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lambsbooks
Hmm, so I didn't like the first half (which was like 400 pages because this book is so unnecessarily long) but the second half (again, the size of a regular-ass book) was better.
I liked Leon better in this one than the first two, Kai is still a marshmallow, and I was NOT a fan of the betrayals that happened or the bad guy - like, one of my least favourite tropes isbeing betrayed by the best friend!! It makes me never trust friendships in books and I just don't like it. Also, Mo betraying them was also annoying. Just unwanted drama and angst.
I liked Leon better in this one than the first two, Kai is still a marshmallow, and I was NOT a fan of the betrayals that happened or the bad guy - like, one of my least favourite tropes is
You know, I liked Leon in the other books, the cameos, but I'm struggling to like him in this.
Kai is a little muffin and I love him.
Kai is a little muffin and I love him.
Every time. Every time I tell myself, Sophie, Tate is a sadist when it comes to cliffhangers, don't be surprised.
And every time, I'm surpirsed.
And every time, I'm surpirsed.
When our eyes connect, however brief the moment might be, I swear I can see it—the lifetimes upon lifetimes of wisdom, of wandering . . . And pain.
I’m not sure where to start?
It feels like Heaven. She feels like Heaven.
This was such an amazing story.
For centuries, the dragons lived their lives in peace and prosperity.
And then a stranger arrived from the lands beyond the horizon.
This was a book about star-crossed lovers. About life and death, hope and when all hope has been lost. This book was about rebirth and adventure, struggle and agony, heartbreak and exhaustion.
I know this soul, though I can’t explain how. I’m whole and complete and home.
This book made you want to reach in and pat each character on the head, some harder than others lmao. Sai and Jyn were just perfect. I thought Sai was this little tea maker but he sacrificed and went through hell for those he loved. He was so strong but so loving. Jyn was such a tortured soul, that poor thing. I won’t say much about her struggle because SpOiLeRs but my fragile heart was breaking for her.
“Please,” I rasp. “I think you’re my Fated One.”
“I know I am,” she says. Her green eyes are cold. “Now leave me the fuck alone.”
I also love how this was kinda NA, not YA, because most of the Asian mythology books I’ve read have been YA and I’d love to read more NA or adult!
I won’t do her the injustice of comparing her beauty to the stars, for she is far more radiant than anything in the Heavens, the earth, and the spaces.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada, Netgalley, and the author for this ARC!
Sai.
Hello, my love.
____________
😭😭😭
Rtc
I’m not sure where to start?
It feels like Heaven. She feels like Heaven.
This was such an amazing story.
For centuries, the dragons lived their lives in peace and prosperity.
And then a stranger arrived from the lands beyond the horizon.
This was a book about star-crossed lovers. About life and death, hope and when all hope has been lost. This book was about rebirth and adventure, struggle and agony, heartbreak and exhaustion.
I know this soul, though I can’t explain how. I’m whole and complete and home.
This book made you want to reach in and pat each character on the head, some harder than others lmao. Sai and Jyn were just perfect. I thought Sai was this little tea maker but he sacrificed and went through hell for those he loved. He was so strong but so loving. Jyn was such a tortured soul, that poor thing. I won’t say much about her struggle because SpOiLeRs but my fragile heart was breaking for her.
“Please,” I rasp. “I think you’re my Fated One.”
“I know I am,” she says. Her green eyes are cold. “Now leave me the fuck alone.”
I also love how this was kinda NA, not YA, because most of the Asian mythology books I’ve read have been YA and I’d love to read more NA or adult!
I won’t do her the injustice of comparing her beauty to the stars, for she is far more radiant than anything in the Heavens, the earth, and the spaces.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada, Netgalley, and the author for this ARC!
Sai.
Hello, my love.
____________
😭😭😭
Rtc
Overall rating: 4.5 stars
Fav Stories: The Animation Games, To Make A Man, and A Year in January
Overall thoughts: I flewwww through these stories. I’ve read a few short story compilations and when they’re written well, I find them really fun, and this one was really fun. A little hard to review, so I broke it down to each of the Seasons and then each story within the seasons. Some thoughts but mostly questions 😂
Thank you Tor Books, Coloured Pages Book Tours, and the author for this eARC and physical ARC!
