Shy

Ew.

The writing really sucked me in, but I wish it hadn't. I didn't like how anything played out, I didn't like any of the characters, and yet I felt bad for all of them at the same time for having the great misfortune of suffering one another.

There was so much built up tension and conflict (some of which made no sense which lead me to believe maybe some (most?) of them were just stupid), but it all deflated out like a leaky balloon. Everyone tried to shoulder the blame for how things played out but no one tried to take responsibility.

The main character felt justly angry, (at almost every character in the book at some point) articulated the exact, very logical reason for why she was angry, and then it was kinda just magically ok...somehow...
Years of trauma, anger, betrayal repressed and then it's just kinda gone?

Ew.

I'm still trying to get my thoughts together, so this review is a work in progress. This book had such a strong impact on me, that I want to be sure that I give a review that does it justice. For now I just want to highlight some of my favorite things about this book, and hopefully I can turn this into something more well formed later on:

Things this book did masterfully:

-Depicting an intimate relationship with a person in an ED:
The nuance around love and romanticism and eroticism was so so well done here. Lyra couldn't rely on easy characterizations of love evidenced by internal monologues like “she was so hot, beautiful, sexy, perfect, etc.” Because ED are ugly things and can turn people into selfish, prideful, ugly people. This strengthened the feeling of love between the main characters, beyond what I would think was possible to communicate in a book of this genre. The love came from the characters seeing beyond all of the ugly, and difficult parts of each other to appreciate the purest, best parts. The love was a healing love that made all of the characters want to be better for themselves and each other.

-Depicting a relationship that isn't just adding more people into a more classically heteronormative relationship structure.
The relationship Midas pack had didn't just feel like a bunch of straight guys in a relationship with a girl. (If that's your preferred take on the Omegaverse, no judgement, but you probably wont like this)
This book explored and deepened the relationships between all of the pack members, while still managing to keep Indie securely in focus as the main character.

In the afterword of the book the author said she was trying to explore how the omegaverse would necessarily have different notions of what affection is socially appropriate between males, and I thought this exploration was incredibly successful. There was an integrated sort of love between all of the characters, and even ones who would be considered to be filling a more classically male gender role were able to (after time) openly and casually bestow physical affection on their male pack mates. It was so beautiful. It made me deeply sad that I live in a world where this isn't the norm.

-Depiction of an ED:
Indie's ED was handled masterfully. Either Lyra Cole has really done her research, or she's lived this life, because there's a sensitive attention to detail that doesn't feel gratuitous, or like reading torture porn. Nothing was done for shock value, it just felt very very real.

Without going into too much detail I will just say that I have a past very similar to Indie's. I'm very lucky that I made it, and there are several moments I can recall that tell me I probably shouldn't have. I, like indie, had parents that didn't care to stop me from starving myself to death. I wasn't doing what I was doing as a cry for help, but a struggle for control. I wanted to be perfect so I could be appreciated, but I also wanted to be invisible so I wasn't a burden, I wanted to be worthy of a soft sort of love and caring I had never experienced, I wanted to die young, or freeze time and stay young forever.

It was honestly quite haunting to see my own thoughts reflected back at me, almost verbatim, so many times through Indie. But it was also so, so lovely and healing to read such a beautiful, tender story about a young woman who finds a family to care about her enough to make her want to change. I didn't have that, and reading about it feels like reading a fairy tale ending to a life I lived once too.

! WARNING !:
For those wanting to read this with a similar story to mine, take the triggers of this book very seriously . If you aren't in a place to read about numbers, and if you aren't ready to live in an ED brain again, even if it's someone else's, don't read this book . Even if you would consider yourself recovered, take a pause and check in with yourself. The writing here is very well done. I was quite literally thrown back in time, with vivid memories about what it felt like to be actively dying. I am in a place now where this only motivates me to continue to make choices that keep me healthy and happy. I don't know if I could say the same even 1 to 2 years ago, so take this shit seriously and love yourself enough to not read this if that is what's best for you.

