a recent nursing graduate student who is no stranger to the military lifestyle. She's naive, fearful yet motivated after the passing of her older brother. She's entering a new chapter in her life where she has to adjust without her best friend and start a career that mentally and physically challenges her. Meanwhile, she's battling the unknown gnawing details of her brother's death and the grief that follows her.
Danny Rider,
Operator Grim Reaper is a Navy SEAL who lives a very selfish, career-focused life and he likes it that way. He is only responsible for himself and no one else. He's a lethal killer, with demons always looming inside of him due to all the trauma of constant deployments. Yet, when he meets Ari she's both damaging to his addictions and the halo he needs.
Lexie Axelson is a Hispanic Author from South Texas. She is a military spouse currently residing on the East Coast. She loves to pen angsty, heartbreaking love stories. When she isn't reading a book, she loves to watch horror movies and travel with her family.
DNF @22% I tried, I really did but this book is struggling for more than one reason. 1. It needed way more editing. There is basic grammatical errors, poor sentence structure, and repeated phrases on almost every page. I’m not joking when I say that virtually every piece of dialogue is not punctuated correctly. Some scenes don’t even make sense, (her mom and her are at a coffee shop, then go grocery shopping, and back to a coffee shop?) 2. The writing is very immature. There’s no depth to what I’m reading beyond a good line every now and then. It reads like a 15 year old’s diary, not as a 22 year old trauma nurse going into the Army. 3. This book is directionally lost. There’s no consistency to the character’s arcs. You have a MMC you’re marketing as dark and dangerous, like Ghost and yet this guy seems like a wet rag, totally normal dude for a quarter of the book? There’s nothing eye catching or interesting about Danny when they meet, or gives you the feeling that he’s some tortured soul. "I also just want to be a part of the best team in the world and kill bad guys. Simple. As. That." That’s an actual line of his. 4. This book is not interesting in the slightest for the 22% that I read. She’s already about to sleep with him at 12% which made no sense considering she’s a virgin and had known him for 2 days. And then surprise! He’s actually BFFs with her brother who passed but we’ll just randomly throw that in there.
I had no interest in reading more about Danny and Ari because of the lack of chemistry.
This book way over promised and under delivered. I understand it’s a debut, but there’s a line between an author being new and not yet perfecting their craft, and a book that needed heaps of work before it should’ve been published. This is the latter.
Lesson learned: Never trust other's rating (INCLUDING MINE)
Did i enjoy it? Yes Was the writing good? Yes Was it bingeable? Yes Was the spice good? Yes Will i recommend this? No Absolutely not if you can't tolerate the nickname "cherry" LOL.. atp i can't with any nicknames so i just ComProMise
Besides the ghost thingy, I also wanted to read a military romance and it served that too hehe
Tropes ✓Military romance ✓Possessive NAVY SEAL MMC ✓Virgin Medic FMC ✓Brother's best friend ✓Age gap (22 , 33)
Also idk how was bro still alive from how much cigarette he smokes and whiskey he drinks💀
What was that ending aaaahhhh i knew it was gonna end on cliffhanger but sill JAIL JAIL JAIL
"Time waits for no one. Death is a shadow stalking the living. It is a painful inexorable promise while Life is a lovely lie."
_________
Pre-read: My mask-fetish a$$ has a crush on call of duty ghost.. never played the game or anything lol but my pinterest is bombarded with his pins
So i did a research and this is the closest novel i could come across All the above ratings are 1 star wtf🤡
This book needs HEAVY editing. Grammatical errors, sentence structure… some words weren’t even the right words.. leaving me guessing what the author meant to say. It would flip between present and past tense from one sentence to the next. Serious detail issues. Ex: Ari was able to leave his house in the morning by having her friend come pick her up before Danny woke up… but hours later Danny’s mom needed to request access to the gate through Danny’s phone & be let in? Ari’s mom is super religious and pesters Ari to save herself for marriage but is 110% on board when Ari tells her she’s going to stay at Danny’s house overnight “because of the hurricane”? . It’s small details, but there’s soooo many in just the few chapters that I read. It kept pulling me out of the story.
. I DNFd when—A WEEK AFTER Ari & Danny have their first date—he gets a BJ in the bathroom by a different girl. Ari catches him in the act, and 5 seconds later she’s all gooey and forgets all about it… because he punched her ex and calls her “CHERRY” as a supposedly cute nickname? I just… nope, can’t do it.
