Ivory

Alabaster Penitentiary #6

by Nyla K.

“What took you so long, my Angel?”

As a scared child, amidst screams and gunpowder, I looked into the eyes of the devil.

“Ojos abiertos, boca cerrada.”

Finger lifted to his lips, he quelled my tears when he saw me.

“Hush, little bird… Eyes open, mouth shut.”

He let me live. But you see, El Diablo is not stupid. He knew one day I would come for my revenge. For years, I’ve been trapped in the cage of a stolen existence, dreaming of one thing, above all else… Sangre por sangre.

Blood for blood.

A fallen kingdom of ivory, alabaster ruins on a burning battlefield of anguish… Finally, the wicked king kneels at my feet. And with my father’s blade to his throat, I can end this.

Bring a close to years of misery, not just for me, but for them. This most dreadful of creations must reach its inevitable finale. It has to.

For every last one of his prisoners, I have to end it. Finalmente, I can… I must…

“But do you still hate me, pajarito?”

**Ivory is a dark MM romance featuring themes that could make some readers uncomfortable. There is an MC exploring his gender identity. For detailed CW's visit author's website (it is linked in the foreword). This is the finale of the Alabaster Pen series. It must be read in order to fully understand and enjoy the story. FINALE Parts 1 & 2 combined.

Genres: M M Romance, Dark Romance, Romance, Dark, Enemies To Lovers, Queer, Spicy

1131 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 18, 2026

About the author

Author of Flipping Hot Fiction. I write big books and I cannot lie, *insert smirky face*. Specializing in LGBTQ+ representation.

Nyla K is a quirky world-traveler with a sailor mouth and a filthy mind. She writes the dark, and the dirty, but most importantly, UNIQUE romantic fiction. Her smutty and taboo love stories are not for the faint of heart, so beware!

Nyla believes in the relevant, boundary-pushing, mind-bending side of erotic fiction, which is always what to expect from her. If you're looking for the same old story, you won't get that with Nyla K. But if you want complex characters, and stories that stick in your mind like a bad case of crabs... you've come to the right place ;).

Reviews

[Momma Eureka · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I am NOT crying ! YOU are crying…..”
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭


🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 “Just because we’re broken, it doesn’t mean we need them to put us back together.”
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
“The fall was a sign…” Velle grunts. “We are the fucking storm.”
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 “If anyone can beat Alabaster Isle, it’s John Chevelle.”
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 “Velle walks in, and everyone looks up, shuts up, and waits for whatever he’s about to do or say.”
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 “I’m the King of Darkness in this bitch. And I claim this land in the name of Chevelle.”
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

If you didn’t notice I am OBSESSED with Officer Daddy King Chevelle you haven’t been paying attention!!!!