Alternate titles for this book:

The miscommunication trope is so 2023. Have you heard about, the gaslighting trope?

Or how about:

Men can't communicate, and are then confused when the girl doesn't love them after they've rejected her/shown no interest in her/ignored her for their other love interest.

Rebecca Quinn is absolutely masterful at writing. Reading this book felt like eating cotton candy, just melting on my tongue, going down so easy. Like I could eat 10 and not even notice. However, this book left me so so so frustrated lol. I think its best I address all of the characters individually:

Jasper:I still stand by what I said in my review of the first book. His reluctance to engage in a relationship with Lucky because he was previously his Psychologist was very believable/understandable, and is probably the only time this "rejection for your own sake" idea has worked for me with a hero. Also, It was resolved well, and “in good time” with Lucky. With Eden however, it just went on and on. His self denial, self flagellation, self righteousness got old. I actually forgot why he wasn't giving it a shot with her several times during the book, then I was reminded when it was restated like 75% in or so, and I was like “oh yeah... that's pretty dumb.” The whole thing with his Ex wife was prolonged to the point it was just weird and annoying. Like she and Eden are two completely different people, and it's like he couldn't see that enough to get over himself. Also he is one of the prime suspects of the “Why doesn't she love me after I've rejected her, and embarrassed her, and she found out I'm obsessed with someone else, and probably thinks she could never have a chance?” so yeah 3/10Jayk: One of my favorite characters honestly. His character development makes a lot of sense to me, and I wish he was in the book more. 8/10 Beau: Perfect. Honestly him and Jayk seem like the only characters that actually care about Eden. Jayk wants to protect her from the others (cause they're pretty obviously treating her like garbage) and Beau wants everything to work, and wants to support Eden in getting the ~*poly relationship of her dreams*~. He works well with Eden both alone, and in the company of others. My only complaint is, like Jayk, I wish I got to see more of his POV. He only loses one star cause of his whole instalove, but Eden needs at least one decent dude on her side, and he's amazing at taking care of her so I'll let it pass. 9/10Lucky:Surprisingly my least favorite character?? I think he's supposed to be universally likable, and I was decently fond of him in the first book, but after his and Eden's heart to heart in the kitchen I was really turned off of him. For someone who says he understands how it feels to be constantly held in the balance, and in perpetual unrequited love with someone, you would think he would be able to be a bit more empathetic to Eden's situation. Eden was very brave, and honest in sharing her insecurities and how she felt about the relationship. Then Lucky just gaslights her and says she's just like Jasper. Eden's primary concern, which she actually voiced during this conversation , was that she would always be second best and wouldn't be able couldn't compete with Jasper for Lucky's love. I will acknowledge, that this was a great parallel that Rebecca Quinn made to help Eden understand how Jayk might feel, and why he might be uncomfortable with the whole sharing thing. Unfortunately, it was not handled gracefully, and Lucky threw this in Eden's face, and then didn't at all re-assure her that he loved her as much as Jasper. This scene was probably what killed him for me: "You were already his. I just borrowed you for a little while." ... "No. Eden, I panicked. That's all" [this is not what I remember happening but whatever I guess]..."Beautiful, if you want me to prove how much I want you, I'll do it right now. We can go upstairs, and I'll prove it to you in every position you can think of." He laughs, a little wild. "Or that I can think of--I'll show you every way."..."Now that he gave you permission?" I ask softly. ... "It hurts too much to come in as less, Lucky. I've done it all my life, and I just...can't." And then it digresses into Lucky being a childish brat to get his way, but not actually reassuring Eden of his feelings. Also the feelings she shared here were never actually addressed in the rest of this book He gave her no reason at all to feel that she wouldn't always be second best to Jasper, and instead of convincing her otherwise begged, and guilted her for affection. As their reader, it's easier to understand that he actually does like/love her, and what he wants out of their relationship according to his own POV. But Eden hasn't seen any of that. She doesn't know that he wants to be a co-sub (is that a thing?) with her, and have Jasper to dominate them both. He's never told her that, from what I can recall. From her POV, she feels she has no chance with Jasper, knows Lucky loves and probably wont give up Jasper for her, and now no chance with Lucky being her dom.If I were to completely ignore his point of view, and only read Eden's, only seeing things unfold from her perspective, and going of WHAT HE HAS ACTUALLY SAID TO HER, I see no reason that she should believe that Lucky is capable of loving both her and Jasper equally. In fact, I'm pretty sure if you ask any of the other brutes, knowing how obsessed Lucky has been with Jasper for such a long time, they might not be able to argue his case either. He has said he is capable of as much, but there is literally no evidence of this anywhere. 