Angelo is a vampire enforcer for Fenwick. He's small but powerful guy, 120 lb with boots on. He's at least a hundred years old. He ran away from his cheating and abusive mate 11 years ago, but his mate is a powerful thousand-year-old vampire.
Jack is a werewolf. He's mated too, to another werewolf named brent. Brent betrayed him in a pretty horrible way, he f***** Jack's twin brother Jake, put Jake in a magical coma, stole a priceless magical artifact from Jack and ran away with his co-conspirator Sam who's also his lover. Jack is chasing Brent down to get the artifact back, break the bond he has with him, and figure out what he did to his twin brother Jake so that he can help Jake.
Jack ends up asking Angelo for help because Brent has run to Fenwick's territory and Jack needs Fenwick's permission to do s***. In the course of them working together, there were attracted to each other and start to develop feelings.
This was a decent enough novella. It crammed in a lot of plot and character development. I liked seeing Nate, Arik, and their mates again. I didn't love the plot of everybody cheating on their mates, just a little ugly. Jack and Angelo's feelings kind of developed too fast but it is a novella. Things resolved pretty conveniently and a little too fast at the end as well.
Some notable moments:
"Gods, I hoped he had more skill with magic than with customer service. If Nate was the charismatic face of the business, Arik had to be something special."
"“Yeah, you think? It was an impulse thing. We’ve only been mated for eight months.” None of my business, none of my fucking business… “How long had you known each other before you mated?” Jack looked away, suddenly seeming fascinated by the carpet. “Three days,” he mumbled."
*FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink.
**Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers....more
**spoiler alert** Tropes: rich/poor, grumpy/sunshine, hate to love Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: BDSM, rough sex, marking, breath play Angst: medium HEA**spoiler alert** Tropes: rich/poor, grumpy/sunshine, hate to love Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: BDSM, rough sex, marking, breath play Angst: medium HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: depression, suicidal thoughts, cheating (both of them were cheating on other partners and cheating between MCs imo), stupidly unsafe sex, DUI, unsupportive parents, money struggles, ill parent, drug and alcohol abuse, blackout substance abuse, domestic violence (minor character), rape (not between MCs, consensual somnophilia turned into non-consensual condomless sex trying to get pregnant)
3.5 stars. I did enjoy this quite a lot at times. But it was inconsistent, a lot of negative headspace, and so many parts just didn't sit well with me, so I'm rounding down.
Drew is 30 and he's working as a doorman at a really exclusive building where all the tenants are super super rich. He's in New York and he's been trying to make it as a model but feeling to break through. He's one of five children and his family isn't wealthy, his dad has been sick and one of his sisters has been pressuring him to help financially and now he's very much in debt when he was never well off, he was always struggling for money himself. He's been struggling with depression for years and years but he's too poor to get mental health treatment. He's been in a relationship with his girlfriend Jericho for 3 years but he's not as into her as she is into him. He struggles with a low sex drive because of his depression.
Ollie is 24 years old and he's one of the tenants at the building. He's a child of billionaires and he is super spoiled. He's never worked a day in his life. He's always been close to his parents in his mind, he has brunch with them everyday. But he comes to learn that it's a superficial closeness. Ollie's been using drugs and alcohol since he was 15 years old. He's a bit of a sex addict. He's constantly bringing home different women every night sometimes multiple women. And he rubs it in Drew's face because he can tell Drew is envious of the women. I should say they both think they're straight, Drew and Ollie, before they hook up with each other and have their bi-awakenings.
Drew hates Ollie initially. Drew is delighted when Ollie gets a DUI and gets arrested in a incredibly viral scandal. He cackles at his misery. Ollie f***** up bad and his parents hate this scandal that he's created and they decide that he needs to get married and try to rehabilitate his image. They arrange a marriage for him. At this point Ollie has been abandoned by all of his friends because they consider him social suicide. Ollie pushes Drew too far one day, and that turns into choking, marking him. And Ollie is surprised to find himself extremely turned on. Ollie chases Drew in hopes to manipulate him into more choking and breath play and sex. They start hooking up. But it's complicated because they're both cheating and they're keeping their relationship secret. Ollie would be giving up on a lot with his family and money if he chose Drew. And Drew is struggling with his mental health and his financial crisis is that a melting point and he has to make some life decisions and he's not sure if he's willing to blow up his life for Ollie.
