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A review by tammy_jay
Tarnished Embers by Rosa Lee
1.0
DNF @ 17 pages
This might just be a case of “it’s not you, it’s me,” but I could already tell this wasn’t going to be a good match for me. The instalove and instant emotional bond between complete strangers gave me the immediate ick, it felt weirdly unforced where there should have been SOME resistance… and it wasn’t in a fun, fated-mates kind of way.
What really sealed it for me was the dynamic between the FMC and the so-called "brothers." The main character reads as clearly young, while the men come across as older, emotionally intense, and completely uninterested in boundaries. There was zero effort to build trust or connection, it’s just immediate claiming, instant intensity, and the vibe felt off. I could already feel some uncomfortable power dynamics and icky situations brewing, and I’m not here for that.
If you enjoy ridiculously fast-paced emotional connections and don’t mind skipping the whole “get to know you” phase, you might click with this. But I’m a slow-burn, tension-and-trust kind of reader, and this one just wasn’t it for me. Life’s too short to struggle through a couple hundred pages of sub-par smut.
This might just be a case of “it’s not you, it’s me,” but I could already tell this wasn’t going to be a good match for me. The instalove and instant emotional bond between complete strangers gave me the immediate ick, it felt weirdly unforced where there should have been SOME resistance… and it wasn’t in a fun, fated-mates kind of way.
What really sealed it for me was the dynamic between the FMC and the so-called "brothers." The main character reads as clearly young, while the men come across as older, emotionally intense, and completely uninterested in boundaries. There was zero effort to build trust or connection, it’s just immediate claiming, instant intensity, and the vibe felt off. I could already feel some uncomfortable power dynamics and icky situations brewing, and I’m not here for that.
If you enjoy ridiculously fast-paced emotional connections and don’t mind skipping the whole “get to know you” phase, you might click with this. But I’m a slow-burn, tension-and-trust kind of reader, and this one just wasn’t it for me. Life’s too short to struggle through a couple hundred pages of sub-par smut.