Neurovance

by Alexandra St. Pierre

FORGETTING, PERFECTED.

Are you tired of being haunted by memories that hurt you?


Drained from every heartbreak?

Sick of wallowing in every failure?

Exhausted from replaying every word you wish you could take back?

Now, you don’t have to!

the NeuroExtractor™

Precision-engineered by Neurovance – the NeuroExtractor™ can redefine your mind.

Erase the moments that weigh you down.


Keep the ones that make you whole.

Seamless.

Painless.

Permanent .


A cleaner mind for a brighter life.

Neurovance .

Remember only what matters.

**The NeuroExtractor™ is a registered innovation of Neurovance Laboratories.
 Some memories may be incompatible with deletion. Side effects include relief, renewal, and clarity. **

NEUROVANCE IS A DARK MM ROMANTIC TECHNO-THRILLER WITH HEAVY TRIGGERS.
18+ . PLEASE READ RESPONSIBLY

Genres: M M Romance, Dark Romance, Romance, Dark, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Friends To Lovers

592 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 28, 2026

About the author

Lover of all things dark and twisted.
Harbinger of characters with black cat energy.
Love is love.
🌈

Reviews

[dodi ia]

i’ve never been more conflicted over how to rate a book in my life. i don’t know if i should rate it on potential or execution. weird right? obviously you should rate a book on the actual product but god i think the potential this book had was massive. a near future techno-thriller m/m romance with heavy philosophical themes? that sounds near perfect, right? well, it would be if it was written that way. instead, i feel like it was written more like a contemporary romance with some techo-thriller parts thrown in. i’ll explain why:

the pacing in this book is all over the place. both the techno-thriller vibes and the romance are lost in all the smut. usually, in thrillers, you expect fast pacing and action. it gave that in the first part, but then, we lost it when the romance plot begun. this book is 600 pages long and i’m confident when i say that it would’ve benefited so much with losing at least 200 of them. we get at least 10 scenes of them eating breakfast and playing stardew valley, cute, but in a techno-thriller? i might be rude but those were not really the vibes i signed up for.

what’s funny is that if the book actually leaned into the romance, i’d fully get it but it doesn’t really do that either because this is one of the fastest insta-love romance books i’ve ever read. i think i’m having burnout because i’m so tired of how quickly everything moves in romance books nowadays. i’m talking getting together in less than a week then they just fuck. boy do they fuck. every 3 seconds they’re fucking. even i became sore from all the fucking. like guys please we have places to be and things to do, can we take a break? i don’t want to spoil this book too much so i won’t go into detail but y’all please just trust me on this.

this book follows three characters: milo, jay and sebastian.

milo might be the most infantilized character i’ve ever had the displeasure of reading about. he acts like he’s eleven years old, yet we’re supposed to believe he’s the smartest man alive. and sure he is a genius but i wish we saw him actually grow as a character because the dude went through some shit, but nope he’s exactly the same from start to finish. don’t even get me started on his quirky cussing, that shit pisses me off beyond words. i thought i left that with rory from anonymous sinners but nope, milo does the same shit here too. he says jeebus and jiminy christmas during kinky sex scenes 🙄 god, please help these millennial authors lose the urge to do this, i don’t think anyone truly enjoys this.

jay and sebastian are so much more dimensional; their relationship was interesting, complex and with multiple layers. i loved getting to know their past and seeing how their fathers shaped them and their dynamic. don’t shoot me but i think i would’ve loved this book so much more if it was only about them. especially because jay is so dickmatized over milo it made him lose his charm and intrigue.

overall, i didn’t hate this book. it had the potential to be phenomenal but that potential wasn’t reached. the technological and philosophical aspects were amazing though—i’m super interested in those types of discussions and the author did a great job bringing them up. i can tell that a lot of care and love went into that part of the book. i really wish i loved this book as much as the majority did, but i don’t because of all the points mentioned above.

kudos to the amazing artwork in the book though, what a pleasant surprised. loved that.

[Momma Eureka]

“See you at the pond” 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Oh man this author NEVER disappoints me ……
She always manages to bring an amazing story that hits perfectly ar the center of your heart with emotions that always, ALWAYS makes me cry a little! And as everyone knows I love to be emotionally devastated!