I *cannot* stress this enough.. making a MMC a two timing dirtbag does not make a book dark romance. Danny is not a dark character, he’s not even a gray character. he’s just a regular dude who sleeps around… but with PTSD.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
*deep heavy sigh* I promise you I’m not hard to please at all I legit give 4 to 5 stars out like it’s candy however I was simply not connecting with this story. First off the docket the writing was a bit off at times especially in the beginning. I typically don’t realize these types of things however this was quite obvious for me to see. Also what type of nickname is cherry?? I needed Danny to be 100% fucking serious… sometimes I was confused that he was a grown man because acted like a fucking child.Mainly finished this to get closer to my summer reading goal. Now the real tea is will I tune in for the second book???🤔
I feel like I really gave this one the old college try. The plot had so much potential. It just never got there.
The MMC is just a raging alcoholic. The FMC is a whiny pushover who went from one abusive relationship to another. And let's not even talk about the grammatical errors. This book needs another edit or two. The writing was very redundant and repetitive, and my brain just couldn't take it anymore.
"As I reach over to her, Violet flinches and moves away from me on her bed. I stop in my tracks and give her a minute before I would continue. I freeze in my tracks with my hands by my chest. I stop before I can get a close look and touch her wrist"
"He probably thinks I look sixteen. I don't blame him, my short 5'1 height doesn't help, and the youthful skin genes I get from my mom. I pull out my ID and the bartender nods as he confirms I'm of legal drinking age. I’m twenty-two years old and still, get asked if I want a kid’s menu when I go to restaurants."
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS PIECE OF SHIT, GO BACK TO WATTPAD BRO
Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with indie authors lately, but they are killing it and Lexie Axelson is no exception. Let’s start with the fact that this is by a Latina author. 🙌🏼 Being a saucy Latina myself, I am here for this representation. 🖤
THIS IS A DARK ROMANCE, please check your TW.
This story had me in all my feels. I was desperately trying to come up for air and Lexie would just grab me by the throat and drown me again. Our FMC, Ari, is a trauma nurse, inspired by her Navy SEAL big brother, Paul, who lost his life during a mission gone wrong. The growth that Ari goes through in this book makes me so proud. She finds herself wanting more out of life, finding her voice and breaking toxic traditions of the typical Latinx upbringing. Now, that being said, though after her brother’s death, Ari had already started making changes, she needed a little extra push.
Enter Navy SEAL Grim Reaper, Danny Rider. When I tell you this man is riddled in grey, it 👏🏼is 👏🏼not 👏🏼a 👏🏼drill. Before he meets Ari, Daddy…I mean, Danny is constantly battling the demons that have haunted him since he enlisted. His missions, his team and his career have always come first. With multiple confirmed kills, he is one of the Navy’s biggest asset and let me tell you how ALL of that goes out the window when our innocent Ari turns his dark world right side up. 🙃
In turn, Danny brings out Ari’s deepest, darkest desires as he devours her soul with every breath he takes. The spice in this book was spicing, and Daddy Rider is a filthy man. 🥵
Fair warning, this ENDS IN A CLIFFHANGER, and I AM NOT OKAY ABOUT THAT. 😫
If you love:
Brother’s Best Friend Military Age Gap Suspense DUAL POV She falls first/He falls harder Morally grey MMC Touch her and I’ll unalive you
Then you need to prepare yourself for See You Soon. 🖤
i had so much hope for this book, and i even sent the link out because because so many people asked me about it and it is not what i was expecting at all. first of all this is NOT a dark romance at all. second, the amount of times in the first 40% that the FMC’s virginity is mentioned gave me the biggest ick
The hero is the heroine’s dead brother’s best friend. They meet one night while he’s on leave and hook up. She’s a virgin, he’s a BIIIG manwhore. He eats her out and pushes her away. Days later, he’s at a bar where he runs into her again. But this time he’s with his fuck buddy. 🫠 He takes OW into the bathroom and proceeds to fuck her mouth… the heroine walks in on it just after he orgasms.
He pushes her away again. And again. And again.
The heroine also has a stalker ex. He attacks her multiple times throughout the book. Including at the end, where he stabs her… while she’s pregnant with the hero’s baby. 😐
It ends on a cliffhanger. I will not be continuing the series.
i- this was so bad LOL i’m sorry. the characters have zero chemistry, the author was just throwing random tropes in all willy-nilly. nothing made sense. booktok is so annoying because they let these books go viral and readers bombard the books with 5 stars and i can’t trust anything??? the lack of editing alone should make this 3 stars.
This is a dark, military romance. There are LOADS of trigger warnings. However, as far as the darkness scale. It’s probably in the middle in my opinion. This wasn’t too intense for me, and I get squeamish sometimes with dark romance.
The FMC, Ari, is a military nurse who is grieving the loss of her brother, a Navy seal that died the same year. She meets our MMC, Danny, a morally grey Navy seal who has something to do with her brother’s death. Danny is also super well known in the military for killing tons of people, including 3 of the top most wanted terrorists, which has landed him the nickname “Grim Reaper.”