Spring
The Wish Bridge - 4.5 stars
I was born with a vastness inside me, and sometimes I feel it will swallow me up.
Okay, what? That was so beautiful. 😭 I turned the page and there was no more and I needed more wandering. More wishes. More full moons and bread and sin and forgiveness. More Nile and Lila.
The Audit - 4 stars
I wonder what makes me so valuable when I am unquestionably the most boring person in my life.
This was an exercise in patience. On my end. Because the main character was annoying 😂
This was about living life to the fullest - but maybe not the way you imagined. It was about choices and bad decisions and being unprepared for, well, life. Sometimes the easy decision isn’t the smart one. Or is it?
What do I want? What do I want? Time feels like it’s slipping away from me. It’s already been five days. I can’t breathe.
Sucker for Pain - 4.75 stars
To be wealthy, to be powerful, was to bleed. She would later find this observation to be both very correct and hugely mistaken.
Witches and vampires. Magic and murder. Captivity and freedom. Love, betrayal, and heartbreak. This one had it all. And what an ending, full circle and all that.
“Because I hardly know what I am without you,” he replied. “If there was ever a time I existed without you, it is long gone now. In a different world, or a different life. As if the universe itself rearranged to fill the gaps, and before you, there was no me at all.”
Summer
The Animation Games - 5 stars
Sometimes the end is just the beginning.
When the story starts with death, you know you’re in for a rollercoaster of a ride. An emotional rollercoaster with no seatbelt and you're hanging on for dear life.
There is part of me that knows I am ending even as I am so filled with beginnings, and I don’t suffer any pain; I only feel numbness, and then an abject chill.
If you want to read about two people falling in love and living happily ever after, don’t read this. Or maybe do?
If you want to read about a game of two people who seem to hate and love each other, who can’t stop hurting each other, killing each other, destroying each other, then read this. Or maybe it's not about that at all?
“I think,” he murmured, taking a step toward her, “that we have had so many lives together, Rhosyn, we may very well be soulmates.”
The House - No rating, it was 3 pages 😂
Step 1: Get married
Rule 1: Marriage is a house you build together
Step 2: Maybe don’t get married
To Make a Man - 5 stars
“Just keep your head down, be good. Get out of this neighborhood and make something of yourself before it’s too late.”
What would you do if a stranger walked up to you and said “One year from today, you’ll be dead in this spot, everyone watching, but no one helping”?
And what would happen if you added in fate, gods, and unrelenting heartbreak and sadness?
You cry.
Well, I cried.
She wondered how to tell him that he was a deck consisting entirely of aces. Arrange his features any way you liked and he was still a winning hand.
Preexisting Condition - 4 stars
"The best parts are always fleeting. Love is never true. Men are mostly garbage fuckers. Women are deceitful and envious. Every day is hot as seven hells. Every waking morning is somehow worse and more despairing than the last.” She is pounding the cassava roughly but then looks up for a moment, as if she forgot something.
“Life is a gift.”
I have no words for this story, what the fuck did I just read lmao
I guess this story is about lovers, enemies, death, magic, and the power of revenge reparations.
Autumn
Monsterlove - 4.5 stars
A howl escapes and it is pain. The pain takes off its mask, aha it has been anger this whole time! The anger hurts because—a dramatic reveal—it is actually guilt in disguise!
Well, this was a depressing take on being a mother but it might be fulfilling to those who are new moms or just bone-dead exhausted moms.
I mean, if you weren’t willing to retain the metaphysical walls of this form permanently, why did you even have a child?
Or just women who are sick of the comments telling them that no matter what we do, we’ll never win.
Actually she can see now that the Good One is always holding a knife, only it’s shoved into her own chest, and the Anti-Self is guiding it in, and it is the monsterlove, and her other forms splinter upward from around its center, and it is the most alive she knows how to feel.
How to Dispel Friends and Cure People - 4.5 stars
So I think what you meant to say was
Come in
But seeing as you are out of practice I’ll just wait here
Until you inevitably realize
You used the wrong words
A love poem. Um, of a sort. But cute.
I would dig up bodies for you if you needed it
I think maybe that’s a bad sign
I think maybe that might be love?
