Trickery by Jaymin Eve

 

DNF @ 43%

Last year, I decided that if I wasn't enjoying a book, I wasn't going to make myself finish it because life is too short to read bad or even mediocre books. If I give a book a one star, that means I thought it was pretty bad. A two star means I probably could have finished it but just didn't see the point. That's kind of how I feel about TRICKERY.

I can definitely see why TRICKERY is so popular. It has the breathless, madcap vibe of some of those stories that used to be really popular on the website, Quizilla, which I used actively as a teen. I actually probably would have enjoyed this story a lot when I was thirteen or fourteen because a lot of the popular stories on Quizilla were reverse-harem (although they weren't called that back then-- they had names like I'm a Girl Trapped in an All Boys' Boarding School or Would an Angel, a Demon, or a Vampire Fall for You?). 

The heroine, Willa, along with her friend, Emmy, end up being taken to serve at a school for gods-in-the-making. Emmy is taken because she is brilliant but Willa, who is so clumsy people say she's cursed, was a mistake. Not that anyone is sorry to see her go. Once at the school, Willa, with her clumsiness and her attitude, catches the attention of five brothers: a twin and a triplet set who each possess the manifestation of some particular element.

I took issue with a couple things that kept me from finishing. The heroine is very immature and so are all of the other characters. Even though this is kind of new adult-feeling, the characters all feel very young and the jokes are juvenile and not all that funny to me, a thirty-year-old woman. The tone also feels very chatty and modern, which was an issue I had with Jennifer Armentrout's vampire fantasy novel, so actually if you enjoy that book, you'll probably enjoy this. They felt similar in tone.

I think this is mostly a case of "it's not you, it's me."

2 out of 5 stars