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baileyemma25's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
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? Yes
5.0
“The only place that felt like Home was where Ryker and sprig are” - Zoey
Zoey: “What are you doing?”
Ryker: “Ruthlessly going after what I want.”
Sprig is still my fav character!! He’s so funny and I can just imagine how cute he is 🥹
Sprig is still my fav character!! He’s so funny and I can just imagine how cute he is 🥹
anitak88's review
5.0
Oh my god! This book was absolutely phenomenal. I still cannot believe it was the same author as the darkness series. Her writing has grown so much it's unbelievable. I absolutely adore Ryker like hands down one of my top five book boyfriends for sure. And I even love Zoey. The way she has written both of these characters with such real backgrounds and traumatic backgrounds and then how they are expressing and dealing with that trauma and present day is so realistic. The way that she has written their character development individually as well as their relationship development was just perfect. The addition of more side characters to the plot and what they bring to it was perfectly done and kept us guessing cuz you never knew who was going to betray them or not and at the end of the book that wouldn't have been my number one guess after everything that had gone down. And then to top it all off that cliffhanger ending just blew me away. 100% five star rating. Would absolutely read this book again and I would recommend the first series The darkness series just based off of how amazing this series is turning out to be.
devansbooklife's review
5.0
Sexy, addictive, and thrilling adventure. This series gives it's reader action at every turn.
ninaleigh's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
4.0
kgoldd's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
3.0
kaylawhite17's review
4.0
Okay I really don't know why but I liked this book way better than the first one!! I still struggled with the characters sort of aimlessly walking around with no plan, but their relationship moved along enough to keep me entertained.
I really like Zoey as a main character. She's super tough and takes shit from no one. That being said, the chick makes so many stupid choices. At the end when she decides to go and figure out what the fae are up to, by herself, I wanted to kill her.
I love the plot twist that Zoey having Ryker's powers are causing him to die. It makes their relationship so freaking interesting! Like they're both dying and they both love each other. Especially now that the powers have acclimated to her and he has to kill her to get them back. It's just such an incredibly fun plot line!
Ryker is the perfect mixture of grumpy and loveable. I will say he was driving me a little crazy at the end. I do sympathize he was in a rough spot with his two girlfriends being there, but his constant back and forth was giving me whiplash.
I forgot Ryker had a girlfriend before Zoey. I really hated that he cheated on her. Especially when he thought she was literally being tortured and still choose to mess around with Zoey. I feel like the author made her in with Vadik so that their cheating wasn't so bad. It was. It really made me feel icky. Though, again, it was a fun plot point to watch Ryker have to sit in the middle of two powerful women.
The ending!! As soon as Vadik said he had bigger plans for Zoey I knew he was selling her back to DMG! I was like oh fuck that's bad. Then she wakes up and it's been WEEKS?? Where is Ryker? How fast will not having his powers kill him? What about that random girl she promised to save? I'm so excited to find out what happens!
I really like Zoey as a main character. She's super tough and takes shit from no one. That being said, the chick makes so many stupid choices. At the end when she decides to go and figure out what the fae are up to, by herself, I wanted to kill her.
I love the plot twist that Zoey having Ryker's powers are causing him to die. It makes their relationship so freaking interesting! Like they're both dying and they both love each other. Especially now that the powers have acclimated to her and he has to kill her to get them back. It's just such an incredibly fun plot line!
Ryker is the perfect mixture of grumpy and loveable. I will say he was driving me a little crazy at the end. I do sympathize he was in a rough spot with his two girlfriends being there, but his constant back and forth was giving me whiplash.
I forgot Ryker had a girlfriend before Zoey. I really hated that he cheated on her. Especially when he thought she was literally being tortured and still choose to mess around with Zoey. I feel like the author made her in with Vadik so that their cheating wasn't so bad. It was. It really made me feel icky. Though, again, it was a fun plot point to watch Ryker have to sit in the middle of two powerful women.