Ok Nyla K ATE THIS SHIT UP AND LEFT NO CRUMBS ! I will NEVER be able to complain about her not giving me enough details or leaving things off page. First of all I’ve never had this issue with her books and second this one here is a ONE THOUSAND A HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE pages of pure perfection IN MY OPINON (insert meme right here so everyone knows) 😂
This book has everyone’s POV, starts with Ivory’s story when HE was a child, goes through how and why he was the Cartel Boss, explains the whole history of how the Alabaster island was gifted to him and how it became a prison, who was the first employee there aka OFFICER KING DADDY VELLE and why/how, the whole story of Angel Alvarez and his revenge against The Ivory. It gets deeper into the whole war we had just a glimpse in Shadowman, it shows us our favorites inmates coming back to help, it gives us everyone’s romance and smut, it shows us all their weaknesses, fears and struggles, IT EXPLAINS, CLARIFIES AND SHOWS US EVERY SINGLE THING WE HAD NO IDEA HOW IT HAPPENED SINCE BOOK ONE !!!!!!!! It leaves not a single stone unturned , it’s rich in description and full of details. I’ve seen here a lot people saying it was unnecessary long and it might be true BUT HEAR ME OUT, she had things to clarify and say and it wasn’t a bunch of fillers, it was all important to the story and as a person who lovesssssssss the details I absolutely ADORED this book. I want to cry just writing this not because the book is sad but because it’s the end of an era …. I’ve waited 2 years after Fragments to have Shadowman and a few month more to have The Ivory ! Man I am EMOTIONAL 🖤 leave me alone …
Did I end up loving Manuel Blanco aka The Ivory ? no, THANK YOU NYLA K, because I didn’t want to love him, but again I don’t hate him anymore…. He was the villain through and through and she made sure to show us that and show us he was a monster but he could be liked because he was also very smooth and seductive, intelligent, soft spoken and cruel as fuck ! 😂 she was able to show us the many faces of The Ivory and gosh the desperation of this man in the end was a great thing to see for people like me who hated him for so long !!!!!! To also see him bow to KING VELLE and admit he did all he did out of jealousy because he had feelings for him but was never able to express besides possess him …. UGH I WANT TO SCREAM !!!!!!!
Everything touched me in this book and maybe it’s because I’ve been so invested in this series for years but when my BABY Luthor was able to save the day (one day, they all saved the day at some point) but Luthor was special to me because he did it with his big beautiful genius brain since he was the only genius there who never even held a gun or fought anyone, he is so baby girl in a place where people were all fighting with guns, knives, fists and psycho behavior, he was able to do it with his brain. The fact that Nyla K reunited Leah and Luthor OMG I AM GOING TO CRY! And also the mention of Ryan Harper, Ben Lockwood and Jess from Push ! The participation of the trio Tauren, Cyrus and my BABY Colson (IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW) ! I was lowkey just waiting for Kyran and Avi from For the Fans but that unfortunately didn’t happen…
The ending was EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED and everyone was happy . My favorite trio King Velle/Queen Joy and their Rook stayed in the island. I sincerely could just read this book allover again ! JK its too long… so little time too many books to read !
So yep I freaking loved it !

[lakshmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

no I didn’t forget to review this. Yes it did take me this long. It. Was. So. Long.

the rating is closer to 2.5 but I’m feeling generous <3. I also realised that I’m not as attached to these characters as I initially thought and that’s okay. It’s fine. I’m glad everyone got their very own slutty happy endings 💗

[Audiobook S1ut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm already giving this 5 stars because I expect nothing less from Nyla K. I'm counting down the days until this is released!!

[CC · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unnecessarily long. Too many points of view that didn’t need to be there. Could’ve used an editor. As a native Spanish speaker, the machine translated, grammatically incorrect use of Spanish felt borderline disrespectful. Specially, since it was used so much. Such a disappointing read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Brainwashed
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Distorted.

Every other book was 🫤

[V]

YOOO I NEED THIS BOOK TY NEXT

[Sadie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When I was three years old, I met the devil. I didn't know it at the time... Turns out, everything they say about him is true.”

WOW. I can’t believe AP has come to an end.
Never did I ever think I would love the Ivory, but here I am!
And angel. Sweet baby angel 😍🥵 he is such a stabby cinnamon roll 🔪 🩸 somehow he became one of my favorite characters in the series.
Ivory is everything I needed and more. Nyla wrapped up this series beautifully. Every question is answered and this was by far the most thorough series I’ve ever read. Nyla truly thought of everything!

NO NOTES!

Tropes:
-Enemies to lovers (when one of them is SMITTEN)
-Age gap (22 years)
-Cartel romance
-Genderfluid MC
-Kidnapping & extortion
-Grumpy psychopath/Angry Sunshine
-ALL the found family vibes
-touch him & d!e (literally)
-“Hello, My name is Angel Alvarez. You killed my father.
Prepare to die.”
-THE ORIGIN OF THE PROXY JOB!!!
-Feminization & lingerie & br33ding k!nks (that help w/ self-
discovery)
-THE VILLAIN gets his HEA

[RogueAlpha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so ready for this one, I've been waiting since Joyless!!

Please, please, let Silas Hart be the narrator, his voice was SO GOOD in the Joyless Audiobook!

