First and foremost Penelope Douglas is a freaking literary genius. I have yet to be disappointed.

This series is NOT on Kindle Unlimited. The entire series is around $40 if purchased via Kindle. I'm a cheap bitch, so when I'm dropping cash I need to be obsessed with every aspect of a series. Sadly I'm not obsessed. I will likely read the entire series but the fact that the 2nd book is $12 rubs me the wrong way. And it's only the second book the rest are all reasonably priced. WTF?!?!

Tate and Jared are fantastic. Their love story is heartfelt, innocent, and vanilla. I was not expecting that from Pen. My first read by her was Corrupt and that shit is fucked up. So many of her books are dark, toxic, dangerous, and HOT. So that's kind of what I was expecting. But that's on me for making assumptions. It doesn't take away from the quality of this series. It's imaginary film is simply rated differently but still good. Like I could take my teen daughter to see an adaptation of this.

Every character in this series is relatable to someone we all knew in high school. Tate reminded me of Julia Stiles from 10 Things I Hate About You. Her vulnerability, sarcasm, and drive. I'm not sure if Jared reminds me of anyone. He's private, has an inner battle, but is also accountable and understanding.

If you aren't familiar with this author I encourage you to check out her website where she has a ton of bonus content. If you have fallen in love with this series, you might be excited to know that it was purchased to be adapted but we don't know into what or when. But that's a good reason to keep reading it because boys in books are always better.

Less than 2 hours after I reviewed book one saying that I wasn't obsessed enough with this series to drop coin on it, your girl dropped that money and bought the remaining 5 books.

I have no regrets.

I loved seeing the beginning of Tate and Jared through his eyes. He has so many other things going on and trauma to overcome that just makes his struggle so much more admirable and enduring.

I also enjoyed learning more about Jax and Madoc, creating excitement and desire to read their stories.

Jared's prospective also provided the air of danger that was lacking from Tate's POV, however she is a good girl and a rule follower so her version was true to her.

I won't say that I'm disappointed. I will say that it didn't live up to my expectations. Tate and Jared's story was vanilla. They have a complicated emotional past. I appreciate that they don't have an immediate HEA. I like seeing couples struggle because it feels more real. Fallon and Madoc's story caught me by surprise. I just thought that Madoc was a funny guy. Their story was taboo with a dash of toxicity and Rated R drama.

Going into this book I was pumped. But only for Jax. K.C. rubbed me the wrong way in all the other books. She just didn't seem like a good friend. I thought that her story with Jaxon was going to be MORE than what it was. Don't get me wrong, I truly appreciate her growth and her backstory was unexpected. But she still came off as a bit entitled.

Jax was already sexy, dark, dangerous, and mysterious. I wanted to learn so much more about him. I don't feel like we learned enough. I don't feel like he shared enough for he and K.C. to have built the trust that they did. She is too forgiving. It was frustrating and a turn off to see him make the same mistake multiple times within days/weeks. Only to be instantly forgiving because the sex is so great.

I love how Penelope writes sex scenes. But this books seemed to have almost too much. If that's even possible. I feel like it was used as a filler. Gave me an Anita Blake vibe. If you aren't familar, there are a crap ton of books in that series some of which are just straight soft core porn with a vampire or were in the mix.. ..... but I digress.

Maybe if I hadn't gone into this story with expectations my response would be different.

*Side note: The guy on the cover really bothers me. Jax's brown skin and black hair and native American features are mentioned sooo much and the guy on the cover looks like he's from Denmark. Way to white wash... just sayin...

I am not upset about the fact that Jared needed time to find himself. He absolutely was lost. First he was going to follow Tate to NY. Then he followed to Chicago and joined the ROTC because that's what HER dad wanted. I'm not upset with his choice to step back because they were really young and he needed to grow. BUT his lack of communication and prior bullying of Tate made his exit infuriating.

I was never a Tate fan. Out of all the girls I preferred Fallon the most because she doesn't get overly emotional and she knows how to communicate. With that said, How much bullshit does Tate have to deal with. Her love for Jared resulted in a lot of pain. Not just from him but for three fucking years during high school. Three years of others antagonizing. So him leaving like he did was just another kick in the stomach. I would not have been upset if her HEA didn't involve him.

