sup3r_xn0va_maya's Reviews (406)

dark mysterious sad tense 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

TW -
Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail


This was just okay. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great. There were no trigger warnings and there's domestic abuse and sexual assault in the first chapter of the book.

 I know for a fact that I like this author's other series better, "The Butcher and the Violinist".


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

TW -
Addiction, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail


This is a dark romance written by a Black woman with a Black female main character and a French male and a love interest. There were definitely many parts of this story that would have creeped me out or unsettled me if anybody I had known or even I had been involved in those situations.

So, on the one hand, I'm completely against a lot of the things that are happening in the story in the ways that the male love innterest operates in general. 

On the other hand, I'm really think I finally see with the dark romance girl as you're talking about when they say they love their mafia romances! If I suspend my belief and live in the land of disillusionment, then this was hot. In fantasy land only, not the real world. 

Touché, Kenya Wright, Touché.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

TW -
sex trafficking, stalking, attempted kidnapping, breeders, pregnancy


PROS - 

- Most of the spicy scenes were good

- The fighting scenes were good 

- The story premise is good



CONS - 

- It was less than a month before she....<spoilers>WAS ALREADY PREGNANT! I can kind of ignore the instalove with ZERO chemistry because of the Fated Mates trope, but instantly PREGNANT?!
🗣 HELL NO

- By the epilouge, she was
pregnant AGAIN😭😮‍💨 and he was talking about how she was going to STAY that way bcuz immediately after the new baby was born, he wanted her pregnant AGAIN. She brings up birth control bcuz she DOESN'T WANT to get pregnant immediately a third time. MMC laughs at her saying "birth control doesn't work on shifters." He says TWICE that fate wants her to get pregnant again, even though she's ALREADY PREGNANT!

They then talk about abstaining from direct intercourse bcuz FMC says she doesn't immediately want a 3rd child, BUT THEN the FMC says she doesn't want to abstain in that way hinting that she loves his body too much to abstain afterall. He also, at one point, tells her that she's very useful to the clan bcuz she's a breeder *COUGH*, I mean...bcuz she's mother to the first hybrid shifters in however many years and because he plans to make sure she keeps giving the clan more hybrid shifters in the form of children she births for him 😬🫠


- The entire story was so rushed that I couldn't properly enjoy anything that was happening 

- The "romance" was very filmsy. There was no real chemistry between the main love interests. There was nothing between the love interests other than The Fated Mates trope and lust. 


TW - Harming someone during sex

- The spicy scenes were mostly good. There was the first one that had a ick moment, though 😮‍💨😬
when he literally hurts her and he's even afraid that he hurt her too badly. like? then control yourself, tf? that wasn't sexy at all


FINAL RATING -

While reading, I kept wavering between a rating of 2 - 3 Stars. I think I'll choose 2.75 Stars, and I'll say that the fight scene, the spicy scenes, and the small amount of world building saved this from being 2 or 2.5 Stars. I really wanted to like this more. I will continue with the next book in the series and I'll how I like that one. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was so good! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

TW - Sexual assault, sexual violence, enslavement 

I don't want to read about a Roman leader enslaving a woman and making his sex slave "to save her." 

I don't want to real about sexual assault or sexual violence.

Also, the author didnt include Trigger warnings. 

The premise seemed like a cool concept because I LOVE Shifters romances, but I can't deal with the enslavement stuff. That's not romantic and that's not consensual intimacy, she's enslaved. 

This was disappointing. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

PLEASE CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS 

edit// I've read two novellas by this author, and both were thriller/suspense with content that can definitely be considered disturbing and sensitive, but Ive noticed that I haven't seen any trigger warnings in the books. Maybe I need to check the website? 

---

This would have been a four or four point five star review if the author did not keep insinuating that people with mental illness, people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, and/or people who are promiscuous, are inherently, evil or bad. 

I'm not religious, so I ignored all the religious connotations about how certain people are evil because they don't have God within them. Because it was evident that the main character and the main character's mother did not have very much God within themselves,
based on the revengeful actions, they both separately took.
So the character's in the book were basically chalk calling the baby powder white? They were hypocrites. 

Other than that, the book was really entertaining for like a thriller suspense, and honestly, the surprises and twists just kept coming, so that was enjoyable.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous funny hopeful fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was my first Beverly Jenkins book and it was really cute. I WOULD have given it 5 STARS, but I gave it 3 stars because it's technically military & cop propaganda and I didn't know the cops or military were in this story at all. Honestly, if I had known, I wouldn't have bought it even though I got the audiobook for like $1.99. 

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