You might remember
I mentioned that briefly
My affections et cetera et cetera
And you sighed
And turned me into a beetle
Fates and Consequences -3.75 stars
ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD TIMES. DO NOT ENJOY THIS AUDIT.
SIGNED, MANAGEMENT
NO EXERTING OF EFFORT TO MAKE THINGS EASIER. SUFFERING ONLY!
SIGNED, MANAGEMENT
What happens when Fate cuts the wrong thread?
Guy Carrington ends up in Hell.
He has to attend brunch with his mother, get audited, make lemonade with papercuts, a prostate exam, a colonoscopy…you get the picture.
What happens when you have to live out your worst nightmares all day, every day? What happens when you deserve your fate?
Sous Vide - 3.5 stars, 3.75 stars?
Because my whole life revolves around money. It has to! That’s the system I’m plugged into! You know? You can’t be happy without money, because in order to be happy you need choices, you need freedom, you need the ability to think and dream and wonder and you just simply cannot do that if you spend all day and night thinking about how you’ll pay your next bill. It’s unfair that people don’t do more to help each other. People shouldn’t let other people go hungry. It’s so cruel.
What do you do when you are desperate for money and are handed an opportunity of relief? Cook for someone? Cook for…something? Don’t break the rules but don’t worry, everyone breaks the rules.
This was a weird one. AND THE ENDING
Winter
Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasures 3.25 stars
I was born as much for love as I was made for destruction, and now, at last, I understand. There is always a price, my mother tells me sadly, for nothing beautiful is ever as it seems.
This one was a little confusing to me but it did have a “who did this to you” from her to him so that was nice 😂 but it was a magical castle? I dunno, I was confused. It’s about actions and consequences, costs, benefits, and losses. AND THE REVEAL! I gasped😯
He is a beautiful, dangerous thing.
Chaos Theory - 4.5 stars
Maybe the truth is that I am a vessel of chaos. Touch me and I will explode.
Um, so yeah, this was chaos and I don’t even know what to say? There was a OMG 😂😂 moment, you’ll know it when you get to it, but this was…um…yeah, chaos? There’s literally nothing I can say that won’t spoil it completely 😂
A Year in January - 5 stars
I am not very good at friendships. I find I have a tendency for devotion and therefore expect the same. When I do not receive it I become despondent, though not fruitfully so.
I think this main character has mania or depression/anxeity from the way things read, but it was a little hard to read because of that. She did mention mania at one point, but I don’t think that was all. But, yeah it was hard to read. Mainly because it was described, or not described, so well. I understood what she was saying. I felt seen.
It was really sad.
“Does everyone take sabbaticals?”
“No. But I think most people are better at it than me.”
“Better at what?”
“All of it,” I said, but what I meant was existing.
Fav Stories: The Animation Games, To Make A Man, and A Year in January
Overall thoughts: I flewwww through these stories. I’ve read a few short story compilations and when they’re written well, I find them really fun, and this one was really fun. A little hard to review, so I broke it down to each of the Seasons and then each story within the seasons. Some thoughts but mostly questions 😂
Thank you Tor Books, Coloured Pages Book Tours, and the author for this eARC and physical ARC!
Spring
The Wish Bridge - 4.5 stars
I was born with a vastness inside me, and sometimes I feel it will swallow me up.
Okay, what? That was so beautiful. 😭 I turned the page and there was no more and I needed more wandering. More wishes. More full moons and bread and sin and forgiveness. More Nile and Lila.
The Audit - 4 stars
I wonder what makes me so valuable when I am unquestionably the most boring person in my life.
This was an exercise in patience. On my end. Because the main character was annoying 😂
This was about living life to the fullest - but maybe not the way you imagined. It was about choices and bad decisions and being unprepared for, well, life. Sometimes the easy decision isn’t the smart one. Or is it?
What do I want? What do I want? Time feels like it’s slipping away from me. It’s already been five days. I can’t breathe.
Sucker for Pain - 4.75 stars
To be wealthy, to be powerful, was to bleed. She would later find this observation to be both very correct and hugely mistaken.
Witches and vampires. Magic and murder. Captivity and freedom. Love, betrayal, and heartbreak. This one had it all. And what an ending, full circle and all that.
