I really tried. I liked the others in the series but its been like pulling teeth with this volume. The writing feels stilted. I dont feel any connection between the two MCs and neither of them seem to have much emotional intelligence beyond trauma dumping and then saying thanks for sharing and then going right back to being guarded in weird ass repetative ways (Not saying this as an invalidation to either of these MCs trauma - they both seem interesting as separate people). And i get that things take time - connection can take time sure - but this just feels too dang long with not enough progress or external things happening to keep this interesting and the dialogue feels stiff between them, inorganic, plain werid, and cliche most of the time - idk if these two MCs are actually compatible tbh.  I feel like every attempt emotional revelation just fell flat.

Also i did get to their first sex scene and Toby being "prepared" w lube and condoms just gave me the ick since leading up to that point Bryan was adament about them not coming together as mates and it seemed like Toby was finally being respectful of that. But him coming prepared made it seem like that respect was a lie, especially since there wasnt a lot of preamble to indicate Bryan truly had changed his mind.

And im not a fan of the fated mates becoming so 'obsessed' with each other that they dont hang with their friends.  Tobys focuses on this struggle of his friends never hang out with him solo again and becoming hyper fixated on their relationships and this trope just rubs me the wrong way. He needs better friends. I think this point is only sticking out for me bc everything else so far has bothered me and it seems like Toby isnt trying to address this/ fix this with his friends but it seems like the storylines 'solution' is just to have him be the same way i.e. just get into a fated mates relationship of his own instead of asking his friends for actual support.

I cant even tell where the plot is going rn bc they just solved the main issue that forced them together so what are they going to do now? They clearly suck at talking  with each other and i really dont have the patience for it anymore.