A Book I Would Have Never Picked Up: Lessons in Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When I picked up this book, I truly meant I would have never ever picked up this book. I work at a local bookstore and when this time of year comes around my manager becomes super competitive against the other stores and it becomes super competitive against the other stores and it becomes her primary goal to be in the top three. This year our debut novel is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. At first glance the cover wasn’t appealing to me and the description just wasn’t something I was truly interested in. However, my manager kept insisting on this singular book. I truly thought before picking it up that there were plenty of other books that should have been the debut novel.

Despite all of that I decided to pick up the book. He told me that it was an empowering book. A book about feminism and about how women are treated. It was a book about women changing the world by just a single chemist.

This certain chemist is Elizabeth Zott, our protagonist, who is faced with her daughter giving her lunch away to one of her friend’s. This particular friend is named Amanda Pine. Zott, after quitting her job, barges into Walter Pine’s office and demands that he tell his daughter, Amanda, to stop eating Mad’s lunch. Even with that, Walter was immediately captured by Zott’s beauty and wants her as the the face of his new cooking show, ‘Supper at Six’.

The book goes back and forth from the present and the past. Right after this moment, it jumps into the past with Zott after this moment, it jumps into the past with Zott being a college student at UCLA where she is attempting to get her PhD in chemistry. Zott decided to recheck the experiment that was worked on and discovered that the experiment wasn’t correct. However, her DNA researcher, Dr. Meyer was someone who enjoyed the female company. Dr. Meyer’s attempted to rape Zott, however, Zott immediately stabbed him and had the police notified. However, the police didn’t do a single thing besides asking if she wanted to make a statement of regret. After this moment she didn’t want this exact situation happening again.

Zott got kicked out of UCLA and got denied to continue her PhD. However, that didn’t stop her from wanting to complete her dream of studying abiogenesis. The definition of abiogenesis from the Oxfords Language is “the original evolution of life or living organisms from inorganic or inanimate substances.” In simpler terms, it is the study of how life gradually came to appear over a period of time instead of all at once.

Zott got her job at Hastings Research Institute where she met Calvin, her soulmate. After a rough couple of meetings, bot Zott and Calvin decided to hang out more and more until they officially became a couple. Even through all the rumors, they stuck true to themselves and focused on their work and each other. They met their dog Six-Thirty while on a random walk. Zott moved into Calvin’s loft and began picking up his hobbies. The more time they spent together, the more time they became more in love with one another. However, Zott was deep into her mindset of being a strong independent woman. She wanted to pay for some of Calvin’s bills, she wanted to not have children and be like other mothers’, and the biggest one was that she didn’t want to get married. Calvin wanted to get married to her but she didn’t feel like changing her name to being Calvin’s. She then changed the perspective of if he changed his name to her’s, but he declined because he was known for his name. After this he realized what she meant.

A law passed for dogs to have leashes on in California. Zott took this rule quite seriously and insisted the Six-Thirty wear a leash. While Calvin and Six-Thirty were on a run, Calvin had a leash on Six-Thirty. When Six-Thirty got startled they pulled in different directions, causing the leash to snap, and Calvin cracked his skull onto the pavement. Right after, Calvin was run over by a police car.

Zott was in a daze when she got the news. She had a hard time following with work, so she took time off to spend time on herself. She went to his funeral and got pestered for being at his funeral. She soon found out that she was pregnant and ended up losing her job because of the incident. Zott decided to keep the baby and believed that she could do it herself. She continued rowing while pregnant. After she gave birth, she realized that having kids wasn’t at all what she thought it would be. While books of parenting and pregnancy sounded straight-forward to Zott, they weren’t. Zott named the baby Mad, and it turns out she was exactly that, mad. She was always throwing a fit and Zott was running herself dry. Harriett, the neighbor across the street, came over and introduced herself to Zott. While looking at the damage, Harriett decided to help Zott take care of Mad to escape her husband.

Zott was fired from her job at Hastings Research Institute for being pregnant with an illegitimate child and not long after she found her way back at Hastings Research Institute because of a prime investor that was requesting for Mr. Zott. Zott returned to her job and immediately began working on abiogenesis until she got her work stolen and decided to leave Hastings once again. After meeting Walter Pine she decided to consider his request and started the show ‘Supper at Six’ which became a huge hit.

Zott was encouraging, empowering, and taught women about chemistry. She instilled in so many women that they can do whatever they wanted and that they didn’t just have to be a housewife. They would do whatever job they wished. Many women were inspired by her words and other’s weren’t too fond of her opinions. She managed to become extremely influential, but still she had misinformation and slader directed towards her.

