“No!” I squeaked, and cleared my throat, feeling all the blood rush to my cheeks. The ones on my face, specifically, though maybe my ass was blushing too. I wouldn’t blame it, the way he’d been staring at it.

i had a whole other quote chosen to start this review, but then i reached this one and... sold. this book actually is kinda peak humour out of this series, despite the fact that... bully romance and humilliation are usually truly not my cup of tea, i honestly felt pretty uncomfortable at the start of the book and i had to really do the suspension of disbelief to read this one, because if i were to truly think on consent and power dynamics in this, i wouldn't have a good time at all and honestly my reading habits lean toward fast food comsumption and not literary analysis.

i will concede that blake actually had the best inner-voice/narration out of all the books. no outta nowhere pop-culture references, for once.

hm, i think it should be warned that there's iffy consent in this since blake is coerced into a sexual relationship, which left a bad taste in my mouth throughout the entire book and i wish declan had been made to grovel more to get his forgiveness. if something like that could even be really forgiven in real life. anyway. that was fucked up. guess i had to say it anyway. i kept waiting for blake to, idk, get depressed or for things to take a turn for the darker or to more complex to address some of the shit blake had gone through, but this book is also a creature of its genre, so no further depths were reached.

that said! i still am very sad to have at last finished this series, i had a really good time and will miss kicking my feet and groaning at my kindle and shaking my hands towards the heavens while reading.