0/10All and all, I'm a bit frustrated with this second book. I know it was probably supposed to be a frustrating read, but this was a lot on all fronts. Rebecca Quinn has shown in these two books that she's a really really strong writer, so I'm trusting her to shape all of this up in the last book. But If I strip away the beautiful writing, and just look at the plot as it stands, the relationships with Eden are very fragile. In all honesty if I wanted to look at this in the most cruel light, it kind of seems like Eden isn't really the main character at all, just the catalyst for the growth of the other characters and the destruction and repair of their relationships with one another. Lucky and Jasper, Beau and Dom, Jayk and all the rest of them. Like it kinda just seems like she's there just to mobilize and deepen these relationships, but so far, her own relationships with the brutes haven't gotten the same treatment or attention on the guys end. It's hard to believe at some level that Eden is at all special to them, and that any other woman (I guess other than Heather lmao) that they were all decently attracted to couldn't have filled the same role. I know their POV show that they like Eden as an individual, and they talk about which of her characteristics they find special, and that she's essentially perfect for each of them in their own unique way, but their actions and words aren't really matching up at this point.Oh Dom: I literally forgot about him because IDK what the fuck he's doing this entire book. I get it, he's trying to keep the civilians alive, but I found him completely uncompelling. He made me stressed about everyone's survival enough to find Eden running off to bone all the dudes a bit silly and impractical. Like if he's really so stressed he can't have a conversation with anyone, do they have time for all of this butt plug shit lol? (even though it was really good...please don't get rid of it) His inability to consider his relationship with Eden a priority in the time of stress, kinda sobered the tone and made the very important character/relationship development feel a bit frivolous.Also he wants to bone Eden, but not enough to like, do anything about it, or even remotely convince Eden that he is interested in her at all as a person. Even when they were talking over coffee it was apparently him just venting all his problems and her listening. He says he can't do nice, can't do cuddles, can't do I love you. Sure. Ok. Fine. But he's supposed to be a very straightforward person. It is very hard to believe that he can't like, tell her he's interested, but isn't sure he loves her yet because it's too soon? Instead of doing all this weird “I'm interested in you, but I'm gonna hang all over Heather (even though everyone and their mom has told me repeatedly that this might hurt you/send the wrong message). I'm also not gonna address it all, but I'm still gonna make sexy eyes at you. Also please forget about the fact that the entire first book I thought you were a useless waste of space, and pretty much told you as much, and I haven't really addressed that at all...But I don't really understand why you only wanna be just friends, and you can't see that I like you more than that???” I forgot you existed/10It's like every male character in this book decides once they've changed their minds about something, that Eden should just ignore how they've been treating her the entire first book, (and majority of this one). Like they get mad at her when she guards her heart when they've done nothing but rip her apart in their own *unique* way. She's been constantly trying her best, but all of the dudes are playing in the middle of the pool, none of them want to make any moves, or do anything about anything (except Beau) and then just gaslight the shit out of Eden when they change their minds. Also I don't give a shit about heather, I really just don't lol. I can't even be bothered to capitalize her name. She's not endearing, she's not nice, not cute, her entire personality is just annoying. It's honestly quite impressive that Rebecca Quinn has created such a detestable character without employing any of the classic catty/mean girl character tropes.

There I'm done. God, I'm sorry.

Gah. This was so fucking cute.

There were a few editing issues and inconsistencies but those were easily overlooked because I fell head over heals for closet cinnamon roll hero Tate!! I was really in the mood for something a bit bully/angst-y, and this gave me everything I wanted, and then some.

