Felt…rushed.
**SPOILERS**
So this book picks up where the last one left off. Autumn was deeply betrayed by someone she trusted and kidnapped by the monster of her childhood who is completely psychotic, a pedophile and obsessed with Autumn. While in captivity she is kept somewhat alive by Noah, a doctor, and son of her abuser. She’s rescued and doesn’t remember the two weeks she was held in captivity. Her guys are all deeply shaken by what happened but are with her every step of the way. Noah felt a “connection” with Autumn and refuses to leave her when she’s rescued. The guys all concoct a plan to catch Charlie, the psycho pedophile, and with Noah’s help they capture Charlie. They keep him alive for a week torturing him so each member of the “family” can get “closure.” Charlie is eventually killed…brutally, and Autumn is finally free. Noah confesses his feelings to Autumn saying he wants to be part of her “harem.” The book concludes with Autumn adopting two children and being proposed to by her guys.
**THOUGHTS/OPINIONS**
Soooo…this book felt rushed in many ways. It felt as if the author had all these loose ends to tie up that the book just quickly tried to conclude each loose end without the thought of plot progression. Ellie frankly doesn’t get the “ending” she deserved…and honestly Autumn was waaaaay too forgiving. Hell, Ellie gave Autumn over to her abuser and she almost freaking died, not to mention she was sexually assaulted - AGAIN! Sorry, there’s no forgiveness in my mind for someone as selfish and stupid as Ellie. Noah is BARELY in the story and yet we are to believe that Autumn just accepts him into her harem…just like that? I get that he “saved her.” But his character just wasn’t developed enough to make his presence in her life believable. It was way too fast, and honestly just not at all believable. The same can be said of Noah’s brother Aiden, he’s the head of the Irish mafia, we’re told. But get no background of character development from him…and at zero hour we’re supposed to believe that Aiden and Autumn’s brother Brenn are now “a thing,” yeah, a couple. Huh?! Where did that even come from? There wasn’t even any indication that Aiden and even Brenn were gay, or bi, or whatever. We literally GET one line where Aiden smolders at Brenn and Brenn tells him they’ll uh, finish their activities in his bedroom. WTH?! It literally not only comes out of nowhere, but Aiden is a character that’s introduced at like the last minute as well. The reader doesn’t get to feel emotionally connected to him at all!!!! It just made no sense for the author to introduce brand new characters if she wasn’t going to give them any DEPTH or time on the page. The series honestly did not need Aiden and Noah. And although they had potential, it would’ve taken at least another book for the reader to become invested in them. As much as I liked how Charlie was uh, disposed of (lol - yeah I’m violent when the characters are evil pieces of shyte, I don’t mind that he was tortured to death frankly) his capture was SOOOOO anticlimactic and quick!!! He’d been tormenting Autumn for so long, and escapes when Autumn is rescued only to fall for a clear “set up” by his son? It was way too “neat” and easy. I mean there was literally no show down, nothing. He was just captured. It was as I said seriously anticlimactic. As sweet as it was that Autumn adopted Chase and Clover, again they were two side characters that were literally THROWN INTO THE BOOK at zero hour. You hardly even read about them. You just get this cute five year old boy introduced who instantly is like “Autumn’s going to be my new mommy.” Uhmmmm again, WTH?! Then baby Clover at THE VERY VERY END OF THE BOOK. She’s just…there. And Autumn is like, oh she was abandoned, okay, I’ll take her too. There was no believable backstory, no depth in that plot device to make it believable in the least. It was just head scratching that the author kept introducing seriously RANDOM characters into her series at the very last moments, and just, uh, what, assumed the readers wouldn’t have questions, or feel “cheated.” If she wanted these characters in the series then honestly the series needed to be longer!! There was no development, no depth. It was seriously befuddling. I kept asking myself “why are these characters even here?” They are literally adding nothing to the story. And if the author had wanted them to add to the story, then yes, there needed to BE MORE STORY. Even the original guys in Autumn’s harem got “short changed.” The author seriously didn’t balance out her character development. Some of the guys, frankly, most of the guys didn’t feel properly developed and lacked any sort of depth. Sure Autumn spoke of how each one “gave her something she needed” but their characters didn’t have enough page time to really show what that was. Autumn’s dad was a dick. And again, he should not have been forgiven so quickly. There needed to be more story to really show how he had changed to make Autumn forgiving him believable to the plot. The epilogue was…well, lame. Sorry it was. She adopts the two random kids that were literally thrown into the book with no real backstory or character development, and gets proposed to…the end. Again, head scratcher. I felt as if this series had so much potential but was paced really poorly AND executed poorly. Again, there was potential which was why I gave it 3 stars, but it lacked a lot, and in the end left the reader feeling as if they had been interrupted in the middle of a meal. It just didn’t deliver.