A review by poisonivy70
Wild Aces by Marni Mann

3.0

That blurb: I’ll admit, when the blurb’s mysterious, poetic and not exactly clear on what the book will be about, it can capture my interest. The lack of spoilers in the blurb is actually a good thing, and I’m glad I went into it blind. In the interest of maintaining that suspense, I’ll try to be as spoiler-free as possible.

Standalone: It’s a spinoff story of the Unblocked serial, and focuses on Brea, the BFF of the heroine Frankie in Unblocked. This story is standalone, so it’s unnecessary to read the first book, though it was fun in its own right.

It grabs your attention: The first half the story starts strong, and I was intrigued to find out what the mystery was, even if I had a pretty good idea, the tease of what it could be. The prologue in particular, captured my attention in a great way - it was heartbreaking and I was hooked. I needed to know more.

The firsts: Now, the firsts are so crucial in a romance to me. I can and will forgive the little things if you take care of the big beats. The setups for the firsts are good - for example, Brea and Trapper meet at a masquerade party (a key fact for later) - that it sets the tone for their romance. There’s so many secrets, some deliberate and others less so, that were certainly outrageous, and kinda soapy. I have a weakness for heightened drama, so this was right up my alley.

Insta-love: That initial meeting is certainly fraught with sexual tension, and Brea and Trapper say many times how there was “just something” about the other to explain that connection. Even their initial meet had more to do with sex than an emotional or intellectual compatibility. While I have no complaints about their sexual connection, I would have loved to seen more of their personalities shining through their dialogue.

Twisty in many ways: From here, the twists and turns kept me invested in the story, even when it became a bit disjointed in the telling. It was a bit repetitious at times, with key plot points hammered home more often than necessary. Towards the end, the revelations were good, although I would have loved to have felt some tension and that it had been more dynamic. I felt as if I were being told those secrets, instead of being shown the secrets and the emotional fallout from them was muted, because the romance, the core that holds it all together, wasn’t as strong as I would have loved.

The supporting players: I did enjoy the way the the people who love Trapper and Brea gave them sound advice and helped them get past some of the admittedly difficult revelations. There was perhaps a bit of dependency on those conversations, instead of seeing Brea and Trapper interacting, but I still enjoyed them.


This was a hard book for me to rate. I think the plot wins points for being different from anything I’d read before, and if Trapper and Brea’s love had developed beyond the insta-connection, I would have rated it higher. Still keeping my eye on this author, as I think there’s potential here.

**ARC provided by author for review**

For more reviews, visit