This was the first bully book I think I've ever read where I actually felt like the hero actually internalized the consequences of his actions and redeemed himself. I loved Letty (I'm a big sucker for a low self esteem heroine, shoot me). I thought the push and pull between her and Tate made a lot of sense! It was a bit frustrating when she would continuously pull away from him right when they were making progress, but honestly, it made complete sense and I couldn't blame her for it one bit. She was a very strong heroine to continuously be able to be upfront about her trauma, voice her feelings even though it might hurt Tate's.

I think this was also the first romance book that I have ever enjoyed which only had the heroines POV. I am usually of the opinion that the MMC's POV is more interesting. However the way Charlotte Stein wrote it really worked! Tate was such a softy and Letty was able to read him like a book, so it was almost cuter this way! He was so obviously head over heels for her and he couldn't hide it! I love love loved it!


The only thing I wish is that there was some sort of epilogue, or bonus chapter or something! The ending left me salivating for one more teeny tiny taste of their HEA.

Charlotte Stein has discovered some way to infuse cocaine directly into my eye sockets via kindle. There is no other way to explain my complete and utter obsession with everything this woman writes.

God, I've fallen down the Charlotte Stein Rabbit Holeeeee~~

All her heroes are closet cuties, I adore them

The only thing one could complain about is she kinda does the Ali Hazelwood thing where all of her heroines and heroes kind of have the same description. The MMC are always giant 6 foot 5 towering, brick shit houses with thighs as long as a girls leg. But exactly like Ali Hazelwood, I don't give a shit. Book's still cute.

I love this with my whole heart

So I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree with a lot of the reviews I've seen that were disappointed in book two, because I thought this second book was just as stunning as the first. I thought it was both very tasteful in how it handled the heat scene, and very realistic in depicting Indie's recovery.

Why I think this was such a realistic depiction of Recovery:

Indie's recovery was motivated by a lot of things:

-Wanting to be strong enough to be independent

-(Vanity) Wanting to look good standing next to her pack
Even if someone's ED is not centered around their own body image, but instead motivated by control, OCD, or other mental health issues, an ED can turn someone into a very vain person, and is largely fueled by self hatred. It's not pretty, but sometimes the same demons that arise in the height of an ED can be the same force motivating you to do better for yourself.

-(A desire for Normalcy) Wanting to be able to eat, unbothered just like she saw the people around her do demonstrate.
Again this could also have been motivated by some “ugly” feelings. Vanity. Jealousy. Pride. “Why can they do it, and I can't”? This wasn't how Lyra Cole went about it, but either choice would've been realistic.

-She didn't have to fight for love and appreciation anymore.
Indie wasn't alone anymore. She had people that cared about her well being. They cared about where she was, if she was eating, how she was feeling. It may seem silly, but for someone who went from being ignored by everyone she loved, to loved deeply by both her pack and her friends, and cared about by the school staff. She went from someone living in a beta world with little physical affection, to the ABO world with an abundance of it. She was taught in this new world that she was allowed to give love and affection and that it would be reciprocated. Sometimes to be convinced you are worthy of love, it takes someone actually loving you.

Some people say they were disappointed that “Indie was healed by love, or by a guy” but I didn't feel like that was what happened. My interpretation was that their love motivated indie to do better for herself. Indie's whole ED was triggered by feeling like like no one she loved gave a shit about whether she lived or died. She found people who gave a shit, and she was motivated to change. It may sound simple, but coming from someone who is living in recovery and from what I know of others living or having lived with ED it can sometimes be “that simple.”

-Indie did recover quickly, but it didn't feel that way
While I do think the timeline was kinda quick, if it the book hadn't told us that the plot was spanning a couple of weeks, I would have thought months had gone by. Nothing felt fast. Emotionally it felt like we “hit all the milestones” to be blunt about it. Even in the epilogue we see that Indie has been weight restored, but still struggles. This felt completely reasonable to me.

