Corinthya

Almost over and I can't wait?!

• The control of the governing bodies over our main cast is really on show here and that made me frustrated and mad as all hell. In that sense the writing of those parts was very good but it got to a point where I had to take breaks from the story for it.
• We got a conclusion to one point of tension for our characters, it happened right at the end and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
• The father is back on the scene, working on his redemption with varying degrees of success. Still suspicious but working on it.
• Relationship wise we get a few steps forward in the feelings department (appreciated) and take a bit of a leap in the bedroom. The fact that our main character is being introduced to the BDSM life from zero experience and nobody really giving her much of an alternative feels a little off to me, she enjoys the practices but still we see her thoughts being less accepting, like her body and instincts are on board but her head still thinks she shouldn't. Again, feels off to me.

There is only one more book to go and i'll keep going just hope some of the less favorable points get some change.

Getting a bit better again.

• We get to see more of the darkness of this world, we see that underground area they hide from the general public and their underhanded tactics to control everyone, as well as how far they are willing to go to keep their world as is.
• The actual academy aspect is missing from this book as we focus on our relationships and the darkness that are being pulled into.
• Also lost the actual antagonists, we have a few characters that were previously really big issues and their role in that capacity is diminished to mostly annoyance. This so it's introduced a bigger and badder unknown enemy that includes more than one person.
• We see some more explicit scenes between our main character and her mates. Introducing the more kinky side of their interactions. This for me is pretty well written except for the rate of progression, like in the previous book when we first got some smutty scenes and it went from something not being considered to suddenly not only being acted upon but including some more intense things during the scenes. This suffered from a bit of the same, our main character never really considers if she wants something like it but when being introduced to it not only is she not warned she doesn't really even think about it just does as they would prefer.
• Some of her family's secrets are revealed in this book, that kinda surprised me.
• Relationships outside the romantic sense were not very prevalent but the few times they did appear they were well managed to feel important and mostly helpful.

Generally it was a good book that i didn't feel suffered from building up the next book too much.

A book that dragged on and on.

• In this book we get to learn a bit more about the people behind the scenes that order everyone around. We discover some of what they've been plotting for our main character and what they have already interfered with in her life.
• We finally learn what the mystery is with our male leads and to me it wasn't super surprising.
• The relationship between Isobel and the boys gets deeper. With the introduction of smutty scenes. These to me felt very sudden, not that they suddenly were doing these acts but that she goes from completely innocent to getting some intense first experiences and they don't seem to trigger her nor do they think about the possibility.
• We get some more character development from all of them that was very much needed.
• This suffered very much though I general from second book slowness. Lots of very little actually happening because we had a lot of setup. This made this book feel like it was dragging for forever.

Still, I'll continue on and hope the next one has more happening.

A decent sequel.

• We expand a bit about the world in this book, since we get outside we see the discrimination mentioned in the previous book but not too much.
• I'm not sure if we are presented with more than one bad guy but the one they revealed at the end was someone I wished it hadn't been but somehow still predictable. And it will come back to bite our main character in the butt next book I'm sure.
• There was some time spent with other main leads so we're starting to get to know more of them. Still distinct personalities.
• Our female lead is a special cookie in her world which we had a few hints at the previous book but this one really hammered the point home. She is also dealing with more and more shows of PTSD from her home life transferring to her current situation.
• We get some contact with her father and he's just as much of an asshole as we were told previously.

I still enjoyed this book and will continue on.

This was a very different alternative to omegaverse in which the roles and characteristics are changed and a special power is added. It was interesting.

• The world itself wasn't very developed mostly we read about the dynamics between the various designations. We have the normal top of the food chain Alphas and the bottom Omegas but with an added lower designation Sigma. It followed the normal discrimination tropes and hardships.
• Our female lead is bullied and discriminated against a lot in her world and has a history of abuse we get glimpses of but nothing too explicit. She has some will to be less of a doormat than her designation and raising has taught her to be but very little actual follow on those thoughts. Despite that I found her interesting enough that I'm not mad at it.
• Our male leads, of which there a many, are for the most part not complete assholes that bully her, there's some animosity between some but nothing too irredeemable. So far we spend most time with only about 3 or 4 or them and they haven't started to blend together in my mind so that is very good.
• The actual academy setting is not super prevalent, only a few classes and some dorm related scenes.

Overall it was a good start and different enough from other books of the same genre that it keeps me interested.

(On another note, the map that is presented on the author's site does not feel like it matches the description of where places were and it bothered me a bit.)

This surprised me, I went into it with very little idea what it was.

• Turns out it was way more than just smut, this was straight up porn.

