Shy
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 liked it, both cute and suspenseful.
I took off a star because the heroine would lose her shit every so often at very weird moments. Like she was apparently a repressed hothead and something small would set her off but much larger things didn't bother her. Maybe that was intentional but it was a bit irritating to read lol.
Damn.
Me before reading this book:
Omegaverse? My favorite Genre!
Reverse Harem? Of course, what other types of relationships exist?
Paranormal romance? What's not to love?
Dark/bully romance? That one stretched my boundaries a bit, but now I'm in love, so lay it on me! Monster romance? Sure why not I'm down!
But Alien smut, no way! Now you're going too far, its too weird, to many inhuman features. How is that even compatible, aliens aren't even real. Thats where I draw the line, I'm not that depraved!
Me after reading this book:
Sigh... This was great. Very cute. I loved it.
Theres another? Yeah sure I'll read it...
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.
I can't it's perfection.
I would seriously re-read it 5 more times in a row If I had enough time to just be completely swept away in a story like that again. It felt more real than my real life.
I think this story captured a level of depth that almost seems impossible for the genre. There was foreshadowing galore, a purposeful presentation of intergenerational trauma, Perspectives and truths were unveiled in layers, and the craziest thing is at any given point I felt like the story was walking a very fine line between being a romance (with tragic elements) and a true tragedy.
What if Johnny didn't heal well? What if he lost his dreams, and his character along with them, and actually did end up like Shannon's dad. The whole story could've easily ended up being that Shannon is doomed to live the life of her mother, with a tragic ending for all. I think we can assume it's unlikely if not impossible that this wouldve happened, due to just how good Johnny is, and his strength of character ( and especially with Mr. And Ms. Kavanagh in the picture) but everything felt so real, that it was actually really easy to imagine. When Shannon's mother suggested it I thought “Really?? Oh dear god, is that where this is going???”
None of these things felt very intentional while reading, it just felt like I was reading the story of Shannon and Johnny. But when I look back and what happened, how I felt, and all of the details needed to make it happen it can't have been done with anything other than extremely careful intent.
On a less serious note
I had only two real problems (I'm joking, these are not problems) both of which are entirely my own fault
1. I'm an ignorant American and I can't fluidly imagine Irish accents. I basically imagined everyone with a British accent the entire time and felt bad about it every time I realized I was doing it.
2. As someone who has a fear of vomit I knew me and Shan were gonna have problems as soon Johnny read her file in book 1
Thank god for Elizabeth O'Roark, she and Elsie Silver are in a league of their own. I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately, enjoying the plot of several books well enough, but feeling emotionally detached and a bit checked out.
Then! I remember I haven't finished the Devils series.
Then I D E V O U R two of them in just as many days. Staying up all night, daydreaming about Ben and Gemma's happy ending... sigh...
Elizabeth O'Roark can do no wrong in my eyes, I only wish I got to see a bit more of Ben's pining from his POV, but I concede that part of the trauma this book caused me was due to only getting Gemmas POV so I understand the choice...
On to Keeley and Graham <3
I would give it like 4.5 for now, If I get a craving to reread it in the next couple of months Ill bump it up to a 5.
I really liked this one, the plot was chaotic and a little all over the place, but it felt unique and interesting enough to keep me hooked.
I just have one thing to say though, if you're one of those people who thought there wasn't enough groveling in Pack Darling (this is not me, I thought there was an appropriate amount) then this will have you absolutely frothing from the mouth in dissatisfaction lol.
I felt very strongly like most of them didn't grovel enough, and some one in particular definitely did not grovel enough to be accepted into sexy times with open arms.
But I think I still liked the overall vibe enough that I was able to like get over it... kinda... not really. No, I'm not really over it, and thats probably why its hard for me to give this a 5 lol. I think if the tension had more time to be resolved this would've been an easy 5 from me.
Loved it a lot. I loved the writing style, and even though the story wasn't necessarily romance centric for most of it (which I definitely agree with! It felt very respectful of the topic) I still felt how much the MCs cared for each other.
The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars, is because for some reason it felt a bit long to me? Not necessarily slow, just long, if that makes any sense? I think I was ready for the climax and happily ever after, quite some time before it actually came, but also I wouldn't necessarily say that things weren't happening in between. There was a lot of character development which is probably why it didn't feel slow.
I'm usually a speed reader but I just put this down several times when I kinda stopped feeling it. Maybe it's because it was emotionally heavy? I'm not quite sure, but I think that was a good choice because I ended the book feeling like this was a 5 star read. But it took me like 6 months to finish so I'm not quite sure I can give it a 5 yet...