[Marjolein (Dutchromancereader) · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do I even begin to describe or review this epic masterpiece of over 4000 pages Nyla K. gifted to us. This series is insane and I can imagine Nyla has to gain her senses for the next two years cause this must have completely consumed her. A decayed and hellish prison on an island, it's villainous evil master, 6 sexy and adorable romancestories, 12 smoking hot MMC's, 1 badass FMC, 1 imaginary friend, lots of great sidecharacters and a ridiculous intricate timeline (I imagine Nyla in her writingcave with a huge whiteboard with pins and lines like an episode of CSI). It is dark, depraved, chaotic, desperate, but sometimes light, romantic, with a huge amount of freaking hot smut.

I have completely fallen in love with this weird group of Alabaster Family members. These people and their stories are so well written. They all have depth, great backstories (off course fantastically woven in the timeline and somewhere connected to other stories), they are flawed, broken and weird in their own ways. But they all are in desperate need of love in the middle of their hell. The found family in this series is the best I ever read and I want to be part of their group so bad. Nyla truly outdid herself in creating these characters. She lets us feel it all, their despair, their horniness, their banter, their longing, their spiraling, their inner fights, their fears. It's like being in this horrible prison yourself, surrounded by rotten concrete and solitary cells.

But let's not forget this last book deserves it's own review. Because she obviously saved the best for last. Manuel Blanco or the Ivory, the ruthless and evil villain we got to know in the previous 5 books. He is a narcissistic sociopath, running on power and control, ruling an empower and using the people around him as toys and pets for his personal mindgames. He collects lost souls on an desolate island where he can manipulate and torture. But even bad guys without a heart can fall in love. True, it looks more like obsession or possession, but it is endearing nonetheless. Angel is the only one in the world who can tame the Ivory and bring out Manuel Blanco. With his angelic, feminine en ethereal looks, he brings the ivory literally on his knees. What starts out as a revengeplot slowly morphs into an utterly romantic lovestory which was surprisingly endearing. I mean this egotistical man has no idea what he is feeling or what he is doing. He acts almost childish in his flawed ways to woo his love. I swooned hard. And yes in the end he truly redeems himself without turning completely good. The redeeming itself is quite sweet actually, true Alabaster style.

But this book is so much more than a romancestory for our last couple. It actually takes only a small portion of this beast of 1131 pages. No this book is so much more. It's the grande finale we were waiting for, the answer to all our questions and loose ends and basically one long epilogue with POV's of ALL our heroes. The vibe is surprisingly light, giddy even. It's funny, heartfelt an so rewarding after all the misery Nyla put us through. We see out friends finding their HEA where Nyla leaves nothing out. Our family gets what they deserve and we get to join their happy ride into sunset!

Seriously. If you haven't started this series yet I don't know what you are doing. And Nyla, you are the greatest one out there. Thank you.

[Rosetta Celeste · Rating 1 out of 5]

It didn’t need to be 300k words just to arrive at the same resolution as 'Shadowman' (the last installment in the series). It honestly left me feeling frustrated and disappointed, like all that time and buildup led to nothing new or worthwhile.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't wait. It's been too long since her last book

[Caratiny · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all know this is gonna serve!🤧

[Gems · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. And not a good one.

I really wanted to like this. I’d been waiting in anticipation for this. Did I like this?

Sigh.

I’m not sure where to start seeing as the book is unnecessarily 1554 pages long. Perhaps, I should start with that. I love reading long books, I generally prefer longer books over short ones as they tend to have an intricacy shorter books cannot easily replicate. Here, its length is completely redundant, and a lot of the chapters in the book are for characters whose’s stories should’ve been concluded in their own respective books. I do not need 10 POV’s from 10 different characters, because it seeks only to confuse and exhaust the plot. When a book is written, especially in a series with so many distinct characters, it needs to be contained. It was not here. A series can and has been concluded without such confusion. You can end a series and end characters’ stories without needing to erratically shift between POV’s. Nyla K is a good writer and an excellent story teller, but something fundamentally jammed here.

