readclever's review
4.0
Strong redemption arc
Trent creates a deep relationship between Diana, her pack, and Lanie. The romance is solid with deep connections and hurdles to overcome. Recommended for readers looking for second chances in life.
Trent creates a deep relationship between Diana, her pack, and Lanie. The romance is solid with deep connections and hurdles to overcome. Recommended for readers looking for second chances in life.
mizzelle's review
4.0
F/F paranormal romance set in Holley Trent's Masters of Maria series. Perfectly standalone holiday book, but made me curious of Willa/Blue's story. Diana is a prickly coyote shifter that has convinced herself she doesn't deserve human Lanie as her mate. Fortunately Lanie is more stubborn and allows Diana the time/space to figure things out for herself.
olive2read's review
2.0
Ugh... Just, no. YMMV.
The good:
- well developed magical system that I can tell is bigger in the overall series but don’t feel the need to read those
- interesting take on mates and trait inheritance
- solid characterisations, including of the cameos from earlier books that, as with the magic, I can tell I’d get a fuller reading with that context and yet can enjoy them thoroughly without it
- professional competence from both MCs and that shit is sexy af
The thing that killed it for me was that Diana’s fears/hangups are poorly handled by *everyone* and it’s painful and triggering. I want to put a CW on this but I honestly don’t know how to frame it, apart from mishandled anxiety. There’s even a line in the book about the difference between intention and impact, yet everyone works from the idea that since they have good intentions they can’t possibly be doing harm. There’s a HEA so I guess there wasn’t harm to Diana? It sucked to read though.
- In the middle of her breakdown, her brother shuts her down verbally and then reinforces it magically. She isn’t even allowed to fully articulate how she’s feeling before someone is shutting her down and telling her that her feelings are wrong. He fucking uses magic to MUTE HER to assert his knowing better about *her* feelings. Sure, ok, her fears are out of proportion and based on a fallacy but they’re still her feelings and it was an awful scene. Trust and reframing years of abuse doesn’t happen because someone yelled at you.
- Lanie claims to be there to show Diana that she’s in it for the long haul and to be what she needs, that she wants to nurture the wild beast part of Diana, but the one sex scene is all about Diana holding back her wildness so that Lanie can have complete control. She’s not allowed to move or express her desires and Lanie (jokingly?) berates her for cumming too soon. It’s all about Lanie to the point that Diana is left feeling wretched about not being able to be a good sex partner as herself. I don’t know about you, but if I left a sexual experience feeling like my partner didn’t think it was worth my participating, and I wanted to be an active, engaged participant, I wouldn’t exactly feel fulfilled. My heart fucking bled for her.
- Where is the compromise from Lanie? This whole story is about how Diana has to pull her head out of her ass and recognise the good thing being forced on her and I’ve never known a relationship that only needed one partner to wise up. Hell, this is written with PLENTY of shit Lanie could work on but the focus is completely and entirely on what a “mess” Diana is. All with fond condescension from Lanie.
- There’s clearly some thought toward supporting Diana in recognising the strengths she has to counter the trash she grew up believing from her abusive parent, but the execution is all about shoving that information down her throat. Like *slap* “You will believe better about yourself or by god I’m gonna MAKE YOU” *slap* ... which doesn’t strike me as materially better than the initial abuse.
The good:
- well developed magical system that I can tell is bigger in the overall series but don’t feel the need to read those
- interesting take on mates and trait inheritance
- solid characterisations, including of the cameos from earlier books that, as with the magic, I can tell I’d get a fuller reading with that context and yet can enjoy them thoroughly without it
- professional competence from both MCs and that shit is sexy af
The thing that killed it for me was that Diana’s fears/hangups are poorly handled by *everyone* and it’s painful and triggering. I want to put a CW on this but I honestly don’t know how to frame it, apart from mishandled anxiety. There’s even a line in the book about the difference between intention and impact, yet everyone works from the idea that since they have good intentions they can’t possibly be doing harm. There’s a HEA so I guess there wasn’t harm to Diana? It sucked to read though.
- In the middle of her breakdown, her brother shuts her down verbally and then reinforces it magically. She isn’t even allowed to fully articulate how she’s feeling before someone is shutting her down and telling her that her feelings are wrong. He fucking uses magic to MUTE HER to assert his knowing better about *her* feelings. Sure, ok, her fears are out of proportion and based on a fallacy but they’re still her feelings and it was an awful scene. Trust and reframing years of abuse doesn’t happen because someone yelled at you.
- Lanie claims to be there to show Diana that she’s in it for the long haul and to be what she needs, that she wants to nurture the wild beast part of Diana, but the one sex scene is all about Diana holding back her wildness so that Lanie can have complete control. She’s not allowed to move or express her desires and Lanie (jokingly?) berates her for cumming too soon. It’s all about Lanie to the point that Diana is left feeling wretched about not being able to be a good sex partner as herself. I don’t know about you, but if I left a sexual experience feeling like my partner didn’t think it was worth my participating, and I wanted to be an active, engaged participant, I wouldn’t exactly feel fulfilled. My heart fucking bled for her.
- Where is the compromise from Lanie? This whole story is about how Diana has to pull her head out of her ass and recognise the good thing being forced on her and I’ve never known a relationship that only needed one partner to wise up. Hell, this is written with PLENTY of shit Lanie could work on but the focus is completely and entirely on what a “mess” Diana is. All with fond condescension from Lanie.
- There’s clearly some thought toward supporting Diana in recognising the strengths she has to counter the trash she grew up believing from her abusive parent, but the execution is all about shoving that information down her throat. Like *slap* “You will believe better about yourself or by god I’m gonna MAKE YOU” *slap* ... which doesn’t strike me as materially better than the initial abuse.
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