. Katria swore she'd never fall in love   Oh oh okay that wasn't yeah hold on. She swore  she'd never fall in love. She'd seen what love   means through the cruelty of her family but her  new husband makes not falling in love difficult   as their attraction begins to grow. So too does  the oddities within her new life - strange rules,   screams in the night, attacks by fae, then she  witnesses a ritual not meant for human eyes   and she finds herself spirited away to the  land of Midscape. A dance with a fae prince is   a complete standalone novel inspired by the tales  of Psyche and Eros, as well as Cinderella - okay -   with a happily ever after ending it is perfect  for fantasy...we said that already okay. So yeah   that is one thing that actually really bothered  me about this book is just that her whole deal   is she doesn't want to love because she  was abused by her stepmother. Her father   like she just, the love that she has seen in  her life because her mother died very young,   the love that she has seen - she doesn't want  any part of it. And so when they are very clearly   falling in love she's like "no feelings no feelings"  and it's just not super believable. Anyway so   that's the official summary but on to vampires  okay see you tomorrow. Hi there just an update I'm   only on chapter two but look at this first line...  But also this one is much more obviously connected   with the world than the elf king was because  the Applegate trading company is the name of our   main girl from fae prince! That's her father's  company. He went to the distant north to get   silver and he died so I hope this place  doesn't rely too heavily on the silver because... What we've got going on is there is a village  that every single month on the full moon they   get attacked by vampires and our main girl  is the like main person who makes silver   stuff so she's very important. Every 500 years,  there is a blood full moon where the vampire   lord can come in and apparently the like  full moon vampire [ __ ] it's just a taste   of what the vampires can cook up. So they're  assuming tomorrow on the blood moon they're all   gonna die. But they're gonna put up a good fight.  But yes that's where we're at and I feel like I'm   gonna fall asleep any second now so I don't know  how much more I'm gonna read but I will update you   once I learn more. Oh and our girl because she's a  very important person or something, the master   hunter gets to choose who she marries so she's  not allowed to be touched by anyone. Master hunter   told her probably next week you're gonna get  married but she still doesn't know to who and yeah... Hello my friends, I am on page  164. I am 30% of the way through and  this is not a vampire story. This is absolutely a  zombie story which I find hilarious. What are   my thoughts? So I'm having a little bit of a rough  time getting into it but honestly it could just   be me succumbing to a little bit of a reading  slump, I don't necessarily think it's an issue   with the story just more of me reading too many of  these types of books back to back. so I don't want   to knock a point off of her for that. Things  that I do like about this story is that this   is it's got like a little bit of a different  take on the whole like enemies to lovers and then   this kind of it's not forced marriage but like  she has been captured and like has to stay there   to help the vampires break a curse but what I like  about it is there's this added element of she is   pretending to be something that she isn't as well.  So they all assume that she's a hunter when she's   not, her brother just has like kind of helped  train her sometimes. She makes weapons, that's   her thing. All the vampires are like great, we found  a hunter and she's gonna help us break the curse   and she's just like yeah, I'm a hunter here to help  you break the curse. so I appreciate that. The   only thing that's kind of bothering me about the  book is just that because it's in first person and   it's we're only seeing her point of view, it's  just a little annoying because once again with   with the tropes that are in this entire series, you know that there's a misunderstanding, you   know that if everybody just told each other  what they know like what is this curse? They   keep mentioning the curse but like she doesn't  ask for details about it? It just gets kind of   annoying in that sense but overall  I think that this one is fun. It has a   little bit more of a halloweeny feel I think  so I'm kind of getting in the mood and   I think today I'm like in the right mindset  where I can if not finish it at least get a   good chunk of it. Right now is when we're kind  of jumping in to the action part so yeah I'm   interested in what the curse is. I wish she would  ask, wish she would ask. Anyway here we go! Our boy is 3124 years old. So just gonna be real, her writing style,  the steamy scenes - I don't remember it being   so bad in the elf king but like it was pretty, as I said, pretty not good with  the fae prince but vampire lord the smut scenes   are...first of all they happen early, like this  is before we're even halfway done with the book.   And they are just painful to read. I gotta say I'm  sorry for like I don't even think people who like   smut would necessarily like  this, like this isn't just me you know, I don't know, but I feel like this book is  so long - like I don't know why I can't get into it   but yeah he just said he's 24 years  old but they were in like the long sleep or   whatever for three thousand and one  hundred years so he says he's   "around" three thousand one hundred and twenty four years old - but for him it felt like mere moments.   