“Because I hardly know what I am without you,” he replied. “If there was ever a time I existed without you, it is long gone now. In a different world, or a different life. As if the universe itself rearranged to fill the gaps, and before you, there was no me at all.”
Summer
The Animation Games - 5 stars
Sometimes the end is just the beginning.
When the story starts with death, you know you’re in for a rollercoaster of a ride. An emotional rollercoaster with no seatbelt and you're hanging on for dear life.
There is part of me that knows I am ending even as I am so filled with beginnings, and I don’t suffer any pain; I only feel numbness, and then an abject chill.
If you want to read about two people falling in love and living happily ever after, don’t read this. Or maybe do?
If you want to read about a game of two people who seem to hate and love each other, who can’t stop hurting each other, killing each other, destroying each other, then read this. Or maybe it's not about that at all?
“I think,” he murmured, taking a step toward her, “that we have had so many lives together, Rhosyn, we may very well be soulmates.”
The House - No rating, it was 3 pages 😂
Step 1: Get married
Rule 1: Marriage is a house you build together
Step 2: Maybe don’t get married
To Make a Man - 5 stars
“Just keep your head down, be good. Get out of this neighborhood and make something of yourself before it’s too late.”
What would you do if a stranger walked up to you and said “One year from today, you’ll be dead in this spot, everyone watching, but no one helping”?
And what would happen if you added in fate, gods, and unrelenting heartbreak and sadness?
You cry.
Well, I cried.
She wondered how to tell him that he was a deck consisting entirely of aces. Arrange his features any way you liked and he was still a winning hand.
Preexisting Condition - 4 stars
"The best parts are always fleeting. Love is never true. Men are mostly garbage fuckers. Women are deceitful and envious. Every day is hot as seven hells. Every waking morning is somehow worse and more despairing than the last.” She is pounding the cassava roughly but then looks up for a moment, as if she forgot something.
“Life is a gift.”
I have no words for this story, what the fuck did I just read lmao
I guess this story is about lovers, enemies, death, magic, and the power of revenge reparations.
Autumn
Monsterlove - 4.5 stars
A howl escapes and it is pain. The pain takes off its mask, aha it has been anger this whole time! The anger hurts because—a dramatic reveal—it is actually guilt in disguise!
Well, this was a depressing take on being a mother but it might be fulfilling to those who are new moms or just bone-dead exhausted moms.
I mean, if you weren’t willing to retain the metaphysical walls of this form permanently, why did you even have a child?
Or just women who are sick of the comments telling them that no matter what we do, we’ll never win.
Actually she can see now that the Good One is always holding a knife, only it’s shoved into her own chest, and the Anti-Self is guiding it in, and it is the monsterlove, and her other forms splinter upward from around its center, and it is the most alive she knows how to feel.
How to Dispel Friends and Cure People - 4.5 stars
So I think what you meant to say was
Come in
But seeing as you are out of practice I’ll just wait here
Until you inevitably realize
You used the wrong words
A love poem. Um, of a sort. But cute.
I would dig up bodies for you if you needed it
I think maybe that’s a bad sign
I think maybe that might be love?
You might remember
I mentioned that briefly
My affections et cetera et cetera
And you sighed
And turned me into a beetle
Fates and Consequences -3.75 stars
ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD TIMES. DO NOT ENJOY THIS AUDIT.
SIGNED, MANAGEMENT
NO EXERTING OF EFFORT TO MAKE THINGS EASIER. SUFFERING ONLY!
SIGNED, MANAGEMENT
What happens when Fate cuts the wrong thread?
Guy Carrington ends up in Hell.
He has to attend brunch with his mother, get audited, make lemonade with papercuts, a prostate exam, a colonoscopy…you get the picture.
What happens when you have to live out your worst nightmares all day, every day? What happens when you deserve your fate?
Sous Vide - 3.5 stars, 3.75 stars?
Because my whole life revolves around money. It has to! That’s the system I’m plugged into! You know? You can’t be happy without money, because in order to be happy you need choices, you need freedom, you need the ability to think and dream and wonder and you just simply cannot do that if you spend all day and night thinking about how you’ll pay your next bill. It’s unfair that people don’t do more to help each other. People shouldn’t let other people go hungry. It’s so cruel.