We saw all of this happen over the course of the two books. In fact I highlighted several points which just resonated so strongly with me, and maybe I'll insert quotes in the future, but I think Indies ED was handled phenomenally. I honestly think the only thing that could've been done better here, is I would've liked to see more of a heart to heart between Indie and her friend who had Bulimia. I think that would've been very delicate and challenging to do (what type of tone would this conversation have taken?) but I would've loved to have seen it.




As for the heat scene:
At the time of her heat Indie still didn't see herself as a sexual being. Honestly, as a reader who connected very intimately with Indie, I would feel uncomfortable with a heat centered on sexuality. The heat instead felt centered on love, closeness and intimacy. To me, this was a perfectly emotionally satisfying way to handle this.

All in all, I'm disappointed that others were disappointed, but I loved these books so much, I'll definitely be buying hard copies.

Good, cute, nice! Liked the FMC a lot!
Loved the plot, and great execution on the drama!

The MMC's voices in their POV were pretty indistinct though. I often couldn't tell which of the band members POV I was reading until they referred to other characters. :/

Mmmm I love Carnage Island, and I really wanted to love this, but it gave me an ick feeling. Let me first start by saying that I honestly dont mind/sometimes absolutely love books with dub/non con. (Please see: Forsyth Royals series) It's not something I generally actively seek out, but I won't think anything about reading books that have it.

But this was a mmmmmmmmmmm. Like this book did dub/non con in a way that actually made me feel guilty for enjoying it in the past lol.

Let me give some examples:

He had taken me in a moment of weakness, but at no point did I not want him. Yes, my body had reacted without my mind's consent. Yet I would be lying if I had said I hadn't wanted it that way.


No. Like don't try to do mental gymnastics to turn non con into consent. There was no consent. As the writer, own it, work with it, do something about it. But don't insult my intelligence as a reader to tell me red is actually blue or some shit.


I hate to compare to Lords of Pain etc, but that is my fav execution of non/dub con so, sorry

I would like to thank the goddess herself Lola Rock for bestowing an ARC copy!


So first I should say that Pack Darling might just be my favorite book of all time. It is hands down my comfort book, my therapist if you will. Any emotion I'm feeling good or bad deserves a Pack Darling Moment™️. I exposed myself to my IRL bestie and bought her these books so she could sink into the depths of depravity with me. My love for this series really knows no bounds.

But because of this, I was convinced going in, that I could never love Redfang Royal as much.

I was but a young naive girl

Update: 11/11/2023
I'm honestly at a loss for words. I'll come back to give more coherent thoughts after I've digested this a bit more.
(And maybe re-read it. I already feel the burning urge to start again from page 1.)

There's just so many things that Samgel did absolutely masterfully in this trilogy. Like how the actual hell do all of the pieces always fall into place with them? Like every little detail is important, and ties back in somehow.

Right now though, the biggest thing I can't stop thinking about is that: the reason I probably love the Princes books the most so far is that they are (under all the debauchery and unhinged-ness) so relatable?

It's almost like a dramatization/bastardization of the “coming of age” deal that happens in your early-mid twenties. You start to realize how much of your identity has been shaped by your family/parents, you start to see the shadow side of this and maybe feel anger and bitterness. You try to disengage from the familial hierarchy which keeps some people weak, dependent, or unable to change. You try to ensure that you never become what you have watched your parents become, and you try to escape so that you can ultimately heal.

I feel this most strongly with Lex as he's trying to balance all of his responsibilities. Trying to uncover what he wants from what he's always been told he should want. What he knows to be true about himself, versus what hes always been told is true about him.

My only disappointment was that I didn't get more time with Lex. But Logically this made a ton of sense to me. First of all plotwise, it makes sense that he would be battling his Scratch addiction. Overall "balance" wise within the trilogy he really stood out as a favorite in the first book and so it made sense to give him some downtime. This book really made me come to love Pace. I love how obsessed he is with Verity, and how it seems like he's slowly starting to learn that being there with her in the flesh, is much better than watching her through a screen. I went into Princes of Chaos expecting to have Pace be my favorite, because this totally obsessed and unhinged Pace is who I was expecting to get in book 1. The character development was totally worth the wait though. My hope is that the third book can really bring Wicker around for me cause honestly I'm not really sold on him yet haha. Like I wouldn't choose to boot him from the Princes, but I'm not exactly seeing him as vital to the operation yet either...