The ending!! As soon as Vadik said he had bigger plans for Zoey I knew he was selling her back to DMG! I was like oh fuck that's bad. Then she wakes up and it's been WEEKS?? Where is Ryker? How fast will not having his powers kill him? What about that random girl she promised to save? I'm so excited to find out what happens!
thewordslinger's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Okay. I've gone from "maybe book 1 was just a warmup and shit will get better" to all out hate-reading this bullshit series so you don't have to. You're welcome.
This book is a repeat of book 1, except the setting is in Peru. That's it. That's all you need to know. Because absolutely fucking nothing happens in this book except 2 people fuck a couple times and feed a monkey.
<img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4c/0d/7c/4c0d7c87d5e05125982727ae4c725e89.gif"/>
Trigger warnings:
- Terrible godawful writing
- Non-existent editing
- Face-melting boredom
- Cheating trope
Leaving my reader's notes, I guess, in case anyone's morbidly curious. There's nothing good in there. You've been warned.
Chapter 2: We're in book 2 and Zoey is seriously still telling us she's a tough street-wise foster kid. Bitch we KNOW.
Okay, so now out of nowhere we find out that Sprig was experimented on and altered--so his true form really isn't a monkey. Rapava MADE him that way--why wasn't this in book 1?
Chapter 3: This book is <i>entirely</i> too short to have this much repeated info. We all know know what happened in book 1. We don't need a chapter-by-chapter recap.
<b>"[Fae] used humans and consumed us for our life force, whether it was through dreams, sins, or sex..."</b>
A couple things:
1. What about your blood/body? We're told in book 1 some Fae eat humans.
2. What does Ryker need from humans? Is he somehow different? If so, clearly not ALL fae prey on humans. Neither does sprig, come to think of it. So why does Zoey feel like ALL fae are predators?
NOW we're hearing about this shaman-Regnus???? Why wasn't he brought up anywhere in book 1? Ryker even said in book 1 that Elthia couldn't find anything/anyone in Seattle to help...but it seems Ryker's known someone existed all along???? So why didn't he go looking for this dude right away? Why drag us all the way through book 1 doing absolutely nothing when he knew there was a potential solution?
Chapter 4: This girl's using glamor like she's been doing it her whole life. When in reality she's managed it successfully on purpose twice. And now, she's calling it "her" glamor. So I guess it's not Ryker's power anymore, huh?
Being drunk doesn't turn you into a child. At least I can't imagine a centuries old fae viking warrior acting like a giggly sorority girl. This whole scene is dumb as hell and so cringy it's painful. This is the kind of thing I might have found amusing when I was 14 and had no idea how alcohol actually affected people.
I'm already tired of hearing about Ryker's perky ass. I'm on page 24 and it's already been mentioned like 7 times. And that's not counting how she went on about his body in book 1.
Oh, so he's just conveniently sober enough all of a sudden at the right time to pull her out of the stone's grip? What happened to him being passed out like 3 seconds ago?
Chapter 5: This confession is so over the top melodramatic. Ryker is starting to give me the ick.
Chapter 6: Where the hell are the temper-tantrums coming from? Zoey's acting like an immature brat all of a sudden and it's not a good look.
Chapter 9: Ryker in this book is waaaaaay different. He's chatty, likes to let loose and have fun. It's like reading a stranger.
The idea of Zoe turning herself into an Amara look-alike is gross.
The amount of times Ryker's commented on wanting to be with Zoey, making comments about finally they get to have sex etc...the amount of times they almost kiss but get interrupted is too damn high. He's fully admitted he STILL has Amara. So his longing for and lusting after and nearly kissing Zoey is emotional cheating at the very least. I cannot stand a cheater.
Chapter 10: Nope! Nope, nope, nope. Ryker's officially a cheating scumbag and Zoey's all too okay being the other woman. Both of these people are terrible and there's zero excuse for it.
