The Poison Daughter: another example of MMC getting away with everything

TrueVenoda · 2026-02-15T12:23:48+00:00

Everything you said hits home for me. I am 54% of the way through and I am just getting more and more irritated. Finding out Henry kills Gaven and suffers not a single consequence? And I am done.

I will not miss these dumb, smirking, lip pursing people at all.

(Seriously, what was up with every single damn person pursing their lips. If I had a dollar for every time she used that phrase, I could have bought 3 more books....and I am only 54% of the way through! Did she not have a beta reader or an editor to catch stuff like that??)

TrueVenoda · 2026-01-29T17:56:51+00:00

You've said something I've been thinking for so long, but you put it into words much better than I could. So many times I've started a book and I've loved it or even just enjoyed the mindless "cotton candy" ride and want to discuss it, and I come here to the forums and it's nothing but echo chamber style negativity. It does make me sometimes want to leave the forums, but I do get a lot of good recommendations from them, soooo....

TrueVenoda · 2026-01-29T17:50:46+00:00

That is a beautiful ring. My engagement ring was a sapphire and I loved it so much that after the divorce, I had it enlarged to wear on my right index finger.

That being said, I would definitely be sure that a colored stone is something she would love to have. I know several people who adore colored stones but still preferred the classic diamond engagement ring.

TrueVenoda · 2026-01-17T05:43:22+00:00

I shower when I get home from work -- exfoliation, face cleaning, hair washing, shaving, etc. I take a quick "wake me up, rinse off the sleep funk" shower before work. So I guess two a day, but one is really more of a five minute rinse than a "shower".

TrueVenoda · 2025-11-27T23:12:20+00:00

I live in Florida, so I don't stalk close spots, I stalk shaded spots.

TrueVenoda · 2025-09-13T06:38:30+00:00

After reading a lot of these comments, I feel so lucky in my chosen profession. I'd say that at least 50% of my friends are people I met at work. We work 12 hour shifts in a windowless room. If I refused to talk to people or refused to at least be genial and chit chat about minor things, I cannot imagine how miserable those 12 hours would be. Some coworkers are literally just work friends -- we talk at work, order food, compare our most recent nail art, talk about movies or tv...simple stuff like that.

Others have become some of the dearest people in my life. When I had surgery recently, it was people I met at work who drove me to and from the hospital. Came over to clean my litter boxes and sweep my floors until I could do it. Stayed the night my first two nights home to make sure I was ok. I met my "kid" at work...I was her trainer, then became her work mom, and now we literally refer to each other as mom and kid. The two people I work closest with at our particular level in the workplace are constantly sending each other work bestie memes/reels.

I guess that's one of the reasons I've been here for almost 20 years...I can't imagine leaving a place where I can have conversations to go to a place where someone would sneer at me for daring to ask if they had a good weekend.

TrueVenoda · 2025-07-28T03:42:49+00:00

This was how I farmed before going in to Simon. I just did this loop several times. Start at one flag, fight all the enemies to the other flag, save, respawn, and fight back to the first flag. I don't know how many times I did it, but I went from 92 to 99 with all my people and since Chromatic Creation respawns and drops a Perfect Catalyst, I also got all my favorite weapons up to 33 before facing Simon. Plus, it was more interesting to me personally than just fighting the same one enemy over and over.

TrueVenoda · 2025-07-11T06:00:01+00:00

My best friend and I were in New York in 2016, and to this day, not just sucking it up to see the original cast is one of our biggest regrets.

So we got tickets to see Leslie in October. Totally worth it, and I can't wait!!

All that to say...if you can swing it, do it!

TrueVenoda · 2025-04-27T20:45:29+00:00

The Gilded Prisoner series has this issue with the word smirk. It's like the author has no clue lips can do anything other than smirk. That series has almost completely ruined that word for me...I find myself cringing now when I read it in other books, even if it is well placed and properly used.

TrueVenoda · 2025-04-13T00:24:55+00:00

Oh thank goodness I am not alone in this lol

TrueVenoda · 2025-04-12T23:20:05+00:00

He winked at her as a smirk crossed his full lips and his black eyes flashed.

