Zo

Fucking hell Hazard you're cheating on Nico omg. After Billy cheated on you too. You're a terrible terrible wicked man.

Also if I hear the phrase THE LOCKER ROOM one more time, if I hear the phrase THE LOCKER ROOM... If i fucking, fuck! I'm actually listening to book 3 right now while typing this review, and you won't believe it, just as I was typing this sentence, I heard that fucking phrase again. Jesus Christ. We get it, we fucking get it. ThE lOcKeR rOoM. My God, you'd think something particularly fantastic happened there. I thought it would end after we learned what happened at the end of book 1. But here we are, still talking about the locker room. Move on or move through fuck it.

The mystery: ok. I suspected the original, but not the other murderer(s).

Hazard and Somers though. Fucking toxic.

Nico you deserve better and you should have known. You always knew. You knew from the beginning. Why did you go after him? Abandon this sinking ship!

I listened to like 5% and moved to reading. Tristan James is pretty good, I just wanted to read a bit faster.

The entire first 5% was Jem looking around and contemplating. I do believe he squeaked at some point.

Towards the end I ran out of patience and of course began to skim. The characters are... immature. Their motivations lack nuance. The final conversation was the nail in the coffin. Rather than simply ask for the sevels, they hatched this foolish plan? The ending of this book so reminds me of Mayne's Mortal Skin. Given that it's a romance, we know how it will end.

Let's discuss the actual romance. Just absolutely full of tropes. From the attractive character who doesn't think they're attractive, to one bed, to jealousy and denying attraction. And at the end of it, all for naught. The betrayal at the end too, is a stupid stupid cliche.

I will be reading book 2. I think the story is interesting.

SPOILERS!!!

“Am I the good bits?”
“Yeah. The best bits.”

Jesus fuck. I was not expecting this book to hit me like a truck. What in the sweet fuck. Ten stars for Seraph. Now on to the usual sinning:

1. I was not expecting Wyn to act like a petulant child sometimes. Specifically that one scene where he wants Lilac to beg for the translation. It's out of character. Second, repeatedly saying “human” gets boring. Yes yes I know he's so uninterested he can't remember their names. Human sounds so weird though.
2. Wyn is fucking hot though. Like, I know in every review I say it, but like, Wyn is fucking hot.
3. This was obviously detrimental to my Seraph simping when Wyn entered the story and I put my hat on and chased after him. But they have different energies. Seraph is so fucking jklslsjdhfjdsj.
4. I'm not comfortable with Lilac killing Tank. I'm just. Murder is bad. Can we agree that murder is bad? He specifically hunts this man down after he walks away, and yeah he said some horrible, hurtful shit, but come on. He walks away, and Lilac hunts him down and kills him? Gah. I'm so conflicted. I really disliked that part. On the other hand, you could say he was about to die to the monster anyway. So like, I don't know.

But I will commit all these sins willingly and confess later, because Seraph needs to be protected at all costs.

Wyn!

I'm sorry, I know, but I can't help it. Wyn is so fucking sick. Like every appearance he makes has me going ahhh. I love Edin so much more too.

Anyway, I skipped every book after Edin. I just really wanted to get to Charlie's story. Worth it, I hope. I know almost everything that happened in those ones now, but it's not like these books are full of intrigue. Anyway, on to this book.

This one has some Moth POVs interspersed. At first I wasn't really into it, but at the end it was needed when they got separated. So I guess it's good we hear his voice before then. This one had more people than the others. Book 1 was basically Danny and Wyn and at some point Edin. Book 2 had Danny/Wyn, Hunter/Edin, and the people at the prison. This one had well, everyone, plus strangers in the cities. So we got to see a little bit more of the world.

Wyn and Moth have the same appendage. Hmm. Are their species related?

Anyway, interesting book. Very many sex. Sucks that they made that whole journey for nothing with Cat. But at least we got set up for another book. Right? Cat has a book right?

Anyway obvious setup for Lilac is obvious. Man is already down bad carving Seraph lol.

ALEX. MY SWEET SWEET ALEX.