I have some complicated feelings about this book. There was a lot that made me uncomfortable, that were complete turn offs for me in a romance book and there were times where I wanted to jump ship and dnf. There was a lot that was incredibly unromantic, at times I was judging the book for not being an enviable love story in a million ways but at the same time I was thinking I should be respecting the author at times for not making it a too easy love story.
My thoughts as I was reading:
- Active drug abuse is difficult to watch - Ollie seems to me to have a sex addiction - Ollie is messy blackout on drugs and drink and presumably has sex with a pornstar during the wild night, can't remember if he used protection - Drew wakes up one morning amid a depressive episode that has been lasting weeks to his girlfriend riding him without a condom. The somnophilia is fine, it's part of their relationship, but she's trying to get pregnant and she refuses to listen to him when he says stop. That's rape. - Ollie's behavior when he gets arrested is so unappealing to me as a romantic lead. His behavior is so horrible and unsafe. Driving while intoxicated, being a dick in front of the cops, fleeing, being so blackout that he doesn't know if he had protected sex with someone who has more risks than the everyday person - I like that Drew legit hates Ollie and I cackled at their early dynamic of taunting each other. - There's a bunch of on and off page sex with other people before they get together and that's fine. But it bugged me that after Drew and Ollie have been hooking up, Drew has sex with Elodie (his fiancee). He was pressured into it and he didn't really enjoy it. But Drew was jealous and ticked. And it was really spineless of Ollie to give in. Not a good romantic lead decision. Drew doesn't have sex with Jericho after he hooks up with Ollie fyi. - I dislike rich characters that don't have jobs. Ollie has never worked a day in his life, and I find that lack of ambition and Independence really unattractive in an MC. - I hated that Drew and Ollie didn't use condoms. And there wasn't really a detailed to talk about safe sex, other than Ollie saying he was negative. Drew has had unprotected sex often with his girlfriend in the last week or so. And Ollie has had a very risky sex life up until that moment. He had sex with a pornstar blackout under the influence and sex with a wildly sexually active Elodie a couple days ago, plus a whole bunch of other random people in the last 2 weeks. I don't care if he had a negative test 3 days ago or a week ago or what he shouldn't be having sex without a condom. It's very irresponsible. - After they have anal sex for the first time,vOllie goes into a shame spiral and Drew is unhappy. These guys don't get to enjoy a post sex happy glow, and that's a parallel for a lot of moments in this book. They don't have a very romantic journey as a couple, all those little moments are negative moments. In most romances you'll see moments of happiness, were they smile to themselves, or the other person just makes them happy and they enjoy and relish it. But in this book all those little moments are tainted by negative emotions and their struggles, and you just don't get that feeling that they make each other happier until very late in the book. There's a lot of well why are they together if they're this unhappy? I hate that neither Drew nor Ollie has a romantic bone in their body. Neither of them are willing to take a risk on love, neither of them have any hope in the feeling. It makes it really hard to see them transitioning to being in love and living a real life. - Random dumb moment. It seems kind of stupid that they only have 20 minutes for a hookup at Ollie and Elodie's engagement party and they are deciding to have Ollie bottom for the first time. That's not really something they should rush. - Page 273, finally one of them is taking a risk and talking about having feelings for the other! - page 280 -this has been bugging me for a while now but it really comes to a head when Drew calls in sick to work. I don't get how they think they're keeping their relationship secret from the other staff at the building. The doormen keep track of which guests have visitors and who. They are all up in the business of the tenants of the building, for safety reasons of the other tenants. There's probably video of the doors. Drew playing sick and then walking in and out of Ollie's room/building must be a big giveaway. - Drew's mental health struggle is real and well told. It's good that sex and love aren't being portrayed as a magic solution for depression. Even while Drew is happy in his relationship he's probably at his worst mental health wise until he gets actual help in therapy and with drugs for his depression. - I do love the banter between them, and I love how obsessive and possessive they feel about each other - another dumb moment - apparently Ollie's dad plans to turn his business over to Ollie when all he turns 30 in 6 years. If you're grooming your child to take over the family business, you should be making sure he's actually capable of it, make him get an education, make him work and develop the skills that are needed to manage your business. It's unrealistic that he would just hand over his company at that age. Especially because Ollie's dad is not so old that he would be out to pasture in 6 years. It's kind of ageist lol. - Various typos - I like the epilogues into the future to see Drew and Ollie happy. And I like that Ollie eventually made up with his Dad, it was realistic though that he didn't make up with his mother.
Some notable moments:
"Drew’s warm, strong hand settles on my shoulder. “It’s not your fault, baby.” I’m about three of Drew’s babies away from declaring my undying love for him, so he needs to watch it if he doesn’t want to wind up stuck with a clingy, destitute hobo with no job skills and a bad attitude."