I think an editor was needed desperately. For example, I did not need a “History of alabaster penitentiary I II & I” it could have all been one chapter. In fact, it could’ve been 1 page, possibly, none at all. To think that wasn’t enough, The Ivory’s chapter that followed opened with “Building an empire is not a marathon” Was the three chapters on this not enough? Was that not noticeable on its own? Did this really need to be reiterated? The short answer is No. Not at all. And that’s the message of the entire book, a lot of this could’ve been shortened, and yet it wasn’t.

I can’t really give you a complete overview over Angel & Manuel’s relationship, but I can say that from reading 449 pages of the ebook, there is none. I know three things: that Manuel likes Angel. That they knew each other in the past. And that Angel wants revenge. But would you look at that? That’s exactly what the blurb details. I could argue that it’s meant to be a slow burn, but their actions following their first meeting refute that. Here’s the truth; their relationship is impeccably bland from what I’ve read, and I’d read a lot before I dropped it. If there wasn’t 100 POV’s before they actually did anything, perhaps it would’ve been entertaining, but I guess we’ll never know.

Lastly, I’m not a native Spanish speaker, but I have studied it and boy, is it used terribly here. Something as simple as “Sí” is spelt wrongly, and a lot of the Spanish reads like google translate. (As I said before, an editor was desperately needed).

I’ve read fantastic books that have left me in a reading slump. I’ve never read a terrible book, so terrible that it caused my reading slump. This is a first. And it’s such a shame because I really loved Manuel Blanco in the series. I’m so disappointed.

[Courtenay (ceelovesbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

♾️⭐️
Every single star. Forever. The longest book I’ve ever read, and single handedly taking the spot for my favourite book.. quite possibly EVER. YES. EVER. This was EVERYTHING I could have imagined. I cried so many tears. I laughed so hard. CACKLING. And I love this crew so much. Maybe I’ll write something more here eventually.. but in the words of Nyla “I don’t give a fuck ahahahhaa” because if you know, you know. And if you don’t, you won’t understand a damn thing I write here anyways. I’ll never EVER forget these characters. And I’ll never ever regret reading a single word of any of these books. YEARS I’ve loved them. And will continue to love them forever. Unreal.

[Cecilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️

I wanted to love this so badly because I really do love this series. There are books in it that I absolutely LOVED and characters I’ve been invested in for thousands of pages which is why this pissed me off so badly.

This book and Shadowman felt like complete outliers compared to the rest of the series in a BAD way. The biggest issue is that nothing actually happens. The majority of this book lives in the past, retelling scenes we have already read over and over again from different POVs that add absolutely nothing. That was already my frustration with Shadowman and somehow it got even worse. Instead of moving the story forward, it just keeps circling the same moments. There are hardly ANY chapters in the present and most of them happen after the conflict is already over.

The so called “war” is resolved in what feels like a couple of pages, which is honestly unbelievable after all the buildup. If you know you can’t write battle scenes or any kind of real conflict, DON’T BUILD IT UP SO MUCH!!!!! After spending so long in this world, the ending felt abrupt and completely unearned. There is no real payoff, just a rushed conclusion that left me feeling unsatisfied and honestly a little disrespected as a reader who stuck with the series this long.

And to that, the writing itself made everything worse. I usually don’t mind Nyla’s writing even though it’s not the best/cleanest. It’s light, sometimes funny, and easy to read. But in a book this long, the issues become impossible to ignore. It is extremely overwritten, full of repetition, and clearly not edited with care. The timelines are confusing and poorly labeled, jumping between “then” and “now” without any real clarity. Even when you can piece it together from memory, you should not have to work that hard six books into a series just to understand where you are. On top of that, the Spanish throughout the book is being called out by readers as borderline disrespectful which just adds to the feeling that this was rushed and not handled thoughtfully.

The characters were another huge disappointment. They all sounded exactly the same, to the point where I would forget whose POV I was even reading. The long chapters only made that worse. Characters I loved completely lost their distinct voices and it made it hard to feel anything for them. Even Angel and Ivory, who should have been a highlight, felt insanely underdeveloped. Their relationship is rushed and pushed to the side in their own story and I never bought into it at all. Similarly to Shadowman, we got random POVs and recap for hundreds of pages and then it was BAM, them fucking over and over again.

