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Book review: Bound to the Dark, by Sadie Moss

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I picked up an Amazon copy of the compilation of Claimed by Monsters by Sadie Moss. Here I read book one, Bound to the Dark.

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Monstrous. Dangerous. Broken. And completely devoted to me.

In a world where fae are hunted by vampires, disguising my true nature is a matter of survival. That’s why I’ve spent the past several years pretending to be human, even dating a human guy.

But after finding out that Mr. Jerkwad is cheating on me, I do the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I go to a bar and leave with three stunning, mysterious men.

We spend one wild night together, and the chemistry between us is like an electric storm.

Maybe that’s because to them, this isn’t just a one-night stand.

All of these men are part fae, and they claim I’m their fated mate.

That should terrify me, especially since I can tell they’re each harboring dark secrets behind their gorgeous features. They’re part fae, but they’re part something else, too. Something wild, feral, and untamed.

But when a vampire mobster sets his sights on me, it may be that the only ones who can protect me…

Are my three monstrous mates.

my review

Honestly, just not very good. I technically read this as part of the compilation, so I have all the books. But, despite it ending on a cliffhanger, I am not going to bother with the rest of the series. The characters are cardboard. The plot is uninteresting. There is almost no worldbuilding. The fated mates’ romance is instant and unappealing. It’s all show and little tell. It’s incredibly linear. This happens, and then that happens, and then this thing. Problems arise and are instantly quashed, and the next one pops up.

Plus, it’s repetitive. Chapter 13 begins with a paragraph that recaps everything that has happened in the book up until that point. It can comfortably be covered in a single paragraph! I don’t think covering what happens in 14-25 would take a whole paragraph. All in all, this was a failure for me.
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Book Review: Feral Alphas, by Sierra Knoxly

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

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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.

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Book Review: Captured by the Dark Commander, by Ellie Pond

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I picked up a freebie copy of Ellie Pond‘s Captured by the Dark Commander. It was pretty hyped on Tiktok. So, I gave it a chance.
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As a merman commander, my responsibilities are protect my people and follow the council’s orders. Despite my rank, I’ve never been good at following orders. When we discover Annabelle Portsmouth has the gene we’re looking for, I know we need her. It’s a rare trait that gives her the potential to become a mermaid. But after one look at her, I’d want her even without it. And I’m willing to take down my own men who touch her without permission.

I do what I have to do – I take her from her apartment and bring her under the sea to the domed Veiled City. A world of magic and secrets, where the females have the freedom to choose as many mates as they wish.

I understood my actions would have consequences. My government, like me, doesn’t give second chances. I did it for my nation, and for Annabelle, to let her become her true self.

But now she’s mine.

And I’ll do anything to keep this human. Anything. And I’m keeping this human.

my review

I’m afraid I just didn’t like this very much. It was basically ok, quality-wise. There were some inconsistency issues that annoyed me, and maybe some instances of wrong character names being used. (I’m not 100% sure about this one, but there were a couple of moments in scenes where I was like, did Pond mean for one of the male characters to be doing that when the other would make a lot more sense?) And several instances (especially in sex scenes) when I just didn’t know what was actually happening. But mostly, the issue is that I did not like it.

I understand that it is a dark romance. I understand that the “dark commander” is supposed to be dark. But dark romance is also…you know…a romance. But I neverever feel the spark between Nico and Annabelle. There is one sex scene that is so incredibly unpleasant I honestly thought it was rape. (I mean, the other male stepped in to remind the main male hero that he is supposed to be pleasuring his mate, and he is not.) And none of the other sex scenes felt authentic in any fashion. So, I never liked Nico. In the beginning, I gave him grace, room for character growth, etc. But he had not grown by the end. He remained unchained and captured by the dark commander photounpleasant, and everyone just let him.

I did like Holter and Caster, but they are not the focus here. This book was very much about Nico at the exclusion of the other two men, and it felt wonky and off-kilter because of it. And I liked Annabelle well enough. Her character is inconsistent, but mostly I liked her, and the world seems interesting.

All in all, however, I do not feel the need to continue the series.

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