This was kind of a weird book, as far as reverse harems go. In most of the RH books I've read, the only real characters involved are the heroine and her men because the focus of the story is on the development of their sexual relationship. Sure one or two other characters might stop by from time to time, but 90% of the page time is focused on our "couple" because that's generally what people who read these types of books want to see. But this book spends a TON of time on a whole host of secondary characters, and devotes a significant amount of page time to things I didn't really care about, like preparing for the wedding of one of those side characters. It made the whole thing feel weird and unbalanced. Heck, we don't even get our first multi-person sex scene until the very end of the book!
There were also weird inconsistencies in the story. Like how about halfway through the author suddenly decided to turn this into a BBW story, when nothing in the narrative up to that point supported such a thing. Seriously, the story opens with the heroine, Emily, driving to a mountain top lodge and thinking about how her ex-boyfriend, Whit, was going to be there. She thinks about how he cheated on her and then tried to blame her for it by saying she was a "frigid bitch." But then later in the story when the ex shows up he says he cheated because she was too fat and he wasn't attracted to her.
Likewise, in this opening scene Emily runs into a snow storm and her car slides off the road. Our four heroes happen along and have to pull her unconscious body from the car before it topples off the edge of a cliff. We're in the perspective of one of the men for this and he makes it a point to comment on how tiny Emily looks. He also has no difficulty picking her up and carrying her back to their car. Both things which would be hard to believe if she was a BBW.
Then, since all her clothes and belongings went off the cliff with her rental car (something she seems WAY too chill about), she goes to her friend, the bride, and asks to borrow some clothes. Now, we don't get a physical description of this friend, Hailey, but the author did make it a point to say that the sweatpants and sweatshirt she'd lent our heroine were "baggy" on her. Again, if our heroine is a bigger girl, then Hailey must be fucking ENORMOUS for her clothes to be baggy on Emily.
It really just didn't add up. It honestly felt like the author wrote the first half of the book like Emily was just a regular thin and pretty heroine, but then decided to make her a BBW midway through for some reason and couldn’t be bothered to go back and change things to match.
But it doesn't stop there. Emily also underwent a personality transplant too. In the opening scene when she's remembering how her ex called her a frigid bitch, she tells us that she's "independent" and “self-reliant”. This gives us the impression that she's a strong, confident woman. So confident, in fact, that weak men like her ex feel threatened by it. And we see a bit of that in her when her car is lost over the cliff. Even though she's just been through a traumatic experience, she brushes it off like it's no big deal and insists on walking into the lodge under her own steam rather than leaning on one of the men. She even refuses to be checked out by the resident medic, even though she'd previously commented in her inner monologue that "everything hurt" after her car slammed into the tree.
Then, the men start showing interest in her and she easily accepts an invitation for a date with one of them, Tanner. She has no hesitation about this, like she gets asked out frequently and is confident that this mega-hot man would, indeed, be interested in her. But then about halfway through the book she does a complete heel-face-turn and she's suddenly this weak, unsure wallflower who doesn't believe the men would be into her when there were other "skinny girls" around to tempt them. WTH?
I also didn’t like how nobody would just freaking have a conversation throughout the book. So many times two characters would be talking and would just say “it’s complicated” instead of explaining what was up. Sometimes this made sense, like when Emily was talking to Hailey and struggling to explain that she was actually sleeping with four men while also not really knowing how to classify these “relationships.” This was a conversation that happened in the public areas of the lodge and with a bitchy OW present. I can understand not wanting to get into the nitty gritty details there. But the rest of the time it just didn’t make sense to refuse to explain.
For example, one of the men, Jace, has history with Emily. Jace is Hailey’s brother and he and Emily dated in high school. They broke up on bad terms more than a decade ago and haven’t spoken since. But none of the rest of the men know about this previous relationship and for some reason neither Jace nor Emily is willing to tell them. It was ridiculous. Jace is in full-on jealousy mode right from the moment they rescue Emily. Now, you’d THINK he’d want to tell his buddies that they had history because in most “guy code” situations, that would make her off limits to the rest of them. But no, he deliberately avoids telling them that he’d dated Emily and we’re never given a reason why. Likewise, when Emily starts getting closer to some of the other guys, they question her history with Jace (because he’s being so over-the-top jealous) and you’d THINK she’d be more than happy to tell them that he cheated on her so she was totally over him now. But instead she refuses to give details and just issues the dreaded “it’s complicated.”
Furthermore, we’re told that Jace didn’t actually cheat on Emily. The story goes that they went to prom together, but then the bitchy OW, Chloe, crooked her little finger and Jace abandoned Emily to go off, and eventually LEAVE with Chloe instead. This was the end of their relationship. And apparently Jace never, EVER, tried to clear his name.