There is a line at the beginning of the book: “He looked like a lion tonight.” I highlighted it and noted Well. Damn. That's certainly one way to introduce a character.

Like, I'm all for enemies to lovers. But when you have a character describe another character by saying he looks like a fucking lion, how can you not expect me to SHIP?

I'm subtracting one star because I felt like the love happened too fast. Perhaps I was shipping someone else and was just absolutely bored by all the scenes with our genocidal MMC.

But the story was easy to read. The writing didn't get in the way. There was a very limited cast of not very complex characters (-0.25 for that), but it was a fun read. I enjoyed myself.

First book I've read in a while! I liked this. Sherlock Holmes but in a fantasy world, and some surprisingly magnificent worldbuilding too! Lots of humor.

-0.5 because I wish the main character had some more character, which sounds funny. We see glimpses, but his characterization isn't very strong. Looking forward to the next one though!

-0.25 because I figured out the mystery quickly.

I'll be checking out more of this author for sure. 

Mm.

This was boring. I think it would have been better if I didn't keep comparing it to other wolf books I've read recently, especially wolf and mage. For example, one of my all time favourite series: Soulbound. Idk man, every book wolf gets compared to Jono. I can't help it. And the arena fight I kept comparing to certain challenge ring fights, you know. And so it goes. So, yeah. If I'd read this first, before Soulbound and even Mismatched Mates #1, I might have given this four stars.

So why did this come up short? Uninteresting MCs. Lorcan is boring. He's too good. Knox is boring too. Declan would've been a more interesting MC, what with his past and all. The fights are...not exceptional. Evil family is cliche. I need more from it if you're going to go down that route. Evil new captor is cliche too. Would have been intrigued if Tyr had been nice. Gage is too nice. There's not much friction within the pack.

The romance was meh. I'm Knox's or no one's ooooh omg really wow wow so much loveeee. Anyway. I've had this on my TBR. Glad to have read it now. It gets 2.5 stars because it was well structured writing.

Also Lorcan being self-sacrificing? No. Just no. I don't like it. Stupid MC gives themself up to save someone else. Look, I get it. But I still don't like it. This was unmemorable. I doubt I'll be continuing the series, but we'll see.

I skipped book 2. Thought this one was an actual stand-alone and was more intrigued by its premise. It spoiled book 2 thoroughly though. Every event, big reveals etc. It makes some sense, as some revelations do affect the broader world. I can't fault it for that but be aware if you skip book 2. Anyway spoilers below as usual.

I've come to terms with Hazard's style and will now appreciate it for what it is. No big action scenes. Showdowns will happen off page. There'll be lots of tension and jealousy.

I was about to complain about the age gap too but you know what, fuck it.

The middle to the end of this book was much better than the beginning. That doesn't happen often for me. 

My review is full of spoilers. I'll wrap it in a spoiler tag just in case there's some scrolling by.

Okay let's start from the beginning.1. Detective Doyle from the FBI. Aren't they Special Agents?2. The entire roadside exposition. Oh my God. It's lazy info dumping.3. You know, the fact that Ellie is trans just shows how bullshit inheritance based on gender is.4. Nicolae didn't have any proof Franny's parents murdered her. Zero. Such proof couldn't exist because of course they did not murder her. But he convinced her ex husband, who was then in the process of convincing their child.5. The ending twist was anticlimactic. Whoa reveal. Whoa cliche bad guy gets killed by bigger bad guy. Whoa fight, whoa it's over. Just like that.6. I knew he was going to be an omega immediately we learned what an omega was.7. Honestly I saw a review that turned me off when I first read the blurb that said Ellie was ungrateful. But after reading it, man, see it from her point of view. She's just been with her grandparents, who we now know are innocent, and returns to find her dad shacked up with a man they both hated last time they were together.8. Andrei is so cute omg. I cannot believe they just left that child to sort of hang around until Jack stepped in. What a society.9. I don't remember who, but someone said all the female alpha wolves are bitches. I mean, literally they are hehe. But also casual sexism.10. The romance was kinda quick. That first sex scene was hot holy fuck. But then Ellie arrived and plot started to plot. Then suddenly marriage proposal. Didn't really feel Nicolae fall, or even Jack. It was hot though.11. Ellie is sixteen. That mate bond thing. Did the author really have to include it?12. I know I've mentioned the ending reveal before. But it honestly fucking sucked. Too easy a villain. Easy to dislike, easy to defeat.

