I could just leave this review at, “It’s Onley James, it’s in the Necessary Evils universe, of course I gave it five stars do you even know me?”, but I could just leave this review at, “It’s Onley James, it’s in the Necessary Evils universe, of course I gave it five stars do you even know me?”, but I made a promise to myself that this year I’d try and post more reviews for ebooks I read and love and not just leave star ratings for them online. This task got away from me for most of February because I had more titles to read than days in the month, but this is the first Onley James title of 2024, so I’m taking the time out to write a review for Rogue because it simultaneously reminded me of why I fell in love with Onley’s work in the first place and why I’ve grown so obsessed with how the Necessary Evils universe has grown and expanded into the wonderful, violent, slutty three-headed creature it is now.
Rogue is about Levi, one of Jericho’s boys, and Shiloh, a seemingly terrified bunny of a boy who was sent by his older brother to kill Levi. But this is the Necessary Evils universe–attempted murder ranks up there with kidnapping as a courting ritual. Poor bunny Shiloh can’t pull the trigger, Levi takes it from him when he pulls him in to kiss him to cover up the attempt from the security cameras, and you just know the two imprinted on one another like duckies.
Levi and Shiloh aren’t as cute as Arsen and Ever (from Paladin), but they’re so sweet to one another. My heart broke for Shiloh time and again because no one had ever had the time or capability to take care of Shiloh beyond basic necessities before. It was so obvious that underneath all of that trauma there’s a huge heart waiting to love everyone. Definitely a plus for the Feelings Faction, and a great bestie for Ever.
One of my favorite parts in the whole book was watching the Feelings Faction take care of Shiloh when Levi didn’t know how to and Levi trusting them to do it. It’s okay to admit that you might not have all the answers for your partner’s problems and letting people you love and trust help you.
I don’t need to talk about the spice, do I? I mean, it’s Onley James.
All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This year I’ve felt like there was a time BSD (Before Stats Daddy) and ASD (After Stats Daddy). The era of ASD began on July 21st, 2023, when the firsThis year I’ve felt like there was a time BSD (Before Stats Daddy) and ASD (After Stats Daddy). The era of ASD began on July 21st, 2023, when the first book in this series, Too Safe, was released. Ever since Abby Millsaps unleashed the wicked and cunning Kylian (AKA Stats Daddy) on the world with the publication of the first book in the Boys of Lake Chapel book series, I’ve decided no other book boyfriend compares.
With the release of Too Far, the last in this trilogy, my opinion has not changed. I don’t care how much more Josephine got of Kendrick, Nicky, or even the great Decker Crusade himself. No. It is Stats Daddy who forever holds my heart and is still, in my mind, the true male star of Boys of Lake Chapel.
This review is as much for the whole series as it is for Too Far; but make no mistake, Too Far is a truly excellent novel and is the epitome of what a series conclusion should look like. It picks up almost exactly where Too Fast left off and keeps hurtling forward, barreling towards disaster. It’s obvious that all it will take is a single slip-up for the house of cards to fall down.
The first half of the book is suspenseful, heartbreaking, emotional, and frustrating (so, so frustrating). The second half of the book is swollen with emotion, angst, love, and lust. The epilogues made me cry. And cry. And cry. Heck, this whole book made my eyes leak water several times. I did not sob. You did.
The last epilogue was so touching to me. I didn’t cry, but I was deeply, deeply touched. I can’t express how much it meant to me which character was chosen for the last epilogue and what they said in it. My heart grew fifty million sizes.
If you haven’t picked up this series, I can’t express how much I recommend it. This is my book series of the year. If you know me, you must know how rare it is for me to pick a non-LGBTQ Why Choose romance series as my series of the year. I just can’t escape how deeply this series touched me nor how hot Stats Daddy made me. The charisma of the group as a whole cannot be denied. Congratulations, Abby Millsaps–You’re a genius.
All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was provided for this review. Thank you.
