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A review by rellimreads
At the Pleasure of the President by Shayla Black, Lexi Blake
3.0
Gah! Parts of this book were a SOLID 5 stars. However, because this book was wrapping things up AND focusing on two couples (Mad & Sara + Zack & Liz) it got bogged down. I barely ever say this, but it either needed to be longer or there needed to be a “Book 4.5” novella where they handled a few things in order to have a “cleaner” Book 5.
Because the authors totally tanked this book with Zack’s (and Roman’s) treatment of Liz and not giving enough time for proper groveling and forgiveness. Because beautiful, strong, smart, steely Liz freakin’ says, “Oh OK, you’re forgiven” after learning that Zack has thought the worst of her for WEEKS and continues to sleep with her. Including, but not limited to thinking she’s committed treason and helped an assassin make an attempt on Zack’s life. AND when the whole situation comes to a head he says some really nasty things to her. This is AFTER she already forgave him for a massive break of trust at the beginning of the book (that started in Book 4). She yells at Roman for all of 3 minutes and immediately agrees to marry Zack. Nope. No. Uh-uh.
Another strike is that the ending is fast paced and kind of a mind bending info dump that also could have used more finesse. It’s like they got tired of writing the story and just threw down a bunch of Russian operatives, plots, and explained that the KGB wouldn’t go after anyone anymore because they discredited one guy. What? The KGB literally spent DECADES and 100’s people and they’re just walking away because #reasons.
The epilogue was adorable, but not enough to forgive the abandonment of Liz’s nature from the entire series.
Because the authors totally tanked this book with Zack’s (and Roman’s) treatment of Liz and not giving enough time for proper groveling and forgiveness. Because beautiful, strong, smart, steely Liz freakin’ says, “Oh OK, you’re forgiven” after learning that Zack has thought the worst of her for WEEKS and continues to sleep with her. Including, but not limited to thinking she’s committed treason and helped an assassin make an attempt on Zack’s life. AND when the whole situation comes to a head he says some really nasty things to her. This is AFTER she already forgave him for a massive break of trust at the beginning of the book (that started in Book 4). She yells at Roman for all of 3 minutes and immediately agrees to marry Zack. Nope. No. Uh-uh.
Another strike is that the ending is fast paced and kind of a mind bending info dump that also could have used more finesse. It’s like they got tired of writing the story and just threw down a bunch of Russian operatives, plots, and explained that the KGB wouldn’t go after anyone anymore because they discredited one guy. What? The KGB literally spent DECADES and 100’s people and they’re just walking away because #reasons.
The epilogue was adorable, but not enough to forgive the abandonment of Liz’s nature from the entire series.