This story is scary because if I’ve read this book 10 years ago I would’ve treated as a fiction sci-fi story, but now in this day and age this book hits completely different and so accurate. I had chills reading this book and I totally believe many of the things here are already happening and some will happen in the next 10 years or less. Most of them are really scary and bad and some are really good, I guess ethics and human decency will be what makes the difference in this kind of future we will for sure live and have no escape from.
I’ve seen a few reviews here where they say the romance is more like a sub plot and it takes the back seat, I think we have to agree to disagree on that because the romance was PERFECT, beautiful and full front in the story for me, also the spicy is PERFECT ! I love and adore Milo and Jay and I rooted for them the whole time, I was so invested in their love and Milo was so cute to me , I can’t even ….. another character that had my heart the whole time was Sebastian, he was so tortured and sad that i literally just wanted to hold him !
This story takes place in the future, imagine a place like Silicon Valley but way more advanced and imagine that Alexa is literally like a person, that’s how it is.
Jay invented a technology to extract bad memories and replace with good ones and he only had the best intentions ever, he wanted to help people with deep trauma and depression to be able to replace traumatic memories with good ones so they can live a better life . Milo is the new genius who will be able to take all that to a whole better next level, but OBVIOUSLY we have a villain here interested in selling this technology to the military so they can create super soldiers not caring at all about free will and feelings, the villain aka Luke only cares about the money. And the story goes from there. It’s intriguing, perfectly done and scary accurate! I absolutely LOVED IT and I am as usual upset I didn’t read a while ago ! 10 out of 10 !

[Jan]

DNF @40%



Oh man… I’m so disappointed. The reviews are skyrocketing, but three days in, I keep finding excuses not to come back to this book. I am constantly in the kitchen, cooking, baking cakes... I mean, what the hell?! That’s not right.

I’m a very character-driven reader, and unfortunately, the characters didn’t work for me.

Milo felt oddly childish, and Jay came across as one-dimensional. The woman helping Milo was just pretending to be a friend; again, it felt immature. 🤷‍♂️ Not to mention, she was just another “evil” female character in an MM romance.🙄

The instalove didn’t convince me either. I can understand Jay being fascinated with Milo’s mind, but the feeling didn’t seem earned the other way around. It all happened extremely fast.

Seb’s immediate infatuation with Milo also felt forced. It’s hard to buy that two charismatic, successful men would instantly fall for someone portrayed as awkward and clumsy.

The kink element appears almost immediately after they meet, which only makes the whole dynamic feel more awkward.

Sadly, this just isn’t working for me at all. I’m out.

[acalithas]

Did I expect to ugly cry at the end of this?? No, but I definitely did!!!!! I am not okay!!!! This book was a fucking masterpiece!!!! I loved every single bit of it omggggg!!!!! Do yourself a favor and fucking read it!!!!!

[Mimi]

This is gonna be a hot take for sure bc I’m going against the grain, but I don’t get the hype. The only other character with any depth in this story other than the MCs is Seb (#justiceforseb). The antagonists, from Melanie to Luke to Dr. Evil Government Guy were completely one dimensional and almost cartoon mustache twirly villains. Their motivations were just being evil for the sake of power, money, or just being an asshole in Melanie’s case. Sebastian was the only one who gets backstory and motivations, everyone else we really didn’t get to know at all.

And Melanie is yet another example of women being awful in mm romance stories. The only other woman in this book was the mom, and she was a non character only there as a plot device.

At least the side characters in The Mercenary and the Mortician were much better developed. Idk just bc an author doesn’t plan to give a side character their own book does not mean that side character doesn’t deserve any depth, that’s just my two cents.

I also found Milo’s toddler-esque personality really grating. He’s a grown man who acts like a teenager. This wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if there had been more growth to his character, and while there is some, it wasn’t enough for me. He was still saying things like “Jiminy Christmas” till the very end (who talks like that? Was he born in the 50s?!?). His dialogue was 90% cringe, and the way Jay infantilized and indulged Milo’s childishness didn’t help either. I wish Jay had helped Milo grow as a person into someone that sounded like an actual adult instead of indulging his kid-like behavior and always finding it cute.

