Review:
*I received an ecopy of this book via BookSirens. This has not influenced my review.*
A writer’s characters coming to life is not a new idea, but the way this author wrote it was a lot of fun! It wasn’t just a character showing up in the real world, it was multiple characters showing up (including a villain), the main character traveling into the book world, and a whole magic system for how it all worked, how they were traveling back and forth, and how it affected Frankie’s story and the lives of the characters he’d created. Or maybe not created, since the characters and world went beyond what he had written or even known about them… All of this made for an attention-grabbing and interesting story with a fairly fast pace and plenty of action and stakes that was part low/paranormal/urban fantasy in our world and part portal fantasy in the world Frankie’s characters were from.
Another especially cool thing was how the author delved into Frankie’s feelings about finding out the world and characters he’d created were real. He thought he was just writing about fictional people who would never actually suffer, only to suddenly be faced with the idea that they were real and he gave them trauma and emotional struggles and killed off their loved ones and nearly killed off Rook himself.
The one place this fell a little short for me was in the romance. They spent time together in a dangerous situation, and Frankie already knew a lot about Rook, so I could understand him falling quickly after meeting him as a real person and seeing sides to him that he hadn’t seen before. But I didn’t quite feel Rook’s feelings. I’m not exactly sure why. I think I needed a few more scenes with the two of them bonding or having fun or sharing emotional intimacy or something. But it was still sweet and sexy, and they did have good chemistry in the sex scenes!
The characters were enjoyable to read about. Rook (the demon prince in Frankie’s books) could be demanding and rude and possessive and, well, an asshole. He was understandably angry when he first discovered his life, and death, were made up by someone writing a story. But he was very good at adapting and being self-sufficient when he was dropped into an entirely new world, I have to give him that, and it turned out he had a softer and sweeter side Frankie hadn’t known about. Sage (the king of one kingdom in Frankie’s books) was virtuous and responsible and caring, feeling somewhat crushed by the pressure but still wanting to do the right thing. And Frankie was sort of a normal guy doing his best, passionate about his writing, and even more passionate when it came to Rook.
Overall, this was a fun take on the idea of characters coming to life with a cool magic system, a gripping plot, and a demon prince with a secret soft side!
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes characters coming to life, m/m romance, paranormal/urban fantasy + portal fantasy, and asshole characters with a secret soft side.
“and asshole characters with a secret soft side”
😂
It was the best way to describe him lol.
The characters sound really interesting in this one.
They were!
I went on a vacation one time and brought a fantasy book with me. It was part of a series of books and I doubt I find other books in the series. I only read a little bit of that book, but it was about a writer whose character came to life. I can’t remember the book right now though.
Yeah, I know there’s definitely other books out there with this idea, but I don’t know if I’ve actually read any. Seems like you weren’t too into the one you picked up though, bummer!
This sounds like so much fun!
I have read a few books about characters coming to life but not with the *author* going into their worlds with villains and all that. Very cool.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
It was! Yeah, the portal fantasy element was unexpected, but I liked it.
It sounds like a fun concept having a character come to life and then the MC travelling into the book as well. I imagine writers become heavily attached to the characters they create so I’m thinking that sort of feeds into the romance here. I could see how it wouldn’t work so well for the character of the book, though, the writer created him and knows all aspects of what he wrote so could fall easily but I would imagine more resentment the other way. I suppose it all depends how it’s written though.
It was! It definitely seems believable to quickly fall for a character you yourself created since you’d know them so well, and especially if it turned out they had sweet parts to them you were just learning about. But yeah, just could’ve used a bit more the other way around.