Finally! Finally we’re fully in Project Watchtower for The Watch series, the second Necessary Evils spin-off series by the genius Onley James (the firFinally! Finally we’re fully in Project Watchtower for The Watch series, the second Necessary Evils spin-off series by the genius Onley James (the first spin-off series being Jericho’s Boys). We’re starting off with The Bone Collector, which considering that’s the notorious name one of the project’s instructors, Park, went by when he was still active in the field (and the second book is going to be called The Sin Eater, which was the field operative name of the head of the project), it seems that all the books in The Watch series are going to be titled after field operative names. I’m down.
I’m not going to go over the whole synopsis with you. That’s just blase. Let’s go over the tropes you know, and then I’ll go over what I found of interest that doesn’t come across in the blurb, shall we?
*Age-Gap Romance (oh yeah, it’s a good gap, too!) *Teacher/Student (this one’s a little loosely interpreted, since Park, one of our MMCs, doesn’t teach much in this book because Gift, our other MMC, isn’t one of the students learning his speciality)
Tropes that the blurb doesn’t mention:
*Older brother/younger brother dynamic (they aren’t brothers, but Park insists on Gift using the honorifics for those roles) *Daddy k!nk (Ohhhhhh yes. Our Park is a Daddy Dom and our Gift is his sweet baby boy (no ageplay)) *Semi-public k!nk, virginity k!nk, slight degradation k!nk, edging, impact play, filthy talk *Touch him and you die *Gift is manipulative, secretive, touch-starved, and needy *Park is a possessive mofo *Park is essentially Gift’s legal guardian and full-time bodyguard
Besides the extremely high heat rating of this book (it is super dooper freaking hot, you guys) and how well-written that spice is (good lord, Onley is trying to kill us all, ffs), it needs to be known this book is FUN. It’s hilarious. It’s like “Necessary Evils: High School Edition”. Imagine if the Mulvaneys, Jericho’s Boys, The Feelings Faction (IYKYK), and Elite Protection Services ALL went to the same boarding school. Some are there on merit via scholarship and some are there because they have connections. Some are there because they have both money and merit. There’s all genders, all walks of life, neurotypicals, neuroatypicals, geniuses, people of average intelligence…you get the picture. The point of the place is for the neuroatypicals to be matched with an emotional support human to keep them tethered to their humanity. It’s brilliant. It’s volatile. It’s going to either be wildly successful or they’re going to burn the world down. Either way, I’m going to have a wild-ass and fun time reading to see what they do while they screw each other into every available surface and torture the bad guys along the way.
Please be mindful of your own mental health before attempting to read this book and read the list of CW/TWs before you start. I don’t ever need them but you might. Take care of you....more
In “For the Wolf”, I had complaints about the depth of the characters and the prose, which could lean towards weak. In its other half, “For the ThroneIn “For the Wolf”, I had complaints about the depth of the characters and the prose, which could lean towards weak. In its other half, “For the Throne”, my complaint is solely that the first half of the book seems to move almost glacially slow. Not slow enough for me to lose interest or for me to become disengaged (simply because that pace was consistent (meaning it wasn’t an uneven pace) and because I knew it wouldn’t last), but enough for me to become somewhat frustrated and to be slightly disappointed. For some reason I expected this book to move faster than the first. I expected the Shadowlands to be, well, a little more chaotic. A little darker. A little more sinister.
Thank goodness we had interludes from Red, Raffe, and the others every now and again to break up the bleakness. I don’t know what I would’ve done without them.
Thankfully, the issues with prose and characterizations between “For the Wolf” and this book seemed to have been resolved. It shows how Whitten has grown as a writer, because we get more depth and layers to each character and some great passages evoking fantastic imagery. Whitten had a talent at showing and not telling when it came to exposition that was evident from the start, and it continues into this book, which I’m immensely grateful for. Hearing someone drone on and on about exposition in this book would’ve been intolerable.
The immense talent at magic systems and world-building continues, also. Juxtaposition and eventual entropy? You’re speaking my love language. Philosophical questions about whether or not one can live without a soul, or even what a soul even is? Slay me. What does it mean to be human or god? Are gods even gods or are gods only gods in their own minds? I could think these thoughts the whole day through and be a happy camper.
