A review by chelseaj91
1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Ten by Jenna Jacob, Larissa Ione, Sierra Simone, Laurelin Paige, Tessa Bailey, Lexi Blake

challenging emotional lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Rough Rhythm by Tessa Bailey 2 Stars!

Honestly, I would have DNF'd this if I wasn't reading it because of an anthology. As it was, I skimmed very heavily. Honestly, Lita was an annoying brat and James was a whiny dumbass. I'm all for someone trying to get the person they want but Lita was so stupid. I mean, all her antics getting arrested and all that so that James would have to bail her out, never mind the questions to her sanity but the obvious health concerns involved in everything. Then the fact that she frequently ignored injuries to herself (there's one point where she talks about the blister or whatever on her foot bleeding so bad that it's leaving trails through her shoe and all that happens is James takes her to his hotel room to bandage it. For a foot to bleed that much/badly, she's lost a lot of blood. She needed a hospital, not bandaids and an order to take a shower/eat something). And for all his talk about "dark desires", James wasn't all that dark. The whole "it's genetic" bit that tried to do something there was also a giant nope.

Devoted by Lexi Blake 4 Stars!

Oh yes! I loved being back in the Masters and Mercenaries world! Watching Flynn realize that Amy was in fact not lying to him was amazing. Watching him realize that he was in love with her and didn't actually care anymore if she was lying to him was fantastic. And the fact that he did one of the best grovel/grand gestures I've seen in a while was just flat out glorious. I will admit to rolling my eyes at how long it took Flynn to realize that Amy wasn't lying because every time the possibility came up, he had about a million excuses for why she had to be (and they admittedly all stemmed from the fact that he was in love with her but still) so then when things blew up, they really kind of exploded. But they did lead to that grand gesture so maybe exploding wasn't such a bad thing. I did wish we'd gotten a little more of Ian and co, but remembering where this falls in the timeline and what's going on, I get it.

Z by Larissa Ione 3 Stars!

This was decent. My only real interaction with the main series this is from has been through this anthology so I'll admit to always being a little confused about some of the world building. Although I do like Azagoth/Sheoul-Gra. Z was both hilarious and made me want to slap him something fierce. I didn't like how often he was comparing Vex and Laura. Even before they realized the full connection (although I figured that out about 2 seconds after Z said Laura was with Vex), there was so much of Z going "Laura would never do [thing Vex was doing that he was attracted to], so how can I feel these feelings?" I liked that Vex finally called him out on that crap and that he realized why he'd been stuck on Laura as he was.

Falling Under You by Laurelin Paige 3 Stars!

This was interesting. I'll admit that I kind of held my breath over the age gap but thankfully Norma stopped bringing it up after things really got going. Boyd was actually almost the perfect mix of nerdy dominant and it worked super well with the story. I loved how he'd so easily keyed into what Norma needed, even if she was too dense to realize things herself. I will admit to having a small issue with the way she handled things at the end, in regards to the fraternization policy. On the one hand, good on her for finally standing up for things and acknowledging the relationship. On the other, those policies exist for a reason and the fact that she essentially issued an ultimatum to Hudson and then got annoyed/frustrated that he didn't jump to say how he was going to change things because she said he had to was a little bit selfish IMO.

Craving His Command by Jenna Jacob 2 Stars!

Mercy and Kellan deserved each other...they were both morons to the Nth degree. Maybe it's because I haven't read the rest of this series, but I didn't really buy a connection between them. Supposedly she's been aching for him to notice her at the club and he's noticed but been an ass about it and all I got here was that he was an ass to her because he couldn't ever let her in because

Spoiler

He was still technically married. Even though his wife was a vegetable because of a hit and run. But oh no, he could never let anyone else in because that would be adultery! Never mind the fact that he's got a mistress because he finally acknowledged his wife could no longer satisfy him sexually. A mistress who's apartment he pays for and who he apparently doesn't believe needs foreplay to enjoy their time together. But that's not adultery of course because there's no emotions involved so it's totally okay to sleep with her to satisfy his sexual needs and get the sub he can't forget off his mind, and be an ass to said sub whenever they're together. But it's definitely not adultery. Nope. Not at all.

Overall, the story as a whole definitely could have been done well...exploring the reason's behind Kellan's choices and dealing with him realizing that he'd locked himself away when he shouldn't and Mercy healing from things with Kerr because of Kellan's help. But instead we just got a whole lot of Mercy throwing herself at Kellan and Kellan growling at her because she was Topping from the bottom and ignoring his Dominance (even though he knew she didn't know or understand what she was doing because Kerr was a jackass). I also didn't get why everything relating to D/s was capitalized...not sure if that was a style choice or what but it seemed like the author wanted it to mean something but all it did was make me roll my eyes every time Kellan "felt his Dominance roll over him". The whole crazy Kerr was building to something that could have been decent and aside from one throwaway comment when things exploded, he wasn't brought up again.

American Queen by Sierra Simone 1.5 Stars!

So I wasn't all that interested in this series before this and really the only reason I even gave it half a chance was because it was in the bundle anyway. But I read the first couple chapters and then just skimmed everything else. In what I did really read, I spent so much time with what I'm sure was a WTF face going on because Greer's narration tried for something but mostly just came off as...well I don't really know but it was annoying. Her cousin was a b**ch and a half and from the reviews I checked out to see if I should struggle through, she doesn't get better. Then I read the very end and Greer is a f***ing moron. Who the hell leaves their hotel room going "oh I'll just let security know on my way out" and then when she notices the security isn't there, just keeps going? I mean, she's supposedly married to the President, right? She knows that there may be attempts on his life and there's a reason for the security, right? So why would she keep going? Anyway, even with that cliffhanger, pretty sure the only way I'll read the rest of the series is if it's included in another anthology.