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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was fucking great.
The best one yet.
What the fuck.
I haven't had this raw intense emotions with a book in a time.
I don't know what to do now.
WHAT THE FUCK.
The best one yet.
What the fuck.
I haven't had this raw intense emotions with a book in a time.
I don't know what to do now.
WHAT THE FUCK.
emotional
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
พออ่านเล่มสองจบแล้วก็รอเล่มสามไม่ไหว จะไปอ่านรายตอนของสนพ.ก็ mehh เห็นจุดผิดในเล่มสองเยอะแล้วผิดหวัง มาอ่านตัวต้นฉบับเอาก็ได้ 5555555555 เล่มนี้ก็ยังสนุกเหมือนเดิม แล้วก็เล่นเรื่องความสัมพันธ์เยอะขึ้น ตอนต้นคือหวานไม่ไหว ทุกอย่างกำลังไปได้ดีเลย แล้วหลังจากนั้นก็เหมือนขึ้นรถไฟเหาะ อิรุงตุงนังไปหมด อ่านไปก็เครียดไป แล้วจบด้วย You hurt him, I hurt you Don't push your luck อหๆๆๆๆๆ จะมีฆาตกรต่อเนื่องคนไหนที่เป็นห่วงเป็นใยตำรวจเท่านี้ป่ะ คือแกเป็นใครกันแน่นะะะ
Rating 2.5/5, round down to 2.
I definitely found this book more interesting than the previous one, but if I had to decide between a neutral score, liking it, or not, I didn’t like it. The plot this time around was more engaging, with the gang wars but it was also more confusing because there were three major gangs to keep up with + this up and coming starter one. Frankly I didn’t like the direction the author went with both Dom and Levi’s character arcs. Again, the romantic relationship between Dom/Levi ending was muted, and there was a lot more miscommunication and distrust in this one, meaning a lot of their screentime was NOT with each other.
characters
Dominic’s gambling addiction continues to be a major factor of this story. What I don’t like is some of the decision making he was written to do in order to keep Levi from unveiling his secret, some of their spats felt very contrived. Levi’s “darkness” is again the focus for this book, and it still feels a little forced. There is one particular dialogue exchange between him and Dom about him confronting his darkness that felt purposefully obtuse to muddy their relationship even more.
The side characters were more exciting in this book. Thought Gay Sergei and Rocco were cute, Stanton slays. We didn’t get to see much of Carlos/Jasmine in this series. Martine, Sawyer are also notable.
the mm romance
The romance between these two was lacking. The author is clearly gearing up to add all the mistrust and miscommunication between them to put a wrench into their relationship. So not only do they not hang out a lot together, a lot of their scenes are passive aggressive, bickering and cagey. The development of their relationship was being overshadowed by the plot which had to take a lot of the words to set up since there were so many moving parts. I thought for the most part, their fights were very forced and didn’t feel natural. Levi’s unwarranted jealousy, Dom’s “distraction” tactic, the last conversation between them in the story was particularly contrived to create the most tension possible.
plot
The plot about the three gangs and the “~saboteur~” was more engaging than the previous whodunnit book, but there were way too many NPCs because of it. Gangs from each division, the difference politics of each, it was getting very confusing and overwhelming to read through. From what we saw of the Collective, I liked the Russian leader there but virtually no one else made an impact on me. The saboteur subplot fizzled and was unremarkable. The intersection of Dom and Levi’s storylines lead to an interesting development, but overall, I felt most of the leadup to it was unnecessarily topheavy. The rest of the exciting stuff just breezed by like a prototypical action movie. Even though SoS is revealed to be alive in book #2, they actually aren’t the focus of the plot still, again being overshadowed by the gang war collective.
steam
Even though Dom and Levi are on the rocks, there’s still a comparable amount of sex scenes in this book. Notably more “aggressive” scenes where they have sex after adrenaline rushes. There is a hot outdoor sex scene.
+jewish rep
+better than #2 but not than #1
+interesting sex scenes
-Dominic’s gambling disorder
-MM romance sidelined
-contrived “fights” between Dom and Levi via irrational decisions/uncharacteristic dialogue
-confusing narrative with 3 gangs to keep up and a whole bunch of NPCs to keep track of
-forced “jealousy”
I definitely found this book more interesting than the previous one, but if I had to decide between a neutral score, liking it, or not, I didn’t like it. The plot this time around was more engaging, with the gang wars but it was also more confusing because there were three major gangs to keep up with + this up and coming starter one. Frankly I didn’t like the direction the author went with both Dom and Levi’s character arcs. Again, the romantic relationship between Dom/Levi ending was muted, and there was a lot more miscommunication and distrust in this one, meaning a lot of their screentime was NOT with each other.
characters
Dominic’s gambling addiction continues to be a major factor of this story. What I don’t like is some of the decision making he was written to do in order to keep Levi from unveiling his secret, some of their spats felt very contrived. Levi’s “darkness” is again the focus for this book, and it still feels a little forced. There is one particular dialogue exchange between him and Dom about him confronting his darkness that felt purposefully obtuse to muddy their relationship even more.