Not long after, she decided that she wanted to go back to science and didn’t want to be a show host anymore because people began accusing her of not being a scientist. Zott managed to go back to Hastings but after the original managers of the chemistry department were gone and with that she met Calvin’s mother.

When I began reading the book I was immediately intrigued by the writing. The writing flowed and was written so differently from what I normally would read. The fact it managed to capture me instantly was great. The main character was well written and I became more and more impressed as the story continued.

At first, I was quite upset with the fact that it was almost unrealistic and tragic, however, I sat down and thought to myself about life. Life is exactly like that. A simple decision can completely change the course of events so quickly there is no way to take it or change it. But I do like thinking about the “what-ifs”. Such as if Calvin didn’t die and was alive. What would Zott have done? Would she have kept Mad or would she have married Calvin? What if she still loses her job and becomes a housewife? I just couldn’t stop those thoughts from happening. Then Calvin’s mother. The fact that she appeared and talked to Zott. If Calvin was alive, how would he feel realizing he indeed had a mother and the fact the boy’s home he grew up in was lying about the fact he had no one?

Despite my brain going on about “what-ifs”, I thought the book completey captured realistic events. Later on it became more feminist and translated to mroe about human rights and rejected society. When I think about my own experience of trauma that Zott went through, I reacted the exact same way. My brain, to protect iteself, decided to forget about everything. Unless something reminded me of those events. I began to understand Zott a bit better. Then I started to question if Garmus expereinced some of these life events, or knew someone who did, and that is why she managed to capture these moments so perfectly.

The way Garmus writes is smooth. It’s beautiful. She switches between the characters and shows the way of life for each character. It was so beautifully written and each person had their own distinct personality, it felt like they were real people. It takes a lot for me to actually give a book a five and this book certainly deserved it.

I ended up recommending this book to my coworkers and I grew more confident in selling the book. I think now that I have read the book and finished it, this book deserved to be in the book of the year. It is beautiful, empowering, has human rights, shows real life events, and it’s soul-wrenching just for the fact it feels so completely real. The emotions portrayed in the pictures of their life. These characters felt so real.

I love this book and I truly believe it deserves to be read. I just hope Bonnie Garmus starts writing more. I know she received a lot of help for this work, but it was perfect. I felt so happy to read this piece and I hope other’s fall in love with this work as much as I did. Much love, and happy reading!

Court of the Vampire Queen

Court of the Vampire Queen written by Katee Robert

When I picked up this specific book I honestly thought that it was going to be completely different. From the title, I thought it was going to be one of those situations of a powerful vampire queen but instead it was a rollercoaster and a half. Mina is someone who is completely weak and is still relatively weak by the end of the book of how much she relies on the three men that are in her life.

Sacrifice goes right off into Mina talking about her abusive father as she heads up to the castle of Malachi. A bloodline vampire who bought her for his feeding. As soon as she lands in Malachi’s hands is when he reveals that she isn’t just for his feeding, but was meant to be killed to break his cage. However, Malachi wants to have her for more than just feeding and mostly for pleasure. Mina doesn’t like this idea and tries to be headstrong but she immediately gives in quite quickly.

Once Wolf enters the picture, she submits herself to Wolf and Malachi quite quickly even though she just met Wolf and only met Malachi a week ago. Not long after Rylan shows up and proves to be an ancient vampire which pieces together that she has the ability to break the ward without being killed. Once they break the ward, the four of them leave the castle away from Mina’s father.

Heir is a little more hardcore as it is mostly the three competing for Mina to get pregnant while running away from Mina’s father. Although in Sacrifice Mina did not want to get pregnant, now it is almost like she doesn’t care and just wants to be bred by the three vampires. Not to mention that Mina still needs to learn and train her new abilities that she just found out she had. However, that quickly stops short as Mina’s father finds their last hideaway spot and takes the three bloodline vampires. Mina escapes and finds Rylan’s friend while discovering that she is pregnant.

Queen jumped right into attempting to kill Mina’s father. Mina managed to rescue the men and immediately began devising a plan on how to kill Mina’s father. They managed to get some help from Wolf’s sister and that’s the only way they managed to succeed. There is no look into what Wolf, Rylan, and Malachi have done though. So, we honestly have no clue how their time in the facility went, but as soon as Mina kills her father that is pretty much it. Everyone else is scared of Mina and doesn’t attempt to fight her off. Everyone in the compound just submits to her.