"Do I feel loved? Absolutely. More than loved. Vital. Do I love him? There’s more to it than that. I choose him. He’s more important to me than high ceilings and a park view. He makes me feel safer than money ever has. He’d be devastated if I stopped breathing in my sleep. He’d never take his eyes off me again, and I wouldn’t mind."
*FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink.
**Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers....more
**spoiler alert** Tropes: forbidden relationship, amnesia, bully romance Feels: 1/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: sex in risky places Angst: medium HEA: yes Pairing:**spoiler alert** Tropes: forbidden relationship, amnesia, bully romance Feels: 1/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: sex in risky places Angst: medium HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers/potential icks/content themes: dead parents, grief, attempted murder, murder, dubcon, rape, mental health issues, amnesia, cheating, underage drinking, drugs, unsafe sex, forced contraception, bullying
Holy s*** was this horrible! This review contains spoilers.
A little context. I had never read anything by Rina but I heard about God of Fury and it sounds really good. Sounds like it's right up my alley. I was trying to decide if I wanted to read the Legacy of Gods series or just start with God of Fury. I decided to give a random book of Rina's a try. And that was book one of the Royal Elite series. Then I realized it wasn't a standalone book so I read the trilogy of Aiden and Elsa's story and got invested, these characters are the parents of the Legacy of Gods series so I figured I might as well read the rest of the books in the series. I had skipped this book which is book zero in the series. So this is the last Royal Elite book and I was looking forward to getting to see Levi. This book was so disappointing. I'm still going to read the Legacy of Gods series because I want my NikoBran crumbs, but ouch, this book had me ready to throw something.
Levi is the popular captain of the high school football team, rich, 18. A fboy. Very aggressive, more than a little unhinged. He sees Astrid one day and he wants her. He also recognizes that she is the daughter of the man his uncle/guardian hates. He wants to piss off his uncle so that makes the idea of hooking up with Astrid even more enticing to him. But then he realizes that Astrid is high on drugs. And he pushes her away saying he doesn't do druggies. He's not pushing her away because he thinks it's immoral to have sex with someone who is under the influence. He's pushing her away because he thinks it's below him to hook up with a druggie.
He doesn't know that she has been drugged against her will. He throws her out doors causing her to have to run from guys that are chasing her, and she immediately gets hit by a car and breaks multiple bones. But we are supposed to think it's all ok and still a romantic situation because he hears the accident and calls the ambulance for her... but he doesn't hang around because he did some sketchy s*** that night that he needs to hide.
They don't see each other for 2 months. When they see each other, he immediately demands her attention. She pushes back. He bullies her into submission. They are making out often and then trading barbs back and forth. He causes her to be attacked and bullied over and over. At the 38% mark, Astrid walks in on him hooking up with her evil stepsister. Yeah they hadn't defined the relationship and they were in one of their arguing stages but I consider that cheating. Before writing my review I read some others and some people in the comments are arguing that it wasn't that bad and that Nicole didn't actually have her mouth on Levi's dick. I'd say it's ambiguous about whether they'd gotten that far but regardless, horrible. A couple minutes later, Levi pulls Astrid into a room and they make out he goes down on her. He's making excuses, but this is so far away from romantic.
I want to explain some of the trigger warnings I listed for people mindful of triggers. Levi f**** Astrid without a condom in one scene and when Astrid realizes she freaks out and panics and explain she's not on birth control and he doesn't stop. And he gets angry with her for not wanting his babies. But then he does "the right thing" and pulls out before he orgasms but threatens her about next time and him wanting to raw dog her. Ugly behavior. Astrid's dad finds them in bed together and forces her to get the morning after pill and a contraceptive shot despite her protests. Some of the scenes between Astrid and Levi are dubcon. There's two other scenes with minor characters that are basically rape.
Levi and Astrid proceed to have a toxic passionate on off relationship filled with possessive and bullying moments. But there is tensions between their families and the mystery of Astrid's multiple accidents and her amnesia throw a wrench in their developing relationship.
There wasn't much that I liked about this book. Yes there was passion between Levi and Astrid but I couldn't really enjoy it because I hated Levi. I liked Dan and Astrid's friendship, it was a nice change to see a male female friendship with no sexual tension, they were pretty healthy friends. Some of the egging on that Levi's friends did was funny.