What do you do when you are desperate for money and are handed an opportunity of relief? Cook for someone? Cook for…something? Don’t break the rules but don’t worry, everyone breaks the rules.
This was a weird one. AND THE ENDING
Winter
Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasures 3.25 stars
I was born as much for love as I was made for destruction, and now, at last, I understand. There is always a price, my mother tells me sadly, for nothing beautiful is ever as it seems.
This one was a little confusing to me but it did have a “who did this to you” from her to him so that was nice 😂 but it was a magical castle? I dunno, I was confused. It’s about actions and consequences, costs, benefits, and losses. AND THE REVEAL! I gasped😯
He is a beautiful, dangerous thing.
Chaos Theory - 4.5 stars
Maybe the truth is that I am a vessel of chaos. Touch me and I will explode.
Um, so yeah, this was chaos and I don’t even know what to say? There was a OMG 😂😂 moment, you’ll know it when you get to it, but this was…um…yeah, chaos? There’s literally nothing I can say that won’t spoil it completely 😂
A Year in January - 5 stars
I am not very good at friendships. I find I have a tendency for devotion and therefore expect the same. When I do not receive it I become despondent, though not fruitfully so.
I think this main character has mania or depression/anxeity from the way things read, but it was a little hard to read because of that. She did mention mania at one point, but I don’t think that was all. But, yeah it was hard to read. Mainly because it was described, or not described, so well. I understood what she was saying. I felt seen.
It was really sad.
“Does everyone take sabbaticals?”
“No. But I think most people are better at it than me.”
“Better at what?”
“All of it,” I said, but what I meant was existing.
”And if you really think you’re a monster, then let’s be monsters together.”
You know what this book made me want?
More
"What do you want?" he asks, voice soft.
"Everything. Charm me. Rip me open. Ruin me. Go too far."
He shudders at her words, shaking his head against them.
She goes on, whispering against his skin. "You cannot understand. I am a chasm that will never be full. I am hunger. I am need. I cannot be sated. If you try, I will swallow you up. I will take all of you and want more. I use will you. I will drain you until you are nothing more than a husk."
"Use me, then," he whispers, mouth on her throat.
You know what this book made me want?
More
"What do you want?" he asks, voice soft.
"Everything. Charm me. Rip me open. Ruin me. Go too far."
He shudders at her words, shaking his head against them.
She goes on, whispering against his skin. "You cannot understand. I am a chasm that will never be full. I am hunger. I am need. I cannot be sated. If you try, I will swallow you up. I will take all of you and want more. I use will you. I will drain you until you are nothing more than a husk."
"Use me, then," he whispers, mouth on her throat.
I am not nothing. I am what is beyond nothing. Annihilation.
Okay, so I love Oak and Wren.
That ending tho 👏👏 YASSS Wren, be that Queen that you are!
Okay, so I love Oak and Wren.
That ending tho 👏👏 YASSS Wren, be that Queen that you are!
My soul is tied to someone who doesn’t know I exist.
First, I’ll help her believe. Then, I’ll make her mine.
Yes, I had to include 2 quotes at the beginning because I COULDN’T CHOOSE.
This fairytale retelling was magical and whimsical, tortured and heartbreaking. I’ve never read a Jack Frost retelling and now I need more lmao. I’ve also realized with this book that I like ballet in books too! Lauren put a glossary in the front with ballet terms in it and it was just a thoughtful thing to do and helped with visualization.
Dedication:
For all the times you felt invisible or wasted energy wishing the wrong people would take notice.
I’m here.
… And I see you.
I normally wouldn't include the dedication in a review but this one was really emotional for me so I needed to and I kinda like doing it so maybe I’ll think about doing it for future reviews too👀
“Eyes on us, Tempest,” he whispers. “Don’t you dare close them.”
This book was about healing, overcoming grief and pain, perseverance, and finding love when fate is stacked against you.
She’s a compulsion I can’t shake. An addiction I’m desperate to feed. A high I never want to come down from.
This was definitely emotional, with Jax being invisible to her, to his mate, and he could only watch from the sidelines. Reading Jolie’s struggle with the accident, with her loss, and her injury was painful but done really well. The friendship between Jolie and Lark was also great and I was seriously hoping for Jax to send some well-deserved ice to Blake. I can’t emphasize how much of a dick Blake was.