There were small moments I did enjoy. I liked seeing how everyone made it back to Alabaster and I appreciated a few of the new (old) POVs we got. And of course, absolutely loved the smut. Nyla may let me down in every other sense but NEVER with the smut.

What makes this so frustrating is that the bones of this series are good. I love the world, I love some of these characters, and I know this story could have been incredible with better planning and execution. Instead, the last two books feel like they were written without a clear direction and everything that made the series work just fell apart. Byron, Trevel, Angel, and yes even Ivory, deserved better development and books.

I still think this series should’ve ended with Fragments because this and Shadowman gave us nothing. I hate giving these books such low ratings because I do love this series but this was a huge disappointment. It just felt disrespectful to the characters and to the readers who love them. They deserved a better ending than a 1200 page book that went nowhere.

[Uvitas Y Pasas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting too much from this book... As a Colombian reader, the Spanish used here was terrible. I honestly don’t get why Nyla didn’t ask an editor or a Spanish speaker for help. Every time they butchered the language, I was crying inside 😭😭😭😭😭😭

***
Me duele, me lastima.

3.8 Estrellas para mí. No puedo creer que me tomara dos semanas enteras terminar este libro ... me causó medio burn-out de lo largo que fue (encima que lo llevo esperando desde hace muchos más años de los que puedo contar.

No tengo nada para quejarme de la narración de Nyla, la admiro muchísimo en la forma en que lleva hilando las historias de AlabasterPen desde el libro #1, cinco años atrás. Básicamente, Ángel Álvarez estaba atormentando la narrativa desde el inicio; la tensión entre Ángel e Ivory me mantuvieron en vilo todo el rato como una quemada lenta bastante interesante; y el smut de Nyla sigue siendo super Hot. Y aun así me duele la calificación de un libro al que llevo esperando tanto, tanto tiempo

Resumiré los puntos: 1) El uso terriblemente mal empleado del español. Se supone que Ángel e Ivory son Colombianos... entiendo la intención de querer variarle a tus MC's , Pero siento que está vez Nyla no sé asesoró muy bien sobre la parte del idioma. Los errores gramaticales en español que me encontré mientras leía me dieron un cringe gigantesco, y encima verlos usar palabras como vato o pendejo (que realmente no se usan en Colombia si no en México) me dolió en mi alma latina/colombiana. Creo que fácilmente podría haber tenido la ayuda de algún editor o hablante nativo del español en la corrección de los textos; el uso del traductor de google era demasiado obvio en las conjugaciones en infinitivo de los verbos o palabras descontextualizadas.

2) Demasiados Pov de otros personajes. Uy, al principio me emocioné... hasta que noté que de los 60 capítulos del libro 1/3 eran los Povs de los protagonistas y el resto de personajes que ya habían tenido su libro :/. Nada más miremos la cantidad de epílogos que hubo al final con la resolución del conflicto... creo que habrían dado para un libro de epílogos. En fin, sentí que me faltaron más capítulos para Angel e Ivory...

3) En el último 20% del libro, el género pasó de tener toda la ambientación darks que caracteriza a AlabasterPen a una comedia... literalmente... Me sentí un poco (bastante) sacada de onda. Comprendo la intención de querer que se sintiera muy found family el asunto, peroooo, no conecté con ese último 20% (cantando alrededor de la fogata... rayos).

4) Cameos innecesarios que no tenían ni ton ni son, solo puestos allí por el morbo (¿realmente era necesario que el trío de push y pull saliera? ¿o que nos dijeran que tuvieron una orgía con Dash y Kemper? Incluso los de Double Edged tenían más sentido.).

Dentro de todo fue una lectura entretenida, no el cierre que esperaba, pero supongo que le tenía demasiadas expectativas (mi culpa). Dicho esto, no creo nunca que vaya a releer este libro.

PD: cerrar la serie con Dash (personaje con el que inicio todo) fue un muy buen toque. Nostálgico.