Sigh.

50%. That's how much of this book was spent on “should I or should I not?” 50%. The sex scenes were good. The plot was resolved in less than 50%. FIFTY PERCENT!

Let's discuss what worked:
Damieno or whatever his name is. Signor Bond is what he is. Fucking hell that shootout scene was like a cartoon scene. The characters lacked depth. Wait I'm supposed to be discussing what worked. The sex. That's all. Now let's return to the characters. I know this series is called straight guys, but I usually don't enjoy reading GFY and such nonsense. Bi awakening, sure. GFY, nah fam. Why did I read this then? Well the premise seemed interesting, and I thought there would be a mystery and all that. Obviously there wasn't.

Also Mr Jordan with I like cocks, I like cocks as much as I like boobs, but lordy I am straight as fuck. The straightest man you'll ever meet. Give me a break.

I also don't like the romanticization of the Mafia. Yes again I read this book's premise. Doesn't mean I can't dislike it. Ooh so badass ooh literally murders people for a living ooh so sexy.

This is book 13. I knew immediately that Nate and what's his name were in a previous book. And I knew Aiden (Aidan?) would be the next book. I don't super like these kinds of series. I mean, I don't super mind them either, and I might try another book later. I'll probably enjoy it more knowing what to expect.

Very cringe dialogue sometimes too.

This book was...unexpected. I figured it'd be one of those books I skim, just swiping and not caring if I miss info because nothing really happens. It wasn't. It's actually pretty good writing. No, really good. It's really good writing. On a technical, paragraph by paragraph level, it's fucking good. So most of the bad comes from the characters.

1. George. Too hot and cold. Does he love Ezer or does he not? We see moments of caring, followed by callous actions. And why is he even so desperate to buy out his sons? For Ezer, he stands to gain jack shit and spend a shit ton of money. He seems to have the money for it, so what the fuck is his problem? I assume then, that it comes down to a fundamental belief of this is how things should be. But going so far as to drug his children? And he gets a happy ending? What?

2. Shan. For fuck's sake what is that ending? Where is he? Is there another book with him? Is he okay?

3. Yissan. Another character whose motivations I don't quite...look I... fuck. He certainly has depth. He's not perfect, he's selfish, but like, the world is fucked for omegas.

4. Amos. I reserve judgement. He did cheat, multiple times. But it's not fair that he loses all the possessions he had prior to the marriage.

5. Ned. Sir, you were about to witness a rape. You already witnessed (and participated in) sexual assault by holding him down while they took his pants off. And you were going to what? Sir, what?

6. Almost everybody in this world is just kinda...just kinda a piece of shit somehow. It's grayscale. It's new. No one's absolutely good.

7. The world sucks for omegas. It fucking sucks. Such tyranny cannot be allowed to persist forever. Revolution wen? 

8. Also I must add. The “We're so young,” is not convincing. Listen, I was nineteen not too long ago, and you better believe I never fucking thought, “I'm so young.” Like what? If anything, it's the much older people around them who would say that. I get having moments of fear and clarity, but nah.

9. While high school at nineteen is possible, it's more likely the author wanted a high school romance but with tons of smut. Are they even in their final year, or just kind of in a year. A lot of the world building isn't specific. What desert does Yissan go to? Nevada? Or the Sahara? Same for all the business talks? Vending machines? Tech bro? Farm bro? Stonks? Also the equations and what not, and calculus. Man are equations all you did in math? And calculus is kinda broad. Also is math all you're doing? No Shakespeare? Does Shakespeare exist in this world?

Plus all the school Ned misses. This man is going to fail his exams.

