JJ

Whew that was fucked up! Not quite sure how I feel about it tbh.

I worried this book would drag because of the length, but it kept me hooked. It's filled with intrigue and keeps you guessing until the end. I absolutely adored both Vel and Cai, and felt especially protective of Vel. I found it interesting that the author chose to write Vel's perspective in first person, and Cai's in third, but I understand why. It does make you feel closer to Vel and experience his pain and fear on a more visceral level.

The mystery had me theorizing the entire time, and I liked that it wasn't simple to figure out, though I did guess correctly about several things! I'm excited to see where things go from here in book 2.

It had potential, but didn't live up to it when it came to their relationship. At least it was a quick read.

Too OTT, corny, and clichéd. I guess I expected better quality writing from this author, but this reads just like all the other low effort contemporary omegaverse books out there. I know it's meant to be light-hearted smut, but I didn't find it all that hot, unfortunately.

Never a dull moment, despite the length. Great character and relationship development, exciting plot, and emotionally gripping. Perfect if you're looking for a love story with betrayal and groveling. I loved the vulnerable moments between Sashen and Araxis, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they work through things after Araxis' betrayal came to light for their HEA in book 2.

Wasn't sure I'd like it at first since degradation kink is so not my thing, and Cole is a walking red flag, but I like where the author took their relationship. I do feel like it all happened in too short a time span though. The progression of their feelings and their personal growth would've been more believable over a longer period of time.

Really enjoyed the suspense throughout this book with David and Lysander trying to survive, though fair warning, it ends on a cliffhanger. This book is the first in a trilogy.

I love how much of a leftist David is, and how much his rants annoy Lysander.

I do find the premise a bit hard to believe for the simple fact that the 1% relies on the lower classes for slave labor because there's too much they're unwilling to do themselves. They cannot live their lives of convenience without the labor of those they view as less-than. They are very dumb (as Trump and his ilk have proven) but I don't think they're dumb enough to kill off the source of the benefits they enjoy. Force them to live in misery and squalor separately from them, yes. But completely kill off all of them across the entire planet? If they did that, they'd have to decide who among the elite are the new lower class to do all the grunt work.

So. Much. Crying.

It was truly ridiculous how much these boys cried. They also had the emotional maturity of toddlers, so I guess it fits.

The dialogue was also pretty cringe and OTT. Not my cup of tea.

DNF @19%

Oof, two strikes in a row for me today. Simplistic writing, insta-love pretending not to be what it is. Kellan jumps right into kissing and fondling this guy who supposedly considers himself to be straight, and calling him baby, and the only thing Eli is upset about is that he thinks Kellan is cheating. I need character reactions to be at least a little bit believable.

DNF @53%

Too corny and insta-lovey. It also annoyed me how much the author referred to the characters as the singer, the cop, the man, etc. Kane was constantly perving on Miki during inappropriate moments, which I found to be super creepy.

Better than expected based on the terrible cover! Good hurt/comfort vibes. A couple things were left unresolved so I'm curious whether they will come up in the next book.

Not believable in the least, yet I still enjoyed it!

So I find out after I finish this that there's a special edition of this book that's not fade-to-black but it's a hardcover? Why can't that version be on Kobo Plus 😭

Anyway, this was pretty good, and I probably would've rated it 4 stars had it not been F2B. That intimacy is important!

I really enjoyed this well written debut. I was so endeared by Cosmo, with his quirks and inclination towards self-sabotage. Blaise is perfect for him. Good humor, an interesting mystery, and sweet, low spice romance.

Very satisfying ending, and the extras were cute and funny. Looking forward to reading more of their stories in the final volume. I truly love that Mo Ran and Taxian-jun remained separate personalities, and I'm excited about how that will play out in the next story.

Overall well written with an interesting plot, though I found it hard to believe that Cael would be so naive about what would happen after the ceremony. It seemed very out of character, especially because of how obvious his father was about it!

I should've read Tulip and David's book before this one so I'd have had a better idea of the background relationships between the characters, and I think I would've been more emotionally affected by the reveals about Clematis. He is such a sweetie, and I love how good Flor is to him once he sees the real him.

The cover art on this volume is beautiful!

Almost the whole end of the book (half of this volume) was all politics, and Chang Geng and Gu Yun spent the entirety of it apart until the last bit, so I struggled to get through it. The extras (second half of the volume) were nice, though.

I think I made a mistake choosing The Husky and His White Cat Shizun as my first danmei, because no other author can approach meatbun's level.

The finale was just as good as the first in the series! Sad that it's over, but very satisfied with the ending.

I hate-read this book. I should've known better than to read an m/m by an author who mostly writes m/f. I'd hoped since it's so popular, it'd at least be decent, but I was honestly surprised at how awful it is.

It's dual 1st person POV, and every page is full of repetitive inner monologue - Nikolai's is about how unhinged, violent, horny, and obsessed with Brandon he is, and Brandon's is about how much he hates himself, how distant he is from others, how much he has to be in control, and how Nikolai is fucking with that. 600+ pages of that over and over and over, interspersed with lots of smut, with no actual plot in sight. It's like listening to two uninteresting narcissists drone endlessly about themselves for hours.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good character-driven story where the reader digs deep into a character's psyche, feels like they really get to know them, and falls in love with them, without the need for much of a plot outside of their relationship development. This was not that. Nearly every character is astonishingly stupid with no redeeming qualities. You can't just say the character is really hot and likes to beat the shit out of people and kill them violently for no reason, yet loves this one person and treasures them, and assume that makes them a complex morally gray/black enigma. It's lazy and simplistic, and you end up with two dimensional characters with zero depth.

I was hoping that the big reveal about Brandon's trauma would somewhat redeem this book, but no. The way that it was revealed could not be dumber. His rapist had filmed herself raping him and SENT NIKOLAI VIDEO PROOF OF THE RAPE FOR NO GOD-DAMNED REASON. So of course he ends up killing her! Why the FUCK would anyone give a violent psychopath a video of themselves raping his boyfriend while he screamed?! No one on Earth is that stupid. I refuse to believe it. It makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Absolutely infuriating and makes me want to pull my hair out.

Speaking of pulling hair, at one point Brandon's twin, who is also supposed to be a sexy badass, yanks Brandon's ex-gf out of the room by her hair after Brandon broke up with her and wanted her to leave. Then later, after Nikolai invites her to his penthouse for sex to make Brandon jealous, Brandon walks in and yanks her up by her hair as she's about to give Niko a BJ. What the fuck is with the hair pulling?? She wasn't even doing anything wrong! She was newly single and had been invited to fuck by some guy she assumed was also single! Violence against women is not sexy and does not make these men look badass. Fuck all the way off with that shit.

I'm so glad I borrowed from the library rather than spending money on this garbage. For anyone who wants to read good books with morally gray anti-heroes, check out any of these:

Twisted Web series by H.L. Night

Magpie Rhyme series by Louise Collins

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Rou Bou Bu Chi Rou

More Heat Than the Sun series by John Wiltshire

The Administration series by Manna Francis

What a delightful read! Perfect combination of humor and hurt/comfort. I love Tam's prickly personality (Nicolau was right that he is a cat), and he had me giggling throughout. This is one of the few books I'd enjoy rereading at some point.

Lovely heartwarming story ❤️ Shane was such a sweetheart and was just what Jimmy needed. The ending was perfect.

This is such an entertaining series that has both light-hearted and emotionally heavy moments. I love Rick and Max and their weirdness.

Everything I want in a book! It'd be perfect if not for the need for better editing.

This volume was very heavy on the politics. I was starving on the breadcrumbs of interactions between Chang Geng and Gu Yun 😭