PD2: En fin, Félix y Lem, siguen coronados como mis absolutos favoritos y Brainwashed, para mí, sigue siendo el mejor libro de la serie. ¡Invictos, mis niños!

[Charlize M · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I couldn’t finish this book because of the Spanish. It’s poorly used and often doesn’t make sense, which made it hard to focus on the story.

[Jessica Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure how to feel about this in the first 30% honestly. I was a bit bored. BUT that being said, the second half? A wild ride. And I am so sad to see the end of an era. But I am happy it happened.

[Gemma Bishop · Rating 1 out of 5]

frequent references to krav maga have me dnf-ing this despite being a huge lover of these novels.
such a shame to see pro-israel propaganda showing up here. I hope I'm wrong about Nyla because I'm gutted!
it's also appallingly edited, with glaring errors on every page. and a nice authors note at the beginning telling us to ignore all that. so she knows its there, and knows it's unfinished.
just such a huge disappointment all round

[Your Senpai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was born ready for this. We'll finally get to know about the most mysterious man in alabaster.LETS GO!!!

[Eyvie Wynter]

I can't wait!!!!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book. I plan on buying a physical copy of it anyway, because *dang* this was good.

More than just being the last book in the series, Ivory is the grand finale of the AP saga. This *monster* of a novel is 1100 pages long, and I honestly don't believe it would have worked if it was any shorter.

There's no Deus Ex Machina here, either - around half of that girth was dedicated to establishing the necessary context for the resolution to work. This was achieved through a variety of techniques, some of which are a little unusual for romances. Frequent shifts into the POV of prior series protagonists provided answers to a lot of the little mysteries that have been plaguing me since book one. At one point, we get a little third person POV foray into the history of the island itself! We jump back and forth between "now" (immediately following the end of the last book) and the amorphous, nonspecific "then", gradually clarifying a previously fuzzy timeline. It's all handled very well, and every scene felt like it was there for a reason.

And as for the romance. Our main couple. The Ivory and his Angel. I'm pretty sure I died and went to heaven with this pairing. Manuel Blanco doesn't ask for a redemption arc, but he may have stumbled onto something that looks like one if you squint. Being in his head is a wild ride, and I loved every second of it. Understanding him makes me want to reread the whole series from the beginning just to experience it again with this new knowledge.

And Angel.

Absolutely divine. I love his fluidity, his adaptability, his resilience. He's beautiful, clever, and sassy. What's *not* to like? He's perfect for Manuel.

The heat is just as high in this entry as readers have come to expect from Nyla. The spice had me LOCKED IN just as much as the plot, per usual. I especially loved how much playing with gender gets to happen in the spicy bits. It really made my little genderqueer heart happy .

There's easter eggs too, for readers of her other books!

All in all, fantastic work. Go, read it right now!! Unless you haven't read the rest of the series, then go do that first.

Nyla, if you read these, congratulations - it's was a masterpiece.

[H. Ho · Rating 2 out of 5]

1131 pages. But why? In my opinion, it’s way too long.

For me, it would have been an enormous better read if we only had two ( maybe three ) POVs and not so many “now and then” moments from all the characters. Honestly, the time jumps and everyone’s POVs are just too much.

It’s necessary to read the previous books, so why do I have just so many things in here I already know?

If anyone read the foreword by Nyla, maybe you can relate, but maybe it’s just me. In my head, the POV of Ivory sounded a lot like Nyla. And sure, she is the author, but I mean the character from the Ivory, I don’t know. It sounded like her sometimes. Breaking the fourth wall to speak to us as readers. Kicked me every time out of the story.

Made it to the end. That’s about it.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

Dee’s Grade: A+

I’m in love with this book. I always knew I would begrudgingly love The Ivory. I wasn't prepared for how it isn't so begrudgingly. He's a villain and this book doesn't change that. His self awareness and ability to be real about things makes him one of my fave characters. He's complex so his love interest is equally complex. Also seeing this series wrapped up with the entire crew after this journey we've been on is bittersweet sweet. Seeing all my babies happy made me happy but I'll miss them so.