10. In one scene the phrase “technology screens” is used. Why? Only the author can tell us.

11. Where do Omegas shit from?

12. It's ok. You can say men breast-feed. They have breasts too. Chest-feeding is weird. Say breasts.

Honestly? Not bad. I like how it explores the complexities of the omegaverse.

Mm. Review always has spoilers so

This was pretty short, with not a lot of plot. Just lots of sex and insta love. Mark was kind of a comical villain. I really wish he hadn't been, you know? But I'm always rooting for side characters to not turn out to be dicks.Smut was alright. Not mind-blowing, and boring after like the first scene. I get bored with sex scenes easily though unless there's sexual tension, and that dissipated after they fucked for the first time.Not a bad read.

DNF at about the point of you will live on our come.

Nah. Nah I'm good, thanks.

-the locker room.
the locker room?
THE LOCKER ROOM.

Somers is still a bully. Bullying Nico and talking about him being petty when his ass called this whole man an ultrasound. Okay it's too drawn out now. It's enough. I've already skimmed book 4. I'm pretty much done with the series. Emotionally exhausted from the nonsense.

Somers rubs me the wrong way. Idk man. And Hazard, idk man. They deserve each other.

These books aren't on KU either so I just spent real greens bingeing this series.

Also another annoying thing. Every book ends with Hazard heading to the hospital. Every single book. Maybe switch it up a little? Make Somers end up in the hospital? Or better yet, neither of them? Can they both come out unscathed for once? Go get shawarma afterwards together maybe?

I didn't figure out the mystery at all. So 4 stars for that.

Read this a bit ago.

It was really nice. Also figured out the mystery too :) The thing that happened between the two MCS (I've actually forgotten their names rip) was a bit cheap.

John Solo's narration is always good (so far).

I read this book in the middle of a reading slump.

And fucking loved it.

Mad Max, but magic. I liked Jin's pining and obliviousness at the start. At the end though, the obliviousness started to get annoying.

The world was pretty cool though. “Hail, sparkrider”.

Also, the ending. She just leaves? That was so unsatisfying. What is she gonna do? Go after Falka? All the pining and she just leaves them? Doesn't even kiss them? Just walks away?Ugh.Also Reena at the end. Reena being convinced by her great uncle is so unbelievable.The end was so messy too. It just didn't feel neat. Looking forward to book 2 though.

Read this a couple weeks ago so this isn't a fresh review. I remember it was hot though. One of the books I've read recently where I wasn't bored of the sex scenes.

The gripes I remember are:
1. Bob (wait was his name Bob? The police chief?) I don't really like over-emphasized scenes with an ex. It's whatever.
2. Obviously super convenient rich dad is convenient.
3. The characters are very one-dimensional-ish. Adam is the happy carefree one, Simon is the serious one, and MC is a bit blank. Which is fine for what it is.

Mm. Well. Look, Soul Eater was a straight five because Wyn is so fucking hot and Danny's cute. It was also the first book I'd read in a bit.

This book has some, eh, tropes.
1. Hunter refusing to believe the thing about the parasites. I have no clue where the doubtfulness comes from. My man, do you know what timeline you live in? If in fact, you think Wyn is just a serial killer, then you know Erin's been assisting him, therefore Erin is a serial killer too. Cognitive dissonance. Refusing to even hear about the symptoms and has to be “frog marched”(this is a direct quote) to see for himself.
2. The cute couple from the other book. Yes Wyn is fucking hot. He takes away from Edin/Hunter's story though. But oh my fucking God that end scene fuucccck. Also obvious set up for next couples is obvious. Cat though, that man looks like the good kind of trouble. Book wen?

What I liked:
1. One POV. Two would have probably made me bored.
2. Wyn.
3. Wyn should probably be number one but I'll just add him twice to the list instead.

The sex was fine. I only read through the first one and skipped the others. Good smut.

Charlie though, my man, you're going back? Yeah I know it's just a set up for the next book, but YOU'RE GOING BACK?

Can I read these books out of order? I want to read his book next.

