Tag Archives: PNR

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Book Review: Feral Alphas, by Sierra Knoxly

I picked up an Amazon freebie copy of Sierra Knoxly‘s Feral Alphas, I think, during the most recent Stuff Your Kindle Day.

feral alphas cover

I’m an omega used as scent bait for feral alphas fighting in underground deathmatches.

I was told I’m an omega without a heat—a lie.

The truth? My heats were medically suppressed, and now I’ve been sold as a secret weapon in a brutal underground where feral alphas are pitted against each other in fights to the death. When the Omega Crimes Bureau raids the ring, my dream of having love with a real pack seems within reach, but freedom is never that simple.

I won’t leave my feral alphas behind, and what sane pack would accept living with two violent killers?

my review

Meh. This was only okay. It started off well, and I expected to love it, but then it just kind of floundered. For a book called Feral Alphas, you’d think it would be a lot more focused on the actual…you know, feral alphas. They didn’t come into the story in any meaningful way until after the 65% mark, and only really one, at that. They were, At Most, side characters (the only characters without POVs, for example). This despite being part of the harem. Plus, they never reached full adult human cognizance, which made the sex scenes uncomfortable.

The rest of the men were all given super unbalanced attention, which made it feel like there were just too many of them to accommodate. I would call Colt and Luka the main pairing/main characters, not Rose, which feels strange in a reverse harem book. And Rose was very one-dimensional.

The thing is, the one-dimensionality wasn’t my biggest issue with her. My primary complaint was that she was 27 and started the book acting like an adult. AS SOON AS she found the first of her men, she read like a child. The state adopted her out like a child. She doesn’t laugh feral alphas photoanymore; she giggles. She doesn’t walk. She skips or runs on her tip toes. She does happy dances and wiggles excitedly. She throws temper tantrums, plays uno incessantly, frequently is put down for a nap, etc. I get that she was uncultured and never lived in a normal society. But there is uneducated, and there is infantilized. She is 100% infantilized, and it’s a HUGE pet peeve for me, especially in erotic books.

I liked the characters, and the writing is readable. But when it came down to it, I didn’t like many of the authorial choices.


Other Reviews:

@jade_reads Review of Feral Alphas by Sierra Knoxly #review #bookreview #booktok #book ♬ original sound – 📚JadeReads📚

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Book Review: Married to the Mahr, by Delilah Dare

I picked up a copy of Delilah Dare‘s Married to the Mahr as an Amazon freebie.

married to the mahr coverTraeyr’s favorite thing about being the demon that inspired the word nightmare is traveling the world. His second favorite thing is squeezing through the tightest possible holes to infiltrate his victims’ chambers.

When a delicious scent draws him to a sleeper’s room miles away, he only meant to imbibe the peculiar nightmare. He can’t explain why he licks the sweat from her brow instead, engorging his shadow power to nearly full mass. On the second night, he laps her tears as well as the nightmare clawing at her dreams.

On the third night, the dreamer wakes . . . and she can see him.

Addison never meant to bind Traeyr to her bedroom. She only wanted one dream that wasn’t a nightmare.

my review

I wanted to like this—I really did. It has a decent kernel of an idea. Unfortunately, it is clumsily executed, superfluously written (that’s a hint at the writing style), and poorly edited. I liked the character archetypes the author was aiming for, but she didn’t actually manage to capture them. There is sex, but it’s bland and repetitive. There are hints at an interesting world of supernaturals. Unfortunately, hints are all you ever get.

All in all, this was a failure for me. It feels like early work. So, maybe the author will improve with time.

married to the mahr cover


Other Reviews:

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Book Review: Demon’s Mate, by Harper Dakota

I purchased a signed copy of Harper Dakota‘s Demon’s Mate from the author (through TikTok).  

Viv had her job, her best friend, and a great apartment. So what if dating had been awful lately? When her best friend finds his forever person, it turns out that those paranormal romance books she liked to read had some truth to them. Unfortunately, she also learns that having a mate doesn’t mean happily ever after.

Mac wasn’t looking for a mate, especially a human one. He’s avoided humans as much as possible for hundreds of years after his first mate tried to kill him. To say he has trust issues would be an understatement. He’s happy his friend found his mate and they seemed to be doing well, but no one could make him accept the one suddenly thrust into his orbit. Who knew fate would give him another mate after all these years?

Will they be able to overcome Mac’s fears, or will an enemy lurking in the shadows take the choice from them?

my review

I had a fantasy while reading this book. It went like this: the author hires a really good developmental editor who sits her down and makes her read every chapter out loud. Then,  explain how the events of that chapter contribute to the plot. They discuss, and the editor brings the author around to realizing that a full third of the chapters (like the one where the reader follows a character to work while he investigates a crime not relevant to the plot in any way) do not, in fact, progress the plot in any fashion and should therefore be cut. Yes, that means the book would be a hundred or so pages shorter. But it would be a significantly better book for it. Similarly, the editor forces the author to tell them the plot and helps the author tighten it up so it doesn’t feel so much like a list of random events that pop up indiscriminately instead of a plot.

The simple fact of the matter is that I was bored out of my mind by this book. I liked the characters well enough. I appreciated the platonic cross-gender friendship, found family, and engaging sex scenes (even if they 100% do not fit the tone of the rest of the book). But, honestly, the story drags a lot. This isn’t helped by pedestrian writing and endless repetition. I lost count of how many times something happened or a character was told something and then turned around and told someone else the same thing. I do not need to read everything twice. I do not want to read everything twice! This got significantly worse past the halfway mark.

Lastly, a large personal complaint (and a spoiler): As a heavy reader of the romance genre, I suffer heavily from rape fatigue. I’m just so sick of reading it. So, I am really critical of rape (and attempted rape) in books. I don’t mean trigger warnings or what is or isn’t appropriate in a romance/dark romance. But every time an author throws it in as a cheap plot device (and it’s too often just a cheap plot device), I pause and put true thought into it if it was necessary to the story or not. I similarly side-eye the use of a scorned (or similar) woman as a villain. (There’s no shortage of internalized misogyny in a lot of this particular trope’s depictions.) Here we have a villainous woman using gang rape as revenge for the loss of her lover. It isn’t necessary to the plot at all. In fact, it feels tacked on and out of place, considering the character has been physically abused for days prior to this event. The escalation feels unnatural. The torture was demons mate photobad enough without needing to go the extra mile. I promise authors, readers know a villain is a villain even if you don’t sign-post it with rape.

There are those who will love this book, I am sure. I did not. I could see good bones in it, but I do not feel the author managed to pull it off, and I also do not think the author and I have the same ideas of what makes a good story.


Other Reviews:

@angelg035rawr Review of Demon’s Mate by Harper Dakota. Overal a 3/5⭐️ for me. However character development is ✨✨. I do recommend this novel just go into it with the mindset of a lighter read. Support smaller authors as always. 🫶🏻 #paranormalromance #booktok #smut #bookreview #supportsmallauthors #reader ♬ original sound – Angel Lee