salem48pm's reviews
169 reviews

This was the first MM romance novel i picked up and i still love it so much - lily mayne is such an icon

Og review when i was still a baby smut lover lol (now i dont care where i am - smut everywhere!):
Amazing! Do yourself a favor and read this book (in private lol)

1st person, dual POV
Strict roles

These MCs were super cute together and the plot flowed really well! I'm excited for the next book with Easton and hopefully others! :3 I loved seeing Luca, Sully and the others again.

The MCs feel solid when they get back together and it felt nice to read a book that had a good plot and a very grounded couple - good writing as well. It was an easy read (as long as your ok with the CWs) and I was cheering for this couple thoroughout! 

I recieved an arc and this is my honest review. 

I've been loving how lighthearted this is but was pleasantly surprised when we got some cool plot! And we got to learn more about Norman 💜💜💜💜

This was just so bad in so many ways. The writing is just terrible. It tells us versus shows us what's going on and what goes on just doesn't make any fucking sense. Like why is a Mafia boss fidgeting that fucking much? He doesn't act like a real mafia boss.

In short: Writing TERRIBLE, MC's have no emotional chemistry, the dialogue is super CRINGE, the disabilities are handled weirdly and made me somewhat un-comfy (like, for their first date, Oliver brings his brother along but doesn't actually asks if he wants to come first before agreeing. IDK his brother has agency.)

Re: MC's have no emotional chemistry in particular

The two MC's don't even seem to be on the same page on about what they want from a relationship. D'Angelo seems to still want just a hook up for the longest time and I'm not sure Oliver fully understands that? Like it seems like he wants to date? And then D'Angelo just goes with it bc thats what it takes to fuck Oliver(?). like half way through the book D'Angelo says the below, which just felt like a super douchebag thing to say. 

D'Angelo: "Originally, I just wanted a distraction to keep me entertained while I was in town. But then I realized that you wouldn't just fall into bed. Winning you would require effort. I probably should have walked away at that point, but I liked the effort. It was refreshing."

These two MC's just have NO emotional chemistry and by the end I don't really believe that they actually are into each other and are really on the same page?? Like they stick together (AND THE ENDING IS SUPER ABRUPT), but like why?? D'Angelo seemed not very committed throughout this entire thing and Oliver just seems like he's trauma bonding without really knowing him.

IDK overall, I'm exhausted after rage reading this and I'm just tired and I have no idea how people can stand this type of writing and lack of MC building/ emotional chemistry.

Also, is this contemporary? Bc why is there pot dealing when it's been legal in Baltimore for years?

Oh lanta, i just finished re-reading this one and it had me all up in my feels :') in the best ways. Arik is probably my favorite character from this series or at least top 3. His life has been fucking brutal and so fucking relatable and I love the emotional growth he goes on throughout this book. He's still the prickly, sassy person he's always been but seeing him realize he's found a family, a mate, and community is just fucking beautiful. It can be read as a standalone, but the only reason I re-read this was because I realize that I'd never read the first book in this series which he obviously cameo's in and I liked seeing that little extra bit of him. Also Ian and Nate were much more tolerable/ less obnoxious knowing their backstory in this re-read lol. Regardless though, even just as a standalone, it's a book I'm going to hold close. Enjoy friends 💜

I mean just look at these fucking quotes 💜 - these are the more emotional ones, but for real this book had me in stitches sometimes laughing

"I’d had alphas use me to prove how powerful they were before — by conquering me, or trying to. Taming me. Owning me.  Matthew felt powerful because I’d found him worthy of having me as a gift that I gave, not as something that he took. Or rather, he’d taken me, and I’d loved it, but he’d taken what I freely offered.  And that was everything."

"I'd never had allies. Never had someone I could count on since my brother’s past had caught up with him, forcing him to leave me. [...] It was the difference between standing on the edge of a precipice in a high wind, every moment of balance a struggle, and having a brick wall suddenly appear at your back to lean on."

"I’d been running, not living the life of a carefree vagabond. Only problem was, I hadn’t been running to anything — just away from the possibility that if I tried to find a place for myself in the world, I’d lose it. Again. The way I’d lost my brother, or the way I’d never even known my parents. I had nothing to show for those thirteen years. I might as well have curled up in a hollow tree and hibernated it away; if it’d all been erased from my memory overnight, there wouldn’t have been much to miss."

LOLZ like this one:
"...You don’t need to keep me on a leash anymore.”  Don’t make the obvious dog joke, don’t, don’t do it…“Maybe I should get you a muzzle to go with it,” I snarled. Oops.

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.

I enjoyed this cutsy, low angst college romance - is the plot sort of predictable? Yup! Are these two MCs totally obsessed with each other pretty much right away? Yas! Are they super cute together? OF COURSE! This was a nice filler read from the other heavier stuff I've been indulging in so grab it if you need a break! Enjoy friends!

Cute! But just not feeling this dynamic with the pleasure dom aspect iykyk but totally a me thing - onto the next! 

OMFG!!! I CAN'T with how AMAZING this series is!! *screaming* i am so fucking happy about how this story is going and i cannot WAIT for the 4th book! The connection between the MCs is so fucking amazing and it's awesome to see their relationship stabilize and for them to finally FINALLY become a unit with mutual trust - Nix is being treated as their partner and I LOVE it! I want the 4th book to be out asap so i can reread this whole series asap! If the CWs dont scare you off, please enjoy friends!