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alejandra_guerrero's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I really liked it. Some chapters felt a bit unnecessary, though. The action is good, and the spice is well written. There’s a good balance between romance and plot, and I’m looking forward to reading about the rest of the brothers, who are giving me Backstreet Boys vibes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Misogyny, Rape, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury
jdz16's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I remember reading this years ago and remember the world building. It isn't as good as I remember. The only reason I am continuing the series is in the hope that book 1 is the weakest in the series and it gets better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Kidnapping
witcheep's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I've first read this book about ten years ago (and it was written almost 20 years ago!), and on this reread the story was as captivating as I remembered. Nowadays it might be put into the spicy romantacy genre, and as such it fits multiple popular tropes (e. g. mates, touch-her-and-die) and feels delightfully multidimensional and fresh: the FMC isn't a helpless damsel in distress even though she is introduced to a whole new world of vampires and needs guidance.
The worldbuilding is interesting and the plethora of characters is well-rounded with interesting multidimensional personalities. Especially disability is written very respectfully as a normal part of the characters' lives into the plot. I think I'll reread the series further soon.
It is worth mentioning, though, that some of the wordings and mindsets especially around lgbtq+ community (brief mentions/slurs in dialoque ) and women's standing in the society (both in human and vampire ones; women characters are either innocent as virgins, mothers/spouses or whores ) feels very prejudiced and condemnatory at times.
The worldbuilding is interesting and the plethora of characters is well-rounded with interesting multidimensional personalities. Especially disability is written very respectfully as a normal part of the characters' lives into the plot. I think I'll reread the series further soon.
It is worth mentioning, though, that some of the wordings and mindsets especially around lgbtq+ community (
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
rachelgreenreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
This was really high quality garbage. Like, it was very cheesy and trashy but the writing was good and the story was well done. There were some things that should have been very cringey, but it went past cringe and into camp, so those bits were actually hilarious.
But I thought the relationship between the MCs developed well, there was some good hurt/comfort, and the disability representation was surprisingly well done.
I hated Butch tbh, but maybe I was supposed to? I’ve heard he develops throughout the series. Overall very enjoyable read, but would only recommend to friends tolerant of the cringe/ generally some offensive stuff that just didn’t age well.
Ps. There’s a lot of sexual assault threat/ attempts floating throughout the book. None from close characters, but still enough to give someone the ick for sure.
But I thought the relationship between the MCs developed well, there was some good hurt/comfort, and the disability representation was surprisingly well done.
I hated Butch tbh, but maybe I was supposed to? I’ve heard he develops throughout the series. Overall very enjoyable read, but would only recommend to friends tolerant of the cringe/ generally some offensive stuff that just didn’t age well.
Ps. There’s a lot of sexual assault threat/ attempts floating throughout the book. None from close characters, but still enough to give someone the ick for sure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexism, Police brutality, Medical content, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Torture and Pregnancy
There’s a lot of sexual assault threat/ attempts floating throughout the book. None from close characters, but still enough to give someone the ick for sure. There’s also a lot of misogyny and chauvinismwriting_apprentice's review against another edition
I DNF’d this. It really wasn’t my cup of tea. Aside from the silly names of the people in the brotherhood, the constant jumping of perspectives (some to people that I honestly don’t know how relevant they’ll be later on) and the main villain just squicking me out completely it wasn’t for me. It’s got some 2000s underlying misogyny vibes to which is a product of its time but it made me uncomfortable. Not bad, just really not my vibe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Minor: Misogyny
elwyn_k's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Drug use
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I don't really know what to say about this book. It's the first one I managed to pick up and finish in a while so it had that going for it but part of that might have been that I wanted to see where the trainwreck go.
So many things were conveniently coincidental. It was full of tropes that I hate, like fridging, dubious consent, insta-lust/love, etc...
The take on vampires was different I suppose but the secret society based enemy was decidedly wacky. Will not be continuing the series.
So many things were conveniently coincidental. It was full of tropes that I hate, like fridging, dubious consent, insta-lust/love, etc...
The take on vampires was different I suppose but the secret society based enemy was decidedly wacky. Will not be continuing the series.
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
emmablue's review against another edition
3.0
the hottest line:
“I’m going to shoot you.”
“Fine with me. I like bullet wounds.”
the most ridiculous line:
Why couldn’t she have been named Mary. Or Sue.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Transphobia, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Murder
allingoodtime's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book has been on my radar for a very long time. It comes up in a lot of discussions of paranormal romance and it’s been recommended to me by various people. A couple of years ago I even purchased the book when I saw it was on sale. Well, I’m glad I finally got around to reading it because I believe I’m going to enjoy this series.
Of course, because it’s over 10 years old, there are some problematic elements to the writing. Things like police brutality and there are some elements I found to be homophobic. It wasn’t in your face so it was hard to know for sure if the author was using these elements to show how terrible certain characters are or if it was a product of how blind many of us were to such things and how we spoke 15 years ago.
That being said, there were a lot of surprises to this story. There were a few characters that I really, really, really did not like at the beginning that I ended up liking (and in one case even loving) by the end. The way the author integrated all of the characters by the conclusion of this book was genius. About a quarter of the way in I was a bit concerned about how everything would come together. There were a lot of threads to follow, not just the stories of Beth and Wrath. I was afraid it was too much, although I knew there was a lot of story building needed in the first book of a paranormal series. I quickly forgot my concerns as the author wove an intriguing tale.
Every author who writes about vampires, or any other paranormal type creature, puts their own spin on the lore. These vampires have heartbeats, are more easily killed than most vampires I’ve read about, and don’t live forever. That was something I found myself to be keen on. It added a different element to this story I wasn’t expecting.
Of course, this is also a romance and that part of the story was also delightful. In the beginning, I wish Beth and Wrath would have spent more time together. I wasn’t sure if I’d feel the payoff if they didn’t. Yet when the two of them were in the same room all of the chemistry would light up. And, although Beth was knocked for a loop by what was happening and had a ton of questions, and needed some time, she didn’t wait long to jump in with both feet and allow those that could help her to do so.
There are well over 20 books in this series, not including those still slated to be published and the books from the different spin-off series. I’m looking forward to working my way through them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Misogyny and Police brutality