Jax and Juliet are probably my least favorite couple. Which is so sad because I really liked him as an individual. Ben, my heart goes out to him. I would love to see a stand alone for him. He was collateral damage throughout the entire series. Even the freaking bonus content.

The epilogue was a bit underwhelming HOWEVER I'm starting to notice EASTER EGGS!!!!
Tate raced against a Jeager brother!!!! Not sure which one but that's a shout out to Tryst Six Venom, and JT Racing's California is linked to Credence.

I'm not upset that I read this series. I plan on continuing on with the next generation in the Hellbent series. But sadly I'm obsessed with it. Bully & Rival are the only two books I would say are worth buying however $12 is a bit overpriced for Rival. I feel like investing in Kindle Unlimited and reading all Pen's stand alones and the Devil's Night series is the BEST option. I rated all those books 4 & 5 stars. Sadly 2 books in this series were only 3 stars.

Honestly I wasn't interested in Kat and Jase's story. I skipped over a lot of it. I feel like it was unnecessary or would have been more interesting in a different order.

I enjoyed the tension between Kade and Hunter. This book pumped me up for the next generation. After reading all printed material by this author, I can only hope that Noah Van der berg is not anyone's partner from this group. I pray that there is an upcoming stand alone for him.


I do like that Quinn's love interest is a taboo and look forward to the full story.

I have been dying for this story. Granted this is just the tip of the iceberg, it was still super exciting to see the beginning of my favorite couple in this series. Belle has always been such a strong force it was shocking to see how she allowed Greg to treat and speak to her. But it's proof of how hard she fell for him. She reminds me of Brienne of Tarth. Such a force but still human.

Greg remained and asshole throughout the entire thing. It was fun seeing him a bit impulsive and turned on but he never waivered from his single minded need to be number one and win.

I almost hate his actions more so than Hunter with Meg.

Fab read for anyone that's invested in this series. If you aren't familiar please read the Holbrooks, Frost Brothers, and Svenssons.

This story line is addicting. Forget the "romance" I'm here for the gang activity, double crosses, and action! I'm not sure if I missed it in book one but I realized our girl Addy is black! That makes me so happy. Representation matters, a kick ass, ruthless, heroine is already fan fucking tastic but for her to be brown like me, THAT shit just gets my lady boner hard as steel!

Cash is distrusting and conflicted. But what do they say?? You believe people will do the same as you. This ends in a cliff hanger that had me reading the third book and waiting 24 hours to write this review. I'm all in!

OMFG it just keeps getting better and better. I had so many feels. I wanted to cry. Fucking fake ass double crossing people. So many secrets and frustrating stand offs. I can't even go into detail because I just NEED to devour the next book as soon as possible.

I had to take a few days before writing my actual review. I also peeked other's reviews to make sure I was not the odd man out.

The overall story line, the organized crime, the ledger, and the Merchants individual hardships was good. I really liked the diversity, the creativity, the raw power and shocking kills.

At first I didn't love Addy until her true nature and intentions were unveiled. Once she stopped pretending I thought she was bad ass. Gia for me went from bad ass to annoying. However in this book they both were just acting out of character and making dumb ass decisions.

Addy wtf. Your mom is trash, it was a struggle to read their bullshit. I feel like the author knew that this the mom storyline was garbage and tried to rationalize it but it was just a waste of space.

Mercer's story is still a mystery. I would have rather had a 5th book than for him to be short changed the way he was. The ending was rushed, exhausting, and unbelievable. I felt like it was cartoonish and visions of Batman's Gotham took over while reading. It was beyond ridiculous.

I was not satisfied with the ending to the series. With that said it's still a good series and I am glad there is a spin off, hopefully that will help fill in some of the missing pieces.

I absolutely love River and the overall storyline. I don't feel like book one could be classified as romance. There was hot sex and a feel people are in their feelings but no one is in love. Overall the focus is on revenge and criminal agendas. I really liked it. This is my first time reading this author. I am very much drawn to her writing style. The guys each have strong personalities, and air of mystery, and an admirable brotherhood.

Super salty I have to wait for the next book. Will be checking out other completed series by Eva Ashwood.