maxie

When I tell you I wasn't prepared...

I've enjoyed this series so much—the character development, the plot twists, and the found family of it all, forged in a prison environment out of all places.

I didn't care much about Byron and Trevel in the previous books, but Nyla K has that gift of creating characters you can relate to and making you fall for their shortcomings as much as you do for their good qualities.

Both of them have been neglected, discarded, and left alone, so they gravitate toward each other in that exquisitely toxic way every couple/trouple in Alabaster Island enjoys so much.

Anyway, I loved it—so different and unique. I can't wait for the last book, and at the same time, I don't want it to end.

I can't see how a character like the Ivory can get a redemption story, but I trust Nyla, and I know whatever path she creates for him, it will be a hell of a ride.

Mind the TW; there's some heavy stuff at moments, but it is absolutely necessary for the development of the story. And yeah, be prepared to suspend your disbelief at some times; it's fiction. Enjoy; life is hard enough to be too picky.

The literal worse.

So much potential, this could have been a wonderful best friends to lovers story, but this trash ass book managed to not only ruin the main characters, but make the supporting ones lose all their development.

I hate this Serafina, this Remo, this Fabiano and I loved them in their books



Nevio is a cartoon character, Aurora is a dormat. They deserve each other

I was excited about Alessio and Massimo's books, but if they're going to end up like this, I rather miss it.

Ok, I lied.

After the disaster that was book 2 (spineless piece of shit Dante's and horny undignified Valentina's book) I said I would not continue with the series.

But I kind of liked Matteo and Gianna in book 1 and I was curious

At the end of the day, I was right about Matteo, best MC so far, not a cheater, not a cold dead fish, never gave up on his feelings for Gianna even though she was most likely “tainted”, funny, 4 out of 5 probably would bang if given the oportunity.

Gianna ?? No, really, gtfo, she was combative and kind of obnoxious in the previous books, but here? They made her a fucking whiny, unlikeable, selfish and immature bitch.

She didn't give a fuck about ruining her “beloved” sister marriage, make her siblings' lives more difficult, she wanted to get it all her fucking way and the hell with everything else.
She had it so much better than any other mafia wife and she wouldn't let her fucking pride go...Girl, no.

I don't know what to say about the F bomb our fearless Capo let out, it made me uncomfortable, but I guess it was the desired reaction? idk

Anyway, the smut was also superior even with the virginity shit.

I rate it 2.75, it was better than Honor and Duty, and besides I knew what I was getting into so I did this to myself.

And I'm curious about Liliana and Romero so I will of course put myself through the torture of book 4.

I really like Romero so far,least obnoxious MC in the series, but I just know I'm going to despise her, all we've seen is whiny extra little girl. so yeah, fingers crossed

I was on the fence after reading the first book, but this one convinced me, this series is trash.

What in the actual fuck? Is this supposed to be a love story? Where's the romance?

The FMC is a poor, horny virgin who wants to experience being dicked as soon as posible.
The MMC is a pussy who's still in love with his dead wife and despises the FMC as if it were her fault he became a widower and was forced to remarry... and she keeps having the hots for him and lets our hero disrespect her every opportunity he has.

She finally gets him to bang her, he gets her pregnant, and he has the audacity to doubt his paternity because he and dead (by cancer!!!) wife could never conceive and to think that it was because of dead (by cancer!!!)wife's fault and not because our fearless capo's inability, is an unforgivable disrespect to the memory of dead wife. So yeah, he ask her if it is his baby, nevermind that she was a virgin and had no way to cheat on him, what a fucking dreamy romance character.

Anyway, that isn't even the worse part, the worse part is that the asshole never even apologizes (and it shouldn't surprise anyone considering that the other asshole mmc from the first book cheated twice and somehow it was justified) but she goes back to him and keeps fucking him (because apparently he has a magic dick and that is enough) and tells him she loves him and he never says it back but whatever... because it seems that there is another book in the series with the same couple, but I will never know if it gets better, my curiosity is not enough to make me keep losing my time with this garbage.

Sad because I really had high expectations

I'm not a huge fan of age gaps, so I didn't enjoy this as much as the first book

Colin is a lovely character, Nigel is kind of meh... but you still root for them.

I would have loved a better resolution to the parents thing, but alas, still an enjoyable read.

The story is a little weak, but the writing is still good

This book feels like a hug.

It's such a cute, lovely story. No angst, almost no conflict, just a whole lot of love.

Both of the MC's are amazing. Troy is a sweetheart, coming from a very sad upbringing, he manages to be a sunshine. Sam it's faced with a completely life changing revelation and he takes it like a king.

They both deserve each other and I'm so happy that J.J. made them fall in love in an easy way. Not everything has to be hard in life



Perfect 1st book of a series that's been in my TBR forever.

I had no idea this book was in a series with Don't you dare until I read the author's note at the beginning.

And unsurprisingly, it suffers from the same issue that frustrated me in the last book.

I love a good redemption story, but I feel that the redemption has to be earned. And Avery fucked up so bad, I expected he would have to work a little harder to earn forgiveness.

He didn't; in fact, he continued making mistakes without taking responsibility for his shortcomings.

I get the internalized homophobia and the damage his dad caused, but he kept blaming other people, he used Elijah, etc, and at the end of the day, he just had to say that he was sorry a couple of times and all was good (and by the way, the awful, biggoted dad let out a couple of tears and everything was forgot? )

So yeah, even though CE Ricci is one of my favorite writers, she didn't do it for me in this series.

Like I said, same issue ruined the first book for me, Aspen fucked up biiiiig time (and as awful as what Avery did was, that fuck up was totally on himself) and yet he just did a little grovelling and was forgiven. Not my cup of tea.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.

Same thing that happened with book 3, MFC's redemption arc didn't work for me. She was as unlikeable as she was the rest of the series. And for the MMC, Rina Kent does sociopath better and that's saying a lot... so yeah, first half of the series was ok, second half, unreadable. I NEVER DNF, I'm a soldier, I face the storm , I ALWAYS finish a series, so the fact that this happened says a lot for me. Bummer, because I was excited about this author

Did not finish book. Stopped at 21%.

After reading the first 2 books of the series, I was so excited about this one, but I couldn't engage with the characters. I was ready to start liking Jade, since this was her redemption arc, but it never happened. On the contrary, I ended hating Elliot and Ethan after liking them in the previous books

I love a good redemption story. An this one was good.

My heart broke for poor baby Gavin, all that internalized hate so consuming. Beck was the perfect cure for all the hurt and sadness

I enjoyed the progression from childhood sweethearts to enemies to friends to lovers, it was well paced and believable.


I would have preferred the conflict with Gavin's father to have a better resolution. to have at least some closure.

Would love more of this series, I really enjoyed the autor style

⭐⭐⭐⭐,5

Originally, I rated 4 stars, but after listening to the audiobook, I had to come back and give it all 5.

I really love this book, mostly because of the characters.

Elton is the most precious ray of sunshine, so positive and eager, while Knox is the grumpiest grumpy, callous and obnoxious, they couldn't be more different, and yet they are perfect for each other because of a shared foe: they're both awfully lonely, they feel left out and that's why they need each other so much.

Like many other reviews I've seen, I read Dirty Martini before Whiskey Sour and my preception of Rhys and Everest changed a lot by getting another pov. I didn't like them so much in this one. Fortunately, after reading French 75, they recovered a little