JJ

DNF @ 60%

The story had the potential to be good, but the poor writing got in the way. The dialogue and the characters' actions were often unnatural and illogical. At this point, I simply don't believe the love story and can't muster the care to find out what happens with the plot.

This one felt rushed and left me wishing there was more relationship and character development.

This was a mindfuck; I loved it. At first I didn't think I'd like it because of where I thought the plot was going, but fortunately it went somewhere else completely. It had me whisper screaming at some parts and crying from others.

I think it's best to go into this book blind and enjoy the wild ride. It's very long, but it allows you to really sink into the story and get to know the characters. A few little details were unrealistic in the sense that things just don't work that way IRL but they were small enough that I could let it go and enjoy the story.

Well done debut with a gorgeous cover and characters who have sunk their claws into me. I'm such a sucker for enemies to lovers, especially when it's a rough journey with a hard-fought redemption arc. Looking forward to book 2!

Ultimately underwhelmed by this one. Too close to insta-love. I almost gave up in the middle, but it got interesting again near the end. Even so, I felt emotionally disconnected from them; I was being told they were crying but their actions and words didn't really match up with that. It also made their reactions to certain events feel unnatural.

The fact I still really enjoyed this book despite it being a lot more fantastical than I prefer says a lot about how good it is! Great world building, plenty of plot and harrowing scenes (but not at the expense of smut), and best of all in my opinion is the humor that is liberally sprinkled throughout. If fantasy is your thing and you like monster romance, this is a must read.

Oh and the cover art (also by Moss) is absolutely gorgeous!

"MY DRURY, HEAR ME WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I WILL UPROOT ANCIENT TREES AND MOVE ENTIRE FORESTS FOR YOU. AND WHEN YOU DIE, I WILL LIE DOWN AND BECOME PART OF THE EARTH ALONGSIDE YOU."

😭😭😭

What a lovely book! Very much enjoyed sinking my teeth into this one. I will have to check out the author's other works.

This one's tough to rate. I really liked parts of it, but the barriers to their relationship seemed too flimsy to me, so it was a bit of a silly conflict.

Decent writing that could've been better, but the story was enjoyable enough. I found the university and coach's reactions to the event near the end to be completely unbelievable though. It made no sense.

This book kept me guessing and put a unique spin on the paranormal world, but the resolution felt rushed. There was also this weird combination of really emotional reactions followed by emotionally dead dialogue, so the result was that I didn't feel like any of these characters had any real emotional connection to one another.

Enjoying the plot, and looking forward to finding out what happens. Still needs a round of edits though, and this one had a real WTF moment where Julian and Daemon told a human he was worse than his rapist buddies for being "too weak to rape a woman." Probably one of the dumbest statements I've ever read. I had to pretend I didn't read that so I could continue liking the characters.

Needs a round of editing, but the story has me hooked.

Good writing and plot, though the relationship was too conflict-free for me (and almost insta-love), which is why I think I'll like book 3 the best.

This was fun! I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say it's a great combination of funny, sweet, suspenseful, and smutty. Good stuff.

I enjoyed parts of this story, but lost interest in the second half with the excessive smut and OTT emotional/sappy content. I love a good redemption arc; just wish this one had more plot and less infantilization of Gavin.

I signed up for emotional damage and this book delivered! It broke my heart then pieced it back together.

It kinda kills me that we never find out what Abel's wish was the night of his first date with Landon 😭 He was so sad he never got to tell him and now I'm sad I'll never know either!

One weird thing that kept throwing me off was that Nicky James never wanted to use a contraction with the verb "are" so whenever they said "you are" or "they are" instead of "you're" or "they're" it felt unnatural and awkward.

Mainly read this one to make myself really sad in order to adequately feel the hurt in the hurt/comfort sequel.

Years of angst and toxicity, tortured souls, complex, deeply flawed characters, enduring love tempered by hate? Yes, please!

I'm left with a burning question though:

What the hell was the deal with Gideon implying Cas looked just like the man who broke his heart? I was convinced Caspien's father cheated on his mom with Gideon and stole their money, but then we find out his dad is some used car salesman? I'm so confused.

These guys survive by pure dumb luck. I refuse to believe an assassin and an emperor who has had to be clever to make it this far are both so bad at planning. I suspended my disbelief enough to enjoy the book, but I do wish the plot were more complex.

A promising start, though I'm not super impressed by Airón's strategy and subterfuge skills, but maybe that's intentional since his sister was trained for that aspect, not him. I'm withholding judgement on Tallu until I know more.

Slowest of slow burns, loaded with hurt/comfort, with probably the purest characters I've ever come across. Which is why I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped, I think. No one is as perfect as Jake was in this book, and even Rye, who struggled through his trauma the entire time, never did anything wrong. I like flawed characters because it makes them more real, and Jake and Rye were so good and perfect for each other that it just didn't feel realistic. The sweetness was also off the charts, which for many readers is a great thing! But alas, I can only tolerate so much.

This was well written, and I really liked the hurt/comfort early on. The slow build of trust and their relationship was just right. This is the perfect book for someone who loves trauma recovery with LOTS of sweetness and fluff, with only trauma-related relationship struggles, which are promptly addressed and dealt with in a healthy way.

This was good, but I didn't like it as much as the first book. They're hot together, but I guess I just didn't feel the angst as strongly as with Nate and Xavi.

Just like with the first book, I should've loved it based on the plot and tropes, but for some reason, it just didn't hit right. I did enjoy the plot, but all the parts where they were working through their issues felt more like I was reading a therapy session, and the sex scenes (other than the first one) really did not work for me, possibly because of the dialogue, but I think it was more than that. Lots of hurt/comfort in this one, though more verbal than expressed through actions.

This one had me hooked the entire way through! I loved the slow progression of their relationship. I typically don't like mpreg and only read it because my bestie makes me (though I do enjoy omegaverse), but I really liked this one! I did not like that despite the bucking of their slavery-centered society's strict roles in many ways, they all clearly still felt that baby girls held no value. 😐

Very much enjoyed this forced marriage enemies-to-lovers fantasy! The end was quite a ride (part of it I predicted but not all), and I look forward to the next one.