There is a a CW at the very front of the book which is an accurate forewarning of the possessiveness, dubcon, and forceful nature of the MMC and his treatment of the FMC once he claims her ... believe it. If you're willing to go further, it is an enjoyable book. This takes place just as book one is finishing up and overlaps with one of the scenes where Huck decides that Cora is his. I enjoyed seeing Bonnie's reaction to her best friend being brought into the Barnett family and how Beau reacts to one of his brothers living through his 'claiming heat.'

There is a forced pregnancy in this book and I have some thoughts about the situation that distributes the responsibility among the couple. Huck decides he wants Cora pregnant and won't tell her that. He does tamper with her birth control, by giving her the sugar pills, does not use protection, and forces his semen back into her after each encounter. He is not apologetic for this. She accepts each pill without question ... which is strange for me as every brand/pack I have seen has brightly and obviously different colored active and inactive pills. Not knowing your own medicine is partially on you. She also continues to encourage and consent to unprotected encounters without further conversation about the potential consequences. She realizes she's pregnant early enough to make some decisions and has a supported mother who offers assistance of any kind. She has some culpability in her current situation.

Mad or not, the conclusion doesn't offer much actual resolution ... but given the abrupt ending of the first book, I have a feeling that previous couples' stories will be revisited and brought up to date in future stories. 

Full Rating (out of 10 possible): 6.857 (based on a modified CAWPILE system)
Romance level (out of 5 possible): 4 (for on-page, detailed intimacy scenes) 

I’ve read dark romance with possessive leads but this was so grossly non consensual. 

While the smut was great, tampering with someone’s birth control is reproductive coercion. 

The first book of the series was a little much, but I knew what the series was before I got into it. It’s mindless reading and I didn’t take it too seriously. This storyline is honestly fucked up. The author starts the book off with this warning:

“If you consider unapologetic alphaholes unacceptable, or feel their behavior is in some way abusive, then this isn’t the book or series for you.
If you’re a nay sayer who thinks what I write is romanticizing domestic violence and abuse then please, please stop reading now.”

That should have been enough to make me walk away. Sadly I didn’t, and I’m annoyed with myself for not listening to my gut and the gross feeling I got when I read the warning at the beginning. If that warning gives you the ick like it gave me, just walk away. The writing is not good enough to justify ignoring your gut. 

Beau from the first book was over the top, but I wasn’t expecting Huck to be even worse. Huck was manipulative and abusive. I get the author likes writing about “alphaholes” and overly possessive men, but there’s a way to do that without glamorizing what happened in this book. 

The only reason this book doesn’t have a zero rating from me is because I enjoyed the relationship between Huck and Cora at the beginning, before he went absolutely batshit crazy and

intentionally sabotaged Cora’s birth control and forced her to get pregnant.

It was so upsetting to read how the author portrayed Cora after she found out about Huck’s betrayal. If that doesn’t scream abuse, I don’t know what does. 

I started this series because they were supposed to be mindless and not something to take too seriously. I think after this book I’ll be done with this series/author. 

I generally don't mind high intensity Alpha male characters, but this one went too far

the H purposefully deceived the h by messing with her BC and purposefully getting her pregnant and despite fully understanding why what he did was wedding is never even apologetic. Heroine decides she loves him enough to be fine with this. I checked out as soon as it became clear that he would learn nothing, she would demand no changes from him, and the book would act as tacit approval for what amounts to rape. I scanned the end of the book to make sure I wasn't being unfair and I was right. It's really too bad at the h was a great character and the H had a lot of potential. It was just a bridge too far into full-on abuse for me.

Didn't like the ending but the author warns you about the characters so Im not upset by it. A good little comfort read.