Like honestly I don't care if they're explicit, if there isn't some literature professor 50 years down the line making people read these books and analyze them for a semester paper I'm going to hop out of my granny wheelchair and beat someone with my cane.




Pre Release Crying 11/9/2023
Bro this is ridiculous

My brain fancast Jared Padalecki as Will without my permission but it was absolutely the right decision.

Umm what? So this book was definitely spicy, but I got so wrapped up in Adam's evolution as a character that the spicy scenes were pretty secondary to me. (Don't get me wrong they were definitely well done, it's just that the story felt like so much more.)

Also the development of the relationship was so well done? The main characters could've never had sex the entire time, and I'm not sure it would've had any impact on the depth of their relationship? There was also some wonderful life lessons learned by the characters, and general sentiments about society that made me introspect.

I feel like I've become a better person after reading a book about two amateur porn stars...who woulda thunk.

I'll update/rate this when I'm fully done but I'm more than half way now and here is my thing with Cate C. Wells.

Her heroines? Phenomenal. Like superb. Their struggles make me sob, I rejoice when they find their inner strength and when they come to appreciate their good qualities and respect themselves. Like seriously I haven't really found heroines that I empathize so deeply as hers.

Her heroes? Garbage. Complete shit humans. “Meh” at best, but in this series, specifically, usually irredeemable.

Like it makes me so mad, because I would read an entire book about Flora, or Una, or Dina from Heavy (Heavy himself is my fav of her heroes, but thats not saying a lot, so moving on), No romance needed. I just love their stories and their journeys of introspection and ultimately, of self acceptance. Like I honestly feel like its a disservice to these incredible, strong women that she writes to have them settle for shit for brains dudes who couldn't navigate their own (or anyone else's) feelings with a compass, and turn into whiny bitches the second that things don't go their way and they can't figure out how to “make things right” because they were so shitty to begin with that they really can't “make things right.”

TL;DR these books shouldn't be romances, I just wanna read Cate C. Wells books about awesome heroines who defy societal expectations and their life journeys. Or, or orrrrrrr! Give them men who are worthy of the herculean efforts they go through just to exist. K thanks bye.

UPDATE: I still feel the same way lol. All my stars go to Flora, Alec gets noooonneeeee~~~

So like toward the end I almost had to bite my tongue. Alec started to make me feel like he was doing something. And no it wasn't the "You were the only thing that was mine, my secret special thing" or whatever, that was garbage. What almost won me over was actually how flora would say Alec would be eating, and she thought he wasn't paying attention but he was listening the whole time. Planning to fix things she would complain about and stuff. That was just so domestic. It reminded me of a 70 year old couple with a gruff grandpa who doesn't outwardly show affection but loves and dotes on his wife the only way he knows how.

So it almost got me. But it didn't, cause then I remembered that he had been treating her like shit since high school

See, now, when Cade figured it out, he figured it out. What a luxury to have a hero with emotional maturity, who introspects and is aware of his own shortcomings, and most importantly who chases his girl down to not leave any misunderstandings

3.5 (+something probably) stars

I think this book definitely did what it was trying to do, and I thought it was enjoyable for what it was. It read depraved in the way that a show set in medieval times, like game of thrones or the like, would. Almost gratuitous or indulgent in emphasizing the social hierarchy and all its moral failings. It didn't feel very romantic, but personally I'm not sure a medieval romance can or should feel romantic. I feel like its just not the time or place really. Instead this was like a “what if there were omegas in medieval times” thought experiment.

In the end the FMC actually liked the heroes which is surprising and probably more than they deserve lol.
And the MMCs also liked the FMC which, again, is surprising and for the time is probably more than one could hope for.