<b>Daniel never even came close to this.</b>
Bitch what do you mean? You'd been in love with the man for years. You fantasized a whole life with him. Now because you're horny, Ryker's all you've ever dreamed of?
And they don't even use protection.
Chapter 14: Of fucking course there just so happens to be some ancient fae fable that implies Ryker can kill Zoey to get his powers back. But wait! What happened to this whole story line of "if Zoey dies his powers go with her"?
Chapter 15: Oh, so now Amara's magically the EX-girlfriend. When exactly did THAT conversation happen between her and Ryker? Somewhere between her smooching him hello and telling him he had to kill Zoey?
<b>I was the other woman. The bitch. The one who slept with an unavailable man. I had known this was coming, but I heedlessly jumped anyway.</b>
YUP. You reap what you sow.
Chapter 16: <b>"Ryker, you know I've always been open to other girls so long as there were no feelings attached, it didn't bother me."</b>
Well isn't that convenient? He's NOT cheating scumbag after all, folks! He's just in an open relationship!
I call bullshit. Because 2 seconds later, he denies this and she makes the statement that she knows he's loyal AF and would never. This is a cop-out. Pretty sure SMB realized she fucked up and this was her lame attempt to make the cheating okay. News flash: it doesn't work.
I am getting so sick of this stupid monkey asking about food. It might have been cute the first 12 times. But I'm so fucking over it. All these characters do in this book is eat.
Okay, so I know I'm a book and a half in right now but this has to be said: I have NO idea how the magic in this world works. There seems to be zero rules. Nothing to ground us or guide us. It's all arbitrary, made up in the moment to be convenient to the plot.
Amara's threat at the end of this chapter is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
1. I thought she didn't care if Ryker was with other women? I thought she gave him a pass to do what he wanted because she knew he'd always come back to her?
2. If she butchers Zoey into little pieces, Ryker won't get his powers back, fucking ignoramus.
Chapter 17: It's totally okay for Zoey to not know everything. She's "heard about druids" and knows about different species of fae that are totally super elusive and unique to Peru, she's even heard of this mysterious shifter-shaman Kanaima by name!!!!! She must have been the most studious DMG student EVER!
Fucking really? They don't have enough enemies, we have to teleport back to Seattle and back to the gang that tried to rape her and use her as a fighter to make money?
Chapter 18: How is Marie so calm about all of this? How does she not have a zillion questions about what Zoey is doing back in Seattle, let alone back in the gang's warehouse? She's rolling with it like she expected/planned Zoey's arrival. This is so fucking stupid.
Why are we re-using bad guys? This isn't moving the plot forward at all. We're ignoring the real plot with Amara and Vadik. And looping back to the lame street fighting shit??? Does SMB seriously know no other way to show us Zoey's a badass who can fight dirty? Was there really no other way to accomplish this???? I'm bored and angry.
Chapter 19: Not gonna lie, I'm skimming.
Chapters 20-21: Straight up skipped these chapters. We're not moving the plot forward whatsoever. I don't give a single shit about this prison-like girls fighting club or whatever the fuck. And because we only have Zoey's POV we have NO idea what Ryker, Amara or Croygan are up to. (Spoiler Alert: Nothing. They accomplished absolutely fuckall.)
Chapter 22: You really mean to tell me Zoey just transported herself back to Peru after a 3 chapter detour so SMB could show us how badass she was? And the instant it gets even remotely close to having a relevant plot where she encounters Maxen, she's just poof, gone back to her happy place? Did a 12 year old write this?
Amara just pulled the "for months now" line. What even is time passage anymore. Just a couple chapters ago, they'd only been in Peru for a couple weeks, at best. Now MONTHS have passed?
The amount of time we waste on having NOTHING conversations... We just spent a page and a half arguing about a pile of smelly clothes. This book is only 250 pages long, y'all. Between the food talk (which is the the ONLY reason Sprig still exists...fuck off that he has magic and could actually maybe be of use) and Ryker and Zoey getting interrupted when they're trying to make out, there's probably only been like 15 pages of PLOT in this book.