The side characters were more exciting in this book. Thought Gay Sergei and Rocco were cute, Stanton slays. We didn’t get to see much of Carlos/Jasmine in this series. Martine, Sawyer are also notable.
the mm romance
The romance between these two was lacking. The author is clearly gearing up to add all the mistrust and miscommunication between them to put a wrench into their relationship. So not only do they not hang out a lot together, a lot of their scenes are passive aggressive, bickering and cagey. The development of their relationship was being overshadowed by the plot which had to take a lot of the words to set up since there were so many moving parts. I thought for the most part, their fights were very forced and didn’t feel natural. Levi’s unwarranted jealousy, Dom’s “distraction” tactic, the last conversation between them in the story was particularly contrived to create the most tension possible.
plot
The plot about the three gangs and the “~saboteur~” was more engaging than the previous whodunnit book, but there were way too many NPCs because of it. Gangs from each division, the difference politics of each, it was getting very confusing and overwhelming to read through. From what we saw of the Collective, I liked the Russian leader there but virtually no one else made an impact on me. The saboteur subplot fizzled and was unremarkable. The intersection of Dom and Levi’s storylines lead to an interesting development, but overall, I felt most of the leadup to it was unnecessarily topheavy. The rest of the exciting stuff just breezed by like a prototypical action movie. Even though SoS is revealed to be alive in book #2, they actually aren’t the focus of the plot still, again being overshadowed by the gang war collective.
steam
Even though Dom and Levi are on the rocks, there’s still a comparable amount of sex scenes in this book. Notably more “aggressive” scenes where they have sex after adrenaline rushes. There is a hot outdoor sex scene.
+jewish rep
+better than #2 but not than #1
+interesting sex scenes
-Dominic’s gambling disorder
-MM romance sidelined
-contrived “fights” between Dom and Levi via irrational decisions/uncharacteristic dialogue
-confusing narrative with 3 gangs to keep up and a whole bunch of NPCs to keep track of
-forced “jealousy”
adventurous
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
God, this absolutely killed me in the best possible way.
Content warnings include: violence, murder, compulsive gambling, alcohol consumption, human trafficking, racism, antisemitism, sexism, intimate partner violence, gang violence/crime, Nazis, breakup.
Two words:
SO
GOOD
Cash Plays is the third book in this amazing series, and the serial killer Seven of Spades is back full force, delivering justice where they think it's due. And they have developed a taste for blood.
Levi is struggling not just with a new case but also with the continued pressure of the notorious killer still being on the lose, and on top of that the FBI has sent a special agent to help with the investigation, which he doesn't like at all, of course.
Dominic in the meantime is happy to start his job as private investigator, but his very first case proves more complications than anticipated.
Trick Roller built up neatly the two personal conflicts that the protagonists are struggling with in this book: Dominic with him addiciton to gambling, while Levi is noticeably having more and more trouble containing his anger, his violent and sadistic side shining through more and more.
These struggles culminate in Cash Plays together with other external conflicts, and boy, it's not pretty.
The overall case that spans the book is well done, but wasn't quite as neat as the previous ones.
Another detail that vaguely frustrated me was the continuous use of acronyms seemingly wherever possible for no reason and often without explanation. Why use GSW or OIS when "gunshot wound" or "officer-involved shooting" works just the same and doesn't make the reader have to google what it means?
As the series, list of victims, involved people and overall cast gets longer, a glossary would also really be useful to keep track of who is who. Because, yeah, no, I can't remember the names of the four guys who died two books ago and the exact reason why they were killed.
I want to say that Cash Plays was more of an emotional rollercoster than the previous books but let's be real, the others were just as good and engaging.
What Cash Play does different though is that while there are more bone-chilling realizations (like, really, I was screaming into my pillow several times because oh my god) they also seem to conclude a bit fast, speeding up the book's pace.
Wonderful continuation of the series and I can't wait for the next book!!!
Content warnings include: violence, murder, compulsive gambling, alcohol consumption, human trafficking, racism, antisemitism, sexism, intimate partner violence, gang violence/crime, Nazis, breakup.
Two words:
SO
GOOD
Cash Plays is the third book in this amazing series, and the serial killer Seven of Spades is back full force, delivering justice where they think it's due. And they have developed a taste for blood.
Levi is struggling not just with a new case but also with the continued pressure of the notorious killer still being on the lose, and on top of that the FBI has sent a special agent to help with the investigation, which he doesn't like at all, of course.
Dominic in the meantime is happy to start his job as private investigator, but his very first case proves more complications than anticipated.
Trick Roller built up neatly the two personal conflicts that the protagonists are struggling with in this book: Dominic with him addiciton to gambling, while Levi is noticeably having more and more trouble containing his anger, his violent and sadistic side shining through more and more.
These struggles culminate in Cash Plays together with other external conflicts, and boy, it's not pretty.
The overall case that spans the book is well done, but wasn't quite as neat as the previous ones.
Another detail that vaguely frustrated me was the continuous use of acronyms seemingly wherever possible for no reason and often without explanation. Why use GSW or OIS when "gunshot wound" or "officer-involved shooting" works just the same and doesn't make the reader have to google what it means?
As the series, list of victims, involved people and overall cast gets longer, a glossary would also really be useful to keep track of who is who. Because, yeah, no, I can't remember the names of the four guys who died two books ago and the exact reason why they were killed.
I want to say that Cash Plays was more of an emotional rollercoster than the previous books but let's be real, the others were just as good and engaging.
What Cash Play does different though is that while there are more bone-chilling realizations (like, really, I was screaming into my pillow several times because oh my god) they also seem to conclude a bit fast, speeding up the book's pace.
Wonderful continuation of the series and I can't wait for the next book!!!
what we have here is two men who desperately need THERAPY