Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
I found the author on Tik Tok, she was promoting this book and my interest was sparked. Her selling point was Adam. Unhinged, animalistic, psychotic, Adam. He sounded frightening and exciting at the same time. Needless to say I preordered and waited giddily.
The book starts out running. And I don’t mean that in an exciting action packed way, I mean there is way too much going on right away. In the first 2 chapters alone which equal to about a dozen pages we are introduced to at least 13 characters. THIRTEEN CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS WITHIN THE FIRST FEW PAGES!!! There’s Adam the hero, his friends/gang members, some local businessmen, a hoochie, rival gang members and all their girlfriends, and finally Olivia, the heroine. They were all referenced by first and last name and given some disposition so they must be important right? In all fairness, this is the first book I picked up from this author so some of these characters might already exist in an existing world I haven't read about yet. So for a first impression I had no idea who any of these people were and it was a bit overwhelming. I thought it was the first of a series, I could be wrong.
Anyway, my biggest problem with this book was the complete let down of Adam’s character. Adam the PSYCHO, was anything but. His entire personality was dispositioned to the reader. Why does everyone fear Adam? Because he says so. That’s it. We are told he is psycho so therefore he is psycho, there are no actions shown to the reader that proves this. Perhaps an instance where he catches a group of girls looking at him, he stares back at them, *hard*, they look away in fear…BOOM…he psycho!
In the beginning of the book he comes off as someone with a stick up his a$$ to be honest. Constantly telling us he’s a badass, snapping on people for no reason, never letting his fellow gang members know what is going on until last minute…I don’t know what this is entailing? Perhaps that he is thinking critically and is always one step ahead of everyone? Either way it’s just poor leadership skills.
When I think of a psychotic, obsessive, domineering hero, I expect to see a man who cannot be explained. His actions should confuse and shock me. When Olivia compared herself to Harley Quinn I expected the hero to be an adaption of Joker, leader of a crime gang, crazy and extremely intelligent. He is someone that would beat a man’s face in while mechanically laughing and in the same breath spew off some sentimental poetry to the heroine convincingly. Instead Psycho Adam made a ‘Finding Nemo’ movie reference…yea, he’s a Disney fanatic apparently. That’s not psycho, that’s quirky.
His other failure was the fact that the heroine walked all over him in the beginning. I know this was just to make Olivia appear strong-willed and fearless but it took away from Adam’s power, what little he had to begin with.
Olivia, the one redeeming quality. She was cool. A little much in the beginning, no woman with common sense is going to “saunter” her way to a horrible neighborhood alone and confront a PSYCHO and his gang members…but whatever. I wish the author would’ve just stayed in Olivia’s POV. I enjoyed her and the story unfolding made more sense through Olivia’s eyes. I just don’t believe the author had enough knowledge and confidence in writing the type of character she wanted to portray Adam as. It’s a difficult character, I get that and possibly a good character but her execution fell short. I shouldn’t be able to understand Adam if he is a psycho, staying in Olivia’s POV would’ve helped the reader form their own assumptions of Adam as well as keeping him in a mysterious position.
I got about 2/3 of the way through and set it down, I just couldn’t immerse myself into the world that was being described to me. This isn’t meant to bash the author she has quite a following and many other books to choose from so I will check out her other works. Sorry for the bluntness, just had high expectations.
The book starts out running. And I don’t mean that in an exciting action packed way, I mean there is way too much going on right away. In the first 2 chapters alone which equal to about a dozen pages we are introduced to at least 13 characters. THIRTEEN CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS WITHIN THE FIRST FEW PAGES!!! There’s Adam the hero, his friends/gang members, some local businessmen, a hoochie, rival gang members and all their girlfriends, and finally Olivia, the heroine. They were all referenced by first and last name and given some disposition so they must be important right? In all fairness, this is the first book I picked up from this author so some of these characters might already exist in an existing world I haven't read about yet. So for a first impression I had no idea who any of these people were and it was a bit overwhelming. I thought it was the first of a series, I could be wrong.
