Category romance

Aug 11 2026
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DNF Q&A: The Winged Game by Sophie Kim

Title: The Winged Game

Author: Sophie Kim

Series: N/A

Genre: Romantacy

Rating: 1/5 stars

The Overview: Fantasy meets sports romance in this sizzling slow-burn novel from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The God and the Gumiho, in which the disgraced star of a brutal magical sport must team up with the rival who destroyed her career. Carriwitchet, the violent, rugby-esque game played atop winged beasts, was once Taissa Cho’s whole life, and she was once the United Kingdom’s most promising player. Until her nemesis, rival player Kion Locke, destroyed her career in a single moment. Expelled from the sport in disgrace, Taissa has spent the last two years dreaming of nothing but revenge and relishing watching Kion’s team plummet to the bottom of the league.So when Taissa is offered the chance to redeem herself and her career, she can’t refuse—even if the offer is coming from the very man who ruined everything in the first place. It’s close to a dream come true . . . except for that pesky clause in her contract that demands she and Kion enter a fake relationship in order to garner some much-needed positive PR for the team. This could not be a worse match. Taissa and Kion only have two things in their love of the game, and their undying hatred for each other.Yet as a mysterious illness befalls the winged creatures of the entire league—putting both the beasts’ lives and the very sport itself at stake—the athletes find themselves partnering up in other ways, determined to crack the case of the eerie sickness. As their investigation takes them on a whirlwind adventure, Kion and Taissa are prepared for anything . . . Anything, that is, but their fake-for-the-cameras relationship to maybe, just maybe, become something real after all. –Goodreads

The Q&A:

Did you really give The Winged Game a chance?

I made it about 25% into the book before calling it quits, and actually read a good bit longer after I realized it wasn’t working for me. I held out hope, but it just kept getting worse…

Have you enjoyed other books in the same genre before?

The answer here is kind of. I love fantasy and I like romance, but not together. I’ve read the Fourth Wing series and love the dragons and the school settings, but could’ve done without all of the other things that qualified that book as a Romantacy. I definitely don’t think this genre is for me, but I was hoping the sports and competition aspect of this book would’ve been good enough for me to overlook the elements I don’t like. Here are the romances I actually like, by contrast (a few contemporaries and one fantasy with a great love story): 

Did you have certain expectations before starting it?

I was naive and hopeful. I knew going in that it was going to have a heavy romance component (which by the way I don’t always mind as long as it’s done well), so I was expecting that. But I didn’t expect it to take on almost all of the page count. Since the sports and competition angle was being pitched so hard, I thought that would take on a more prominent role that it did (up to where I read, anyway).

What ultimately made you stop reading?

I hated the relationship. And the characters, if I’m honest. I don’t throw around the word “hate” very often, but this book really got under my skin.

First of all, The relationship and the characters are incredibly immature. If their ages hadn’t been shared in the book (her 24, him 30), I would’ve said they read exactly like a 16 year old and a 19 year old, respectively. The entire basis behind the conflict is blaming someone else for your very poor decisions and then perpetuating the negativity with very poor behavior. 90% of what I read was the characters throwing venom back and forth to emphasize just how much they hate each other (but with a few awkward sexual attraction references thrown in, because let’s not make it too weird). Everything about this reads like high school drama, so other than aforementioned sexual references and an F-Bomb on every page, it was incredibly YA in tone and spirit.

I know we’re going for an enemies to lovers angle. That’s a trope I actually quite liked in Emily Henry’s Book Lovers. But the downright viciousness exhibited here, especially from the female lead, was excessive. But then immaturity compounds with this ridiculous farce of a plot where the characters have to pretend to date each other for the sake of a public image (some very loose reasoning about sports dynamics), but in reality it’s just a plot device to have the characters touch intimately as often as possible “for the sake of the cameras.” Gee, how romantic.

The book lost me entirely when they started jumping on the bed together and moaning to simulate an intimate moment.

Stupid. I thought the whole thing was stupid. I hated how vicious they were to each other. I hated how no one seemed to care about taking responsibility for their own actions. I hated the forced physical interactions (which didn’t do anything to build chemistry, it was just icky). And honestly the whole thing read to me a bit trashy. I really did not like this book.

Was there anything you liked about The Winged Game?