What I didn't like... Levi was a toxic a******. He kidnapped Astrid, probably more than once if you count certain scenes. He yells at her and bullies her all the time. He tells her to shut up and not talk. He forces cigarette smoke into her mouth when she expresses concern about hating it and it being bad for the health. He finds out something bad that makes them a bad idea as a couple, and rather than breaking up with her with any kind of kindness after taking her virginity, he just sadistically devalues what they had and makes her feel like s***, saying they were nothing. Towards the end of the book, he forces promises of commitment out of her while withholding key information that he knows about their past. There's just so many scenes where he chooses to be an a******. I normally like a possessive MC, but I couldn't even enjoy that about this book because he didn't have moments showing the depth of his feelings for her. He honestly just seemed possessive and attracted to her. This is not how I would want to be loved. This is an ugly relationship to watch. Yeah, he eventually told people not to bully her and got into some fights because he was possessive, but that didn't make me like him. Also, minor thing, but the references to Levi's last name being King and him being a king were so over the top cheesy. It's so unnecessary!
Two stars because the plot was not appealing, unromantic and Levi was the worst MC.
Some notable moments:
"“You can do it, Danny!” I scream so he can hear me. “You’re the best of the freaking best!” Two heads snap in my direction. The first is Dan’s. He grins from ear to ear and taps his chest, then points at me. The second is Levi’s and his expression is the complete opposite of Dan’s. The pale blue of his eyes darkens and he stares between me and Dan and comes to a stop. He stops walking inside, stops listening to a player who’s talking to him. He just…stops."
"I smile mischievously as I tell Ronan, “When are we going to have another drinking competition?” “Tonight if you like…” his grin falters when Levi cuts him a glare. “Or never. Yeah, never.” He leans in to whisper, “Come down when Captain is asleep.”"
*FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink.
**Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers....more
**spoiler alert** Tropes: accidental hookup with someone so wrong, forbidden relationship, forced proximity Feels: 2/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: not really kin**spoiler alert** Tropes: accidental hookup with someone so wrong, forbidden relationship, forced proximity Feels: 2/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: not really kinky Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content themes: cheating, drunk driving
2.5 Stars. Rounding up because I don't like to be mean or round down.
Kyle is 20, and about to have a sexual awakening that he is in fact gay. Logan is 25 and openly bi to everyone but his family and hometown. They meet the weekend of Kyle's wedding to Logan's cousin. They have sex with each other before they know who they are, Kyle cheats on his fiance which is ugly. Logan then has a mission to break up this wedding because this couple should not be marrying, though his reasons are a bit more complex than that.
It's funny. As I was reading this book I was thinking to myself there are some things about the story that just aren't to my cup of tea but so far the storytelling is fine, so I don't want to rate It low due to my personal preferences. I could literally pinpoint the moment in the storytelling where I decided, s*** you jumped the shark, and now you deserve a lower rating in my brain. That moment was when the love confession happened and everything after that was downhill.
I know these guys lived together for 2 months and they did grow close but it was too early for that love bomb. Their interactions have been strictly platonic for these two months with no hope of a romantic or sexual relationship dangling. The author has to put some work into showing us feelings. I've read other books where the characters aren't in a romantic relationship, and feelings develop and I love you so is said, and it's believable and a natural development. But in this one I feel like the work wasn't done to make us believe the I love you.
A bunch more nails in the coffin happened after that.
1. Like Kyle driving drunk and getting in a car accident, hitting a tree. The book is vague about the scope of the car accident and how much damage was done to the car, so if it was super minor maybe I can understand a lack of insurance / cops. But there were no consequences to that. No talk about what happened. No acknowledgment that it shouldn't have happened. No cops or Insurance called, instead Kyle and Logan just gleefully get together romantically, I am very against drunk driving and I can't tolerate there not being consequences and I can't suspend disbelief that insurance and the cops wouldn't be involved, if I was Levi I would be calling. I understand Logan not wanting to involve them.
2. Logan proposing marriage right after they get together the night of the car accident. It's not as a knee-jerk reaction of oh I could have lost you to the accident. I don't fully understand his motivations for jumping right into marriage, other than it comes full circle and wraps everything up in a bow for the author LOL. But it was jumping the gun, I can't relate to this. I know they've been friends and roommates and they've been developing a relationship for 2 months. But they're not romantic partners. And it feels like it doesn't do justice to their relationship to skip over the developing a romantic relationship part and move straight to marriage. It just came off as a checkbox that the author wanted to check off on their path to the end of the story. It wasn't natural.