Partial review, will finish later:

This book felt like a strong 5 for 90% of the book so im rounding up. The last bit felt a bit rushed and unbalanced which was a bit jarring because the majority of the book had pretty great pacing and balance of perspectives.

It just felt like a lot happened in the last bit, especially having to do with Sonny being kinda shitty and so little time was left to address all of my upset feels lol.

I'm still not mad and feel pretty satisfied, and this is really my only complaint.

I'm giving it a 3 (rounding up honestly) because I loved Milly and I was sucked in hard for the first half.

But Carson was a walking red flag for me from page one. He totally outed himself as a giant man child who can't help but be an asshole to others when he's going through something. But like ok he maybe he was just grumpy, and he was self aware and seemed to want to change so I let it go.


Mentally insert Tyra Banks we were all rooting for you here

SILLY ME I WAS RIGHT HE'S A DICKHEAD AND MILLY SHOULDN'T HAVE FORGIVEN HIM. Sorry but going through a hard time isn't a good reason to treat good people like shit.

So Carson's a clown he gets no stars. I loved essentially every other character Milly was such a sweetie, Dennis was the cutest, her best friends were awesome, her brothers were awesome. They all get 4 stars at least.

I don't....I really don't wanna talk about how much I liked this. So I won't

UMMM WHAT??

I'm in shock, why does this not have at least 4.Something stars?? This book was magnificent, the depth of love I now feel for Eve Dangerfield's writing style can only be surpassed by how much I love her characters!

The writing is witty, sharp, effervescent. The world just flew off the pages and time and real life obligations felt meaningless. It was a very thorough, honest take on two characters finding their way in BDSM together. (Also featuring accurate and honest female ADHD rep). This book took its serious subject matter very seriously but still felt heartbreakingly romantic and sweet, with bits of humor sprinkled in. Nothing overblown, nothing unnecessary. It was just perfect.

Ok, I'm off now to go binge read everything else Eve Dangerfield

Oh my god. This book. This is one of those, stay up till 3 am every night until you finish it books. I put my life on hold so Johnny and Shannon could live theirs and I don't regret it for a second.

My original review after reading the teaser:
Pace is already it for me I swear to god.

After finishing the book:
I was young and foolish. Pace is, in fact, not it for me.

So I want to start off by saying I totally understand all of the people who didn't like this one.
However, I do think this is one of, if not my favorite book in the series, but at this part in the story I wouldn't consider it a romance.

From my perspective though, this is nothing new. In the Royals series so far, that there is always a point in each trilogy where this is true for me. For example I didn't think of Killian and Story's relationship as romantic until deep into the second book, if not later. A similar thing was true of Nick. So maybe in the past I would only feel this with one or two characters at a time, but I actually think the Princes, while none of them have a romantic relationship with Verity yet, have more going for them in this regard than previous heroes.

Let me explain.

What I think Sam and Angel did masterfully is show how deep the relationship is between the Princes themselves . Their relationship felt far more dependent, caring, and complex than any of the previous heroes. I think the three royal men always have a close brotherly relationship with one another, that always helps to shine light on their good character traits even when they're being shit humans more generally.

I think this is even more true in the Princes book than any other. They said multiple times like they felt like they “owned” one another, or felt like they were all parts of the same person, and I truly understood that by the end of the book. Protecting each other came first to them, even if they had to sacrifice themselves or Verity to do so. So, I think what may come across to others as Verity being weak and taking whatever the Princes through at them, to me just seemed like she was slowly becoming one of them. Thats what the Princes do. They would pay any price to protect one another.

The Prince's relationship gave me the clear perspective that these boys are capable of caring for someone and deeply. The whole “sleeping together like a nest of rats thing”, was perhaps the most endearing and sad metaphor that felt, at the same time, so true to the characters that I couldn't help but find them worth caring about on their own merit. This is also probably the first book that this has happened (at least so early on in the trilogy). Killian didn't have that for me. Nor did Nick. Or Sy, when he fucked up, or Remy. When these characters were, frankly, straight up evil, I couldn't extract myself from the heroine's pain to empathize with them. Most of the time I would just think about how the heroine deserved better.