• It involved many types of monsters which i enjoyed the depiction of and it was romantic enough to be enjoyable.
• Plot it had very little of it most of what it did have was towards the end.
• The main character was a special cookie that loved lots and lots of sex. And that's why she was our main character.
• The men were good, Amon was my least favourite but he did become more likeable halfway in. The others were all nice and different enough that they didn't all mix together into one jumble of we don't know who they are.
• The writing was clear enough that it didn't feel jarring even with the fast pace and the world was interesting enough.

In conclusion, I enjoyed it.

Not gonna keep going.

• The writing was very jumpy, from one second to the next, the transitions were not there.
• The characters felt childish even for their early 20's
• The conflict equally childish
• The idea of the plot was decent, even if the execution left a lot to be desired.

In the end the writing kept pulling me out of the story and did not inspire me to keep reading.

It's a pass from me.

The conclusion

• I really enjoy this world, it includes other series form other parts of the map which I really enjoyed too and the concept is not common.
• The main characters are really fun but it did feel like they suffered a bit from third part breakup, so they could decide for real that they want to be together.
• We get a redemption arc that didn't feel fully satisfying mostly because I didn't feel like there were a lot of consequences for that character and our main female lead forgave and was always ready to forgive right away despite the awful things that character had done. I don't feel that because she was hurt was a good enough reason to have little to no consequences.
• It was a different type of book in which the antagonist is not a specific character and while I enjoyed it I know it wouldn't do for everytime.

It was a satisfying series that connects to a few others and ensured I will keep reading about this universe.

A solid second book.

• The main antagonist is a bit of a surprise for this book but sufficiently credible that it made me want to punch the characters a few times.
• We get a second antagonist that didn't feel very threatening throughout the book and so the identity reveal also felt underwhelming, however the last ploy did feel a lot more high stakes. Also the explanation of the motive was a good one and came with some extra details I appreciated and that gave answers to other standing questions we had.
• The romance was deepened in this, we got to see more personality from the male lead than just the meeting focused one from the last book. Their relationship also got more depth and interaction.
• The same standout friendships from the last book.

Really good read that kept pulling me in and didn't feel like it dragged on forever.

A good ending to these characters' stories that still left a lot open.

• The world was further developed with a lot more story being added to the witches backstory that ended in a satisfying way for their part of the conflict.
• The romance didn't overall conquer me, it was nice but it didn't keep me very engaged. Some of the issues they had in their relationships were underwhelming and felt like extras.
• Family discoveries were finally all revealed and while they didn't feel particularly surprising for me they didn't disappoint.
• There were many points of conflict to solve and they were all interesting but the pacing felt very abrupt. They kept trying to do them all at the same time and so switched from one to the next at points that didn't feel very natural for me in writing even if timing wise they made sense.

In conclusion, while the ending left a new page open for some answers i'd like the fact that they're extras and not the main focus of the next book made me decide not to continue with this. It was well written but since I like a bit more character driven reading and am influenced by how much i like them or not it felt satisfying enough to finish here.

A world I enjoy and still catches me by surprise.

• The world building pulls from the other series in this universe and makes it feel very satisfying for me. I started in this world in the wrong order so I have a few spoilers that make this installment still feel very satisfying even if at the moment the main plot might not have made so much sense otherwise.
• The main female character is not a super physically fit character to start with which to me makes her feel more approachable because her strengths are many in the intelectual realm. So she adapts very quickly to her changing situation.
• Her male counterpart is very influenced by his species traits and is very driven from their connection in their interactions. So comes on very strong but not assholish.
• The side characters have a few standouts for me but somehow her cousin is not one of them even though she talks about her a lot.
• The main plot in the game and it gets very complicated very quickly, the author tries to make it make sense to us the strategies and all that but i could only really follow part of it and mostly because I had already the third installment in the universe that i think was better developed.
• The final 2 plot twists really made me want to keep going right away.

In the end it was a really good book for me, set in a world i've come to really love and will definitely continue reading.

A good read.

• The world got a bit of an expansion and we got to know other places, and their situations.
• This book suffered a bit of the second book syndrome, to me if felt like it dragged a bit more and that it was a lot of setup for the next book.
• We get a lot more work on the relationships and therefore more time spent with the love interests. That leads to a few personal arguments and such that didn't always feel very well developed for me but it didn't detract from the story too much.
• The mystery to solve in this book is a bit of the continuation from the previous book but felt less surprising.

Overall still a good book and I'll keep going but not as enthusiastically as the first.

Really enjoyed this one.

• The writing was good, worldbuilding was nice even if because it's an urban fantasy it doesn't need the same amount of work as a fantasy.

• The mystery was well done and kept me engaged until the end leaving me wanting to dive into the next book right away.

• The female character was strong and capable while not being cold and aloof.

• The male leads had different personalities and strengths. Weren't all out a-holes that controlled and never listened to her.
• The romance was not too fast even if i thought it could have used a little more building.

Overall a good read that assures my going into the next one.

I really was gonna give this book 2.5 stars but i think the end earned more 0.5 so it's a 3 stars...