Chapter 24: Why are we only NOW teaching Zoey to fight like a fae? Shouldn't this have been a thing all along given she's had Ryker's powers since early on in book 1? Just in case? For basically 2 whole books now the powers she's had have been nonexistent--except when it's convenient. When we could have been seeing them, getting to know their uses, watching them grow. But we go from "no don't use them cause you'll end up taking them for keeps" to "okay let's train you how to use them."
And the training is so dumb. It's just an excuse to have a cat fight in a mud pit. There's no actual training. And ONE session isn't gonna do jack shit for Zoey anyway. This is just a time-waster.
Chapter 26: Now that Zoey has Ryker's powers, Amara's little threats to kill her mean jack shit. SHE CAN'T KILL HER. If she does, Ryker's fucked. This is the lore YOU came up with, SMB. I'm just playing by your rules!
Only 6 chapters ago, Maxen and Co. were in Seattle. How did they end up in Peru? How did they know to GO to Peru?
Chapter 27: Annnnnnd there's the betrayal I expected. Amara was <i>always</i> a plant. There's no real relationship between her and Ryker. Ryker's not <i>actually</i> a cheating scumbag! Congrats!
The tracking sticker is such a cop-out. For all these fae and their supposed magic, we're expected to believe none of them used ANY magic to do anything magical? So far the ONLY person to display magic (outside the monkey) has been Zoey. You see what I mean about this magic system being bogus?
Vadik: <b>"I would love for your blood to water the earth under my feet. But you are more valuable alive than dead."</b>
Vadik, 3 seconds later: <b>"The human might have no value <i>to me</i>, but she stays where she is.</b>
So, what you're saying is that she IS valuable? Seriously was this book edited by ChatGPT?
I've ignored it up to this point, but I can't anymore. These <i>Nooooooo</i>s are fucking dramatic and so goddamned juvenile. The writing is so fuckin' bad, y'all.
This book is a repeat of book 1, except the setting is in Peru. That's it. That's all you need to know. Because absolutely fucking nothing happens in this book except 2 people fuck a couple times and feed a monkey.
<img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4c/0d/7c/4c0d7c87d5e05125982727ae4c725e89.gif"/>
Trigger warnings:
- Terrible godawful writing
- Non-existent editing
- Face-melting boredom
- Cheating trope
Leaving my reader's notes, I guess, in case anyone's morbidly curious. There's nothing good in there. You've been warned.
Okay, so now out of nowhere we find out that Sprig was experimented on and altered--so his true form really isn't a monkey. Rapava MADE him that way--why wasn't this in book 1?
Chapter 3: This book is <i>entirely</i> too short to have this much repeated info. We all know know what happened in book 1. We don't need a chapter-by-chapter recap.
<b>"[Fae] used humans and consumed us for our life force, whether it was through dreams, sins, or sex..."</b>
A couple things:
1. What about your blood/body? We're told in book 1 some Fae eat humans.
2. What does Ryker need from humans? Is he somehow different? If so, clearly not ALL fae prey on humans. Neither does sprig, come to think of it. So why does Zoey feel like ALL fae are predators?
NOW we're hearing about this shaman-Regnus???? Why wasn't he brought up anywhere in book 1? Ryker even said in book 1 that Elthia couldn't find anything/anyone in Seattle to help...but it seems Ryker's known someone existed all along???? So why didn't he go looking for this dude right away? Why drag us all the way through book 1 doing absolutely nothing when he knew there was a potential solution?
Chapter 4: This girl's using glamor like she's been doing it her whole life. When in reality she's managed it successfully on purpose twice. And now, she's calling it "her" glamor. So I guess it's not Ryker's power anymore, huh?
