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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
Malone has been unable to get Aurora off her mind for years and decides it's time to scratch the itch and move on by buying her exclusive submission for two weeks. Much to the shock of everyone, Aurora readily agrees, but she has her own agenda up her sleeve. This is the perfect opportunity to enact the revenge Aurora has been dreaming of and potentially her only chance to see it through. But when she finds her feelings, and Malone as a person, are far more complicated than she expected, will she be able to carry out her plans? Will she even want to?
So this wasn't BAD like THE SEA WITCH was, it's just not very good either. I felt this book took Aurora, who's appeared in every single entry, and made her character far less dynamic and interesting. She is a very polyamorous, sexually fluid character and yet we only see her interact with Malone this entire book, it was so boring. Every other couple in this series had at least one other exploratory scene at the club to spice things up, something that VERY much would be what Aurora would want, but this didn't. I respect that this being the first front and center FF relationship it wanted to focus more on that, but it just made their dynamic less interesting and didn't seem to fit the characters established. Just made me think, yeah, I guess queer people deserve uninteresting smut too, so yay for representation?
I just feel the entire conceit of this was doomed from the beginning. I would've much rather Malone constantly try to woo Aurora in her element, battle to be seen amongst all the others who want her attention, especially to finish out a series and not involve any other characters? It just felt so incredibly lame. And for Aurora to so easily be seduced by her when it takes SO LONG to address why she wants revenge in general? Ugh, no. I also just don't like the way the female doms are done in this series. Again, all for representation, but the male doms are allowed to have personalities, characterization, and growth outside of their bedroom roles. Female doms feel so much the need to be in charge that they act the same way in scene as they do in regular life and in their internal monologue, which just makes it difficult to like or get to know them. It leaves me on the outs not caring at all about what was going on. So yeah, just not for me. The Sabine Valley set up (another of her spin-off worlds first mentioned in THE BEAST) does interest me, but I don't think it was done very well here either. I'm intrigued to read that series, but mainly just for fresh characters more than anything developed here. So yeah, overall meh, and as someone not into FF smut the spice did nothing for me either, kind of a whimper to end out this series unfortunately.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
It's truly no surprise that this book is as undeveloped as it is being the shortest of the bunch, and this series already has a trend of being far shorter than it needs to be. This is also another one where I feel the premise isn't great from the jump. I was very interested in Aurora's story, since we've seen her throughout and I've enjoyed watching her grow from timid submissive, to willing participant, to taking over Tink's position in the underworld and basically becoming the darling of all. I liked the idea that she's always who people call if they want to add on more subs to a scene, but they then leave to their own relationships which don't include her and thought that could be such an interesting dynamic, but not enough is done or shown here. She's very flippant about it and never seems to yearn or be jealous. And Malone keeps claiming how she knows and sees her, but we're never really shown that, just told it again and again. And of course, I'm waiting for us to find out why she hates Malone and wants to seek revenge on her only for us to find out her mom was the former territory leader who Malone beat up so badly she ended up in a coma and Aurora just took her off life support in the beginning of this book. How the HELL is she supposed to fall in love with the woman that caused this????? And the want to murder her feels so damn flimsy. It's been YEARRRSS since this happened, but now you want to kill her? And it takes SO LOOONGGGG for Aurora to do anything about it and all we hear is her internal monologue being like 'I shouldn't like her, but I do' it's fucking insane and just not fleshed out nearly enough. It's used for conflict to break them up for two seconds at the end, to then exposition dump that her mom was a shit territory leader and if Malone didn't do it someone would and she took care of her mom's hospital bills for 3 years (why 3 years? so random) afterwards because she felt guilty and to prove she's a good person. But like...why did we only just now find this all out at the very end??? We needed to get to know Malone, have her open up, drop some of these facts along the way so when the truth comes out that Aurora only took this deal to get close enough to kill her, it hurts more. As is, it's just stupid and I don't care. I don't believe that Aurora loves her, I don't believe Malone does either, I just don't believe any of it.
Another part of the problem, like I said above, is the characterization of the female doms of this series just don't work for me. Hades and Jafar, other territory leaders and doms, are allowed to be fully formed characters that act very differently in their relationships, dealings, and sex. And I get that maybe the female doms feel like they have more to prove, it was said in the last book Ursa felt the need to be hard and tough all the time to hold her power, and since she and Malone are a rare breed, sure I guess I get it. But then it doesn't allow for layers to these characters and it's really hard to get to know them or like them. Malone is just as impenetrable outwardly as she is internally which just doesn't give us anything. Also why are the female doms only strong? Like all their attributes are 'so strong, so powerful etc' like they can be good leaders and also have emotions and be multifaceted.