[x · Rating 1 out of 5]

i love all of them i just didn’t their povs here that was too much, gave me a headache. also the ivory was scary in the previous books what happened?

[Tea]

March 18th? STOOOOOPPPPPPPP😩😩😩🧎🏼‍♀️🧎🏼‍♀️🧎🏼‍♀️

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfecta 🥲

UPDATED SPOILER FREE, ARC REVIEW -

Well, we’re here. The series is complete and it has honestly been one of the most compelling a fanatical of my reading history. Nyla has yet to release a book that hasn’t blown me away but this series was just something else. Every single character is engrossing in such an individual manner. Not one singular act within these books could fit into any cookie cooker trope that see so often in media. This series was just one of a kind in every which way, it was wrapped up so beautifully, so impeccably and yet I am detrimentally sad to have gotten to the last page. Please bare with while I attempt to this book justice in a spoiler free manner.

Now, this book is an absolute behemoth, over 1k pages and I honestly think any less wouldn’t have been a betrayal to the storyline, make it longer I say! This book cleared up an awful lot of loose end or mysteries we had over the course of the first five books, or even just moments of certain characters finding out things we knew and they didn’t. This was done in a beautiful way of having multiple pov’s throughout the entire book. Now, our main MC’s Angel and Ivory do have the bulk of the reins throughout but there is notable number of chapters for everyone.

One pov I loved specifically was Kellan. While it seems, we’ve had Kemper’s perspective in Distorted when it comes down to it, we don’t. It was, shall we say ‘an illusion’ and while I have read The Vacation and we get a good chunk of his personality thrown into that it was honestly so lovely and genuinely fascination to see how he functioned as a guard and who is truly is as a person, how he thinks. It was such an interesting insight into his personality and his obsession. In the same vein of the disillusion of Distorted, I am honestly so glad Dash managed to get to the bottom of everything. The truth is out baby and I am genuinely happy for them all.

Now, the elephant in the room. The Ivory, Manuel Blanco. His personality was such a godamn breath of fresh air. Firstly, for the most part is comical. Yes, he is for real the big scary cartel leader but he is also a sarcastic little brat. Things make so much more sense knowing that he has found genuine enjoyment and hilarity seeing these people just fuck around over the years and that’s why he may have let things slide a bit, the wool was very truly pulled over his eyes. His continued annoyance and love particularly of Ren was maybe the funniest part about this book. It was so unexpected and so needed.

What I truly didn’t expect was for Manuel to have an origin story that was in the realm of sensical. Sure, he’s still insane and evil but he genuinely did have motivation on two separate levels, maybe (definitely) not to do what he did, but for something at least! I couldn’t believe my eyes that this was even true, never mind the fact that he was letting this information out in the wild. I would love to say that he is a man of mystery, of complication but I think it’s more a man who dragged himself into a position of power at a young age, before he even knew he was, standing on everyone he can to not get stood on, feeding off the power not knowing how to actually portray his emotions, not knowing how to feel them, just lashing out. He is in some sense predictable, when he is tamed, leading me into my little baby Angelito Alzarev.

Angel again was not the person I expected them to be. A true wild card at heart, even more so than Ren, Dash or even Velle. A pure enigma. We are taken through every single aspect of his life within this book and I don’t want to go all butterfly effect on you here but I feel like he touched every single person in this universe without them even knowing it. They seem like a late entry into the game but Angel has been there all along, hiding, silently observing, collecting information waiting for his moment to strike. The thing about Angel is despite holding all this hate in their heart and their only goal in life being destruction, they are undoubtedly a good person. A good person who is killing themselves daily to survive in their own mind.

The dynamic between Ivory and Angel is one that I don’t even know how to put into words and that is because it encapsulates every emotion that two people could have between them all rolled up into one relationship. It is fire and ice, it is hatred and heartbreak. This is the true conundrum of this series. The way to tame the bad guy is to give in to finally give in to what you wanted.

