A review by mo_
Summer and Smoke by Coralee June

3.0

3 Stars

Bk 1 and 2

I want to give this 4 stars but I’m trying to learn to be stingy with 4/5 star ratings this yr, bc I give them out too often. So that means this book is getting a lower rating than I would’ve given it if I’d read it last year.

So I usually go into reverse-harem(RH) books with the expectation of it being a goofy OTT fuckfest. Although this book was OTT, it wasn’t any more so than other dark romances. It had a more mature tone than most of the RH books I’ve read. This was entertaining, melodramatic and just somewhat camp (it’s a “dark-reverse-harem” situation, tell me that doesn’t sound just a little bit camp).

The dynamics between the guys were complicated, messy and weird. But I wasn’t mad at it. Their relationships made as much sense as they could in this kinda story.

The book was a bit eccentric but the stakes felt quite high and there was a plot but it was primarily character driven; specifically the relationships between these characters. Tbh I would’ve preferred a even more focus on the relationships than the action, bc the relationships were interesting and tbf, unique. It’s obvs not something you’d find in other books (reverse.-harem). The action and shootouts, I just didn’t care. Just a pretty basic.

And the writing wasn’t anything special.

The big reveal made me go yikes. It was grim. Ngl.