“Tell me to stop or spread that skirt and let me devour what’s mine,” he growls.
If you like:
⭐️Pierced & textured 🍆
⭐️Spicy spice
⭐️Jack Frost retelling
⭐️Ballerina FMC
⭐️Wolves and knots
⭐️Trauma and therapy healing
Spoiler quote but I had to
Nothing like finding your mate only to watch her die in the same breath to put things in perspective.
Thank you to the author for this ARC!
If I have to steal a thousand tiny moments together, I will. I’ll hoard them away, filling my journal with everything I recall, etching our story into its pages.
First, I’ll help her believe. Then, I’ll make her mine.
Yes, I had to include 2 quotes at the beginning because I COULDN’T CHOOSE.
This fairytale retelling was magical and whimsical, tortured and heartbreaking. I’ve never read a Jack Frost retelling and now I need more lmao. I’ve also realized with this book that I like ballet in books too! Lauren put a glossary in the front with ballet terms in it and it was just a thoughtful thing to do and helped with visualization.
Dedication:
For all the times you felt invisible or wasted energy wishing the wrong people would take notice.
I’m here.
… And I see you.
I normally wouldn't include the dedication in a review but this one was really emotional for me so I needed to and I kinda like doing it so maybe I’ll think about doing it for future reviews too👀
“Eyes on us, Tempest,” he whispers. “Don’t you dare close them.”
This book was about healing, overcoming grief and pain, perseverance, and finding love when fate is stacked against you.
She’s a compulsion I can’t shake. An addiction I’m desperate to feed. A high I never want to come down from.
This was definitely emotional, with Jax being invisible to her, to his mate, and he could only watch from the sidelines. Reading Jolie’s struggle with the accident, with her loss, and her injury was painful but done really well. The friendship between Jolie and Lark was also great and I was seriously hoping for Jax to send some well-deserved ice to Blake. I can’t emphasize how much of a dick Blake was.
“Tell me to stop or spread that skirt and let me devour what’s mine,” he growls.
If you like:
⭐️Pierced & textured 🍆
⭐️Spicy spice
⭐️Jack Frost retelling
⭐️Ballerina FMC
⭐️Wolves and knots
⭐️Trauma and therapy healing
Spoiler quote but I had to
Thank you to the author for this ARC!
If I have to steal a thousand tiny moments together, I will. I’ll hoard them away, filling my journal with everything I recall, etching our story into its pages.
Waking her up in the middle of the night to fuck the insomnia out of me is more than crossing a line.
Welllllll
I’d gladly fall on my sword to heal him. To save him.
4.5 stars
I went into this thinking it was going to be a cute little hockey romance and BAM emotional distress ensues and I spend the entire book on the edge of my seat trying to hold on for dear life.
In a good way. lmao
“I’ll never forget you.” I stick my pinky out. “Pinky promise on your puck.”
He links our fingers together with a smirk. “I promise.”
Cassidy - you broken, broken woman. I could feel her emotions, her past trauma, her pain, and I wanted to cry with her. I like the coping mechanisms she used (it’s a common practice for real-life panic attacks) and that they were included here. She was so attentive to Aiden, attentive to the point where she constantly put herself last, and that hurt my little heart.
Something about Cassidy feels safe. She takes care of me in ways I never knew I needed. I can trust her. There’s only one problem, I can’t stop thinking about touching her. Kissing her. Fucking her.
Aiden - oh man, what a MMC. I’ve never read one like him before and it was re-fresh-ing. Aiden suffers from anxiety and compulsions (I’m sure there is another diagnosis for it, but I’m not familiar with anxiety-induced compulsions or just compulsion in general so I won’t make assumptions). His need for control in his life after the shit he went through as a kid was heartbreaking and I LOVED that it was included in this book as a main plot point, instead of pushed to the side or immediately cured or something.
“Turn around and get on your hands and knees. Ass up.”
There was spicy spice, what else would you expect from a man who needs control and plays hockey
“Umm. Hi to you, too.” She giggles, allowing me to drag her off.