“Deep despair had descended.”

That's a quote from the book.  Somebody typed that sentence and thought, huh, absolutely nothing wrong with that dramatic alliteration. Let's keep going.

“...seeping into his soul.”

That's the next part. Am I doing scansion? What the fuck is going on?

“...and all the hope he'd harbored before.”

Hope he'd harbored before. Here we see three h's and then two b's, with one b occuring in the middle of the sentence. The soft sounds of the h and the transition to the bass-like quality of the b mid-sentence is a metaphor for the character's transition from hope to despair...sorry got carried away.

Another gem from the very first line:

“King Laoch lowered his body in the comfortable padded chair that was his...“

I mean, you know possessive pronouns can come before the noun right? Not after? Like, say, for example, as a possibility, “his comfortable padded chair.” Also padded already hints at comfort. So now we have, “his padded chair”, and we have removed four words. But how will we ever meet our word count without doing stuff like this and having paragraphs upon paragraphs of dialogue. I'm sorry, has the review started?

1. The dialogue sucks. It was cringe in the first series and it's cringe now. It's worse when there's conflict. Then the exclamation marks come out.“Erwan! Erwan!”Fuck. Me.Erwan comes out and talks a lot. The king screams (and I'm literally dying of laughter at this scene) and then is all like, you know what, fuck off. Yeah that's right, I don't even remember why I kept you here. I had no reason other than plot reasons. So you fuck right off.2. The Great Shame. I'm sorry, you betrayed your oath. Okay? Like are you not going to move on? I mean there are two scenarios here:A. You actually don't give a fuck and just move on with your life. Like why are you even hiding? You betrayed the oath, thought, oop, and then built a whole ass castle and just kinda waste away there? I'm sorry this is overkill.B. You actually feel shame. So you try to make up for it maybe? Or like, don't make it worse?But all of this requires brain cells, and the villains in this book don't seem to have any. It's cartoony villainy too. Beata Maria, you know I am an evil king, of my treason I am greatly shamed...Anyway,3. Lel. You want the books destroyed but can't do it yourself. What do you even do all day?4. Palani wtf. Why'd the author do him so dirty. He's a better person than this come on.5. One True Alpha lel. This was Rhene's book. I'd have liked to see him manifest some powers of his own instead of having to rely on daddy Lidon.6. Grayson is actually useless.7. Man all the secrets in this book are so annoying. Like I already know, and already suspected everything from, well, everything. Just let it out bruh.8. Also we're back to homophobia and sexism and, traitism? What are Alpha and Omega?9. Too much sex. Too many sex. Too lot sex. Important scene is happening, then sex. Fuck's sake. Yeah I know that's what it is and that's what the previous books were too, but sometimes you just want to read plot not smut, ya know?

Boo. Boo this book. Everybody boo this book. All together now: booooo.

SPOILERS. SPOILERS EVERYWHERE.

1. The ending. The mystery's ending anyway. I called it close to the end. But the lack of justice is deeply unsatisfying. This man murdered a woman because she scorned him. That's it. That was the whole reason. The protagonist then decides that because he has contributed money to charity, he has atoned? That's it? It's ok if rich people kill others, as long as they donate to charity? Fuck this book. Timmy should've fucking run screaming to the police so the pig would have to face the world and answer for his crimes. Gee, if I reject a rich person and they murder me, I sure hope they've never contributed to charity. 

2. The dissatisfaction of finding out the murderer wanted the case solved. Boo. Boo. I wanted the surprise in his eyes when he realized that the crime had caught up to him after all.

3. The relationship. Oh my God we've had sex a bunch of times. We aren't in a relationship because there are fundamental issues at play here. We just talked about those issues, and made verbal declarations. Do you want to get married? How tf was I supposed to react to that? “Aww,” instead of “WHAT?”

Unsatisfying. Well written, as usual, but a dumpster fire.

I paid for this book. Not Libby, Hoopla, or KU. I was so intrigued by the premise that I straight up bought it.

This review has spoilers probably. I skipped 75% and you might be better off skipping 100%.