I find that authors often give these kind of kid-like characteristics to characters who are supposed to be geniuses in an attempt to balance them, but it doesn’t work for me. I get that maybe being a genius would make you emotionally stunted, but it goes too far with Milo. He literally acts like he’s 12 years old, or even just born in a past era the entire book.

I also feel like the romance would have been better served had they worked together for longer than a month. It felt too insta-love. I get from Jay’s perspective why he was instantly into Milo, bc he’d already been obsessing over him before they met, but not from Milo’s POV. That just made him feel even more like a child.

[Juli]

Almost dnf when Milo said Jeebus. Fully dnf'd when he said Jiminy Cricket. Couldn't get past thinking he was a child.

[Atefeh]

من واقعاً نمی‌دونم بعد از تموم کردن این کتاب باید با خودم چیکار کنم 😭😭😭😭
کاملاً رندوم شروع به خوندنش کردم و هیچ ایده‌ای نداشتم راجبش که چقدر می‌تونه خوب باشه.
و سباستین… 😭💔
من واقعاً دلم براش خون شد. چقدر دوستش داشتم و چقدر دلم می‌خواست یه‌جایی همه‌چی برای این بشر بالاخره درست بشه. هنوزم نمی‌تونم با چیزی که سرش اومد کنار بیام.
و لوک عوضی؛ واقعا در تعجم چطور یه نفر به تنهایی می‌تونه این‌همه زندگی رو نابود کنه؟
امیدوارم توی جهنم بپوسی.
در کل خیلی قشنگ بود.
خیلی دردناک بود.
و من هنوز آماده‌ی خداحافظی با این داستان نیستم.

[Flora.reads.books]

I finished reading this masterpiece yesterday and needed some time to process it. 😭

First, let me tell you something—I NEVER reread books. Never (okay maybe just once 🤔). But after finishing Neurovance, I went back and reread the first part immediately. This book is the kind where nothing makes sense at first. You have approximately 47,197 questions, but you just have to keep reading because it’s that good, you know?
The story is divided into three parts: the present, the past, and the present again. I think it’s the perfect way to tell this story. 👏💙

I felt every emotion. I laughed, I sobbed, I cried, I giggled, I swooned. 🥹💙💙 The chemistry between the MMCs is incredible: strong, sweet, and utterly perfect. The setting is phenomenal. Alex did an amazing job with this book—bravo, ma’am! 😭💖
It kept me on the edge of my seat from the first page to the last. 😱

I’m keeping the story details to myself because Neurovance is a book you have to experience blind, in my opinion. Every little detail matters, and you won’t want anything spoiled. Trust me—you have to add it to your TBR. It’s 100% worth it.

The ending broooooke my heart. 💔😭 I haven’t cried and felt my chest tighten like that in a long time. 😭 But despite the heartbreak, I think it was the perfect ending. 🥹💖

Thank you so much for the ARC opportunity, Alex. I cannot wait to add this absolute banger to my shelf! Feb 28th can’t come fast enough! 🥹

[Bee (slow)]

pre:read
this is a looong one, everyone and their mother is reading it around me and frankly I couldn't take it anymore

[Livvvvvvvv]

if we’d lived together for a hundred years… a thousand years—it wouldn’t have been enough.

3.75 rounded up ⭐️⭐️⭐️

what a ride.

despite what goodreads told you, i didn’t finish this in a day, though 3 days is still pretty quick. i ate this book up.

there were twists upon freaking twists, drama, pain, and so much goddam love.

i don’t normally read this genre, and i’m especially weirded out by AI and big tech corps - it hits a little too close to home when reading is supposed to be my escape ya feel?

however, i do think it was all done very well in this book.

i really wanted this to be 5 stars and the first 1/3 was definitely up there for me, it started FAST and kept speeding up and i was enthralled by having ZERO IDEA what was happening.

however, as soon as it got to the second part i think it lost significant momentum. mainly because i do not find insta love compelling and i found the initial meeting between the two MMCs a little eye role-y and their subsequent relationship was cute, but it wasn’t my favourite.

seb was a more compelling character than both milo and jay combined and i wanted more of him, definitely the saving grace of the final third of the book and i’ll be honest, i did shed some tears. 😭

i think i have accepted that i’m just a sucker for poetic, descriptive prose and heartwrenching, soul destroying and rebuilding internal monologues which alas was not what this book had (imo).