The smut was a huge letdown for me too. As I've said, FF smut just isn't my bag, I'm all for representation, but for it to be solely this was a bit of a bummer, and one of the scenes has the pain kink (caning her) which is even more of a turnoff, I'll NEVER understand that angle of BDSM, it sounds so unpleasant. But it was especially a letdown as it didn't make sense for Aurora's character that we'd only see scenes with her and Malone. It's literally the only book in this series that doesn't experiment with others, which was so lame. I'm all for a monogamous relationships, but since that's clearly not their dynamic it makes even less sense. Especially at the end for Aurora to be like, 'I want you, but I'm not giving up my job, I'm poly sorry' and Malone's like 'cool no problem' like what?! The fact that's the only discussion is BAFFLING! This is why Malone taking her away from the underworld is just such a mistake. I would've loved for her to enjoy watching Aurora with others, or be in charge of a scene like we saw with Jafar and Hook, the other two monogamous couples who still play around in the underworld. But this was just the same thing again and again, I wasn't even annoyed, I was just uninterested.
I don't know if KR just got bored or was stuck in a rut, but this just felt so fully uninspired and half baked. It's a bummer since a good chunk of this series is so fun, but it really went out on a whimper by the end, I don't think I'd recommend the entries I don't enjoy because they're not worth it for the larger world building honestly. Just left with a bit of a bummer, I hope she just calms down and stops popping out these rushed books. Other smut authors I've found have proven you can write good, long smut books and I wish KR to just follow suit in her future endeavors. I'm still interested enough to continue on to the Sabine Valley series, since it's so heavily set up here, but I'm also pretty sure that series has also been indefinitely shelved, so another bummer. I'm not done with KR, I like her enough to explore her other series and see if they're worth it, but I may need a decent break before I do so as I fear her stuff gets a bit same-y after awhile. It's hard when I've just found better smut, but here's hoping I'll find some more gems amongst her work.
So this wasn't BAD like THE SEA WITCH was, it's just not very good either. I felt this book took Aurora, who's appeared in every single entry, and made her character far less dynamic and interesting. She is a very polyamorous, sexually fluid character and yet we only see her interact with Malone this entire book, it was so boring. Every other couple in this series had at least one other exploratory scene at the club to spice things up, something that VERY much would be what Aurora would want, but this didn't. I respect that this being the first front and center FF relationship it wanted to focus more on that, but it just made their dynamic less interesting and didn't seem to fit the characters established. Just made me think, yeah, I guess queer people deserve uninteresting smut too, so yay for representation?
I just feel the entire conceit of this was doomed from the beginning. I would've much rather Malone constantly try to woo Aurora in her element, battle to be seen amongst all the others who want her attention, especially to finish out a series and not involve any other characters? It just felt so incredibly lame. And for Aurora to so easily be seduced by her when it takes SO LONG to address why she wants revenge in general? Ugh, no. I also just don't like the way the female doms are done in this series. Again, all for representation, but the male doms are allowed to have personalities, characterization, and growth outside of their bedroom roles. Female doms feel so much the need to be in charge that they act the same way in scene as they do in regular life and in their internal monologue, which just makes it difficult to like or get to know them. It leaves me on the outs not caring at all about what was going on. So yeah, just not for me. The Sabine Valley set up (another of her spin-off worlds first mentioned in THE BEAST) does interest me, but I don't think it was done very well here either. I'm intrigued to read that series, but mainly just for fresh characters more than anything developed here. So yeah, overall meh, and as someone not into FF smut the spice did nothing for me either, kind of a whimper to end out this series unfortunately.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
It's truly no surprise that this book is as undeveloped as it is being the shortest of the bunch, and this series already has a trend of being far shorter than it needs to be. This is also another one where I feel the premise isn't great from the jump. I was very interested in Aurora's story, since we've seen her throughout and I've enjoyed watching her grow from timid submissive, to willing participant, to taking over Tink's position in the underworld and basically becoming the darling of all. I liked the idea that she's always who people call if they want to add on more subs to a scene, but they then leave to their own relationships which don't include her and thought that could be such an interesting dynamic, but not enough is done or shown here. She's very flippant about it and never seems to yearn or be jealous. And Malone keeps claiming how she knows and sees her, but we're never really shown