My overall view of the book is complicated for me. I felt confused about a majority of the parts. Mina in the beginning doesn’t want anything to do with the vampires and wants to be free but ends up wrapped up with Malachi. Then ends up wrapping herself up with Wolf and last being Rylan. Even though she wants to be free, she sticks with them because it is her only way of survival and not long ends up falling in love with them. Becomes pregnant, saves them from her father, and proceeds to kill her own father and take over his entire compound. From the perspective that I see, it is rushed and she falls in love with all three of these men in a matter of two months. I think this series could have gone on longer and it seems strange that Mina’s father can detect them wherever they are. They knew that he had the power of control with just his voice alone and yet Malachi, Wolf, and Rylan attempted to fight him which led to them getting caught. If I take the plot away from this book and just think about the porn aspect of this book, it was pretty good. The writing was quite nice and honestly seeing a poly relationship in a book work so well together, was pretty good.

Another thing I thought was interesting is that Mina was not traumatized as much as I thought. When I think of people with PTSD they have a lot of coping problems and Mina just kind of passes her pain over her shoulder. When she enters Malachi’s prison her leg was smashed by her father and she just kind of shrugs it off. She shrugs a lot of what he did off her shoulders. Not to mention when she sees her father again, she just kind of ignores him as well and runs away from him. When Mina sees him again she practically rips his head off. I just feel like she would have some sort of trauma from him. Not to mention, she wasn’t in contact with anyone except for her father and the others within the compound. That should lead to a number of awkward moments and misunderstandings but it never happens because she acts so incredibly normal.

Overall I didn’t mind the book. I felt like it could have been longer instead of so rushed and there were a lot of minor stories that popped out of this one book. Like the demon realm and Grace’s story. Or a more detailed perspective on bloodline vampires. I feel like a lot could stem from this one story.

I would give this book overall a ⅗ just for the fact a lot could have been explained better, taken a bit longer, and possibly gone more into the topics that are left blank. I also think that Mina’s character could have been built upon. Even though I didn’t have much care for this book I am excited to read the other books that I have on my list. Happy reading!

Neon Gods

Neon Gods written by Katee Robert

This was the first book I ever read that was by Katee Robert and I picked it up because it was a Hades and Persephone retelling. I had a feeling that it was gonna be more about the lust aspect and not the romance aspect just from the reviews on this book alone. However, I do have to say I really enjoyed this book for what it was.

Right from the beginning, it is quite dark. The first thing I noticed was that their names weren’t actually their names it is their titles. So Persephone got her title because her mother was promoted to Demeter and became a part of The Thirteen which is all of the main thirteen gods and goddesses, almost like an inner circle. Demeter, wanting to gain more power, decides to arrange a marriage between Zeus and her daughter Persephone. Persephone obviously doesn’t want to become the next Hera because of some very truthful rumors and takes it upon herself to run away. When she does Zeus’s men end up hurting her and she manages to cross the bridge straight into Hade’s arms.

Persephone is in her mid-twenties and does not wish to be married to a murderer. In fact, her dream was to leave Olympus and do her own thing away from her mother. However, she ends up finding an opportunity with Hades who is a lonely man who does his own thing since every single person thinks he doesn’t exist in the upper city, and in the lower city he is respected heavily.

Hades in turn sees this as a perfect opportunity to strike his revenge on Zeus for killing his parents and the fact his fiance just ended up right in his domain. When he pieces this together he wants to discuss a deal with Persephone so that they can both get what they want. However, Hades doesn't keep her hostage and also doesn’t want her to end up killed. He protects her and shows her the lower city that she has no clue about. The lifestyle and the different shops that they have and how human everything is.

Persephone takes on Hades and agrees to be a showcase to get back at Zeus for her protection until she is able to break away from Olympus and leave. In this case, there are a lot of XXX scenes that involve Persephone getting scoped out and sending news to Zeus that she is being touched by Hades. Both Hades and Persephone see this as a bonus as Zeus is becoming frustrated with not getting his next Hera and the fact that she is being used.

Although this is the case, Demeter is a different story. She is a lot more ruthless than Zeus and cuts off the food supply to the lower city. This creates some disturbance within the lower city but Hades was prepared for the occasion. Although Hades sees himself in a dull light Persephone begins to see the actual man and not the mask he presents. Persephone grows interested in him and wants to learn more about him in a more personal manner and not in the sense of the deal they made.