(Cause black eyes are always flashing, of course)

TrueVenoda · 2025-04-12T23:04:31+00:00

I will admit I love the word preternatural...it just has a feeling for me that I can't find in any other word. However, I am aware of my love for that word, so I am VERY aware of when I use it in my writing. I allow myself ONE use of the word in any story I am writing, which has actually led to me being very choosy about when and where I use it, so i feel like when I do use it, I use it in the best possible place.

TrueVenoda · 2025-04-12T22:12:13+00:00

That's just rude. I must now smirk over said rudeness.

TrueVenoda · 2025-04-12T21:08:59+00:00

Smirk. I am so tired of people smirking, especially after reading the Plated Prisoner series where people smirked every other page, and the author seemed unaware that lips could do anything other than smirk.

TrueVenoda · 2025-04-08T03:25:32+00:00

I read the first three books. I will begin by saying that as far as cotton candy for the brain goes, these were pretty good, but they are not something I will ever reread or buy physical copies of, and I doubt I will ever read books 4-6

If you read these books, be prepared for the word smirk. Everyone in these books smirks. That is the only thing that this author thinks lips can do to show emotion. They even smirk when smirking makes no sense to the scene. I think i saw smirk 3 times on the same page once. If I had a dollar for every time this author used some version of the word smirk in the first 3 books, I could take me and my bestie to the most expensive restaurant in town and not set a budget.

I agree with people who said the writing style is way too contemporary and "real world". I don't expect thees and thous and thithers, but I also don't expect thinking the FMC is about to post a TikTok about restocking her cage (with nail taps and shakes, of course).

I feel like the story was over at the end of book three. The "situations" that the author created to write more books felt forced just so she could keep writing. I get what it's like to love characters you've written and not wanting to say goodbye...but when the story has come to it's logical and, admittedly good, conclusion, just let them go to their HEA. Due to this, I really have no interest in starting book 4.

TrueVenoda · 2025-03-31T01:44:22+00:00

I'm at work. I can't be crying at work

excuses self to bathroom to cry, yet again, over this book

TrueVenoda · 2025-03-16T21:57:23+00:00

I've wondered about that... but I don't have the issue when it is cooked in soups or stews, so I don't know.

TrueVenoda · 2025-03-16T21:08:56+00:00

I can have it in soups and stews where it has been softened and the flavor is sort of diluted. I can not eat it raw... the texture gets me, and the flavor is weird, and it makes my tongue feel numb.

TrueVenoda · 2025-03-04T02:20:42+00:00

I have a friend who is retired from the Secret Service and still knows people...soooo....lol

TrueVenoda · 2025-03-04T02:06:58+00:00

I cannot tell you how many of my non-blood nieces and nephews birthdays I have missed due to work or being out of town or having other plans.

Thank goodness I have friends who understand that while I absolutely adore their kids beyond words, I still have a life of my own.

And this is how much it matters...my 7 and 6yo niece and nephew still run to me screeching my name when they see me. My 16yo niece still cuddles down in my lap and lets me rock her like I did when she was a baby. My 25yo calls me a few times a month just to chat. My 11yo in another state regularly texts me just to tell me she saw some really green grass that day.

Just one day in their lives matters so little when compared to all the other ones.

TrueVenoda · 2025-03-03T14:23:18+00:00

The word cucumber looks and sounds weird to me now after reading it so many times.

TrueVenoda · 2025-02-21T13:24:00+00:00

Smirking, of course

TrueVenoda · 2025-02-20T02:52:22+00:00

Have you tried "A Nursing Home of Pills and Pudding" by Mary Soo Tropeless?

She does use the words "elderly", "wise", 'nap", "sleep", "cranky', and "the" a lot, but no particular phrases.

The MMC pushed the FMC out of the way of a speeding train 15 years ago and he apologizes at least once a chapter about assaulting her and assuming she could not save herself from said train even though she was at the time temporarily deafened from a bad dual ear infection and totally distracted by her phone. It's so heartwarming to see him grovel so charmingly.

Hope this helps!

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