novanother 's review for:

Us Deadly Few by Alexis Patton

4.75

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

“I know you have the biggest heart, because in another story, I would’ve wanted you to be my ending.”
“In another story, you would’ve been my beginning.”

Dynamic: Group Leader x Protector
Tropes: Touch her and die, Fake Relationship, Forced Proximity, Slow Burn, Miscommunication, Cliffhanger Ending
Setting: Post-Apocalyptic Desert, Ungerground Casino, Underground Prison
Genre: Dystopian Romance
Spice: Open Door
TW:

Attempted Sexual Assault, Torture, Violence, Human Experimentation

❥ Plot

Finally having escaped Apollo, the group is on their way to Hermes. They encounter challenges, like sandstorms, tribes of humans who survived the Great Fall and finally arrive in Hermes.

To get help from the rebellion Kahalani und Takeshi have to go undercover in another underground prison, where Takeshi finally admits to himself that he loves Khalani. But when they’re broken out of the prison something goes wrong, and it appears that Takeshi has died.

Finally we end on the cliffhanger, that Takeshi is alive but working for the enemy now and appears to have had his memory wiped.

She didn’t know how to give up on anyone except herself.

❥ Characters

Khalani is much less depressed in this compared to the previous book. She is feisty and slowly embraces her role as the group’s leader.

Khalani found kinship with the wind. She too wanted to be everywhere. Unseen. Significant.

She is having a bit of a mental break, especially in the beginning. I really thought the fact that she cuts herself to remind herself that she is human would come up again but it never did which was… a surprise.

And if Khalani could bleed, that meant she was real, too. Right?

Around the mid point I did roll my eyes at the way she acted like Takeshi actually hated her when he confessed several times and clearly showed with his actions that he cares, he is just being an emotionally stunted dick abt it. “Why did he save me” girl, get with the program. Or as Takeshi put it: Believing I don’t care would be illogical, even for you.

Takeshi was very delicious in this book, mhm. Even more protective than in the last book and a good dash of jealousy as well, especially towards Brock.

Suddenly, Takeshi found a new purpose in prison. Khalani Kanes was it.

Like Khalani, he eventually pissed me off a bit too. His entire reason in the last book for not fully embracing her as a lover was because he was a prison guard and she a prisoner. But this dynamic is just no longer existent in this book, so a lot of his emotional unavailability made me roll my eyes.
But this was mainly around the mid point, where the plot had slowed down a little and got better once the plot got going again.

He spoke of death as if it were his burden to bear and gift to deliver.

If you think Takeshi was protective in the first book… you got a big storm coming.

“The moment you laid a hand on her, you chose death.”

“What are you doing? She accepted my apology!”
“She did.” Takeshi wiped his lips. “But I didn’t.”

“No one will touch her and escape death.”
Khalani momentarily forgot how to breathe.
Repeat after me: Your enemy threatening to maim others on your behalf is psychotic and troubling, not attractive.

❥ Relationships

In that final moment, Takeshi hadn’t looked at her like a protector in her story.
He stared at Khalani as if she were the villain in his.

Khalani and Takeshi were very push and pull in this. The reasons for keeping them apart did not feel as logical as they did in the first book. A whole lot of them snapping and being rude just because they’re emotionally constipated. Not my favorite, but I think the author realised she needed better conflict, which is why the book ended this way.

“You’re here because you need a distraction. And I don’t like seeing you sad,” Takeshi muttered, his voice deepening.
She blinked rapidly at his unexpectedly kind words. “That doesn’t sound like you. You love making me cry.”
“Let me rephrase. I want to make you cry in other ways, but never from being sad.”

Ignoring the “this is your only chance to say no” moment (ew), Takeshi was being so greta about the consent aspect as well. Had me swooning.

“Why did you stop?”
“Because I’ll take many things, Kanes, but never your choice. If you want to surrender to me for just this one night, then undo the last button. If not, you should stand and walk back to the others.”
He was going to be her undoing.

Their banter was great and the tension was killing me.

“What shall I do with you now?” he mused.
“What do you want to do?” Takeshi let out a dark chuckle.
“There aren’t enough hours left in the night to show you.”

“I already keep an eye on you while you sleep.”
“Sounds unhealthy,” she deadpanned.
“Probably.”
“And psychotic.”
“Stop with the compliments.”

“Tell me, Kanes. How soaked are you for me?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“I want to put my head between your thighs and swallow all your decadent lies.”

Don’t even get me started on the jealousy~

“I should eviscerate your teacher on principle alone.”
“Jealous?” she seethed.
“Do you want me to detail the one hundred ninety-seven ways I thought of killing him, or the thousand ways I plan on punishing you?”
“That’s oddly specific.”
“Keep provoking me, Kanes. See where that gets you.”

“You’re not mine.”
Khalani’s pulse hammered like she was dangling off the edge of a cliff. “I’m not?”
“You say that like a question.”
She pressed her lips into a thin line, determined not to say another word.
Takeshi was the one to break the silence. “No, you aren’t mine, Kanes. If you were, you’d know it.” He leaned closer, his black eyes scorching. “I don’t like to share.”

I really hope in the third book Takeshi can frankly get over himself, grow a pair and just stand to his emotions. And Kahalani can stop getting baited by him SOOO easily, girl you know him by now.

❥ The good, the bad, the in-between

✔️ Found Family: The side characters continue to be exceptionally good, though Derek was barely in this one.
I’d love to see a friendship blossom between Takeshi and Brock tbh AND I think Khalani and Brock are so cousin coded.
I also want to see more Takeshi and Winnie interactions because it is often alluded to the fact that these two are close, but I want to see it more as well.

✔️ Ending: I saw it coming because I knew the book ended on a cliffhanger so it wasn’t a huge surprise, but still. DAMN. What a cliffhanger, I need the next book yesterday.

〰️ Plot: The Prometheus/Helix plot is beginnging to drag just a little. We didn’t get even a little closer to solving that entire mystery and I believe we only have one book ahead and have a lot of open plot lines. Not sure how well that is going to work out.

❥ Conclusion

I can’t put my finger on the reason, but I preferred the first book just a bit. Maybe because the reasons for why Takeshi and Khalani were kept apart felt much more natural than here, but I don’t know.

Still, this is a strong 4.75⭐️

Content Warnings