I enjoyed both books immensely, and I highly recommend you don’t give up on “For the Throne”, even if you have a hard time holding on through the first half.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for allowing me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
When I wrote my review for “Praise”, the first book in this series, I had some things to say about how the book was as much a love letter to good girl When I wrote my review for “Praise”, the first book in this series, I had some things to say about how the book was as much a love letter to good girls everywhere as it was to the kink community at large: “A lot of authors write kink-centric books and they don’t feel authentic. They don’t read as authentic. It’s a manufactured experience… This novel is the kind of BDSM-centric writing I wish every one of those novels could be, because it actually rang true for once.”
If “Praise” was a love letter to the kink community at large, then “Eyes on Me” is just as much of a love letter to the idiosyncratic people who live in that community, day in and day out, and the people who find themselves wandering in happenstance, end up finding their tribe, and never end up leaving. The ones who didn’t even know what they craved the most had a name or that they might be able to come across like-minded individuals who would be willing to hold their hand as they travel down dark hallways and open closed doors.
I cannot help but love Sara Cate even more than I already do for getting into the psyche of Garrett in this book. In the first book, Emerson wasn’t a perfect person, but it was hard to find too many flaws. Garrett, though? Garrett is a mess under that carefully curated veneer of control. The face of the company. The life of the party. The man with the plan. But that can be a lot of pressure. And all work and no play can, well, you get the idea. Garrett has long ago cut off anything and everything from his life that isn’t work. But at the opening of the book we can see this attitude toward his life is already starting to chip away at his psyche in a negative way. It serves to make us readers curious, in a good way. What could ruffle the smooth Garrett?
Meanwhile, we have the uncurated, welcome mess that is Mia. She’s young, beautiful, uninhibited, and absolutely adrift. All she knows at the beginning of the book is she loves being a cam girl and she’s been in love and in lust with her stepbrother (Garrett) since she first knew what it was to feel that way. But he’s a locked door to her. So she shows him as much disdain as he shows her, even if neither of them truly disdains the other. It’s just another unhealthy pattern.
The romantic plot of this book reminds me of the saying, “Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back”. Curiosity both sets the romance in motion and ultimately endangers it; but, in the end, only physical and emotional satisfaction for both Mia and Garrett ends up bringing the kitty back home safely. And it’s done in a beautiful, hot, and extremely satisfying way. (There’s a bit of “turnabout is fair play” that I LOVE Sara for putting in and wish so much I’d see more authors put into their books!)
If you loved “Praise”, there’s no doubt you’ll love this just as much. This may not be dedicated to all the good girls, but I’d say it’s dedicated for every sexual person who just wants to be seen for who they are, without judgement or reservation. ...more
It wasn’t until I first read the blurb for this book that I even knew I needed this dark, spicy, gothic, and suspenseful retelling of my favorite chilIt wasn’t until I first read the blurb for this book that I even knew I needed this dark, spicy, gothic, and suspenseful retelling of my favorite childhood novel. My own reaction of, “I absolutely need to read this,” shouldn’t have come as a surprise, since even when I was younger and read the original story some of my thoughts and observations about the characters and their interactions made me envision different scenarios that weren’t as innocent as the tragic and gothic tale of little orphan girl Mary Lennox. Granted, I don’t remember them being this dark, dirty, spicy, and suspenseful… but I certainly know there were some naughty thoughts going on.
Raven Jayne is a newer author, and I had the distinct pleasure of reviewing almost the entirety of her debut series, Master Class. With this book, Jayne definitely takes the same tenor and approach to female sexuality and male dominance (combined with veneration for their females) she started in Master Class and has translated it into this gothic, suspense romance where Mary Lennox is torn between her wicked, sexual nature and her duty-bound and guilt-ridden nurture. She’s innocent of body but not of mind; her upbringing has taught her nothing but that any feeling that might amount to luxury is sinful. At the same time she knows she’s inherently not meant for a life of purity: she feels wicked in her core, like there’s a hole of need and want inside of her that will never be filled in the commune she’s been raised in before she’s kicked out over what she views as an honest mistake borne of ignorance.
