I'm starting to sincerely doubt that I read the same book as everyone else. If I'm being completely honest I was bored from the beginning. Something about the heroine and how naive she comes across made it really hard for me to root for her in any way. After a while, I realized that that's just how she's written. The romantic side plot is moving at a glacier's pace and I don't even know if I like the guy because he's barely in the story up to this point. The actual story is also at a standstill and has been for quite some time. It only just now started to start (which with how bored I already am is just too late in the book for me) The people she surrounds herself with, for the most part, either have an attitude toward her or are just plain mean or boring. The one thing I disliked about the heroine that left a bad taste in my mouth was how she went out of her way to s*ut shame and profession shame (the other woman was a sex worker) another woman because she was jealous. Like... I'm sorry but in this house, we don't shame other people for doing what they need to do to survive. Hell, if sex work is what someone wants to do go right ahead. As long as you're not hurting/endangering yourself or others I won't be commenting on it because it's none of my business nor anyone else's. Fallon slowly falling in love with Lorcan without OW/OM drama and slowly learning to trust him and his people.

House of Beating Wings by Olivia Wildenstein, Paperback House of Beating Wings by Olivia Wildenstein, Paperback

Fallon is a girl looked down upon in society. Working at the tavern, not a brothel, she has seen the worst of the worst when it comes to men. Known as the “serpent charmer”, everyone stays on edge wondering what if she truly has powers, even though she says otherwise. And watching her character grow through the book was done perfectly. Other than that, we do get some romance. Well, hints of a horrible love triangle. Spoiler alert: I didn't like either guy. I feel like she should leave them both in the dust and go off with the bird. Just saying. I feel like she would be happier, and I would be too. The Author Resource Round Table on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/116489?group_id=26989The romance in this book will keep you on your toes! It was brilliant how it all unfolded. I found myself vacillating between Antoni and Dante. I didn't know which one would be the right choice for Fallon and I liked them both for different reasons. But hold on, because a few somethings happened and my mind was reeling. The story took me somewhere that had my pulse pounding, I beyond ecstatic and it was absolutely genius! Fans of slow burn romance are going to love it! This was very refreshing fantasy book. I really liked it, but it felt a little less maybe it's with the fact that this was the first book in the series. It reads like a first draft slapped together, given a beautiful cover and sent on its way. The writing is incredibly juvenile and very poorly edited. I am surprised beta readers (assuming there were any) didn't flag any of this before the final story was released. Fallon is so stupid. Literally, she is just so dumb. Not even just child-like. She has absolutely no critical thinking skills and has no idea what deductive reasoning is. It's so much worse than just naivety. It was infuriating having this book told from her POV. All the other characters were so much more interesting and dynamic. If not for Fallon, this could have been a 5 star novel.

House of Beating Wings by Olivia Wildenstein (ePUB) House of Beating Wings by Olivia Wildenstein (ePUB)

Lorcan: 😍😍😍stop I love him so much. He’s the BEST. MY PRECIOUS. maybe I could steal him from Fallon... Reading this I was like damn.... am I? am I attracted to a crow- turned out I was, and it was a heavenly experience.There were so many amazing shoot offs Wildenstein could have explored here, but she ignored a grand total of all of them and chose to waste readers time with silly things. - Don't get me started on the weird "you should sell your virginity" path we headed down for no reason." THE BEST THING about this book was definitely the world-building. It was very well thought-out and I appreciated all the little details. I think the magic and the different cities/races were all well explained and kept me interested in the story. We kept learning more and more about the history and the different races and it was a nice and steady release of information. GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/s Olivia is the byproduct of a meet-rude in a Parisian discotheque that turned into an epic love story spanning several decades. Naturally, this shaped the way she viewed romance. The world building was absolutely phenomenal. From the different creatures, to all the land, islands and laws, I felt like I could clearly imagine it all right in front of me.

House of Beating Wings (The Kingdom of Crows Book 1) House of Beating Wings (The Kingdom of Crows Book 1)

This came recommended by another author who's work I respect, and having read Wildenstein already I know they has proven themselves to be a fantastic writer with the first two books in the Angels of Elysium books, so I have no idea what happened here.

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One of my top reads for the whole year. This book was so captivating. I felt transported to another world instantly. However, I must say that the last 25% or so were so thrilling that I really started to enjoy the story despite the MC being annoying. I’m not sure how much the pain of going through the first half of the book is worth it though… Ready to fall in love? Sign up to her Newsletter to claim your FREEBIE: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/hmniv0406r We don’t technically meet the Hero until the second half of the book— this didn’t bother me too much but I thought it was worth mentioning. Think of it like the ACOTAR series (don’t worry though, Lorcan gets a lot more screen time in this than Rhys did in Acotar). Fans of Sarah J. Maas and Mary E. Pearson will devour this epic fantasy romance full of deceit, betrayal, and false loves that could swallow a person whole.

House of Beating Wings (1) (The Kingdom of Crows)

Although Fallon undergoes a lot of growth throughout this book, she kind of annoyed me at the beginning (and middle) with her obsession with the prince (not a spoiler- it’s literally mentioned in the synopsis). However, I will say that I’m super glad that by the end of this novel, that was all done. That’s why I think the next installment will be better than this one— because we hopefully won’t have any more unnecessary love triangles (which, as we all know, I absolutely hate lol). I think what ruins a lot of this book for me, well besides the MC being VERY naive and immature, is the fact that we as readers can see where the story is going from the very beginning. It’s not hard to sus out which characters we should be wary of and which direction the plot was gonna move. I was lowkey just waiting for the MC to catch up with what I assume most readers had already suspected from the start. One such example if the narrators constant stream of side thoughts. Dozens of lines which add nothing but word count. Yes a decent editor should have advised it all be left on the cutting room floor but a write of Wildenstein's usual caliber should also have seen at second glance of her manuscript that it was all utter rubbish. The main character Fallon has no clear purpose or character growth, she just goes blindly into literally everything without a second of questioning. And not to mention every character conveniently adds into the plot in the most seamless and unproblematic way it makes no sense.

Right off the bat, I immediately recognized the difference between the writing style in this book and in the author’s other works (the last book I read by her being Starlight). Although I love that series, I have to say that the writing worked a lottt better for me here. It just seemed much more mature (which makes sense given this is a NA/adult novel instead of YA). I personally love it when characters curse and speak freely and plainly in my books —they just seem more relatable to me once they curse lmao— which is probably why this worked so well for me. I loved Fallon as and FMC, she is headstrong and independent and doesn´t care about others opinions of her while she is being her true self. Which also makes her a really honest and direct person. She is not your typical sword-swinging badass, but I loved her strong personality. What I also loved was the little touch of making her a vegetarian with her ever-present love for animals. The only thing that annoyed me about her a little bit sometimes was how naive she seemed to be in certain situations while to me, the reader, it seemed to be obvious. But hey, I guess that´s what love sometimes does to us, so can´t be too strict on that one. Speaking of love, I had no idea it was possible to absolutely love a character that isn’t even in the first half of the book. If you know, you know…new book boyfriend! Authors, if you are a member of the Goodreads Author Program, you can edit information about your own books. Find out how in this guide.