I enjoyed this book, for the most part. It's a quick and easy read that tends to stay interesting throughout, except...boy, could I ever do without the romantic subplots. If you even want to call them that. There's two of them going on in this story, with neither one given much flesh. First, you've got Romantic Interest #1, Beau, who is just so horrendously boring that every appearance he makes threatens to put you to sleep. His interactions with Anouk are just as dull and I could really, really do without them. He's about as basic and vanilla as a character can get. Then there's Romantic Interest #2, Rennar. Who is...marginally more interesting due to his moral ambiguity, but his character is frustratingly inconstant for no logical reason (at least, not one that's explored beyond more than a paragraph or two) and who never really feels like a true contender since Anouk is perpetually hung up over bland-as-unsalted-butter Beau. So I don't know if this set up was actually supposed to be a love triangle or....anything, really, but I do know that it distracted from the plot and detracted from the story as a whole and if we could have just skipped all that nonsense it would've been cool. But maybe not YA enough? Always gotta have that romantic conflict nonsense to keep the kiddies entertained, I guess.

Honestly, the plot of this story wasn't that strong, either, and the resolution seemed pretty straightforward. Not a lot of surprises here, which isn't always a bad thing but in this case...well, it just made the whole narrative seem a little simple. The best part of the book involved Anouk discovering herself and developing her abilities further; once you get past that part, it becomes a bit of a drag. Still good, though. Just...not as good as it could have been.

I definitely enjoyed it more than the first book but, at moments I did find some of the characters thought process a bit questionable towards the end of the book.

3.5

Megan shepherd writes beautifully. I just felt like there were too many plot jumps and things were tied up too neatly. Also, I didn't like Beau in this one, but I'm not sure if it was because I waited too long between books, or if it was him in this book.

3.5 stars

This book has so much potential, and although I really really enjoyed I can see how many parts of the plot weren't solved in a gracious way. To me it came down to three main points.

1. The romance: I didnt feel a connection between Beau and Anouk besides what was left from the first book (horniness) and I was hoping that she would

end up with Rennar, a relationship that had so much potential with everything at stake and with far more chemistry than Beau or alone figuring herself out. It's just... a missed opportunity for a great villian-hero romance.

Anouk's personality got so dull around Beau and it shined with the other guy otherwise.

2. Viggo's treatment. While i get why everyone at the first book didnt like him at first, he proved himself worthy by the end. In this book he is just a comic relief and not even because of his amazing personality but because everyone makes fun of him in a pretty mean way. The author stripped his personality away piece by piece until there was nothing left. Hated it.

3.

Rennar's ending. Honestly? It felt like a cheap trick to convince the readers that he and Anouk weren't good for each other, what it did was convince me even more and it made me even madder.

I wish the characters had more development that the author gave them, particularly the Beasties and Rennar. I wished the first part of the book had been longer and that certain character

had remained a dog because he was so much likeable as that

I am just so sad it ended like this because it could have been so perfect.