3. Logan gets schmoopy when that is not his personality. And they jump right into having unprotected sex with no talk about safe sex or testing. Based on the fact that Madison was cheating on Kyle and Logan was a casual sex and open relationship guy, testing should happen.
I have to say that there were moments before those things that I didn't like. But I kind of wrote those off a little bit as being my personal preferences and it being within the author's creative license to go there. Like I don't like cheating in general as a trope, but I knew what I was getting into reading this book given the blurb. And another thing I wasn't comfortable with for example was when Logan told Kyle that he didn't want to have a relationship with him because he doesn't do relationships with cheaters and then he made some comment about maybe we could hook up though but I wouldn't give you an exclusive relationship. And I was just like, I kind of relate to a moral code of not wanting to get involved with someone who has a past of cheating, but so UGLY of a person to be like "you're not good enough to date but I'll f*** you."
Some things that were positive about the book though... Outside of his cheating, Kyle was a nice guy. I did like that there was actual like getting to know each other and them fitting into each other's lives naturally. The smut was pretty good, there was good heat between the characters. The people around them picking up on the closeness between them was also nice and fun to read. The moments with the dog were nice. So it really was a decent read for me until it's swan dived for me at the 80% mark.
Some notable moments:
"I put my hand over his belt buckle though, so he can’t slip away and knows I’m not going anywhere either. I smirk at him, my lips less than an inch away. “Yeah? Not even a little slap?” He’s breathing so fast I can only imagine how chaotic his mind must be, but instead of answering he shakes his head and pulls me down by the neck, clashing his mouth with mine like a starving man who’s finally found a piece of bread."
I don't like the cheating but the irresistible tension between them is nice. "It’s painfully obvious that if I pushed him on the bed now, he’d let me pound him into the mattress all night and only regret his actions in the morning."
Crazy moment.... "He snorts and strokes my head. “Did you just out me?” My blood runs cold, and I barely keep the phone in my hand. “Oh no. Oh no. I can... maybe I can still unsend it,” I say and unlock the screen, but he grabs my hand to stop me. “No, I married you, remember? I’m just laughing because it’s such a you thing to do! I want everyone to know. Send me the photo.”"
*FYI, I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink."...more
**spoiler alert** Tropes: none Feels: 2/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: spitting, felching Angst: high Triggers/potential icks: bad parents, addiction, drugs, suicide**spoiler alert** Tropes: none Feels: 2/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: spitting, felching Angst: high Triggers/potential icks: bad parents, addiction, drugs, suicide attempt, cheating, driving under the influence, domestic violence
I didn't enjoy this. They both had rough lives with abusive and addicted parents. Ben's in his last year of high school and he's at risk of failing out. His mom is an addict who he's cut off contact with very very recently. Ben's dad disappears for long periods of time and leaves him without food and the water gets turned off. Damon's a little older out of high school living on his own. Damon's casual use of drugs has been slipping into full on addiction.
They knew each other vaguely in high school though they never interacted. They meet again at a party and they start hooking up. Damon cheats on Ben when they have a bit of a fight over his drug use. They get back together and commit as boyfriends and they live together. They drag each other down. Damon gets really bad in his addiction. Damon regularly drives under the influence with no consequences, with no one calling him out on it. Ben gets hopeless with his mental health struggles and being in a relationship with an addict after witnessing both his parents being addicts. Damon loses his job, lies about things, does drugs after he promised he wouldn't. Ben is done. They argue and Damon starts choking Ben until he almost passes out. One of Damon's friends pulls Damon away from then. Ben stands up for himself and fully breaks up with Damon.
Damon tries to get back with Ben and Ben isn't having it. Ben's nice about it he wishes Damon well and hopes he'll get healthy but he can't be with an addict. Damon attempts suicide with pills. He's not successful, a friend finds him and gets him medical help. Damon goes to rehab for 60 days and he takes it seriously, this was a wake-up call for him, he realizes his addiction torpedoed his life and lost him Ben. The moment he gets out of rehab, he seeks out Ben to talk, to apologize and to ask for another chance. Ben says yes but he put some rules on it saying they have to take things slow. Which is admirable. But then also congratulates Damon on beating his addiction. But that's not believable, addiction is a lifelong struggle. Damon's winning today but it's not going to be that easy. We flash forward a couple months and Damon's sobriety is lasting and Ben is supporting him and doing sober living as well. They seem to be making it work. Ben's pulled things together a bit because his dad is showing up for him more. Ben graduates. Damon gets a better job.