HOWEVER, a GOOD BOOK, will read more of Alexandra’s stuff.

side note:
milo’s application ‘essay’ was the most fkin ridiculous thing i’ve ever read, there is absolutely no way that made everyone want to hire him and also made jay cry and showcased his massive intellect. yes i know i have to remember it’s a book, a work of fiction, but COME ON THE ESSAY WAS LIKE 200 WORDS AND DIDNT SAY ANYTHING why did everyone in the book talk about it as if he wrote something completely groundbreaking, I WOULDNT HAVE HIRED HIM

[Ash]

♾️⭐️

I need 5-7 business years to recover.

Okay I’ve slept and still cannot function. This book has consumed me, body and soul.

The connection and chemistry these two had was insane. The story being split up and told in three parts was so freaking good. It left me guessing. Dying to figure out wtf happened. I was taking mental notes and side eyeing everything.

The Forgotten is my baby. I absolutely loved that sweet broken boy. You’ll never be forgotten again. And Milo in general was perfect but in part three he was everything.

Seb. Fuck. No words, just ily.

The forget me nots.

The hot pepper keychain. (Shane is also my baby)

All. The. Things.

Idk how I’m supposed to move on.

[Ashley H]

SIX STARS. Holy shit. Ill be back with a better review.. i need to process it.

Ok update: First Id like to say I got this as an ARC & this is my honest opinion.

Tropes:
Dark MM
Pleasure Dom 😏
Stalking
Techno thriller
Virgin MMC
Touch him & 💀 (swoon)
Edging
Near dystopian future

Wow, I knew Alex was gonna give me an amazing read but I didnt know I was gonna be obsessed with it, lets start out with the story itself, the plot was plotting so hard that I found myself trying to connect the dots like I was Sherlock Holmes. You start out the book thinking poor sweet Milo is just some innocent guy who happens to be targeted by “The forgotten” & he is stalked and bothered by this unknown person. He wants to work at Neurovance, a huge company that specializes in memory altering & memory extraction among other things.. Milo is a super smart MIT grad, and its his dream to work there. But everything gets wild fairly fast, feelings of deja vu start to plague Milo & even worse feelings occur as he is brought to Neurovance. My gut feeling abut some of the characters was 100% correct but it doesnt cover the emotional depth you get throughout the book about some of the characters. The beginning chapters of this book hook you so fast its almost impossible to set the book down, and when I did all i thought about was opening it back up again.

I dont like to give to much about a book away in my reviews. Most of my suspicions about the book were correct but it still didnt ease the heart ache I had, it honestly was so good there isnt anything I would change about it. Personally I found myself unable to close it because each chapter leaves you NEEDING more of everything. The characters 😭 side ones having my heart, some literally had me SCREAMING at my kindle at 1am 😭😩 thankfully it ends in the best way it could after the events that took place that still doesnt mean it didnt make my heart hurt.

[Tia]

Cried my eyeballs out…. Absolutely phenomenal.

If anyone mentions a pond to me in the near future I will cry 👍

[Karyta]

I guess I’m in the minority, but I was really bored with this book and had to push myself through it. I really loved the plot and premise but sadly most of the book is just sex scenes, which some of them really threw me out of the immersion. Guess I’m just not smut obsessed or something but wish the plot was more developed and also the characters kind of seemed unbelievable. The main character acted like a teenager. Their relationship was insta love. The whole thing read like a 2002 fanfiction.net story.

[manu]

That ending left me a blubbering mess. I found myself reaching for my phone to read every second I could. This felt like black mirror episode and I loved it.

I’m a glutton for sad books and this one did not disappoint 😭😭😭😭 I will 100% be rereading once I’ve recovered the broken bits of my heart

[Casey Lozano]

This book was not the vibe. It was far too long, had far too many smut scenes, and most of the characters felt one dimensional. I could not see Jay and Milo working at all and their relationship was pretty cringe.

