I ended up DNFing this book before the spice. I stopped around 30%, which was about 145 pages into the book. This is the slowest burn to slow burn and while I like that when there is a lot of banter and angst and back and forth, this just felt like an exercise on my ADHD to not get distracted.

I read the forward/note from the author and it actually had me really excited. The author talks about the characters could solve it with one conversation but asks the ready to give into the fantasy. As someone who usually hates this trope I was hesitant. They then go on to say that the characters have trauma and are troubled and to forgive them. This whole bit actually made me want to dive in, to know why the author thought I'd hate the character.
spoiler, I didn't get that far.
I gave up when we spent 3 pages (which honestly felt like more) walking from the car to the pet store. This does not include shopping at the pet store. This was getting to the pet store, out of the car, and to the store interior description. Why did it take so long, you ask? Because the current POV was rehashing again the issues he had or the situation or why he shouldn't be interested in the other MMC. again. You know how there is that test about women on a screen and if they can have screentime that isn't talking about a man? This felt like an extreme version of the test, but instead of talking about a man it was rehashing the same thoughts.
I understand that these characters are dealing withe trauma, and there is a lot of in the head processes that will happen with that. Unfortunately, in this instance, its very redundant. There are other books I've read and this is done very well, and coming off a book I felt handled it excellently, this felt like a slog.
I don't think I even got anywhere close to where the real drama of the story started. I was still in the learning the characters phase and I was already tired of the amount of time we were spending in the one person's head. Funny enough. It was ONLY the one MC that I was having an issue with. I read the one POV fine, it was the other guy that I didn't like. 

I can't get past the writers style. 

It's really dull and I kind of have no interest in going back to it.

I really don't like the way Ali Hazelwood writes. I somehow didn't have an issue with it in The Bride, but I noticed it enough to bother me in the Winter Novella she wrote and this is like that times 1000. I just cannot stand it. It's like its obtuse on purpose.

 I DNF'd this book at 11%. I only got to 11% because I started skimming through the book.

I finished the first book and felt very meh about it, but I wanted to keep going, so I started it. I was about 2% before I started skimming pages because I felt absolutely no connection to the characters. Z felt like a child throwing a temper tantrum, every time he 'black out from rage' it felt so.. eh. I just couldn't connect to him either as a character I hated or loved. Like.. for example, I absolutely hated Sin from the LORDS series, but I still FELT something about him and I totally finished that book.

All the stuff with Addie felt meh as well.. like yeah she's in a bad world and yeah I know nothing about this world or how it runs but I found I just couldn't give a shit about her. She felt so empty and hollow as a character, nothing for me to hook into.

I was super disappointed in this series, considering this is supposed to be a 'pillar' of the Dark Romance books and so many recommended it. 

I just couldn't get into it. I don't know if it wasn't the right time but I just wasn't immediately "in"

there was like no relationship buildup. it was glossed over and got right to sex. it felt like the characters might have had chemistry but not really. I totally felt like I was reading a horrible rip off of Den of Vipers