Being drunk doesn't turn you into a child. At least I can't imagine a centuries old fae viking warrior acting like a giggly sorority girl. This whole scene is dumb as hell and so cringy it's painful. This is the kind of thing I might have found amusing when I was 14 and had no idea how alcohol actually affected people.
I'm already tired of hearing about Ryker's perky ass. I'm on page 24 and it's already been mentioned like 7 times. And that's not counting how she went on about his body in book 1.
Oh, so he's just conveniently sober enough all of a sudden at the right time to pull her out of the stone's grip? What happened to him being passed out like 3 seconds ago?
Chapter 5: This confession is so over the top melodramatic. Ryker is starting to give me the ick.
Chapter 6: Where the hell are the temper-tantrums coming from? Zoey's acting like an immature brat all of a sudden and it's not a good look.
Chapter 9: Ryker in this book is waaaaaay different. He's chatty, likes to let loose and have fun. It's like reading a stranger.
The idea of Zoe turning herself into an Amara look-alike is gross.
The amount of times Ryker's commented on wanting to be with Zoey, making comments about finally they get to have sex etc...the amount of times they almost kiss but get interrupted is too damn high. He's fully admitted he STILL has Amara. So his longing for and lusting after and nearly kissing Zoey is emotional cheating at the very least. I cannot stand a cheater.
Chapter 10: Nope! Nope, nope, nope. Ryker's officially a cheating scumbag and Zoey's all too okay being the other woman. Both of these people are terrible and there's zero excuse for it.
<b>Daniel never even came close to this.</b>
Bitch what do you mean? You'd been in love with the man for years. You fantasized a whole life with him. Now because you're horny, Ryker's all you've ever dreamed of?
And they don't even use protection.
Chapter 14: Of fucking course there just so happens to be some ancient fae fable that implies Ryker can kill Zoey to get his powers back. But wait! What happened to this whole story line of "if Zoey dies his powers go with her"?
Chapter 15: Oh, so now Amara's magically the EX-girlfriend. When exactly did THAT conversation happen between her and Ryker? Somewhere between her smooching him hello and telling him he had to kill Zoey?
<b>I was the other woman. The bitch. The one who slept with an unavailable man. I had known this was coming, but I heedlessly jumped anyway.</b>
YUP. You reap what you sow.
Chapter 16: <b>"Ryker, you know I've always been open to other girls so long as there were no feelings attached, it didn't bother me."</b>
Well isn't that convenient? He's NOT cheating scumbag after all, folks! He's just in an open relationship!
I call bullshit. Because 2 seconds later, he denies this and she makes the statement that she knows he's loyal AF and would never. This is a cop-out. Pretty sure SMB realized she fucked up and this was her lame attempt to make the cheating okay. News flash: it doesn't work.
I am getting so sick of this stupid monkey asking about food. It might have been cute the first 12 times. But I'm so fucking over it. All these characters do in this book is eat.
Okay, so I know I'm a book and a half in right now but this has to be said: I have NO idea how the magic in this world works. There seems to be zero rules. Nothing to ground us or guide us. It's all arbitrary, made up in the moment to be convenient to the plot.
Amara's threat at the end of this chapter is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
1. I thought she didn't care if Ryker was with other women? I thought she gave him a pass to do what he wanted because she knew he'd always come back to her?
2. If she butchers Zoey into little pieces, Ryker won't get his powers back, fucking ignoramus.
Chapter 17: It's totally okay for Zoey to not know everything. She's "heard about druids" and knows about different species of fae that are totally super elusive and unique to Peru, she's even heard of this mysterious shifter-shaman Kanaima by name!!!!! She must have been the most studious DMG student EVER!
Fucking really? They don't have enough enemies, we have to teleport back to Seattle and back to the gang that tried to rape her and use her as a fighter to make money?
Chapter 18: How is Marie so calm about all of this? How does she not have a zillion questions about what Zoey is doing back in Seattle, let alone back in the gang's warehouse? She's rolling with it like she expected/planned Zoey's arrival. This is so fucking stupid.