His version of this event is that he just took Chloe to the ER because she’d hurt her ankle. Which is ridiculous, as far as explanations go. For one thing, why did it HAVE to be him who took her to the ER? She was presumably there with a date, right? Why wouldn’t her date take her?? For another, why would Jace do this without telling Emily what was going on? Why wouldn’t he take Emily with him? After all, they presumably arrived together, so was he leaving her to find her own way home? What a dick!
If this was all so innocent, why wouldn’t he have just explained himself?? In the course of the book, he even comments on how the “look of devastation” on Emily’s face that night had haunted him for years. So, you’re telling me that, even on the night of prom he knew he was breaking her heart but he couldn’t just stop to explain things? Because of a SPRAINED ANKLE??? That’s not a life-threatening emergency where every second counted. Hell, it’s not even something that really requires a trip to the ER! Chloe could have just sat down and propped her ankle up on a chair with a bag of ice for the rest of the night and been fine.
And we’re also supposed to believe he never explained after the fact either? Emily is his sister’s best friend, for crying out loud! They would have had to see and hear about each other CONSTANTLY in the ensuing years. Why would he have just sat there, knowing she hated him and why, but just never explain what happened? And what about that sister? Surely she would have been furious with Jace for breaking her best friend’s heart, right? Are you telling me he never even explained to HER what really happened? And even now, when the book is taking place, he thinks several times about how he really should just tell Emily the truth…BUT STILL NEVER DOES! Seriously, the book ends without him ever telling her what really happened. And this is even after Chloe shows up at the lodge and does her best to stir shit up and to try to nab Jace for herself. COME ON!
Now, you might think that the author was deliberately keeping the truth a secret because she had a Big Misunderstanding planned for later in the story, but no. Nothing ever comes of this. There was literally no reason, narratively speaking, for Jace to not just clear his name. So we wasted tons of page time angsting, talking, and thinking about this situation and it was all for nothing. It’s just bad writing.
We also didn’t get to know the four men very well. So much time was spent on the wedding and the secondary characters that it didn’t leave much for our main characters. We learn that Tanner is the most easy-going of the bunch and he spent time working in a bakery. Axel is the leader of their fireman group, has blue eyes and a dog, is divorced, and is apparently older than the rest of them but no idea by how much. Jace we learn nothing about, other than the high school stuff described above. I have no idea what he’s been doing since high school, other than apparently becoming a fireman. I couldn’t tell you anything about his hobbies or if he’s been in any serious relationships since then. And then there’s Ben, who we learn absolutely nothing about whatsoever.
Even Emily is pretty light on characterization. We know she’s best friends with Hailey and works in marketing. She apparently has poor taste in men since she dated Whit The Douchebag for “a long time,” but we don’t really know who she is. Like, does she have family? Parents? I have no idea. She mentions several times that Hailey and Jace’s family are “crazy rich” so does that mean Emily’s family is rich too, since she apparently grew up in the same area as them? Or is she the stereotypical “poor kid who gets pseudo-adopted by her rich friend’s family”? Your guess is as good as mine. She could be an orphan for all we know. She certainly never worries about what her family will think of her being in a polyamorous relationship so…
It just all felt very superficial. We never get to know the characters because they never get to know each other. Emily’s personality changes halfway through the book and she becomes a weak, self-doubting person that I had trouble rooting for. There was also this really weird part where the four men have made a pact not to sleep with Emily again because they want to give her space to decide which one of them she chooses without being pressured or “swayed” with their attentions. When Emily finds out about this pact she goes on this tirade about how the pact is really insulting to her and makes her feel like “a prize to be won.” It didn’t make any sense.
Like, that’s literally the OPPOSITE of what it means. The pact shows that the men are choosing NOT to compete over her and instead are going to step back and wait for her to decide for herself. She keeps harping on about how they decided to make this pact without bothering to ask how she felt about it but, like, I’m in her head the whole book and I know for a fact that she has no idea how she feels about all this. She’s horny for all of them but doesn’t have a clue which one she’ll choose. So, like, if they HAD asked her, what would she have said? Nothing. That’s what. I HATE heroines who pull crap like this. “How DARE you do this without asking me?” “Okay fine, what’s your decision then?” “Um, well, I don’t know. I just know you’re awful for not asking me!!!”
All in all, it was an easy enough read but not particularly good. It reads more like a YA novel with all the angsting about prom night and such than an erotica. There were also some typos and wrong words sprinkled throughout. The funniest one was when the author used “bucked” instead of “buckled.” It was right after Emily had gotten an orgasm from one of the men and when she stood up her legs “almost bucked” and I just had this hilarious picture in my mind of her legs both freaking out like a couple of bucking broncos. Probably would have killed the post-orgasm glow a bit.