“No time for hello,” I say as I find the door to the storage closet and fling it open. The moment we’re inside, I slam the door shut, and we are bathed in darkness. “Take your pants off,” I command. I can barely see her, but I can hear her intake of breath.
“What?”
“You heard me. Pants. Off. Now. I need to fuck you in my jersey.”
*smirky smirk*
This woman is strong. Courageous. Dangerous. She’s the kind of girl worth falling for.
If you like:
✌🏼Second Chance Romance
🫣 Hidden Identity
🏒 NHL player with a dirty mouth
🩷 Childhood friends to Lovers
🫶🏼Pinky Promises
🏡 Found Family
💸 Rags to Riches
💊 Mental Health Representation
😭 She takes care of and protects him
❤️🔥 Fake dating
🌶️ Crawl to me
This girl is good for me. Too good. I can get used to this.
Thank you to the author and Hambright PR for sending me this finished copy in exchange for an honest review!! Will we get a Dane or Hudson book?? *pleads*
Aiden has always hated crowds. He told me back at the trailer that he tried to work on controlling his anxiety, but he hated it. It looks like he’s doing better than the last time I saw him, but at what cost to him? How will he suffer later?
^ that quote - yes, wow, yes. This applies to mental and physical health so much. We can show nothing in public but at a cost, a cost that we'll pay for later.
Welllllll
I’d gladly fall on my sword to heal him. To save him.
4.5 stars
I went into this thinking it was going to be a cute little hockey romance and BAM emotional distress ensues and I spend the entire book on the edge of my seat trying to hold on for dear life.
In a good way. lmao
“I’ll never forget you.” I stick my pinky out. “Pinky promise on your puck.”
He links our fingers together with a smirk. “I promise.”
Cassidy - you broken, broken woman. I could feel her emotions, her past trauma, her pain, and I wanted to cry with her. I like the coping mechanisms she used (it’s a common practice for real-life panic attacks) and that they were included here. She was so attentive to Aiden, attentive to the point where she constantly put herself last, and that hurt my little heart.
Something about Cassidy feels safe. She takes care of me in ways I never knew I needed. I can trust her. There’s only one problem, I can’t stop thinking about touching her. Kissing her. Fucking her.
Aiden - oh man, what a MMC. I’ve never read one like him before and it was re-fresh-ing. Aiden suffers from anxiety and compulsions (I’m sure there is another diagnosis for it, but I’m not familiar with anxiety-induced compulsions or just compulsion in general so I won’t make assumptions). His need for control in his life after the shit he went through as a kid was heartbreaking and I LOVED that it was included in this book as a main plot point, instead of pushed to the side or immediately cured or something.
“Turn around and get on your hands and knees. Ass up.”
There was spicy spice, what else would you expect from a man who needs control and plays hockey
“Umm. Hi to you, too.” She giggles, allowing me to drag her off.
“No time for hello,” I say as I find the door to the storage closet and fling it open. The moment we’re inside, I slam the door shut, and we are bathed in darkness. “Take your pants off,” I command. I can barely see her, but I can hear her intake of breath.
“What?”
“You heard me. Pants. Off. Now. I need to fuck you in my jersey.”
*smirky smirk*
This woman is strong. Courageous. Dangerous. She’s the kind of girl worth falling for.
If you like:
✌🏼Second Chance Romance
🫣 Hidden Identity
🏒 NHL player with a dirty mouth
🩷 Childhood friends to Lovers
🫶🏼Pinky Promises
🏡 Found Family
💸 Rags to Riches
💊 Mental Health Representation
😭 She takes care of and protects him
❤️🔥 Fake dating
🌶️ Crawl to me
This girl is good for me. Too good. I can get used to this.
Thank you to the author and Hambright PR for sending me this finished copy in exchange for an honest review!! Will we get a Dane or Hudson book?? *pleads*
Aiden has always hated crowds. He told me back at the trailer that he tried to work on controlling his anxiety, but he hated it. It looks like he’s doing better than the last time I saw him, but at what cost to him? How will he suffer later?
^ that quote - yes, wow, yes. This applies to mental and physical health so much. We can show nothing in public but at a cost, a cost that we'll pay for later.