As the story goes on, Ari is also being stalked and threatened by her abusive ex and is trying to deal with falling hard for Danny and the struggles of being in a relationship while working in the military.
This definitely has some “touch her and you die vibes.” He’s very protective and obsessed with her, but his character development takes a bit longer.
Some things you can expect:
-They get spicy in a helicopter. LOVE that -He gets off on being kind of rough, blending pain and pleasure, and making her scared -UNEXPECTED PREGNANCY - you’ve been warned. So don’t be mad when it happens. If I wasn’t warned I would have been mad lol -Overcoming religious trauma around sex and purity culture -Dual POV -Ends on a cliffhanger
TW: death, grief, drinking, addiction, torture, survivors guilt, sexual assault…and probably loads of other things I’m forgetting
This book was fun as hell, got me out of a reading slump, and was also very well written! I don’t have a single bad thing to say about it.
I’d definitely recommend!
This book was sent to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Booktok needs to go sit in a corner for hyping this up the way they did bc I KNOW there is no way we're talking about the same book.
Between grammatical errors on every page, the flippant switching from present to past tense for literally no reason, and the just awful writing I'm not even going to bother trying to push through 🙄
2 stars instead of 1 because the only thing this book has going for it is the cover
The amount of grammatical and sentence structure errors were just downright annoying to read. It felt like the book had not been proofread at all. The word 'serenity' was used 3 times in the whole book, and in every single one of those, it was used in the wrong context.
The nickname 'cherry' was just so eww given the context of it.
HE ALSO GETS A BJ FROM ANOTHER WOMAN IN THE RESTROOM KNOWING THE FMC IS THERE BECAUSE HE WANTS TO TAKE HIS MIND OFF HER. She also catches him but immediately goes soft for him.
Why was bro always smirking?? He was introduced as this suave individual but then just turned into an asshole and never looked back. Oh, and also a raging alcoholic.
The mother is very religious but at the same time is okay with her daughter staying over at a guy's house. Okay, cool, got it.
OMG! Also, there's a part where the MMC is shown to have some involvement with the FMC's brother's death. She overhears details about it and tries to question him, and he doesn't answer her. She doesn't even think and jumps in bed with him later with all these questions in her head, I thought her brother's death and the reasons behind it with the guy involved would take precedence.
There was also a part where the fmc says this, 'These moments after sex were always so cozy", this was so weird because they had only had sex twice and the first time he had left after they finished and didn't spend the night with her. Even when she says this statement, there was a tense moment right after they had had sex the second time. So where are the cozy times?? Hmmm????
The dude goes from saying that he shouldn't have her and needs to stay away from her to immediately claim her. Like, what was the thought process involved??? I need to know because it clearly wasn't in the book.
Also, the helicopter sex? She clearly states that she's terrified of flying but he still fucks her, like sir that's not playing out your kinks but pure coercion.
I don't think I'll read the scond book to this especially given what the cliffhanger was, there's no coming back from that honestly. All the side character drama was so unneccesary.
What also didn't make sense was that Shane was supposed to be on the run from the Military Police for being a deserter, but he still managed to pop up around areas?? Aren't the Military Police meant to be more competent?
I feel like there's more I want to say but can't remember as of right now.
I started on Wattpad so I would like to think that my tolerance is pretty high but this one was pretty rough. She’s supposed to be a 22 year old recently graduated nurse who is about to become a combat nurse but her internal dialogue and actions match that of a 14 year old which is kinda awkward if you ask me. I only made it 8% before I had to stop because I just couldn’t handle how dumb some of the stuff she said or did was. At one point I was almost convinced that a guy wrote this before I checked the author because there almost seems to be some internalized misogyny and with the lack of self preservation with the FMC. Like sis, you’re going into this man’s house when you don’t even know him?? AND after you ran into your abusive ex for the first time since you broke up and your new love interest didn’t do anything other than stand there?? And you though hmm yeah I’ve spoken to him once before but I’m good to be alone with him where no one knows to find me?? Sure thing girl.