Anyway, my biggest problem with this book was the complete let down of Adam’s character. Adam the PSYCHO, was anything but. His entire personality was dispositioned to the reader. Why does everyone fear Adam? Because he says so. That’s it. We are told he is psycho so therefore he is psycho, there are no actions shown to the reader that proves this. Perhaps an instance where he catches a group of girls looking at him, he stares back at them, *hard*, they look away in fear…BOOM…he psycho!
In the beginning of the book he comes off as someone with a stick up his a$$ to be honest. Constantly telling us he’s a badass, snapping on people for no reason, never letting his fellow gang members know what is going on until last minute…I don’t know what this is entailing? Perhaps that he is thinking critically and is always one step ahead of everyone? Either way it’s just poor leadership skills.
When I think of a psychotic, obsessive, domineering hero, I expect to see a man who cannot be explained. His actions should confuse and shock me. When Olivia compared herself to Harley Quinn I expected the hero to be an adaption of Joker, leader of a crime gang, crazy and extremely intelligent. He is someone that would beat a man’s face in while mechanically laughing and in the same breath spew off some sentimental poetry to the heroine convincingly. Instead Psycho Adam made a ‘Finding Nemo’ movie reference…yea, he’s a Disney fanatic apparently. That’s not psycho, that’s quirky.
His other failure was the fact that the heroine walked all over him in the beginning. I know this was just to make Olivia appear strong-willed and fearless but it took away from Adam’s power, what little he had to begin with.
Olivia, the one redeeming quality. She was cool. A little much in the beginning, no woman with common sense is going to “saunter” her way to a horrible neighborhood alone and confront a PSYCHO and his gang members…but whatever. I wish the author would’ve just stayed in Olivia’s POV. I enjoyed her and the story unfolding made more sense through Olivia’s eyes. I just don’t believe the author had enough knowledge and confidence in writing the type of character she wanted to portray Adam as. It’s a difficult character, I get that and possibly a good character but her execution fell short. I shouldn’t be able to understand Adam if he is a psycho, staying in Olivia’s POV would’ve helped the reader form their own assumptions of Adam as well as keeping him in a mysterious position.
I got about 2/3 of the way through and set it down, I just couldn’t immerse myself into the world that was being described to me. This isn’t meant to bash the author she has quite a following and many other books to choose from so I will check out her other works. Sorry for the bluntness, just had high expectations.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
I have been waiting for this book for what seemed like forever, but holy was it worth the wait. A morally gray male lead with a tragic backstory and a kick ass female protagonist? It was perfect. The side characters were amazing, I really hope we get to see books from Colton and the others. Overall, this book was everything I wanted and more.
5 psychotic stars!
First of all, “I didn’t need to read about love in books…” Nikki I feel attacked.
Secondly, THAT TWIST… wow!
This book perfectly toed the line between crazy stalker and controlling loved up gang boy. At no point did I feel that any of Adam’s behaviour crossed a line to the point where I felt uncomfortable reading it. Everything felt so real and genuine to the characters.
Olivia and Adam are a perfect compliment to each other and to see how much they both needed it as well, I adore them. I was obsessed with Olivia from the beginning, I love a badass female lead and she didn’t disappoint, matching Adam’s stubbornness in equal.
The spice … goddamn, I think my jaw dislocated once or twice as it hit the floor. My housemate walked in while reading and I nearly had a heart attack I was blushing so bad.
I need more of these soldiers. In Olivia’s own words, “those words slayed me.” Thank you Nikki.
First of all, “I didn’t need to read about love in books…” Nikki I feel attacked.
Secondly, THAT TWIST… wow!
This book perfectly toed the line between crazy stalker and controlling loved up gang boy. At no point did I feel that any of Adam’s behaviour crossed a line to the point where I felt uncomfortable reading it. Everything felt so real and genuine to the characters.
Olivia and Adam are a perfect compliment to each other and to see how much they both needed it as well, I adore them. I was obsessed with Olivia from the beginning, I love a badass female lead and she didn’t disappoint, matching Adam’s stubbornness in equal.
The spice … goddamn, I think my jaw dislocated once or twice as it hit the floor. My housemate walked in while reading and I nearly had a heart attack I was blushing so bad.
I need more of these soldiers. In Olivia’s own words, “those words slayed me.” Thank you Nikki.