Serious huge spoilers ahead including last 10% of the book

The plot holes in this book were black holes to me. Queue 2 best friends who grow up together. Jay gets a lovely dad and Seb gets an evil dad. Jay is aware Sebs dad is crap. Jay thinks Sebs dad even killed his dad. He never checks in on Seb. Never steps up never seems to even care that Seb is stuck with his evil dad who again jay is convince killed his own dad. Plot holes begin 😑

Then Jay invites Milo to work there fully knowing Lucas (sebs dad) is engaging with the army and Doing awful things. Does he try and stop Lucas or check on Seb? Still no. Does he self sabotage so the army can’t have his equipment? Still no. Does he bang Milo on every surface? Yes 😑

Enter my beef with Milo. Milo is a nerdy clutz who has been perpetually bullied. Does he notice Seb is going through it since you know tortures kindred spirits? Yes. Does he check in on Seb? No. Does he mention to Jay that Seb is clearly going through it since the author took time to tell us through Milo’s eyes that he is? Still No.

Then Milo gets chipped by Lucas and this chip is horrible. He can’t experience any touch without having escalated pain. Seb tells Jay and Milo he was implanted with the same chip and he can’t leave or be touched. Do Jay and Milo have any empathy for Seb? No. They get Milo’s chip out then these two tech geniuses who are aware Lucas is Evil and torturing Deb decided to text seb, that they removed the chip and to come get his out. Yes they texted all this information. They didn’t write a vague text, no no they sent all that. Then shocker Seb doesn’t come, and they just assume he turned on them. They never went to Seb and checked on him after everything he admitted to and how awful this chip was for Milo who only had it for a week vs Seb over a year. It apparently never occurs that their text could have been intercepted or hacked or anything.

This is where I wanted to DNF. Cuz if there are no haters for Jay and Milo then I am dead. But nnnnnooooooo all the reviews say it’s worth it for the last 10%. It’s not. It just made me mad.

Seb who’s now been tortured physically on top of mentally comes and saves Jay and Milo yet again then kills his dad and then kills himself because he just can’t handle all the torture his dad did, but before he did that he gave Jay his memories so Jay knew he wasn’t a bad guy.

Screw Jay Screw Milo and Justice for Seb. That’s all I got.

[handy.hannahbookishrecs]

Where do I even begin?

I think I’m gonna have to give my second 6 star of 2026 to this book because holy shit. I think I sobbed for a solid hour. The last hundred pages was just action and emotional damage tied in a pretty bow and yet I ate this book up like it was my last meal.

This is a dark, MM techno thriller romance, set in a futuristic world where memory deletion technology is taking over. This follows our neuroscientist MMC Milo, and our other MMC -for spoiler reasons, I will not say his name so will call him his other name “the forgotten.”
This book is broken up in three parts so in part 1 it is set in present day Milo gets offered a job to work at Neurovance tech and he accepts and as you get a accommodated to the surroundings, your suspicious of everybody around Milo and his weird Déjà vu moments have you questioning everything. Then we have this forgotten character our masked MMC that keeps popping up and scaring the crap out of her poor baby Milo. He even goes as far as to kidnap Milo‘s mother and blackmails him into completing a task for him at Nuerovance tech and once this task is completed shit gets really action packed and interesting.

Then we shift to a part 2 and this is set in past and here we learn we were valid to feel suspicious in part 1. We learn of what happened to Milo and this forgotten MMC and confirms what certain things were alluding to in part 1. We learn of how Milo‘s relationship with our other MMC formed and how their beautiful love story developed and the tragedy that hit them in the end.

Then we jump to part 3 you get back to the present and here is where there’s a whole bunch of healing and adjusting to the new normal with our two MMC’s. Towards the end of this book tho they find they still have to fight like hell to be together and when the action really kicks off that last hundred pages you will also get shot right in the heart and it will be painful, but then everything at the end wraps up so nicely and we do get a beautiful HEA.

