This is a new author to me, and Dulcinea and The Death Code was not only interesting, but it kept me wanting to know what happened to the main characters.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Dulcinea and The Death Code by Victoria Ray was such a thrilling ride from start to end. I was thoroughly gripped throughout the whole story. The main character was beautifully crafted and well thought out, and there were many references to the X-Men series, which I also love.
I cannot wait to read the next book in the series, which is called The Child of Illusion series, so I can get answers to all of the plot twists, and all the unanswered questions I have after finishing this book.

1.5 stars.

Another good concept with the most horrible execution. The story is way too focused on Dulcinea's thoughts than the plot for most of the first part of the book. I wish they were even worthwhile because it was your cliche teenager thoughts about their looks, wanting to be popular and boys besides them being overdramatic. It tried so hard to be quirky and sassy but ended up as cringey with too many exclamation marks. The pacing was all over the place. It would talk or implied about the future happenings then revert back to the present without a clear transition in the same chapter. Besides that, Dulcinea would just up and does something unrelated to what just happened. How does her friend getting to an accident lead her to being angry at her father and demanding the truth after stalling it for so long? In the end, he just leaves the room as always and never replies and the chapter would just end.

I really hate it when the MC breaks the fourth wall and proceeds to tell the reader everything that is to know rather than showing us the details through the story. And I hate it even more when the MC keeps degrading herself thinking she's so ugly but everyone views her as beautiful. I'm sure there are people who views themselves that way but it's not something I enjoy reading especially when Dulcinea can't decided whether to be depressed and self-degrading then loving her life in the next chapter.

The dialogues, characters and the writing style are so CRINGEY. They speak like they're drama queens rather than fourteen years olds. Her stepmom doesn't feel real, I mean who acts and talks like that? She is her aunt before stepmom yet she never acts like it. Moreover, all the characters are so flat and two dimensional. Erik was annoying as hell, Loo just keeps eating, Osa is constantly excited, I don't even know what Joel does besides smile at Dulcinea and Broelle is a genius but doesn't get the time of day besides one liner summaries. Does Dulcinea like Erik or Joel? I can never tell.

The characters would go on a tangent and then say "don't be a child!" They're fourteen! What do you mean don't be a child? Then in some chapters, they go "but I'm a child how do I change this?" It's so annoying seeing them trying to act so mature and trying to do everything by themselves without thinking ahead. Even the adults have no concept of consequences by letting the children do whatever.

Dulcinea can know when people die though it was never mentioned how she knows. But anyways, I don't see how she's called Death when she can know when people die rather than cause the death itself. Even when it mentions that she can, we don't see any evidence of said life and death powers.

There's a "modern poetry" for some characters but I didn't like it much especially Dulcinea's and especially Erik's but it was nice that there was an illustration of how the main characters looked like (except for Broelle for some reason).

Overall, this was kinda short especially with some chapters having spaces in between so I managed to bear through and finish this. It was a good concept and I feel very disappointed with the cringey execution. I don't plan on continuing the series because of that and the characters are too childish for me despite it having some good revelations. I think the book would have been way better if the characters were older and mature. Everything was somewhat vague and somewhat of a mess. It ended in an interesting note but not enough for me to pick up the series just yet.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

I was a little lost in this book.  I did not fully understand what the author was trying for in this book.  I did enjoy the supernatural feel to this book.  I think the story was different and interesting. This book feels like fantasy can intertwine with reality and that was a great job.  I just had mixed feeling in total about the book. *This book was given to me for free at my request from Netgalley and I provided this voluntary review.*

Received this book via free download here on Netgalley. Unfortunately, this novel just didn't work out for me.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!

I can't pick out one main concept from this book but it could be like an Xman origin story of sorts. The book itself is extremely disjointed and lacking a lot of necessary explanations. The plot jumps forward in odd sequences - for example - during one chapter the teens are still testing each other, and after the next break they are all best friwnds.

The ending also made no sense, if there was going to be a sequel I would understand it more, it wasn't set up for a sequel. The last 40% of the book went so quickly that all I could do was keep reading and try to pick out important things. By the time that we finally find out what A-Ria and codes are, the book is almost over. Another big issue is that the characters were inconsistent - like would Dulcinea actually obey Kaitlin without giving her any hell at all? The characters switch between existential rambling and chatting about boys and I just could not follow.

We never find out what happens to A-ria or Earth or any of the characters, they are all left in a very odd place at the end. I would expect the epilogue to wrap things up a little... But the 'extra' did not fit either, was it an exerpt of a future novel? Some story from the past?

Lastly: I know this is self published but it really needed a professional or at least competent editor to smooth out the worst of the spelling and mechanical issues. The idea at the base of it all is a good one, but I can't really recommend this as is.

Found this book on NetGalley, free to read.

I am not going to finish this one. I read five chapters and that's enough for me. There is very little actual story telling here, just a weird stream of conscientiousness, with a teen narrator trying to sound deep, like they have something wise to pass on.

The narrator is a special snowflake that prattles on and on about weird things like, life being like porridge. I lost it at her being born with pink hair and then dying it blue... and lamenting her not being hot, but ordinary, dull and clumsy... look when did extreme clumsiness become the default setting for being not hot? It is possible for a girl to be ordinary, or overlooks in high school, despite being quite competent at a lot of things that don't show up in school and being quite capable of moving through life without knocking into things or knocking things down or tripping more then a general amount all people do. Even hot ones.

The bits I did read was weird and really not well done. I don't have anything against the weird, or different styles of storytelling. This is not it. Too pretentious.

I am going to be completely honest. I didn't 100% get this book. It skips around a bit too much for me, and the language doesn't always fit together in the most readable way. Added to that, the story itself is very strange and confusing, which I was expecting based on the description, but still......it was all a bit too much for me.

I will say that the underlying concepts in this book have a ton of potential, and I personally like the characters individually. The story is told in a tone reminiscent of Louise Rennison, which I really appreciated. Although the story and prose were a bit too odd for me, I had a true appreciation for how Ray captures the tone of a bunch of teenagers, and I would definitely consider reading more of her work, given that some of the kinks are worked out.

It takes a lot of courage and guts to self-publish, especially in a language that may not be the author's first language. However, that only increases the need for attentive, professional editing services... which this book does not appear to have received. Almost every page had some kind of mechanics mistake -- punctuation, sentence structure, verb tense, etc. These numerous mistakes made it difficult to assess the story itself. The "quirky style" appears to be attempting to emulate The Hazel Wood, perhaps, but falls flat on both plot and characters. I can also see some influence from Stranger Things. The final 15% is a completely unrelated story that felt more childish but was far more interesting. As a whole, it felt like a raw, stream-of-consciousness rough draft, like one might generate during National Novel Writing Month.