Why are we re-using bad guys? This isn't moving the plot forward at all. We're ignoring the real plot with Amara and Vadik. And looping back to the lame street fighting shit??? Does SMB seriously know no other way to show us Zoey's a badass who can fight dirty? Was there really no other way to accomplish this???? I'm bored and angry.
Chapter 19: Not gonna lie, I'm skimming.
Chapters 20-21: Straight up skipped these chapters. We're not moving the plot forward whatsoever. I don't give a single shit about this prison-like girls fighting club or whatever the fuck. And because we only have Zoey's POV we have NO idea what Ryker, Amara or Croygan are up to. (Spoiler Alert: Nothing. They accomplished absolutely fuckall.)
Chapter 22: You really mean to tell me Zoey just transported herself back to Peru after a 3 chapter detour so SMB could show us how badass she was? And the instant it gets even remotely close to having a relevant plot where she encounters Maxen, she's just poof, gone back to her happy place? Did a 12 year old write this?
Amara just pulled the "for months now" line. What even is time passage anymore. Just a couple chapters ago, they'd only been in Peru for a couple weeks, at best. Now MONTHS have passed?
The amount of time we waste on having NOTHING conversations... We just spent a page and a half arguing about a pile of smelly clothes. This book is only 250 pages long, y'all. Between the food talk (which is the the ONLY reason Sprig still exists...fuck off that he has magic and could actually maybe be of use) and Ryker and Zoey getting interrupted when they're trying to make out, there's probably only been like 15 pages of PLOT in this book.
Chapter 24: Why are we only NOW teaching Zoey to fight like a fae? Shouldn't this have been a thing all along given she's had Ryker's powers since early on in book 1? Just in case? For basically 2 whole books now the powers she's had have been nonexistent--except when it's convenient. When we could have been seeing them, getting to know their uses, watching them grow. But we go from "no don't use them cause you'll end up taking them for keeps" to "okay let's train you how to use them."
And the training is so dumb. It's just an excuse to have a cat fight in a mud pit. There's no actual training. And ONE session isn't gonna do jack shit for Zoey anyway. This is just a time-waster.
Chapter 26: Now that Zoey has Ryker's powers, Amara's little threats to kill her mean jack shit. SHE CAN'T KILL HER. If she does, Ryker's fucked. This is the lore YOU came up with, SMB. I'm just playing by your rules!
Only 6 chapters ago, Maxen and Co. were in Seattle. How did they end up in Peru? How did they know to GO to Peru?
Chapter 27: Annnnnnd there's the betrayal I expected. Amara was <i>always</i> a plant. There's no real relationship between her and Ryker. Ryker's not <i>actually</i> a cheating scumbag! Congrats!
The tracking sticker is such a cop-out. For all these fae and their supposed magic, we're expected to believe none of them used ANY magic to do anything magical? So far the ONLY person to display magic (outside the monkey) has been Zoey. You see what I mean about this magic system being bogus?
Vadik: <b>"I would love for your blood to water the earth under my feet. But you are more valuable alive than dead."</b>
Vadik, 3 seconds later: <b>"The human might have no value <i>to me</i>, but she stays where she is.</b>
So, what you're saying is that she IS valuable? Seriously was this book edited by ChatGPT?
I've ignored it up to this point, but I can't anymore. These <i>Nooooooo</i>s are fucking dramatic and so goddamned juvenile. The writing is so fuckin' bad, y'all.
gypsydawn's review against another edition
4.0
Yes!
Alright, I might like this series better than the darkness series - at least so far. It’s tense, dangerous and steamy as all heck.
Alright, I might like this series better than the darkness series - at least so far. It’s tense, dangerous and steamy as all heck.
hestongeorgia's review against another edition
4.0
Só estou aqui pelos family moments da zoey+ryker+sprig