To my dark romance besties welcome to the whore-zone it's call of booty time.
cackling at this dedication omg 🤣🤣🤣
1.5⭐️ i’m sorry, i really tried to like this, but alas😪 i had many issues with it, but starting with our annoying fmc, who is a very weak and unlikable character, and the mmc who was just so arrogant and so very toxic, and also very obnoxious (so unexpected, ikr 💀) that i really couldn't wait to be free of this book, but was determined to finish in hopes it gets better 👏🏼 second, english isn't my first language, but it bothered me that there were so many grammatical errors, and so many oxford commas and many random commas that had no business being there, along with many missing commas in sentences. but using the word sand clock instead of an hourglass more than once? did nobody beta read this?😭 the story itself wasn't too bad, but just the way it became so repetitive and very unrealistic at times (any basic research would've been enough, but i guess the author decided to just wing it?) AND THE TROPE I CANT STAND? yep it was there👹 also ari, our fmc, was just so unserious and childish and so so irresponsible and insufferable omg i cringed soo many times, i can't even🙄 and our danny boy? i don't even know, but he really gave me the ick through the majority of this book 😬 the conclusion, i really wanted to like it, but this really wasn't my cup of tea.
Bad and confusing writing, childish characters, and hero is gross. Went on a date with the heroine, went down on her, then gets a BJ from another woman while heroine is in the other room (he knew too) a few days later. I ended up skimming the rest and the ending is so dumb. Will not be reading anymore books in this series.
"Don't worry Ari. I'm coming back home to you, I promise you. This is a first for me...but I wouldn't have it any other way."
Lexie absolutely killed it with this book! I've never read anything like it and it had me hooked from the very first page!
In this book we meet Ari who has just experienced the loss of her older brother Paul. He was a navy seal and died on one of his missions. Being the only remaining she feels obligated to watch after her mother and take care of her. Her mother is very religious and has always instilled her values into Ari.
Ari works hard to become a nurse but hasn't told anyone she has accepted a job as an army medic in Iraq in order to honor her brother Paul. She goes out for one last celebration before she has to leave and she meets HIM.
Ari meets Danny in a bar and she is immediately intrigued. However, she finds out he has an army background and she doesn't want to pursue it due to the loss she has suffered. But she later finds out that Danny knew her brother Paul so not only is she attracted to Danny but now she wants to know more about her brother.
Danny doesn't do relationships and his job always comes first. He is the definition of a morally grey MMC, I mean his code name as a seal is Grim Reaper... need I say more?
Ari and Danny want to stay away from each other but fate keeps bringing them back together. I don't want to ruin too much by revealing too much so I will keep it at that! But this book had it all... spice, romance, angst, suspense! Ahh I kept reading til the end just to be told "to be continued.." I can't wait for the next book!
**THIS BOOK ENDS IN A CLIFFHANGER**
Another thing I will mention about this book is to check the trigger and content warnings before you read! This book touches on some darker topics and your mental health matters!
Read this book if you like: ✨ Military setting ✨ Forbidden romance ✨ Good girl x bad boy ✨ Dual POV ✨ Possessive and overprotective MMC ✨ Virgin FMC
That sums up about everything…. The worst writing ever and I am not even sorry. I have one brain cell left after reading almost half od this crap. NO NO NO
"God? Don't bother calling out for Him, He can't hear you. There's no God when I'm around baby."
"I'm already going to 🔥, I'll do my best not to take you with me.
"Time waits for no one. Death is a shadow stalking the living. It's a painful inexorable promise while life is a lovely lie."
This book was absolutely wild and SO dark! So much happened and I didn't expect anything that was going on. See You Soon is definitely one of my top dark romances this year. I couldn't put this one down and didn't want to. The characters were so wonderful. I loved Ari and Danny. The side characters were just as amazing. It was written incredibly well and it has a wonderful plot. And the spice! Lexie Axelson did a great job with this novel and I can't wait for the next book in the series.
Ari and Danny are two completely different people. Ari just finished nursing school and Danny is a dark mess just lurking in the shadows. After the first time they meet sparks go flying. Neither can forget each other. When demons start lurking around and things start to go wrong who is to come to the rescue? This book does leave on a cliffhanger.
• Dark Romance 🖤 • Brothers Best Friend • Military 🪖 • Love at first sight • Spicy 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5 • Surprise 🍼 • Leaves on cliffhanger
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
What I cannot comprehend is how WEAK Ari was when it came to Danny!
She is described as this bada** - serving as a nurse in Iran - helping her mother cope - serving in honor of her brother
But anytime Danny was around her mind was in the GUTTER. It is just so unnatural how easily she folded for him!!
She swears off military guys - the second Danny is connected to her brother she’s ready to sleep with him
She notices all the alcohol in his house - she doesn’t care
He gets a blowjob in the bathroom from another girl - she watches him buckle his pants back up, is mad for 0.2 SECONDS and is back to blushing!
He insults her career - she’s blushing when the conversation ends!!! - she knows she needs to stay away, not because of the insult but because of the attraction??
He distracts her from explaining her brothers death by seduction - she falls for it???
I just think it’s impossible to get into this book because if a man ever treated me like that one time there wouldn’t have been a chance for a second to occur.
If she had a little backbone I think my rating would be a totally different rank.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.