Reviews - Cataclysm | The StoryGraph

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454 reviews for:

Rating- 3 Good but with issues
Heat- 5
Entire series rating- 3

While I enjoyed this series, I was disappointed in the conclusion. Bailey did such an amazing job through the first few books of slowly letting us in on the backstory and plans that I expected to have all my questions answered by the end. I didn’t get them.

The men kept saying they originally planned to “break her.” Why would they and how would it help them? We are repeatedly told that she was so important to them as children that they built their entire empire just to get her back, but yet they didn’t begin their new relationship with her with the intentions of rebuilding that friendship. It made no sense and was never explained. Maybe if the characters had stopped having sex for a few pages long enough to have a conversation, I would have gotten my explanation.

emerald_valley's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

spicyreadsonly's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

rita_cns's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

vicky_kay's review against another edition

3.0

I kept hoping action will come, romance will come, something will happen. And I was thoroughly disappointed. They said dark romance, I said I want it. Well, it's just dark smut. And even though I like me some smut, I also like me books with plots. I didn't get that here. So, so disappointed.

*Slight spoilers ahead*

This series was not what I expected. I wanted more.

The premise of the books, the idea of them, the idea of the plot was good. Like really fucking good. I mean, come on, four dudes who have a reputation as the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Gimme!

Well, these books didn't gimme at all. If it wasn't for the smut all my rating would be 1 star. And even if there was smut, it was in almost every single fucking chapter. I love me some good sexy reading material, but that was excessive.

But that's not the main problem. The problem was that the author wanted to show the connection and love the heroine felt for the four heroes and what they felt for her through sex. But there wasn't an ounce of romance! Ok, they said they loved her and would do anything for her and they killed a bunch of guys to keep her safe and yada yada...I think the author relied heavily on the fact that there is history between the five of them before the events of these books and it shows.

I get this a dark romance RH and they were supposed to be big and bad and scary, but I needed more. Like show me they love her. Show me, don't tell me. Make them do more romantic stuff towards her, other than killing the people that want to harm her and then fuck her. That's all good and well, but relationships aren't based solely on sex.

I've read plenty of dark romances, much darker than this one with much more unhinged characters, and that's something else that bothered me. I wanted to see them lose their shit. I wanted the author to show me, not just let me know because a character in his POV said he liked killing, didn't have remorse, did depraved things and then have them kill like one dude, go fuck the heroine and then call it a day. They call them the four horsemen for fuck's sake, but I didn't see anywhere the reason why. Just having them have dirty sex with weird kinks doesn't do it for me, if there's no plot.

And here comes an other major issue. So, you have this girl who had an accident, almost died, lost her memories, got kidnapped by a rich guy with a grudge. Then you have the four main guys who were her best friends, were devastated when she disappeared, moved mountains to find her (supposedly, because that to is told, not shown, except maybe a chapter), finally did find her, made themselves rich and powerful (again we're not shown of this power they have over London, they just act like they're the shit), build a company from the ground to get her back. She then comes work for them, because the rich dude who kidnapped her wants to destroy them, and she doesn't remember them or anything about her life. All this to me seems like the premise of an amazing book series, and you didn't fucking deliver.

Where the hell is the plot? Where is it? Where did it go? Why is it missing?

When you tell me the main characters are so powerful and rich and everyone fears them, I want to see it. I want to see their business deals, their connection with underworld, with the mob, with gangsters and bikers, with anything for that matter. But there's none of that. Aghhh. I want to scream.

I kept expecting for things go change. For something to happen that would shock me. After last book's cliffhanger I thought there would be more action. Nope. Obviously we don't do that here. And the fucking big finale, the terror they were going to reign on the guy who took their girl from them and kept her ten years, was anticlimactic. They spent the whole book fucking and saying things like "Oh he doesn't know what's coming to him, he'll be sorry he ever messed with us" and have them do nothing at all to us what they are planning.

These books were full of unnecessary "mysteries" and repetitive. They could all be combined into one big book or a descend sized one.

The "plot" was there just for the heck of it. Just to say there is one. The main theme of these books is kinky fuckery. Literally. Don't expect anything heavy, other than smut with a dash of a plotline.