that, just told it again and again. And of course, I'm waiting for us to find out why she hates Malone and wants to seek revenge on her only for us to find out her mom was the former territory leader who Malone beat up so badly she ended up in a coma and Aurora just took her off life support in the beginning of this book. How the HELL is she supposed to fall in love with the woman that caused this????? And the want to murder her feels so damn flimsy. It's been YEARRRSS since this happened, but now you want to kill her? And it takes SO LOOONGGGG for Aurora to do anything about it and all we hear is her internal monologue being like 'I shouldn't like her, but I do' it's fucking insane and just not fleshed out nearly enough. It's used for conflict to break them up for two seconds at the end, to then exposition dump that her mom was a shit territory leader and if Malone didn't do it someone would and she took care of her mom's hospital bills for 3 years (why 3 years? so random) afterwards because she felt guilty and to prove she's a good person. But like...why did we only just now find this all out at the very end??? We needed to get to know Malone, have her open up, drop some of these facts along the way so when the truth comes out that Aurora only took this deal to get close enough to kill her, it hurts more. As is, it's just stupid and I don't care. I don't believe that Aurora loves her, I don't believe Malone does either, I just don't believe any of it.
Another part of the problem, like I said above, is the characterization of the female doms of this series just don't work for me. Hades and Jafar, other territory leaders and doms, are allowed to be fully formed characters that act very differently in their relationships, dealings, and sex. And I get that maybe the female doms feel like they have more to prove, it was said in the last book Ursa felt the need to be hard and tough all the time to hold her power, and since she and Malone are a rare breed, sure I guess I get it. But then it doesn't allow for layers to these characters and it's really hard to get to know them or like them. Malone is just as impenetrable outwardly as she is internally which just doesn't give us anything. Also why are the female doms only strong? Like all their attributes are 'so strong, so powerful etc' like they can be good leaders and also have emotions and be multifaceted.
The smut was a huge letdown for me too. As I've said, FF smut just isn't my bag, I'm all for representation, but for it to be solely this was a bit of a bummer, and one of the scenes has the pain kink (caning her) which is even more of a turnoff, I'll NEVER understand that angle of BDSM, it sounds so unpleasant. But it was especially a letdown as it didn't make sense for Aurora's character that we'd only see scenes with her and Malone. It's literally the only book in this series that doesn't experiment with others, which was so lame. I'm all for a monogamous relationships, but since that's clearly not their dynamic it makes even less sense. Especially at the end for Aurora to be like, 'I want you, but I'm not giving up my job, I'm poly sorry' and Malone's like 'cool no problem' like what?! The fact that's the only discussion is BAFFLING! This is why Malone taking her away from the underworld is just such a mistake. I would've loved for her to enjoy watching Aurora with others, or be in charge of a scene like we saw with Jafar and Hook, the other two monogamous couples who still play around in the underworld. But this was just the same thing again and again, I wasn't even annoyed, I was just uninterested.
I don't know if KR just got bored or was stuck in a rut, but this just felt so fully uninspired and half baked. It's a bummer since a good chunk of this series is so fun, but it really went out on a whimper by the end, I don't think I'd recommend the entries I don't enjoy because they're not worth it for the larger world building honestly. Just left with a bit of a bummer, I hope she just calms down and stops popping out these rushed books. Other smut authors I've found have proven you can write good, long smut books and I wish KR to just follow suit in her future endeavors. I'm still interested enough to continue on to the Sabine Valley series, since it's so heavily set up here, but I'm also pretty sure that series has also been indefinitely shelved, so another bummer. I'm not done with KR, I like her enough to explore her other series and see if they're worth it, but I may need a decent break before I do so as I fear her stuff gets a bit same-y after awhile. It's hard when I've just found better smut, but here's hoping I'll find some more gems amongst her work.
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I continued this series because I loved the first book. Queen Takes Rose is my latest read and none of them have hit the same as Jasmine's story. Could be bc that was my first KR book but even still, this one was good but all the important info was at the end and felt rushed.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Gay awakening
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
medium-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:
Yes
Kinky but not always in a fun way. We have some very dark, very complicated feelings just being completely glossed over.
Say it with me kids:
“sex is not a coping mechanism”
2 stars bc at least it was gay and there was decent representation