Even though their plan is going relatively smoothly, it ends up being turned against them when Persephone gets a call from her sister, Eurydice, that she is being chased by Zeus’s men. Persephone and Hades both went over to the bridge and saw Eurydice being hurt by the man. Hades immediately, without a question or a doubt, went over to protect Eurydice for Persephone.

Persephone, after helping Eurydice, leaves to go back to the upper city to go back to Zeus to protect Hades after the war was on the verge of appearing on their doorstep. Hades, even though he was enraged, was told by Demeter to kill Zeus so that all of Olympus could be freed by him, most importantly Persephone. Hades managed to kill Zeus, but not in the way Demeter intended.

The book was honestly really good, even though the story felt kind of rushed, I absolutely enjoyed it. The story isn’t a complete retelling, it is a completely different story with just using the Greek gods and goddesses' names. So, I wouldn’t really call this a retelling. I wouldn’t read it again, but I am willing to read the other two books in the series and I am quite excited to read her other books as well.

I would give this book a ⅗ just because I felt the entire book was rushed. I still quite enjoyed the book and can’t wait to read the rest of her books. Right now I just started reading The Court of the Vampire Queen and I can’t wait to read the other books I have on my list that are her’s.

Desperate Characters

Desperate Characters is written by Paula Fox.

My manager actually recommended me this book and the one sentence he described the book as “A couple who are constantly on the verge of having a mental breakdown.” I immediately picked up the book and started reading it.

My manager was absolutely correct when he said that this book was about people having mental breakdowns. Sophie and Otto Bentwood are a married couple that has a number of issues going on that are presenting quite hard for them. Sophie is the main character throughout most of the novel and she tells us of her experiences and the inconveniences she has faced.

When it comes to Sophie, sometimes I do feel bad for her. Her husband, Otto, seems to be quite disconnected from her from time to time. Whenever she tries to talk to him about something he’ll completely dismisses her and she will go back to what she is doing. Sophie seems to always be doing something by herself. Whether it is taking care of the household or hanging out with her friends or just about anything is by herself without Otto in the picture.

When Sophie gets bit by the cat, he is worried about her and I honestly think that is the first side of him we see where he is not dismissing her. Otto cares about her but also wants to ignore or avoid certain conversations or topics. Otto only shows he cares when it involves him in some way. So when Sophie goes to talk to Charlie, his ex-coworker, he immediately becomes concerned because it is directly involving him.

At one point there is a chapter involving her affair and when I read it I had to honestly take a break from reading it afterward because it gave me such conflicted emotions. Sophie cannot have children and I think she blames herself for it. When Otto doesn’t pay too much to his involvement with Sophie she starts to look elsewhere and right toward one of Otto’s clients. Sophie goes with this man for about a week has an affair with him and starts to fall in love with this man because she finally feels loved. However, the man ends up going back to his ex-wife for forgiveness so he can move on and start a new relationship. Sophie wished that she was in that next relationship. Although she wished for that she still went back to Otto and was quite sure she never said a word about her affair to him.

The only time we get Otto’s discussion on Sophie becoming distant he actually starts to show how regretful he is about the way he treats Sophie and actually starts being nicer to her at the end of the story when they both begin to have their mental breakdown. Otto starts his mental breakdown because of work and his failing marriage while Sophie was having a mental breakdown about her health being in trouble, a cat that was likely to get put down all because she got too close to him, and the fact that her marriage was failing.

The two are both broken people who honestly just need to talk to one another but they don’t have the heart or strength to actually talk to one another and connect. The two seem to rather stick to their own minds and not actually discuss their issues. Sophie is still dreaming about her affair and disconnects herself from the conversations with Otto. Otto is so wrapped up in work that half of the time he doesn’t realize his wife is becoming distant.

For me, this book is such a sad piece. The book is so heartbreaking because the problems that they both are facing are so easy that they just need to look at each other and support each other. But they find it difficult to even speak a word to each other. When Sophie gets bit it takes her a good minute before she actually tells Otto that she got bit. Even though he’s concerned he barely helps her actually clean and wraps the wound. When Sophie is worried about Otto and his workmate Charlie he doesn’t mention anything about it and just dismisses the conversation. Sophie had to go out of her way to contact Charlie to even get a mention of anything about Otto. This couple is so heartbreaking and I was upset through the entire book from start to finish.

