This was just… boring.
If I tried explaining the plot to someone, it would probably sound interesting - because the premise was promising. But the execution? Completely fell flat.
I don’t even know where to begin, because how do you explain something that had potential but still ended up being so bland? I’ll try to break it down into parts.
Relationships
I already mentioned in my review of the first book that the relationships felt underdeveloped. That issue carried over - and worsened - here. Right up to the final page, I couldn’t feel a real connection between Rafe and the FMC. Strangely, Grant’s side of the throuple felt stronger, probably because his character was better written (more on that later).
Overall, the dynamic between the three just felt off. I didn’t sense any actual chemistry between the FMC and the two male leads. The narrative told me they loved her, but it all felt forced and hollow.
There was a line where the FMC wonders, something along the lines, “What if Grant just decided to love me, and one day he decides not to?” - because he doesn’t really love his family, he only sticks around because they’re good to him. And honestly, that one line summed up the whole romance: it didn’t feel like love. It felt like a choice, and didn't feel like it came naturally from MMCs. More like the "author said so, so it must be true" situation.
Ironically, the only relationship with any real chemistry was between Rafe and Grant. But even that had so much wasted potential. The MLM aspect was shortened to few words overall, and that was poorly written, chaotic, and rushed. Such a shame.
Characters & Personalities
Rafe deserves his own paragraph, because I have never seen a more boring "morally grey" character. His backstory was almost nonexistent. He didn’t even get his own unique trauma - his was lazily tacked on at the end and turned out to be the same one Grant had. His dialogue had zero edge or complexity. Honestly, making him mute might’ve made him more interesting.
Grant started off strong but slowly declined. Still, he had some traits that gave him personality, so he remained at least tolerable.
FMC was just a blank slate. For someone with trauma, achievements, and so many supposed life experiences, she had the depth of a paper towel (I don't consider her dark urges to be anything worth remembering at this stage, because the concept felt flat and in the end was abandoned). At best, she was occasionally annoying - at least that invoked some kind of emotion. But otherwise? She was just there. A passive, personality-less page filler. But hey, at least the MMCs found her pretty. That’s something, I guess.
Plot & Twists
I genuinely think the author was winging it. We all knew who the main villain was from the start and I think the author realised that and was panicking. I can't think of any other explanation for this ridiculous abomination of a plot twist.
Introducing three out of four villains at the very end of the book? It was laughable.
Add to that all the abandoned subplots, and it just felt sloppy. Instead of meaningful development, we got the same scenes over and over again. Oh no, more mysterious photos - let’s move. Another one? Let’s be mad - then move again! Those repetitive chapters could’ve been better spent building the actual relationship between the three leads.
The pacing was all over the place. The story felt rushed from beat to beat with no time to develop anything - relationships, tension, stakes, anything. It’s like the author just wanted to get to the next dramatic moment and skipped all the emotional groundwork in between. It reminds me of maladaptive dreaming where you have to force yourself to not skip to the next best part and actually work up to it. That's what the author should've done.
Smut
How do you mess up smut this badly, especially in a “why choose” romance with a built-in MLM dynamic, two supposedly dominant MMCs, and a darker tone?
It honestly felt like the author was deeply uncomfortable writing these scenes. They were rushed, incomplete, and, to my surprise, super vanilla. If you’re not comfortable writing spice, just don’t. Seriously.
Also, there wasn’t a single proper threesome scene. One MMC would cuddle with the FMC while the other had sex with her - like they were taking polite turns. And hilariously, most of the actual sexual activity between the MMCs seemed to happen while the FMC was asleep. We were only told about it happening, never shown anything meaningful. Pity, because the scraps we did get showed a lot of spicy chemistry.
I’ve read over 100 books so far this year, and I average 220 per year. This is the first book ever (I truly can't remember being in this situation before) that left me feeling nothing. No excitement, no frustration, no emotional investment—just pure, unshakable boredom.
That’s a new kind of bad.