It's hard to find a story like this romantic and enjoyable. It's hard to root for these characters when they are so toxic together and apart. I have sympathy cuz they both been through shit. But I don't enjoy their story. I have occasionally enjoyed dark stories before that had addiction themes, but this one didn't make me feel anything. I kind of wished Ben could have fell for Teddy instead. I feel like this story kind of glamorized bad behaviors. There wasn't enough consequences for the bad behaviors. Things like driving under the influence and domestic violence between main characters is hard to forgive unless there's real work put in.
A couple positives. I found Ben's anxiety sweet at the beginning. He had a cute nervous habit of biting his lip. Those little moments showed his vulnerability and pulled me into him a bit. I liked Damon's possessiveness towards Ben. But 95% of this book was Damon at his worst and he wasn't making good choices, he was hurting himself and Ben.
Some notable moments:
"“Next time, you’re chewing on your lip, you’ll remember the way I did it for you," he rasps out in a low steady rumble. “And if you’re feeling so nervous you need to mangle your perfect lip like that, come find me, and I’ll do it for you again.”"
"I’m feeling too drunk to drive right now after all the shots and beer, so I pull out my blow to take a few bumps; it’ll sober me up enough to get home.”
"“You’re mine now,” I growl. “My d*** is the first you’ve ever felt, and it’s the only one you’ll ever need,” I punctuate each word with a thrust. His eyes are barely focused on mine. “No one else gets to have you ever again.” He yelps as I hit his prostate."
"I can’t suck in breaths anymore. I grab at his hand, trying to remove it from my throat, but it won’t budge. I hear the door slam open at the same moment blackness starts to cloud my vision. Tears are streaming down my face. And in this moment, I want the blackness to just take me. In a split second, Damon’s hand is ripped from my throat and Jasper’s fist collides with his jaw. I hear a splitting crack and the heavy sound of him knocking out cold on the ground."
*FYI, I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink....more
**spoiler alert** Tropes: boss/employee Feels: 2/5 Steam: 3/5 Kinks: dom/sub Angst: low Triggers/potential icks: cheating (Cam cheats on his gf with Max),**spoiler alert** Tropes: boss/employee Feels: 2/5 Steam: 3/5 Kinks: dom/sub Angst: low Triggers/potential icks: cheating (Cam cheats on his gf with Max), sexual harassment at work (Max to Cam)
I wasn't impressed with this book. It would have been a lot better if Cam hadn't had a girlfriend. This made me a bit uncomfortable. Max had unfair control over Cam at work as his boss. And he used that to pressure Cam sexually. Cam cheats on his girlfriend of 6 years Leslie with Max for 6 or 7 months. Cam wasn't having sex with Leslie during those months, their relationship is not very sexual but come on. I don't respect Cam or Max for that cheating. Max even had the nerve to say to Cam "hope you're not about to blame me for your relationship troubles". You coerced him into sex for the last 6 months. Granted he's clearly a participant at this point eagerly but come on. Leslie never even finds out. I feel like she deserved to find out and get to yell at Cam.
Look at this dumb quote. Max suddenly has a conscience and doesn't want to initiate sex with Cam after he's broken up with Leslie because Max is crashing at his house. But it was fine when they were together and it was at work?! "it didn’t feel right. Not now. Doing it at the office was one thing. But demanding sex while they were living under the same roof? It seemed to cross some sort of boundary in Max’s conscience."
And spoiler alert they didn't even get back together at the end of the book because one of them grew a pair and made a gesture. They got back together because someone interfered and set them up because they were both miserable.
It was an interesting premise of a relationship dynamic and the smut was good but the cheating, the dumb s*** they say, and the lack of growing a pair just made it very lackluster....more
**spoiler alert** Tropes: friends to lovers Feels: 2/5 Steam: 3/5 Kinks: bit of dominance, dirty talk Angst: medium to high Triggers/potential icks: cheat**spoiler alert** Tropes: friends to lovers Feels: 2/5 Steam: 3/5 Kinks: bit of dominance, dirty talk Angst: medium to high Triggers/potential icks: cheating (Anderson cheats on his gf, Crew cheats on Anderson), drug addiction, mental health struggles, minor character death
It was an okay book. I didn't really connect with the couple very well. I didn't love either of them separate or together, they didn't endear themselves to me. Part of that is probably due to cheating and drug abuse being icks to me. But then again, authors have made me love characters that have done worse s***. Something was just superficial and dissociated here. For me books one and three in this series just didn't emotionally resonate with me. I really enjoyed book two though....more
Jane aka Coughy019
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Books:
infidelity
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