"I couldn’t look at him, but I sensed his happiness at being included, and for some fucked-up stupid reason, making Tallus happy made me feel like I’d done something right. It was a tiny win for a guy who had spent a lifetime doing everything wrong."

i wasn't expecting to like this quite this much and to actually not figuring out the culprint until the end - it was right on my face! - and so i had loads of fun reading this, which was Such a relief after literally dropping TWO books recently! something i don't even do usually. anyway.

what really hooked me on this was: we have the brute and the sexy one, but the brute actually goes to therapy something i literally don't think i had ever read before, lol. and the seemingly nice one, the one we're supposed to love, because everyone loves him and he's so sexy and charming, he actually does stuff from time to time that make me want to grit my teeth, not because he's not well-written, quite the contrary, it is actually a breath of fresh air to have an unperfect character that is flawed in a run-of-the-mill way, like, he makes mistakes the way any unsuspecting person does. he doesn't mean to.

same way we often don't mean to hurt someone, but because we didn't think something through, because we don't really know better, we end up doing so anyway. or, well, sometimes we do know better, but it's hard to keep it up.

i'm getting off track here, but i genuinely liked this book and i rushed to read the next one right away and almost skipped written this review because of that, lol.

"Maybe I’d been spending too much time listening to Tallus spin theories. We weren’t Sherlock and Watson. We were fucking Shaggy and Scooby, and I feared I was the mangy dog, loyally following his brain-dead master all for the chance of a Scooby Snack."

I LOVE THEM!

ahhh, so satisfying to see diem starting to ralk more! the mystery took a little backseat and wasn't even wrapped up in a final climax, so that was a smidge of a let down, since i genuinely like the mystery parts, and i was frustrated with tallus a lot in this one, but the ending is made me open the goofiest, but very satisfied smile.

“You’re safe. I will tear this world apart before I let anyone hurt you. You hear me? You’re okay, Tallus. Please stop freaking out. You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay.”

yo, wtf???? the character growth??? i'm so in love with this series, i cannot believe i have to wait until SEPTEMBER to read the next one?? i'll likely have forgotten all details by then, my memory cannot be relied on, ugh.

anyway, fun times.

listened to the audiobook for this and it's been AGES since a book made me laugh this hard, this was a ten out of ten and i had not expected to enjoy myself quite this much. tbf, the male narrator was a huuge part of the experience, not only he sounds super hot, his acting was top notch and his deliever was damn hilarious. what a treat, man.

Too many pages to go for something that simply wasn't catching my interest.
I'm very dissappointed, expected more from a book that Neil Gaiman praised.
Lonely Werewolf Girl had a weird feel of too much going on to nothing going on at the same time. And the MC was too annoying.
I planned on finishing this, but I kept pushing back, and three months later, it's time to admit I won't.

"Leave time to time. It is often the one that opens our eyes and soothes our pain.

this was so-so. not bad. not great. entertaining, but confusing. kinda sweet, but it wanted to be something it wasn't really. this reads like fanfiction, like it could've almost been drarry fanfic maybe? not in a bad way, though.

this was my first time actually reading bdsm that actually went deeper than just portraying the kinks, but going about the relationships themselves and that was interesting in itself. the first 10% were also confusing as heck and if i were in a less open minded mood, i might've dropped it. this is a long book and it took me a few days to go through it, but since i've been trying to slow down my reading rhythm, that's not so bad.

still, despite heavy themes and the whole bdsm scene built up here, this didn't feel that much like dark romance?? i didn't connect to the characters all that much, but i'm actually pretty curious where the story and these relationships are going, so that's cool.

my three star rating is mostly due to some parts that felt confusing and how i didn't connect that much with characters, buut that might also be a me problem, so don't let me discourage you.

all in all, i've read far darker and stranger things in the past, but this still brought new things into the table for me and that's always pleasant.

TRIGGER WARNINGS GALORE

my god, the amount of absolute nightmare fodder i had to skim and the other parts that i downright didn't understand from the writing style?? just omg. and the fact that i STILL wanna see where this is going??? for the first time in my life i understand that saying of witnessing a trainwreck and being unable to look away. what the hellll!!!!

i literally cannot believe i read this willingly.