koistyfishy's review against another edition
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
They say "don't just a book by its cover", but they should also say "don't always judge a book by its splurb". This book instantly drew me in. Who would not love sexy dark Vegas with FAE!!!! And when Summer❤️ suggested it as a "Buddy Read" I literally catapulted myself at the opportunity to dive into what I felt would be amazing.
It was even more amazing that Lia🐧 and Leni🧡 were also in this convertible trip down to Viva Las Vegas!
This book follows Bryn and Caiden in a dual-POV story. Bryn is a recently fired PR Manager but Bryn is not fully down on her luck as yet as she was somehow "emailed" a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend a free fully paid weekend in the extremely luxurious and extravagant Nightfall Hotel in Vegas. When she is checking in, she is "checked out" in the lobby by a literal Adonis on legs - Caiden Verran. What follows is a "fun night" in Vegas, but both Bryn and Caiden wake up with hardly any recollection of the evening and are startled to find out they are....dum dum dum.......MARRIED!!!! The only problem is that Caiden is the Dark Fae King and he cannot be more than 100ft from his bonded bride else he suffers LITERAL DEATH!
I wanted this to be good, and for about 200 pages I was thoroughly enjoying this! Bryn is for the most part the girl everyone wants to be, and if you can't be her - you want to be best friends with her. I was giggling along with her internal monologue, pop culture references, and sassy comments. It felt like I knew who she was and that I had known her my whole life, I was just that drawn to her. The charisma she had was refreshing and I was really intrigued about where the story would go with her as the FMC.
Caiden was also great. He was shown to be a King with a heart of gold who cares for his people but underneath you knew there was a sexy sexual deviant waiting to crawl out from his skin and I COULDN'T WAIT. He was full of confidence, charm, and a humorous personality that made me go goo-goo eyed for a while.
But then the more and more I read, the more the threads started to unravel of this perfect tapestry I had painted with my expectations of this book, and in the end, I was left with nothing but a giant tangled mess of thread that makes no sense.
Here are the Reasons why I did not like this book:
The world-building felt lazy as there is really NO world-building AT ALL - The first 33% of this book felt more like a typical Billionaire Contemporary Romance. I could overlook this fact as I was mostly just reading for the fae smut...but then it felt more "paranormal" with mentions of shifters and the Fae being closer in personality to bloodsucking vampires than typical "Fae" I couldn't understand. We are given a massive info dump into the Fae world the last 15% of the book, but by then the opportunity was lost.
I didn't really like the smut in this, it was either quite underwhelming or left a bad taste in my mouth. The first scene which is prefaced the whole time with Caiden saying "you cannot handle how dark I am" was hysterically(like I actually laughed out loud) the weakest spanking session I've ever read about, which ended in 1 orgasm. The rest were nothing to write home about and there is one scene that was the catalyst for the MAJOR downhill of the book. Whilst there were a few blimps of promise as I read on... there was no recovery from this awful disaster after that nosedive off a cliff.
The characters drove me insane toward the end. I could not understand the formulation of the relationship between them. Bryn is just horny and doesn't want to be bored and their attraction seems to mostly be driven by lust. Their relationship struggles are mostly driven by miscommunication (which is a trope I HATE) and could have been entirely avoided if they just behaved like adults and had a meaningful conversation AND how fucking stupid they both turned out to be with Caiden's stubborn assholeness and Bryn NOT BEING ABLE TO STAND UP FOR HERSELF...
The plot was pretty weak as well, and I actually enjoyed this part of the story - we have the conspiracy of who is the actual mastermind behind the wedding setup and what their motivations are, the mysteries surrounding Bryn, and the curse of the bond. However, when the plot actually catches up to us in the end it was rushed through in about 3 pages to get back to the smut.
THIS LEFT ABOUT 70000 questions UNANSWERED AND HANGING. This wouldn't bother me as much but when its said this can be read as a standalone it means these questions are most likely NOT going to be explained....
- Why COULD THE KING LIE when asked if he knew about her being Fae
- How was the Day King actually going to take over the thrown when there are 2 brothers who can take his place.
- HOW DID HE KNOW she was his mate???
- How do some Fae have powers when the curse is LITERALLY YOUR POWERS HAVE BEEN STRIPPED
Overall the best part of this book was that I could rant to amazing friends about the ride we went on reading this. Ultimately it was not the book for me - but it might be the book for you if you like
- Forced Marriage
- Forced Proximity (Literally)
- Captor/Captive
- Miscommunication
- Topsy Curvy Characters
- Pop Culture References that make you giggle
- 7000* unanswered questions
- Fae SMUT.... Don't forget the Fae Smut
It was even more amazing that Lia🐧 and Leni🧡 were also in this convertible trip down to Viva Las Vegas!