This book is absolutely fantastic and I would honestly give this book ⅘. Honestly, if the time came, I would probably re-read this book. I didn’t have too many negative views of the book besides the characters. They almost feel human because of how they feel, their actions, and the way they treat each other. I have recommended this book to my friends and even family members. It is a quick read and really flows but if you are an emotional person like me it might take a bit longer. If you want a book that gets you to think about decisions, I would honestly recommend this book.

Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match

Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne

This historical rom-com is one that I wouldn’t say is good or terrible. Angelika is seen as this intelligent woman who is too opinionated for her own good while her brother Victor is seen as the complete opposite who is about to become married. However, as the last final hoorah both Victor and Angelika go to a morgue to collect bodies for Angelika to create her perfect one. Angelika believes this to be her last hope of getting the person of her dreams to marry her.

Victor and Angelika’s relationship is immediately put into perspective as soon as the first chapter with indecent comments on literal bodies that are no longer living. Although they are comfortable with each other, it is the concept that these two are both siblings talking about another being’s body. This kind of threw me into something I wasn’t quite sure about but I continued to read the story.

Victor comes across to me as someone who is very arrogant, controlling, and can’t read the room. He is invasive at some points and at other times he doesn’t want to be involved with anyone around him besides his fiancee. It shows why Angelika follows him around and really doesn’t say too much. She kind of just sits there with her brother and at most times bickers but then doesn’t continue that argument or show how she feels.

Angelika is definitely stubborn, and although she wishes to be someone who is free and does as she pleases she also wants to get married and have kids of her own. She is put off by the idea of being a lone aunt taking care of her niece or nephew which in turn is understandable.

Continuing on, the writing can be quite disturbing as Angelika has no regard for Will, his being, how he feels, or even try to understand. Will is a person who was dead, has no recollection of his memories, and was told to marry the first woman he sees when waking up. He recognizes his feelings for her immediately and tells her, but also discusses that he doesn’t want to get into a relationship with her until he retrieves some form of his past life. Angelika helps him in some ways but completely disregards him in others. As soon as she meets Christopher she plays it off as if she doesn’t like him but then, later on, gets swooned by him. Instead of Angelika helping Will find himself so she can be with the person she claims she loves, she strings two men along and has them both compete for her affection with Will doesn’t care to do, and rightfully so.

Will desperately wants to know who he is, what happened to him, and why he was at a cheap morgue with no name to his person and was told that he has a ring but Angelika gave his hands away. In this case, would have infuriated me as a person that I was dismembered and had been completely disregarded about how I felt about being brought back alive. Instead of Will trying to compete for Angelika’s love, he ends up just trusting her and continues to try to find himself. Victor who really has no care for others, besides himself and science, drags Will through a number of experiments. Angelika has no clue about these experiments because she doesn’t even try to interact with Will after Christopher pops into the picture.

Once Angelika finally realizes that she was in fact a crappy human being finally tries to understand Will and help him out. They only found his identity because of the church Father who recognizes him. Which, was a running theme throughout the whole book on the declaration of believing in God or not. The religious undertones were extremely heavy, down to the end where Will, who finds out his true name is Arlo, just committed sin and pursues a relationship with Angelika.

This book honestly had a lot of humorous parts, but the overall creepiness of the book was off-putting between both Angelika and Victor. It was honestly kind of hard to read once I got further into it but I truly thought Thorne would discuss the Father hiding Arlo’s body in the first place but that never happened. Instead, it was deemed as a happy ending with Angelika and Arlo being in a lone house away from everyone else just enjoying themselves and Angelika giving away items and belongings to charity. I think there are better romance novels out there and definitely better historical romance novels. However, for the short read, as it was, it wasn’t terrible.

I gave this book a ⅗ for the reason that it was disturbing at times. I think those all should be put into perspective before reading this book. Thorne does write fantastically and I had an easy time understanding everything, but the plot and the creepiness of the twins kind of threw off the whole book. I wouldn’t read this again.

Manacled

 

Manacled written by SenLinYu

This is a fanfiction of Harry Potter involving Hermione and Draco. This does have assault, rape, and a lot of forms of abuse written within the book. There is also torture and death within this book so if you are in any form uncomfortable and don’t wish to read, there will be spoilers throughout this post as well.

