Fairytale inspired fantasy story that disappointed me greatly. This is the first volume of the Darkmourn series, and I actually already read vol. 2 (which also wasn't that good, but better) cause they are technically stand-alones, but you get spoiled on how the one before turned out, so I'd recommend reading in order (though I wouldn't recommend it in general). Knowing the outcome didn't influence my reading of this one. I just didn't like it. So the story is, as I said, inspired by The Beauty and the Beast, just here the beast is a vampire, who became one through the curse of a witch. Must have been a bad witch, though cause it kinda backfired, and she became cursed herself, losing her power. The beasts curse also sealed him in a castle, and for whatever reason (this isn't really explained) once a year on the blood moon, he has to feed on a victim, which they offer to him (what would happen if they don't?). Then it was prophesied that the 100th claim would be a descendant who can do magic again (why? I guess it's random 🤷🏻‍♂️) and would kill the beast, ending the curse so they can all have magic again (if he doesn't get killed before that). There is just so much that either doesn't make sense, isn't explained, or the explanation is just: magic, innit 🤷🏻‍♂️ Like why must a claim be made, and how did they know? Cause this is apparently the first time this curse has been used (how did that even happen), and why does the claim need to arrive there one month ahead. Why not go on the night of the blood moon? And why can the claim step through the barrier, but others can't? Well, that's not even true. Katherine is somehow special 🤷🏻‍♂️ (guess they needed an explanation of how the food got there, but how does she even manage that, with what money, etc.). I could go on and on. Then, the relationship. I am sorry, but this author seems to not know how to write a slow burn. I had the same problem with volume 2 (though that one was better generally). First, they hate each other, and then after a while, through one interaction, it's suddenly all fine. They talk as if they already have some special relationship, and just start making out 😀 I just couldn't take them serious. There were some cute scenes in there, but with that context, the emotions just didn't feel genuine. Also cause the characters didn't have much depth. All too shallow for any real tension. Also, it was just boring. Besides two very minor side characters, it was just the two of them in that castle, and not much interesting happened. There was this fight at the end, but that was also boring, even though our main character is basically the avatar with his elemental magic. The end didn't make much sense (the curse didn't anyways), though I liked the outcome. There were just so many little weird things (like, why is he sleeping in a coffin? This world doesn't know what vampires are yet. Also, why is his whole body cold except for his 🍆), that annoyed me with their nonsense, and the characters didn't make me feel anything. Well, besides being annoyed (Jak isn't the smartest). So, yeah, didn't like it. Maybe this author just isn't for me. He seems like a cool person on Insta/Tiktok, but this is the second book I didn't like, and I have two more on my tbr 😅 Let's hope it's just this series... I will definitely give the others a chance, but then that's it.

I knew from the beginning I could never give anything else then 5⭐ I devoured this book and enjoyed every single word of it. The writing is just as I love it, perfectly well threaded, poetically descriptive and flowing like fine wine. I mean it. This book was everything and OMG I love Marius and Jak. One of my new fave couples out there now. I hope more people come across this book and read it and love it just as I did. Beautiful story. And yes. Yes it is smut. Yes it is gay fantasy smut and it's EVER THING OMG EEEKS HEHEHEHHE

So I can’t quote PinPoint if I only gave it such a low rating cause I found the narrator horrible, or if I had big issues with the story. It’s a shorter book than I usually read, so ofc some of it will feel a little rushed. At times it did feel a little boring tho and I did not like how Jack kept talking about his powers and how he had to wait. It felt a bit repetitive. But I really like the author as a person, that I got to know during his booktube times. He is such a lovely person. So I will probably pick this book up as a physical copy sometime and read it again, cause I can imagine that my real issue was the narrator and not really the story as such and in total. I did like the overall storyline so … we will see.

Boah, das war leider echt nicht gut ... Irgendwie hat mir so gut wie nichts an dem Buch gefallen und das tut mir irgendwie voll leid. Die Charaktere waren flach (bis auf die Bauchmuskeln von Marius, die die Ausmaße von Bergen haben), die Dialoge (vor allem die Sexdialoge) hölzern und die Geschichte (das irgendwie Retelling) klischeehaft und cringe. Marius hat statt einem eigenen Charakter einfach einen Penis, der eines Gottes würdig ist und Jak ... ja keine Ahnung, der ist so spannend wie ein weißes Blatt Papier. Ich weiß einfach nicht, was ich sagen soll; außer, das man seine Verzweiflung und Willenskraft nicht in sein Blut pumpen und dann jemand anderem ne verzweifelte, aber willensstarke Infusion geben kann. Sorry, aber funktioniert so nicht. Echt nicht.

Zumindest solange sie nicht unbedingt Glitzern. Ich habe tatsächlich recht lange gebraucht, um richtig in die Geschichte zu kommen. Erst ab der Hälfte hatte es mich dann komplett. Es war seit etwas längerer Zeit das erste Buch, das ich wieder auf Englisch gelesen habe. Das muss ich definitiv wieder öfter tun. Dann dauert es bestimmt auch nicht wieder so lange, mich in einer Geschichte zurecht zu finden. Ich denke, ich werde mir auch den nächsten Band der Reihe zulegen.

Zu Beginn wurde man etwas mit Informationen überschüttet, was sich aber im Laufe des Bands alles geklärt hat. Ich fand die Dynamik und charakterliche Beziehung zwischen Jak und dem Biest (Marius) echt toll gestaltet. Auch die expliziten Stellen waren sehr gut geschrieben. Mit dem Story Plot gegen Ende hab ich so nicht gerechnet (wenn man weiß was eigentlich geplant war von Jak). Bin aber mit dem Ende sehr zufrieden gewesen :)