Overall, (Can I even do an overall for a series this immense?), I am just so thankful to Nyla that she cares enough about these characters to answer every question, to slot everything in somewhere, even going as far to mention things in the author notes (if you don’t read author notes, trust me read Nyla’s) The history of Alabaster Isle is a prime example of this, I don’t think it was something that was necessarily needed but it added such a gravitas to this series. These books just feel like more. The Island is its own character, the characters feel like real people, their desperation and hope sits heavy in your heart. When it comes down to it, I am just blown away that this entire series has been so immaculate. My only question is... What the hell is going on inside Yari’s head?

Thankyou to Nyla K for providing me an arc copy of this book!! I cannot wait to see what you do next and any little Alabaster Pen tid-bits we get in the future. This series is definitely going down as one of my favourites of all time!

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this finale since the Alabaster Penitentiary series had me in a chokehold since Distorted. Still, from the last book, I could tell this wouldn't be exactly what I was hoping for. I didn't have a problem with Nyla's kind of humor at the beginning of the series, but as the books progressed, I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was reading the thoughts and conversations of sassy teenagers instead of grown-ass men, and that just got a whole lot worse in this book.

Yes, I do think it was unnecessarily long, but I did love the characters, so I thought I wouldn't have much of a problem with that many POVs. However, I couldn't connect to them as much as I wanted to this time around.

I personally found that many time jumps annoying and frustrating. I was getting into a story, and then the flow was completely interrupted. I felt like I was getting nowhere despite how much I was reading.

I also got the feeling that this wasn't the Ivory's book, but more of an amalgamation of every character in the series. I really expected to get more depth in Manuel's character, but instead, I just felt he lost his Edge compared to the other books.

But what ultimately sealed the deal for me and made this my least favorite book was the botched Spanish sprinkled throughout. If an author wants to have diversity in their characters and include different nationalities you would at least expect some level of respect and research, but I found none of that in the Ivory's and Ángel's characters, in fact there wasn't one conversation between them where the verb "to be" was used correctly in Spanish, there were multiple words that are regional to other countries but not Colombia where they're supposedly from and, as native Spanish speaker, I couldn't get into the story simply because of how ridiculous my language sounded.

I haven't said much about the plot because, really, there was not much going on, just the same events told by every person who was involved, and the few chapters that provided something new didn't really wow me.

Lastly, and probably the pettiest reason this wasn't a coherent book for me, was the need to connect every minor character presented throughout the series to more than two main characters, and some of the ways the characters were linked were honestly quite silly.

[ʟᴀᴜʀᴀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colour me surprised by how much I did not enjoy the resolution of one of my favourite series.

This was meant to be a villain’s redemption arc, but I desperately wanted him to win. After years of buildup, watching THE Ivory fold like that was infuriating (“it’s me not you” type of shit so fair enough).

But somehow the writing style and the exhausting POV switching - which already made the finale seem more like a collection of severely extended epilogues - were the final nails in the coffin of my patience. At the end I skimmed through a lot because that felt like the better option rather than tearing my hair out in frustration.

If this book has any redeeming quality, it’s definitely smut. Especially that god-tier dirty talk 🔥 I don’t think I’ll ever quit the yearning for Nyla K level of filth.

Will I eventually re-read the whole series? Probably. Will I get over the disappointment of the final instalment? I’d rather not say 😶

[areadsbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

nyla has only gone and broke me. cool. fine. i won’t ever be leaving alabaster so you can pry this series from my cold dead hands bc i’m not fucking leaving.

this summary of the entire series blew my motherfcking head off. how do you do it nyla????? like how????? your brain never fails to amaze me and the way you create the most complex and questionable characters who i love with my entire life and existence, i just can’t, i will never be over the greatness that is this series —nothing compares to the pure genius that went into this creation and i will die on that hill. periodt.

if you haven’t dipped into this series yet i have no words for you, get outta here. go start distorted right now and come back when you, too, are questioning everything you’ve read before.

queen nyla forever, what a gift she is.

[Carlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best ending to a great series! 🤩
I was so happy to finally read Ivory’s story. I will miss all these crazy inmates and guards of Alabaster Pen.
Would definitely recommend reading. 💯