"You might loathe me, but you are mine now, and if anyone tried to burn you at the stake, I’d make them wish they were never born.”
Well, I got my wish for the psychotic Dream Stalker to make an appearance. And what an appearance he made. Talan is fucked up lmao
It’s quite another thing to dance with the Dream Stalker seconds after he slit a man’s throat, then drank his mead.
Meet your newest morally grey boyfriend
"I like my beautiful things to have a bit of darkness in them.”
This was super fast-paced with forced proximity, fake um dating/fake mistress, lots of morally greyness, killing people left right and centre, and heart-pounding emotion. Pretty sure I didn’t even breathe properly for the last 20% of the book.
Deep asleep, he looks so peaceful— the beautiful monster who intends to destroy us all.
Nia continues to get shit done. That woman is strong, smart, resourceful, and just an all-around great FMC. She can plot, plan, and scheme to no end but she’s also not so perfect that things aren’t a struggle for her either. A realistic main character!
"And what happened to your man with the cheap velvet suit? Why didn’t you make a family with him, like other people?”
“He left me for a singer.” Also true.
“So, the man is a fucking idiot. Would you like me to torture him to death? I would use the rack again, if it made you happy.”
Raphael...Bitch, what the fuck?
I glance up and find the Dream Stalker lying awake, staring at the ceiling. Fuck. “Sorry,” I whisper. “I was asleep.”
“My dear Nia, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for. You should wrap yourself around me whenever you want.” His voice is a velvet caress over my skin.
Talan. Boy, you’re pushing your luck. Imma need some redeeming actions soon from him. Yes, he’s a sexy dream stalking, mind-fucking, morally grey killing machine, but he is also kinda evil lmao and needs to show some less evil qualities in the next book.
"And if I fucked you for real, Nia, I can assure you that you would not need to fake it.” His voice is a deep, velvety whisper that sends shivers over my skin."
That ending. How dare it end like that? I need book 3, my heart can’t take the wait.
“Why is your heart beating so fast?” he murmurs.
“Don’t you know everyone is scared of you?” Silence falls in the darkened room.
“Yes,” he says quietly, “but I didn’t think you were.”
Thank you to the authors for an eARC!
Well, I got my wish for the psychotic Dream Stalker to make an appearance. And what an appearance he made. Talan is fucked up lmao
It’s quite another thing to dance with the Dream Stalker seconds after he slit a man’s throat, then drank his mead.
Meet your newest morally grey boyfriend
"I like my beautiful things to have a bit of darkness in them.”
This was super fast-paced with forced proximity, fake um dating/fake mistress, lots of morally greyness, killing people left right and centre, and heart-pounding emotion. Pretty sure I didn’t even breathe properly for the last 20% of the book.
Deep asleep, he looks so peaceful— the beautiful monster who intends to destroy us all.
Nia continues to get shit done. That woman is strong, smart, resourceful, and just an all-around great FMC. She can plot, plan, and scheme to no end but she’s also not so perfect that things aren’t a struggle for her either. A realistic main character!
"And what happened to your man with the cheap velvet suit? Why didn’t you make a family with him, like other people?”
“He left me for a singer.” Also true.
“So, the man is a fucking idiot. Would you like me to torture him to death? I would use the rack again, if it made you happy.”
Raphael...Bitch, what the fuck?
I glance up and find the Dream Stalker lying awake, staring at the ceiling. Fuck. “Sorry,” I whisper. “I was asleep.”
“My dear Nia, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for. You should wrap yourself around me whenever you want.” His voice is a velvet caress over my skin.
Talan. Boy, you’re pushing your luck. Imma need some redeeming actions soon from him. Yes, he’s a sexy dream stalking, mind-fucking, morally grey killing machine, but he is also kinda evil lmao and needs to show some less evil qualities in the next book.
"And if I fucked you for real, Nia, I can assure you that you would not need to fake it.” His voice is a deep, velvety whisper that sends shivers over my skin."
That ending. How dare it end like that? I need book 3, my heart can’t take the wait.
“Why is your heart beating so fast?” he murmurs.
“Don’t you know everyone is scared of you?” Silence falls in the darkened room.
“Yes,” he says quietly, “but I didn’t think you were.”
Thank you to the authors for an eARC!