Yeah okay anyway I'm gonna keep reading but  I'm - it's taken me like almost two hours to read   a hundred and something pages  which is not how I do things so... Close your eyes if you can't handle   horribly written smut because look at what  I'm reading. What do you think I could show you?   Stop! So this is absolutely the smuttiest  of the three. I don't like it, like I -   so many people said that this was actually  the best one in terms of the plot but now I'm   thinking I need to reread the elf king because  the elf king might end up being my favorite of   the three? I would say the like the fae one was  fine other than like these long paragraphs of   dirty talk that could have been erased but like  as far as the plot and whatever fine, but this   like even the plot is just so convoluted - so far  it's fae prince, elf king, and then vampire lord... bundle it up and toss it away. The series  has been finished, oh my god that took   so much out of me to finish that damn  book. So what are my thoughts on vampire   lord? I thought that that one was the most truly  enemies to lovers in that even though it was kind   of just like a misunderstanding, they genuinely  like hated each other for most of the book,   so if you're into that I would say on a ranking  of enemies to lovers it would be vampire, elf, fairy?   But yeah I just think that I don't know  why this one was quite so long - this one was   526 pages versus the other ones were more like in  the 400, 300 range. So I think she tried to add   more like world building and lore and like this  curse but it just felt a little bit too long.   It was just overall a little confusing, there were  like many layers to the curse and then there were   many layers to like...so overall it definitely  wasn't my favorite, it wasn't very vampire-y.   I think the only like vampire vibes you get is  in the smut scenes because she really sexualizes   the whole like sharing blood thing but other  than that, it really felt more like they were just   a bunch of people fighting zombies and a curse. So  if you were hoping for like very vampire-ish vibes   like they can go out in the sun, I mean, and  they don't sparkle you know? So yeah I would   say I definitely lean have more on the elf and  fae side. I feel like the fae one is the one that   bothered me the least. Again, I'm gonna have to read  the elf king. I have a feeling if I reread it that   might be my favorite so in terms of ranking it  I might just go in order of the series - I think   it gets worse but what I do really want to read  is the next book which will come out next year   and it's the final one I think and  it's about sirens so it's gonna be like   a low-key mermaid kind of thing going on and  honestly I'm down -apparently they sing...   Stupid? are you dumb Cari? They're sirens. Yeah no  they were - because in the other books they have   all referenced the sirens and how much they would  love to hear the sirens singing duets and whatever   but they're sirens, like that's their  thing that they sing I can't believe   I just said that. But anyway overall I think  if you are the kind of person that enjoys the   forced marriage and enemies to lovers tropes -  I'm not a big, I don't really enjoy the forced   marriage trope at all so if you like those two  and you're kind of willing to read any thing that   has those tropes these will be fine but I think if  you're more of like you like those tropes but you   aren't willing to read like I'm not, I don't want  to call it like it just wasn't great I would say.   Her air awakens trilogy or her air awakens series  is much much much much better than these if you're   looking for a kind of enemies to lovers magical  thing going on, definitely read at least the   first three of the air awakens series. These  books, it's nice that they're standalones again   I really think that these are kind of like  if you are at a loss of what to read next   these are interesting options for you, if you  if they tickle your fancy but overall I felt   like especially vampire lord for some reason  was really hard for me to get into. So I will   still like I said I will still read the fourth  one but yeah again if you read the elf king and   you liked it I would recommend trying fae prince  and if you are stuck looking for a fantasy read   give the elf king a try. It's so funny how  everyone [ __ ] hates the elf king like   like the fae, the vampires - everybody hates the elf  king and I think it's fabulous but yeah I would   say don't stray from it this isn't like horrible -  maybe don't put them on the tippity-tippity-top   of your tbr if you've got a lot to read so anyway  that was my deep dive into the married to magic   series family and yeah sorry I feel  like my reading vlogs are always so strange   because I am very bad at like taking breaks and  sharing my thoughts so this was me like really   forcing myself to talk about the books. I hope to  get better as I continue on but yeah thank you   for being along on the journey with me and I will  see you guys next time. I have no idea what I'm   talking about next time so I can't tell you but  I will see you guys then and thank you always bye!
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Channel: cari can read
Views: 569,221
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: deal with the elf king, married to magic, elise kova, cari can read, books, book review, book rant, booktok, booktok books, booktok books i didnt like, fantasy series, acotar, cari can read acotar, duel with the vampire lord, a deal with the elf king, booktube, booktuber, i read so you dont have to, ranking booktok books, ranking books, tier ranking books
Id: 0uFKCmjJ5Ng
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 31min 29sec (1889 seconds)
Published: Thu Sep 29 2022
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