This book follows Bryn and Caiden in a dual-POV story. Bryn is a recently fired PR Manager but Bryn is not fully down on her luck as yet as she was somehow "emailed" a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend a free fully paid weekend in the extremely luxurious and extravagant Nightfall Hotel in Vegas. When she is checking in, she is "checked out" in the lobby by a literal Adonis on legs - Caiden Verran. What follows is a "fun night" in Vegas, but both Bryn and Caiden wake up with hardly any recollection of the evening and are startled to find out they are....dum dum dum.......MARRIED!!!! The only problem is that Caiden is the Dark Fae King and he cannot be more than 100ft from his bonded bride else he suffers LITERAL DEATH!
I wanted this to be good, and for about 200 pages I was thoroughly enjoying this! Bryn is for the most part the girl everyone wants to be, and if you can't be her - you want to be best friends with her. I was giggling along with her internal monologue, pop culture references, and sassy comments. It felt like I knew who she was and that I had known her my whole life, I was just that drawn to her. The charisma she had was refreshing and I was really intrigued about where the story would go with her as the FMC.
Caiden was also great. He was shown to be a King with a heart of gold who cares for his people but underneath you knew there was a sexy sexual deviant waiting to crawl out from his skin and I COULDN'T WAIT. He was full of confidence, charm, and a humorous personality that made me go goo-goo eyed for a while.
But then the more and more I read, the more the threads started to unravel of this perfect tapestry I had painted with my expectations of this book, and in the end, I was left with nothing but a giant tangled mess of thread that makes no sense.
Here are the Reasons why I did not like this book:
The world-building felt lazy as there is really NO world-building AT ALL - The first 33% of this book felt more like a typical Billionaire Contemporary Romance. I could overlook this fact as I was mostly just reading for the fae smut...but then it felt more "paranormal" with mentions of shifters and the Fae being closer in personality to bloodsucking vampires than typical "Fae" I couldn't understand. We are given a massive info dump into the Fae world the last 15% of the book, but by then the opportunity was lost.
I didn't really like the smut in this, it was either quite underwhelming or left a bad taste in my mouth. The first scene which is prefaced the whole time with Caiden saying "you cannot handle how dark I am" was hysterically(like I actually laughed out loud) the weakest spanking session I've ever read about, which ended in 1 orgasm. The rest were nothing to write home about and there is one scene
Spoiler
Chapter 22The characters drove me insane toward the end. I could not understand the formulation of the relationship between them. Bryn is just horny and doesn't want to be bored and their attraction seems to mostly be driven by lust. Their relationship struggles are mostly driven by miscommunication (which is a trope I HATE) and could have been entirely avoided if they just behaved like adults and had a meaningful conversation AND how fucking stupid they both turned out to be with Caiden's stubborn assholeness and Bryn NOT BEING ABLE TO STAND UP FOR HERSELF...
Spoiler
For someone who is described as being a "brat" implies someone who is going to break the rules and fight back, but the minute anything kinky starts to happen she just lapses into stupid-happy-smile mode and doesn't do anything....which REALLY BOTHERED ME when he was interrogating her and she just lay back and let it happenThe plot was pretty weak as well, and I actually enjoyed this part of the story - we have the conspiracy of who is the actual mastermind behind the wedding setup and what their motivations are, the mysteries surrounding Bryn, and the curse of the bond. However, when the plot actually catches up to us in the end it was rushed through in about 3 pages to get back to the smut.
THIS LEFT ABOUT 70000 questions UNANSWERED AND HANGING. This wouldn't bother me as much but when its said this can be read as a standalone it means these questions are most likely NOT going to be explained....
Spoiler
- What's happening to the curse- Why COULD THE KING LIE when asked if he knew about her being Fae
- How was the Day King actually going to take over the thrown when there are 2 brothers who can take his place.
- HOW DID HE KNOW she was his mate???
- How do some Fae have powers when the curse is LITERALLY YOUR POWERS HAVE BEEN STRIPPED
Overall the best part of this book was that I could rant to amazing friends about the ride we went on reading this. Ultimately it was not the book for me - but it might be the book for you if you like
- Forced Marriage
- Forced Proximity (Literally)
- Captor/Captive
- Miscommunication
- Topsy Curvy Characters
- Pop Culture References that make you giggle
- 7000* unanswered questions
- Fae SMUT.... Don't forget the Fae Smut
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Sexual content
buckaroo97's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Torture, Death of parent, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Injury/injury detail, Blood, Car accident, Alcohol, and Sexual content
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