Ummm yoikes..
This was pretty engaging, and the “rejected mate” trope was carried out in a deliciously angsty way to the point where I was willing to overlook any weirdness and or plot holes and or silliness...
This was a 3.5-4 star for me up until about 80% through
But when Liliana goes to save Randy and kinda does but then instead of, you know completing the rescue that she got herself all beat up for, she decides to go have a mini boink sesh with the old mates, I kinda lost my shit.It was so dumb, so unnecessary. The sex scene wasn't even enjoyable cause I was just screaming in my head “WHAT ABOUT RANDY” the entire time. Like I , unlike Liliana, did not forget her best friend was there and her life was in mortal danger. The whole thing was uncalled for, and honestly my intelligence felt insulted lmao.
Edit:
Previously I gave this 2 stars but that was actually before I had finished the ending, the quality of the writing essentially turned into soup after the whole Randy bit so it was so so hard to finish. I had to detract a star for how much effort and suffering I went through to read the last 30 pages or so...
It's a hard nah for me folks.
I love Elizabeth O'Roark's writing! Waking Olivia is an all time favorite for me, and I absolutely adored the Devil series! Her writing here was still impeccable, compelling, and tear inducing (especially Lucie's pov) but the characters were just...not it at all.
Ok I LOVED Lucie. I'm a sucker for a FMC who has had so much shit thrown at her but continues to be kind, compassionate, and face challenges head on, one step at a time. Also my heart genuinely aches for my low self esteem fictional babes. (Also Sophie, Henry, and Molly were just the freaking best.)
But man Caleb sucked, The law of romance plot physics was broken. For every shitty thoughtless thing he did, there was not an equal and opposite wonderful moment. Like the circumstances around why he was the way he was, and how Lucie's unrequited love went on for so long made logical sense, but I didn't feel like she got a quarter of what she put into the relationship back out of it.
Also, I am just SO NOT INTERESTED in Kate and Beck's story. Like I honestly couldn't care less about what happens to these two (especially after reading the teaser). It seems to me like whole series is about morally gray main characters and while I'm here for the concept in theory, I'm so far really not feeling it.
I fell in love with this book at
Bo: “Win, is that short for something”
Win: “Winnifred...What about you, are you tall for something”
I died. It was a dad joke so good I was immediately depressed that I hadn't invented it myself.
But in all seriousness Bo is the sweetest. Thats my review.
Idk if I'm just getting old or whatever, but I'm kinda over “lukewarm” asshole heroes. You know the type of guys that are douchey in like ~ n o r m a l ~ ways? Like they're almost so real that they remind me of people that could possibly/actually do exist? And then I get angry?
It might also just be a phase, but right now I either want depravity à la the Samantha Rue and Angel Lawson Forsyth Royals series, or an absolute sugar cube like Bo <3 Or like, just a dude who is well adjusted (possibly goes to therapy) enough to recognize his own emotional state.
Warning: Dnf very early.
One of my biggest book “icks” that make me stop almost immediately is when the main character describes themselves by their “superior qualities” un ironically, without prompting, or without having a greater purpose as a plot device.
You know, like I just had to hear the heroine say she has a flat stomach and double D's in an otherwise normal sentence. Idk I just feel like people don't casually complement themselves in sentences like that?
I'm not even against mary sues or main characters with perfect traits. But when giving us as readers an initial picture of the heroines awesomeness I generally don't want it to be from her lol.
3.75 (ish?) Rounded up. I think it was a unique and sweet story. I likes the world building. I think it was interesting to hear about a darker omega verse and its human rights issues and lack of protections for Omegas. I think the relationships could've used more development. Honestly if it was only Miles and Thane in the book, I probably wouldn't have noticed so much.
But Fox felt slightly stereotypical/one dimensional and I honestly don't think the book would've changed at all if Levi weren't in it. His presence had no effect on the story one way or another. He even acknowledged that he hadn't really spent time with or gotten to know Riley, but then nothing happened to address that, which just made the line a bit ironic.
Overall it was a good, quick, sweet omega verse that hits the spot if you are only in the mood to feel happy things pretty much. There are stressful moments but all the problems become resolved in the end.
Lmao I love Kati Wilde. For someone who mainly writes short novellas her technical ability is superb. She can get you sucked it, construct a deep fantasy world, tell the story of an epic journey, and thoroughly develop her characters in about 250 pages or less.
It's—dare I say it— wilde.
In this one Elina was kinda silly, but in a cute way. I loved it.