The reason this book rates five stars from me is not because it’s perfectly-plotted and has zero holes. It’s not perfect. The thing is: it’s exactly what it advertises, it’s everything I could’ve wanted (short of it being a RH romance), and it’s such a great read. I could see myself reading it again. My fantasies from reading this during childhood have only been spurred to greater heights by reading the story of Mary Lennox through Raven Jayne’s eyes. Be prepared for a dark, erotic, and unique ride. ...more
Sara Cate dedicates this book to “all the good girls”. All I can say is: thank goodness for all the good girls, because this book is both fire and balSara Cate dedicates this book to “all the good girls”. All I can say is: thank goodness for all the good girls, because this book is both fire and balm for the soul of any reader who loves good girls, dominant males, the kink community, and a big helping of praise and affirmation.
I know from experience that sometimes there’s nothing quite like being told you’ve been a good girl. The best girl. The sweetest girl. To be told you’re worth it–whatever “it” is. I also know there’s something about seeing someone being on their knees for you, being so sweet for you, doing anything and everything to please you. Yeah, I’m versatile like that.
A lot of authors write kink-centric books and they don’t feel authentic. They don’t read as authentic. It’s a manufactured experience. And yeah, so maybe that’s fiction and I shouldn’t be surprised, but since I’ve done my time in and out of clubs and parties and dynamics, I know good kink writing when I read it. This novel is the kind of BDSM-centric writing I wish every one of those novels could be, because it actually rang true for once.
Charlie’s curiosity once she discovered who she was working for felt as authentic as my own when I first encountered what some people can and will do behind closed doors (and sometimes not even closed doors, lol). At one point Charlie talks about it like it’s falling down a rabbit hole. To be honest, that’s exactly what it can feel like. Her first experience inside a working club read as honest and familiar from so many stories I’ve heard from fellow players before, and her full-on embrace of submission once she discovered it matches just as many stories. Sometimes, when something fits, it just fits. There’s no shame in that, and I fully believe that was one of Sara’s largest and most firm points in writing this book: don’t be ashamed of what you love, who you love, or what makes you happy. If your happiness comes while kneeling for your millionaire boss, then who’s anyone else to judge?
It’s a wonderful romance novel and an even better love letter to the BDSM community. ...more
Before I started this review I went back and read my review for “Wicked Heat”, the first book in this duet, just to see if I had any questions that neBefore I started this review I went back and read my review for “Wicked Heat”, the first book in this duet, just to see if I had any questions that needed answering or if I had made any predictions. I also remembered I had stated in that review that I was definitely glad Frank had decided to go with a duet for this romance instead of either trying to cram it all into one big book or trying to stretch it over three books with a lot of filler.
I definitely stick with that last opinion: going with a duet was a terrific call. It allowed so much character development and plot to happen without a deadline during the first book, which then allowed much more of the nicer side of the romance and the actual “relationship” part of Ryan and Jameson’s relationship to develop and solidify (aw, come on–it’s Ella! Like she’s gonna let you down!) without a ton of questions about whether or not these two can actually get their act together. It doesn’t take long, believe me, before these two are on the same page in so many ways.
Are there still some reservations on both sides for a bit? Yes. Of course. But in true Ella fashion, in this case it’s not the relationship between Ryan and Jameson that’s the conflict in this book: it’s Jameson’s little sister, Amy, who the pair found and rescued near the end of the first book. She has a chip on her shoulder just as big as Jameson’s was before he met Ryan, if not bigger.
This is a fast read, with Frank’s quick, bright writing and clever dialogue. There are plenty of men in tailored suits (and, well, I am of the opinion that sometimes there’s nothing better than a sharp-dressed man, thank you ZZ Top) that get either methodically stripped of them or quickly divested of them, and there’s an almost over-the-top ending that made me smile like a goofball but was so Ella Frank I swear I could see Kieran and Bash on the sidelines.
I was provided with a complimentary early copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
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