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krisvanc's review
5.0
Okay. So I read all these reviews going on and on about Sean. And yeah, I loved the little sunshine shit. But can we talk about Max? Because I need him to receive a little love. Comments are being hard on him, saying he should've let Sean let him love him earlier. But Max was perfectly clear when they entered a D/s relationship. His H was love, and he had EVERY right to not want it. And Sean kept pushing. Am I happy they ended up together? Well duh. But I liked Max's character growth the best out of all of this in these books.
And now I'm going to read something sickeningly sweet to cleanse my palate.
And now I'm going to read something sickeningly sweet to cleanse my palate.
teresab78's review
5.0
Hot
4.5 stars. There was great range of emotion in the story and lots of character growth. I didn’t like Max much in Upending Tad but really got to know him over the course of this duology. I really liked them together and loved seeing Tad and Scott again. I’m looking forward to Kai and Breck’s story and getting to know them better too.
4.5 stars. There was great range of emotion in the story and lots of character growth. I didn’t like Max much in Upending Tad but really got to know him over the course of this duology. I really liked them together and loved seeing Tad and Scott again. I’m looking forward to Kai and Breck’s story and getting to know them better too.
better_read_then_dead's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-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
5.0
Wow, my heart has been crushed, smashed, ripped and pulled out and put back in my chest all through this book. Man my emotions were all over the place. Their story is gut wrenching and absolutely beautiful all together. I felt their pain and their love the whole time I was reading. It was very raw and pure and real. The love these two share is off the rails. They are what the other needed in so many ways and were made for each other! I absolutely loved these two and they definitely hold a special place in my heart as well as Scott and Tad!! Next is Kai and Breck!
skye_28x's review
4.0
The premise was REALLY good. But it was so exhausting to read. Just get to the point Kora.
(the spicy scenes tho were 10/10)
(the spicy scenes tho were 10/10)
papercranestitches's review
3.0
I get it! I'm long-winded too! But this was a good story that would have benefited greatly from a cutthroat edit that made the book significantly shorter (like 100-150 pages shorter), but tightened up the storytelling so that the scenes had a little more "oompf!".
And this is totally a personal thing, but by about the half-way point in this book (and certainly by 75% on my Kindle), I was so over the fact that a lot of the difficulties between the MCs still stemmed from Max's inability to come clean with Sean about Kevin's death. Like, at some point you have to put your big boy pants on and use your words, and I felt like it took Max an unrealistically long time to reach this point.
Don't throw things at me *ducks in anticipation* but I didn't really enjoy breaking away from Max and Sean in their own novel to follow up with extra scenes that belonged in the Up-ending Tad series. Like, they had their shining moments, let's leave it at that. I love them as a couple, but I had to attention or emotion to give them in this series. :(
And this is totally a personal thing, but by about the half-way point in this book (and certainly by 75% on my Kindle), I was so over the fact that a lot of the difficulties between the MCs still stemmed from Max's inability to come clean with Sean about Kevin's death. Like, at some point you have to put your big boy pants on and use your words, and I felt like it took Max an unrealistically long time to reach this point.
Don't throw things at me *ducks in anticipation* but I didn't really enjoy breaking away from Max and Sean in their own novel to follow up with extra scenes that belonged in the Up-ending Tad series. Like, they had their shining moments, let's leave it at that. I love them as a couple, but I had to attention or emotion to give them in this series. :(
tobyryan's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-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
5.0
tessan91's review
emotional
tense
medium-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
4.5
caiacassiopeia's review
challenging
dark
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Be brave. With me. Just like you told me to be with you.
This might be one of the hardest reviews I've ever written.
This duology was for ages all over my instagram, so as a self-proclaimed kink-enthusiast, I had to put this on a 'hopefuls' list.
So this already put me somewhat under pressure to "like it"; spoiler: I couldn't enjoy it.
"Unearthed" left already an bitter aftertaste; Max wasn't my favorite and I wasn't quite sure if I'll be able to actually finish their story, but my buddy bestie and I decided to go through this as the power-duo we are and another spoiler alert:
Anne is the only reason I finished this book.
I have different sections, I struggled with:
Max as a character had a difficult past, he is in fact the Main-Main-Character and sadly the person I disliked the most. I thought his character-development lacked some crucial points of elaboration.
He came off way too easy with all the hurt he caused, the comfort he gave wasn't enough imo.
Sean deserved so much better. I was so confused at some points, why he was so focused on "coming together with Max" but seriously Love is illogical and it's Sean's choice to love whom he wants to.
As a person who hadn't had it easy it was kind of the side-side-side note...
I'm also still mad (yeah, quite the emotional person I am) how Max pushed hard-limits and when it came to his own, he lashed out. All nasty and yeah ...
(pushing hard limits as a professional is also a hard pass ...)
I'm also aware that this is fiction and BDSM can be interpreted in so many ways, as can "6work"
But I read and experienced some other variations of lifestyle or interpretations of the lifestyle I just vibe more with.
I'm still on a "hard pass" policy if they're so dubious or noncon in a "contemporary" romance and it isn't addressed as "problematic" this is something I want to read in the dark romance books not in "classic contemporary"
In "Unearthed" they had a discussion about limits and more, so Max pushed Sean and kind of negated Seans reasons for his hard-limits, pushed him to make them "soft" (...) In "Revived" we see as readers, that Max obviously acts unprofessional toward Sean, he already has feelings, he tries to fight and so on, that's okay it's the plot but
the message I received was, that the author seemed to be fine with Max's behavior, because it wasn't adressed as problematic ... they never talked about how unprofessional Max actually was.
And later we get the "revelation" that Sean wasn't his "client" but Sean DIDN'T knew, so this makes it not "better" or validates that Max acted "unprofessional".
The "drunk-common ground"
>The duoPOV of the MainCouple followed sometimes the same situation just out of the different POVs and I was a bit exhausted to read the scene 'again' so this duology was a bit "dragged out".
>The change of duo POV to multi POV (4ppl)
There was a promised sub-plot for Scott&Tad and while I LOVED "Upending Tad",
I wish I would've had their story in a separate Bonus Novella or something like that,
because the sometimes sudden POV changes to their story made it rather difficult for me to follow the actual Main Couple.
>The sub-plot of Jonah and Ledger; something I thought at first (in "Unearthed") as interesting for a maybe upcoming spin-off was another distraction in "Revived"
The problem that this caused for me was, that Anne and I discussed some points and I had to admit that I couldn't remember the beautiful, intimate or sweet moments between Max and Sean.
I'm still not sure where to find them anymore.
>Music-Name-Drop --- I just can't vibe with this.
I can't connect with just a title or Band Name, especially when I don't even know the songs to begin with. I'm also not a person that starts to press play on a random playlist. I think it's pretty cool that an author puts so much thought into this "extra" and provides links and stuff, But I also thought it wasn't necessary for the plot.
It came of as some sort of weird product placement. (Kinda like with the MTV TV Series ?!)
If the songs would've been used in form of carefully selected lyric-quotes to connect with the MCs-monologues, it would've been a totally different vibe.
(I'm aware that this is a totally personal opinion, but this is also my personal review :D)
I enjoyed some of the steamy scenes,
I loved Sean, I love Scott and Tad
but I couldn't love this Story.