overall really solid. it just needs a good copyedit. the story itself was pretty emotional and tense for a lot of the novel, as oli tries to keep a tight grip on herself against her bonds trying to both break her down and (later) try to be gentle with her (well, some of them anyway). 

 Are y'all ready for a different side of me? No but seriously, I normally stick to posting about books I love, but I read a book that has been on my TBR forever and I had high hopes for it. I love the cover and I thought this would be a nice little spicy read. Little did I know this would be one of my most hated books. If you like this book, maybe skip my review? You've been warned.

Yeah umm no. Nope, nuh uh, 1 star. Where are the trigger warnings? I thought maybe it was just because I listened to the audiobook, but nope. I just checked the Kindle edition and there's none. From what I can tell there's none on the author's website either. There's sa, literal sa, in this supposedly spicy book, and that's the extent of the smut, a r* scene. F* this book.

Olli, our main character is insufferable. Constantly whining, complaining and unnecessarily using the word freaking every other sentence. She's 19 but acts like a child.

The book feels so repetitive and goes nowhere. The main character is supposedly super powerful and scary but has to hide it all away and can't tell her fated bonds a single word about any of it. They all treat each other horribly and even the one guy who's decent, I'm sitting here wondering when he's gonna flip. Toxic with a capital T all but the one.

The r* culture just being accepted and acceptable is beyond wild. The fact that Olli is sa'd and the author goes above and beyond to convince us and the characters that it wasn't actually sa makes me so mad. The author could have done something really good with that narrative and spoken to what a victim of sa goes through, but instead gaslights Olli, her bonds, and us.

Among other triggers is k*dnapping, emotional ab*se, physical ab*se, mis*gyny, g*slighting, t*rture, domestic ab*se, cl*ssism, false impr*sonment, conf*nement, v*ctim blaming, and probably a whole lot more I'm forgetting.

On the language side of things, "freaking" appears 179 times, "b*tch" 55 times, "f*ck" 466 times, "sh*t" 181 times, "a*shole" 62 times, "d*ck" 34 times, and "d*mn" 63 times.

Originally this was just meh, like a train wreck I couldn't look away from. I was alternating between 3 and 2 stars. After finding out there's no trigger warnings whatsoever, it's a 1 for me. This may just be my new hated book on the same level as Haunting Adeline. I picked up book 2 from Libby because apparently I like torturing myself. I thought it had to get better. We'd turn around the plot on the r*ist and do something about him, but no. She's just crying over her freaking leather boots she couldn't live without that she lost in book 1. Like what?

Olli is a total mean girl, not a girl's girl.

The only good thing going for this book is that the cover art is gorgeous. So maybe we should stop judging books by their covers. Smh. 

This book is awful but addictive. None of the characters are likeable but it’s like a trainwreck you have to finish the series. 

It was somehow exactly what I thought it would be and at the same time, it wasn’t. I enjoyed myself though!

This was a nice read! The first chapter/ prologue really draws you in but then it kind of slows and gets a bit highschool/teen drama (but in a new adult/college setting) which didn't quite vibe well for me. It gets really good in the last quarter of the book which ends with an amazing set up for the next book in the series. 

2/5. I hate how much I couldn't stop reading this book. It reminded me of the soulmate fanfics I used to read on fanfiction(dot)net in middle and high school a decade ago.

The writing is so bad to me.

The amount of times "freaking" was used was ridiculous. You can easily end up in a hospital if you turned how many times it was used into a drinking game.

The story also has that classic misogyny where every female character is an enemy to our precious female main character. Only two women are nice to her, and any other women who are nice are workers under one of her bond's payroll so they don't count.

I'm surprised all the guys weren't written to be lusting after Oli. Her character is a complete mary sue, and it's not even her powers that are the reason for me calling her that. I love overpowered characters! The reason for her mary sue label is that I'm still not over how after ONE week of Gabe training her she's able to expertly see the flaw in someone's fighting stance. And despite dropping out of high school and simply going to the library during her life on the run, she's able to immediately get good scores in a prestigious college with the help of some studying sessions.

At some points the timing was weird? Like the training with Gabe was said to went on for some time, but then Oli outright states they've been training for only a week.

The characters are pretty decent. They're cartoonish, in a half good half bad way. Some of the dialogue made me cringe, and I had to skip a few of them.

And that ending was so lackluster. The action kicks up, and then the story is abruptly over. I honestly thought there was going to be a next chapter but nope. That's just the way the story ended.

Unfortunately, this story has something I love dearly, and that is soulmate stories with some angst, plus ones where the person has multiple hot soulmates. I have a huge weakness for that in fanfics, and this is the first time I'm reading a book centered around that.

Some tiktoks have said that the other books get better, and I hope to god that's true. Please! I need this story to be written better.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books. I want to see North and Nox grovel for the way they treated Oli, and I hope to HIGH FUCK that she doesn't immediately forgive them. I am begging and hoping that their redemption arcs are long and filled with juicy rejections from Oli.

This book made me cringe so much. I DNFed with only 100 pages left. I like the concept of the book but it just kept dragging on and nothing was happening. It was just a bunch of guys bullying the female MC. Also all the rape talk right away in the first couple pages threw me way off. 

It’s! Bad :) I am like halfway through the series though lol 

Warnings wise idk how to tag “main character kidnapped and microchipped and forced to go to college where one of her soul bonds is an evil professor”