In this one though, Verity played a bit of a background role for me, and for the Princes too. I think that this is the problem that a lot of people might be having with this book, which again I can completely understand. However, there were many small moments when they wanted to care for her, and wanted her to become one of them. Seeing the way that the princes care about each other, gave me this sense of anticipation that when the time is right, the Princes might have the most intimate and caring relationship of all the other couples.


As an aside:

I think this book really works because of the Prince's Dynamic. I would actually be really interested in seeing a Royals book where the heroes aren't close at all. Maybe they don't even know each other. Maybe they even play mind fuck games with each other and use the heroine to do so. I think it would be very interesting to see Sam and Angel develop this relationship from scratch, along with the heroine's relationship to them. Or maybe the heroine even has an advantage and is already in a romantic relationship/super close with one of the heroes but not the others.

I would really be interested in seeing if I could still come to love Royal men that don't even love one another yet.

As an aside II:
Sorry for the long rant like I could honestly write an entire essay about this book. The abundance of maternal imagery, even associated with Verity and the Princes. There's a lot to unpack with this one.

I've re read this book enough times, I should finally come on and give it a formal review.

Why this is such a comfort book for me?
This little novella has some of the best Autism representation. Like period. I know, I'm shocked too. If you felt heard/understood with Stella from the Kiss Quotient, this is on par with that in my opinion.

Yes it is a bit silly in a smutty way sometimes, but Kati Wilde perfectly captures one the most painful, scary, overwhelming features of living with autism (in my personal opinion) which is constantly being misunderstood by the ones you love, and those you want to love you.

I love it, it's perfect 10/10.

2.5 rounded down.

If you have to choose between buying and reading Atomic Habits versus buying and reading this book, I am of the belief you would find far more utility from Atomic Habits.

I really wanted this to be a book that I felt foundational to the way I structured my work going forward. Unfortunately, most of the practical information I felt was quite obvious and I already practice it. As an aspiring academic, I think maybe most useful things I learned from the book were that: memory training and other focus intensive tasks that are unrelated to your research/work can be helpful to train your brain to think more deeply on your actual work, and that there exist successful young Professors who end their work day at 5:30pm.

I went into the book already convinced of the value of deep work. As a result I found most of the content to be fairly useless. Most of the book felt persuasive in nature, as if trying to convince the reader of the value of deep work and that the techniques introduced are actually facilitative of deep work. To this second point, most of the evidence was anecdotal, and interesting but not very personal, nor deep, nor detailed. Most of it could've, ironically, been summarized on a buzz-feed article titled “30 quirky habits of the worlds most ingenious minds” or something like that.

To the first point, if you are someone, especially someone who is not in tech/startup world, who is already convinced of the value of deep work I feel you can easily skip the first half of the book. In fact I wish I had.

Overall I was quite disappointed, I think Professor Newport had a very unique opportunity as someone with a vast wealth of personal experience in high achieving environments and positions that he could've leveraged. If he wanted to support his arguments with anecdote, he could've used his own, as a Ph.D. student who graduated from MIT. I would've eaten a narrative book like this up if he supported each of his techniques with a full story of how it helped him in some unique situation, and how he developed these techniques throughout his career (much like the conclusion of the book) then supported this with sprinkles of anecdotes from other professors or scholars or something as supplements. This still would not serve the same purposes as Atomic habits which is highly centered on research supported techniques, but I think it would've offered a unique perspective worth reading about.

Overall the book was a bit of a slog, mildly derogatory, sometimes a bit finger-wavey, and pretty redundant but with some gems buried in the pages, but as some other reviewers have said these gems could've occupied 20pgs maximum if they were written concisely. The supporting evidence wasn't very supportive, so basically the techniques are more like very general tips or recommendations which are left to stand on their own merit, and could've been expressed in that many pages. In short, if you are even remotely interested in personal growth or bettering yourself, you're probably already doing most, if not all, of what this book suggests.