My random additional thoughts:
I thought Nova tech the funny AI bot was hilarious in this story. I think she lightened the mood when things got dark. I wanna wrap Milo up in bubble wrap and keep his Accident prone self safe from all the bullies. Luke can rot in the fires. I really want a damn cinnamon roll after reading this book as well and also id like to note I will be avoiding ponds like the plague going forward. Lastly I would like to say one of my favorite quotes that tore me up emotionally in this book was
“friends always have each other‘s backs.”

This book deserves all the stars all the love all the hype. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think it beat the mercenary and the mortician as my favorite dark MM book. So yeah you should read.

Tropes
Touch him and die
Virgin MMC
Edging
Praise “good boy”
Stalking and masked MMC
Pleasure Dom
Angst
HEA
Techno thriller

[oshiiy]

4 stars ⭐️

All the stars for Seb though, he literally spent his whole life protecting his brother, Jay. I have no words. I love him so much I couldn’t stop crying. The last few chapters absolutely wrecked me. I’m not the same person anymore, and I’m never rereading this book because I refuse to feel this emotionally ruined again.

Yes, the ending was HEA, but how am I supposed to be okay when Seb isn’t there with them? He’s one of the most humble, selfless characters I’ve ever read, and I know I’ll never forget him.

Jay and Milo’s love was instant and intense. I usually hate insta-love, but here it worked because there was something much bigger happening in their lives that needed to be stopped. The keychain, the endearments, all their soft moments? So sweet. Milo acting a bit childish at times actually made sense for his character, he’s called Murphy’s Law for a reason.

[Aly]

I’ve been sitting here trying to gather my thoughts for 2 hours. This book was… everything. It was absolute perfection. Every single thing about it. Ever single word in every single page. It has me so deep into my feelings I just want to sit here with it forever so that I never have to let it go. I loved it so much and I’m changed forever.

[Nikita]

Why did no one warn me I’d be fkn TRAUMATISED at the end. Literally if I smoked I’d be outside having a good old puff Ben Affleck style. Lord jeebus 😩😭

[Kelly28]

Wow this one was amazing!!

[Tay]

Holy forkballs WHAT THE HELL!! (Respectfully)

6 stars⭐️

This book was AMAZING but an emotional rollercoaster mainly for me as I feel everything and I really did feel everything. The story was so beautifully writtten and JAY AND MILO MY FREAKING HEART MY LOVES I LOVE THEMM OMGGG!!!

Milo being so sweet and king and I resenoated with him a lot from the bullying and it felt reall seeing him go through that, and jay my heart he was so caring, so obsessed with Milo I loved it, the way he went into daddy status throughout like KING YESSS POP OFF HOTTIE!!

The way I ate this book up like I was starving cause I was and I think this is one of my favorites of all time, just Milo and jay’s story it very well deserves the world, I can’t wait for the world to see and read their story, and be on this wild journey that this book is but most of all fall in love with them like I am.

The use of neurovance ( NOVA) I and how it was approached was freaking genius and it really puts into perspective of this could happen like what if yk but like reading about NOVA (I really fell in love with nova like wdym im falling for her and she’s not even real like “daddy” made my laugh so hard i love this book so much. )

I kept hearing this was emotional and boy was all the talk so right. I absolutely freaking sobbed for hours I kid you not, it gave me a migraine Alexandra st Pierre really knows how to play with a story make it hot af but twist it so it feels like a gut punch and I love that about her writing, it makes the storytelling so fun and unpredictable and I just love her books and I just really enjoyed getting emotionally attached to the characters from the beginning till the end, I loved being on the rollercoaster of emotions and I highly recommend this book!!!

And the ending.. THE ENDING OH MY GOD MY HEART

This has become one of my favorites of all time !!!

[Nathaniel Readsalot]

I feel like I’ve been duped. How does this book have so many 5-star reviews? The writing is terrible, the love story is nearly nonexistent, the sex scenes are irrelevant and weird; and I honestly just don’t care about Milo and like him even less by the end because he has absolutely no character development. This story should’ve been about Jay and Sebastian.