Look at this ending:
“They'd tussled over who paid what until Aaron had put his foot down and insisted on paying his fair share.”
Paying what fair share? Fair share of what? Aaron's paying rent for the mansion? Buying groceries? WHAT FAIR SHARE?

You might be wondering, it's just a sentence, like, it's not that important even, like, but it's one of the last sentences I read and I have chosen to focus my ire on it. Especially because it's so cliche: the lower earning partner who wants to contribute as much as the higher earning partner. Whatever. Ooh so independent ooh.

This book is full of cliches like that. Like Lewis being jealous of Mason and Aaron, ew. Hands off my PA, you know how fucking creepy that sounds if you two aren't dating?

Grumpy/sunshine? More like immature prick/zero personality. Lewis is fucking unbearable. I like angst. This wasn't angst. This was infuriating. Oh my fucking God, oh my fucking God you like him just be normal wtf is wrong with you? I CAN'T BE THE MAN YOU WANT. A few moments later, I LOVE YOU. Really? Give me a fucking break. I didn't buy the rejection. I simply didn't. I didn't buy the romance. As Aaron said to Mason, you can fucking do better.

Personality wise, Lewis sucks. Aaron is bland. I don't read a lot of fanfic, maybe if you like fanfic you'll like this, idk. Fuck, I would rather have read that fucking book Jagermeister wrote. Give me Skylan over these two. But all the gushing was so cringe, with a fucking Skylandalorian. Do you know how hard it is to pronounce that word?

I skipped so much. The characters are cringe/immature and there is no character growth.

It'd be more interesting to read a Wikipedia page in a foreign language.

The payoff of so many characters is that in future books we become invested in them. I loved this book so much.

Points off for the way Wyndham dies (pretty sure this is spoiled in that list of cast thing so idc).

Okay so let's discuss how all Vieno and Sven do is cook and take care of babies. Listen, it's...it's fine, it's just, it plays right into the book's hierarchy stereotypes, doesn't it? And I...would like to see it work more against it. And I know, the right to choose. Some omegas do want to be homemakers. I get it. I just. I'd like for... I don't like it.

Grayson. This man is hot and cold. Sometimes he's oh so wise and sometimes he's just hotheaded. Lars is still the dullest (I don't mean stupid. I mean flat) character.

The original four are still A+. Bray/Ruari/Kean are also up there with them.

All the babies do is sleep. Goddamn so peaceful too.

Ah well. I skimmed all the Naran-Lev-Siv scenes. Bored outta my mind by their relationship. More interested in Bray, the OG four, and what's going on outside. It's a weird world outside. Not quite regular urban fantasy, but there's a legit coup happening and I want to know wtf the rules of government are in this place.

Palani's arc was sad. It's a romance so of course it was going to get fixed. I'm still happy though. I would've hurled curses otherwise. I'm still confused by what happened though. With Vieno and Hakon and... Also what's with the names? What's that new baby's name... Also this ranch is a baby factory. Too many babies I can't. And every parent is just fine with taking care of someone else's baby. Not one of them is like fuck no. 

I can't believe I'm on book 8. Hard skimming scenes with couples I don't like, but otherwise it's interesting enough. More babyface and boy scenes here. 

Maz and Lucan (and Sando? How?), please be interesting.

On a more serious note, I'd have loved to explore an alpha-alpha relationship. Now we know Lev is non-binary and it feels a little bit like a cop-out. A little bit.

Also, I love how Siv points out in an earlier book that all the omegas are in the kitchen, and now Lev wants to be a stay at home dad. Look. Look. I've done this before. I've said this before. The renforcement of gender stereotypes, it's...I don't like it. The renforcement of the size differences too. It's like Goldilock and the three bears. Big alpha, middle beta, small omega. On God can I get a buff omega?

Also congrats to Abigail for being a girl. I thought the women were extinct in this world Jesus Christ.

Also not bad. Surprisingly too much plot idk. There's a lot going on. Whole conspiracies.

Also the alpha roaring is a bit cringe idk.