The sport was cool – kind of a Quidditch knock-off where they ride magical creatures (a specific one for each team, like giant birds. And dragons.) and compete to collect treasures from each other’s strongholds. If I got some of the details wrong, it’s because the book didn’t really spend much time on it up to where I stopped reading. It was 5% fun sports, 95% senseless drama.

Oh, yes, I liked the grumpy old mount. If I were to have continued reading, it would’ve been out of curiosity for that creature.

Would you read anything else by this author?

No, it’s clear that the genre and story isn’t my jam, and what the author finds “hot” will definitely not work for me. This is a case of going our separate ways. I’m sure the author would prefer I refrain from bashing her books in the future.

So you DNF’d the book – would you still recommend it?

Absolutely not, even as a “I didn’t like this, but you might still want to try it.” But here’s the thing, this book has SOO many positive reviews on Goodreads. To the point where I’m like… is this what women are finding romantic these days? And are we collectively okay with how much venom the female lead was allowed to spit at him without repercussion? Idk but the entire thing sits very uneasily with me. I’m glad to leave this book behind.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Karen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa, Derek, Kelly, Grace, Carmen, and Leticia! <3

This DNF review format was borrowed with permission from Nikki @ There Were Books Involved (who doesn’t blog anymore, but she still gets all the credit).

by Niki Hawkes

Jul 15 2025
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Book Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Title: Great Big Beautiful Life

Author: Emily Henry

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years–or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century. When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game. One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over. Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication. Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition. But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it. –Goodreads <-omg you don’t even have to read the book if you read this massive overview.

The Review:

This was an ambitious Emily Henry novel that hit different notes than her previous books. Overall, I found it a wild success, even though it didn’t quite give me that same “fix.“

I can see why this book was chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s book club because it was written more like a literary fiction with the romance as a supporting plot driver. It contained a story with a story that was woven throughout the chapters giving the book multigenerational vibes and a lot of additional points of interest. I usually struggle with stories within a story, often caring less about what’s going on in the secondary storyline and feel impatient to get back to the main point of the book. I felt that on occasion here, but ultimately Henry is such a brilliant writer that she managed to make me care about everything (eventually).

The real test was whether or not that story with a story ultimately worked to support the main plot between the love interests. I had doubts even though I shouldn’t have – Henry has more than earned my trust by this point and yes, it delivered in an incredibly satisfying way.

So because the book was written well, I thought it ended amazing, and it kept me hooked the entire way through, I’m rating it highly. But there’s just a piece of me no matter how obstinate that wishes even more time had been spent with the main characters. Because everything was so well woven together and dependent for that payoff, I thought the craft elements were brilliant. But if my main draw to the story was the relationship dynamic between the two main characters, I felt the story within a story a major buzz-kill when things mattered most. It broke up their relationship momentum and made me feel much more disconnected during “important“ moments than I have with previous books.

And one more thing that didn’t quite land was the whole “we can’t be together because of some stupid arbitrary reason“ component to the book. I don’t have a lot of patience for stuff like that. Emily Henry handles tropes like that better than any other author I’ve read, and I realize that the tension of the book was completely reliant on it, but I tend to prefer different relationship-dynamic structures. That one is more a personal gripe than any knock on the quality of the story, but it was just enough to make me feel like this particular contention point was my least favorite of Henry’s that I’ve read.

Conversely, I think Alice and Hayden were among my favorite characters that I’ve read so far from the author. I didn’t find either of them relatable in the slightest, but I did find them equally charming, realistic, and just downright fun to root for. It might be recency bias, but I think of all the couples that I’ve read about, this is the one I’d be interested in spending more books with. I really liked them.

Overall, if you’re not super into contemporary romance yet, but like your literary fiction, this is an excellent crossover and I think a good introduction into Emily Henry’s works. If you don’t give one wit about literary fiction, but want to try a fun, contemporary romance, pick a different Henry. All of us Henry fans will tell you we liked different books the most. My personal favorites were Beach Read and Book Lovers (…and People We Meet on Vacation, lol). She’s my favorite author in the genre, her books are absorbing and totally addicting, and I can’t wait to read what she comes out with next.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Dagmara, Poochtee, Kinsey! <3

by Niki Hawkes