This book is screaming for a better editor. Not feeling the love strong enough. Their relationship is really only weird sex that delved way too far into dom/sub way too quickly. Also, why a dom/sub situation? Doesn’t seem remotely necessary. Why is Milo so infantile? And why does Jay like it so much? It’s very creepy. We should have stuck to Milo being a genius and Jay being attracted to him for his mind, if we really even needed Milo in the book at all—it would have made the relationship so much more interesting and believable. Also-instalove. These two have an epic love story, according to no one but themselves, in a matter of weeks? maybe months? Give me a break, they’re actually just fuck buddies. If this hadn’t been written as a romance, this story is might have been so good, maybe even greater if moments like Milo removing his memories of Jay, could have been supported by an ACTUAL love story. In parts, it felt like the author had originally intended this to be a YA novel, then took a wild hare one night and decided to throw in as many bizarre sex scenes as she could instead.

Also, later in the book, Jay suggests sleeping, but instead they have sex while they are fully aware that armed assassins are their way to them? Both of those are terrible ideas. We also bring up ponds and frogs way late in the game, then a few chapters later, I’m supposed to be heartbroken over it? This story is so under developed, it’s like the author just put in ideas as they came to her. God the writing is so bad in this book. There are also very poorly hidden Harry Potter references, particularly in part 3.

The author talks about this book like it’s deeply meaningful to her; more power to her, but it feels like she didn’t really give a crap about it. The idea is there, and it could’ve been something great, unfortunately she wrote characters that’s just didn’t tell her story very well. I’m so disappointed because things started out so strong, but it just nose-dived so very quickly.

[Whitney]

Milo + 'The Forgotten' 🖤
Sweet boy | Praise | Possessiveness | Caretaking kink

A total mindfuck that will also somehow leave you emotional by the end. Very unique plot. Alex's mind is a work of art for sure. But damn her for making me cry again.




⚠️ potential spoilers below in detailed tropes, content and warning lists






Tropes/content:
Dark
Masked MC
Coworkers
Boss/subordinate
Dom/sub
Possessive
Glasses
"Baby"
"Sweet boy"
Sir
Good boy
Licks him clean
Stardew Valley game nights
Brings him flowers
Frotting
Coming while giving head
Caretaker kink
Makes sure he eats
Lays his clothes out for him
Edging
"Baby boy"
First times
Virgin
Milo gets naked, spread out and played with while playing Stardew
Overstimulation
Multiple orgasms until coming dry
Praise
Bareback
Aftercare
Butt plug
Dub con - wakes Milo up with blow jobs and fingering but never got talked about the specifics prior. Just agreed that he was in charge of his orgasms
Handcuffs
Nose kisses
Spits into his dick and ass
Tell me what you want
Mine
Trinket gift
Light nipple play
Light spanking
Helps him find his worth
Dirty ass eating
Riding
Inhales his scent at his balls
Deep throating
Lovemaking
Brought to tears during sex
Sex in surgical chair
Restraints
Cock rings
Epilogue 5 years later - Jay proposes with a ring that has a chili pepper engraved on the inside. They also open an art therapy foundation for Sebastian
Strict roles



Warnings/icks:
Bullying
Stalking (between MCs)
Parental death
Murder
Drugging (between MCs)
Kidnapping
Panic attacks
Negative self talk and low self esteem
Non consensual chipping of employees which makes it so employees cant touch each other without severe pain - Milo gets his cut out willingly but is in agony and seizes during the removal since there's no numbing
Varying degrees of pain and torture to MCs from side characters
Manipulation
On page suicide of a side character

[Leigh Gaskill]

I’m definitely in the minority for this book. I think it could have been much shorter and still been impactful. I think we are told a lot of things instead of shown, which is not helpful for a book like this.

I almost DNF this at 50% honestly. Jay uses the term noodle for brain too many times, Milo describing his abdomen as a tummy grossed me out, and I hate the term ‘little cock’.

I pushed through the last 50%. The ending ALMOST made me bump this up to 4 stars but it was not enough to negate everything that annoyed me already.

I think this could have been a fantastic book. The story line is very intriguing and by the end it made me want to read the first part to see what I missed. But overall the writing felt shallow.

Also, Sebastian fucking deserved better.

*𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮. 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬.*

[TetyanaSun]

4,5 ⭐
Купа емоцій від дивного поєднання одночано ніжності і напруги, тепла і болю.
Потужна романтична лінія про злегка домінуючого, одержимого героя і його коханого, геніальну крихітку. Ця парочка взаємозалежна, вибухонебезпечна, від їх гарячої взаємодії неможливо відрватись. Але ця історія не тільки про них. Вона зачепила мене темою відданості, яка заходить занадто далеко, дружби, трагічної самопожертви, вибору, за який доводиться платити (я ніяк не очікувала розплакатись на останніх сторінках, чесно((((.
Паралельно червоною ниткою снують роздуми про етичність технодинаміки і наукового прогресу, що є актіальною темою для мене. Технологічний прогрес у книзі виглядає не як тріумф досягнень, а як стирання меж. Кожен крок вперед в науці - це ще одна можливість втрутитися, виправити, підкоригувати те, що здається комусь недосконалим. І в якийсь момент вже неможливо вже буде відрізнити допомогу від контролю в руках того, кому це вигідно.
І все це загорнуто в динамічний сюжет з екшном і детективною лінією.
В цій книзі емоції, сюжет і сенси існують в стані синергійної взаємодії. Круто ❤

Додатково звертаю вашу на плей-ліст!!!🎵
Як і у всіх книгах авторки, він досконалий!!! Вона, дійсно, крутй меломан, з ідеальним музичним смаком))

[Ana Campos]

★ 3.5

Before anything else, I have to say that I found this story incredibly innovative and genuinely unexpected. The techno-thriller elements, neurological manipulation, dystopian setting, and philosophical questions surrounding it all made for something I hadn’t come across before, and the technological side was easily my favourite part.

I don’t quite have the full 5 stars, but honestly, that’s mostly a me problem. Sci-fi and dystopian settings aren’t really my thing, so I was never completely swept up in the atmosphere. That said, the story itself was surprisingly captivating, and even though this isn’t usually my kind of book, I was always curious to see where it was going. It was one hell of a ride. At the same time, I do wish the mystery surrounding the Forgotten had stayed hidden a little longer, and I struggled a bit with Milo because some of his behaviour came across as more childish than I think the story intended.

Still, my biggest issue was probably the pacing. There’s a lot happening, but the constant back-and-forth between action, mystery, and very explicit scenes sometimes felt a little strange. Just when I was getting caught up in the thriller side of the story, we’d shift into something completely different, only to jump back into the mystery afterwards. (This is me trying to figure out why I generally enjoy Alexandra’s books but never quite seem to love them, although I’m still not entirely sure this is it.) I think the pacing might have something to do with it, because while I generally enjoy her books, it never quite clicks for me.

Even so, I had a really good time with this. The world, the neurological concepts, and all the ideas behind them were incredibly interesting, and you can really feel how much thought went into creating them. It was original, ambitious, and genuinely entertaining, and I can definitely see this being a great pick for anyone who enjoys this kind of genre.

[Shan]

This read was everything and then some. The emotional damage by the end is totally worth the entire story. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy read the moment i heard the plot was based around memory loss amoung other aspects, but still. The plot was very well written for the emotional rollercoaster it takes. This story about two people just wanting to be in love in peace but their love was destined for tragedy, is my idea of what dark romance truly means. I wish i could read this over with fresh eyes instead of blurry ones-.
Lastly, my heart forever breaks for Sebastian. In my opinion he had it the absolute worst from the very beginning so the tribute to him at the end was absolutely beautiful. XOXO

[ash[hearts]angst]

DNF @ 60%

This writing felt very...shallow. Most things are told but not shown, and I unfortunately didn't connect to any of the characters. The characters were also very lackluster to me. For two highly intelligent men, they interacted and behaved like high schoolers. I also have a hard time with insta-love, and this felt very unrealistic. I loved the world building and I think the concept is really cool and unique but that wasn't enough to keep going.
I might pick it back up again to see why everyone is crying, but this was a miss for me.

[Melanie Books]

DNF at 36% I liked the plot but this whole Sci-Fi Tech is really not mine...