Manacled is when someone is trapped and unable to escape. Completely bound by chains to hold that person down. In which case, that was Hermione Granger who has absolutely no memory and was forced out of her cell to be raped and impregnated to continue a dead wizard line. Her partner happens to be Draco Malfoy who originally wants nothing to do with it and just goes along with it in hopes of favoring Voldemort. However, it all starts going downhill as Hermione keeps questioning Draco’s intentions. His reactions are completely separate from what he tells Hermione. Once she pieces those few things together she starts to realize that they must have had an interaction with each other in the past. Once Hermione finds out that she is pregnant is when Draco reveals more. When Hermione regains her memories everything starts to come to life in their relationship, her past, and how she lost her memories in the first place. Draco and Hermione have decided on their own terms what they will do. Hermione is deemed to leave and go off by herself to where Ginny lived. Hermione refuses to leave Draco behind and makes a plan to help Draco escape with her. This involves Hermione cutting off Draco’s arm and Draco’s father helps the two escape by burning the entire Malfoy estate. With that, Draco and Hermione leave and head to where Ginny lives to hide from Voldemort and his army. Although they can’t go back, Ginny decides after a certain amount of time to finally end the war and manages to kill Voldemort.

Hermione Granger is very different in this book. Her memory loss and trauma strike her as very vulnerable. At times she gains the courage to speak up and say something, but it is masked with anxiety inside. She tries her best to overcome this dark feeling inside of her, but it is extremely hard for her to do. Even when she finally learns about her memory loss and escapes, it is still hard for her to move through. The way she escapes is through reading, experimenting, and coming up with plans and ideas. She is a lot smaller in this story but once she becomes pregnant she starts to pack on that weight which also changes her emotionally as well. She is extremely self-critical of herself and feels horrible about being pregnant. Draco also forms this very self-conscious matter where he feels like he is a bit of a problem even though he is doing his best to keep a promise that could have been long forgotten. He tries his best to complete his job but he believes that it involves being killed without any other form of alternative. He is distraught and has a dark aura around him from using dark magic. In the end, he loses his arm just to escape from Voldemort.

The story is set in two different locations. There are the battlefields that they’ve fought on but the two main locations are Hogwarts and Malfoy Manor. Those two locations are primarily in the story. This creates a sense of familiarity while making it dark. Instead of being homey or feeling safe, these locations almost seemed to be filled with dread.

This book was incredibly even for such a long read. It is divided really into three different sections and the text flows smoothly. SenLinYu is a fantastic writer. I was never bored at any point and I was drawn to keep reading to see what was next. This honestly had to be one of my favorite reads even with how depressing it was. If you think that this would be the same as All You Want, it is not. The two are nothing like each other even though they have similarities. 

All You Want

Image from goodreads.com.

When I first saw her work on TikTok I was skeptical since I wasn’t that big on Harry Potter fanfiction, especially the ones that involved Hermione and Draco. I was just never interested in seeing a relationship like that blossom, however, I still decided to give All You Want by SenLinYu a try and I was not disappointed. Her two big pieces of work have been my all-time favorite pieces of fanfiction so far.

The story begins with Hermione sitting in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express when Draco storms into her compartment after being chased by a bunch of girls. At first, Hermione was taking notice of how some of her male classmates have physically gotten bigger and more handsome in appearance. That was when she paid closer attention to Malfoy who was in her compartment and in turn, began to grow a romantic interest in him. Throughout the book, their relationship is shaky. They both love each other, but won’t fully admit their feelings because they just believe the other is doing it out of a different meaning so they never talk or try to get into a relationship. However, by the end of the book, they both managed to talk and finally get past all of their misunderstandings. There were a few complications that mixed between them, but, they both ended up in a relationship with each other and became incredibly happy with one another. This is very much not just a simple romance book. It is heavy with lust and most of the time both Hermione and Draco are complicated with one another.

Many of the characters we know and love were in this book. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and obviously the two main characters which are Hermione and Draco. The one thing I have noticed is that when it comes to fanfiction, it can be hard to take someone else’s fully developed character and put them into your own work. However, SenLinYu completely captures the characters and puts them into her own world. It works perfectly. I was not disappointed with how easily she managed to take their personalities and place them right in. Their appearance stayed the same as in the books, except for a few things that added depth to SenLinYu’s story.

The story is set at Hogwarts. However, there are a few different locations like the head office, the library, the dorms, and a secret room that is personal to Hermione and Draco. That is really the only difference. But for the most part, it is in Hogwarts.

Myself, I really enjoyed the ending. It was a breath of relief once they finally cleared up their misunderstandings. It is a beautifully written book and I really enjoyed it. I would easily recommend the book if someone wanted to read a book that was free, had a little bit of romance but mainly erotica, and it still has a hint of fantasy. At some point, I might read it again with how it was written.