Ivory

Alabaster Penitentiary #6

by Nyla K.

Ivory
Alabaster Penitentiary, Volume 6


The Finale



History is important...
And his is the start of a storm.


Coming in 2025...

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

788 pages, Paperback

Published March 17, 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

[lakshmi]

update: there are so many different POV’s and I just realized how LONG this book is??? 😭



THIS BOOK HAS BEEN OUT FOR 24 HOURS AND I DIDNT KNOW??????

[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!

[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!🤧

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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

[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. 💯

[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.

[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.

[Sarah Poulton-Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an epic finale. Ivory is the ending to explain all the remaining Alabaster mysteries while bringing to a close the island war between the guards/prisoners and Ivory and his cartel men. This book is a beast of a story with chapters from all main character POVs as well as giving us the much anticipated redemption arc for the Ivory. A man, who by all accounts, is an irredeemable meddler in lives and all round evil manipulator. Or is he?

If you're here then you will have read all the Alabaster books in the series. Nothing about this book will make sense without meeting our cast of killers, criminals and guards previously. To understand the multiple perspectives you have to have been on this crazy train since the start. There is just something addictive about Nyla's pop culture referencing, equality accepting, celebration of love and people writing style. You want to savour every page but then also know how it ends and wraps up.

Special mention to Angel. The little bird to bring the Ivory to his knees. His late addition to the series has a profound impact in how it all ends. Angel has a kindness and radiant energy that spills from the book. His love for all parts of the Ivory are what fuels his redemption. And the acceptance Angel finds amidst the ruins of Alabaster and its people made me shed more than a few tears.

Is this book a time commitment? Yes. Is it worth it? Also yes. There is no other way to give these characters the ending they all deserve.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nyla, Nyla, Nyla!!! You’ve amazed me once again.
Ivory was not only an outstanding story, but the way Nyla managed to tie everything throughout the series together was incredible. Questions I didn’t even realise I needed answers to were answered, and nothing was left untouched. I was completely blown away by how every detail throughout the series fit so perfectly,like puzzle pieces clicking into place.
Manuel Blanco (Ivory)… wow!!!. He is a character you truly have to unpack. Did I hate him throughout the series? Absolutely. Did I love him by the end of Ivory? Absolutely. He’s a psychopath, and everything he does is beyond questionable, so many times i was thinking "What the?" but , I ate his crazy up.
And Angel… oh, sweet Angel. He was the perfect match for our unhinged Warden.
I love the Alabaster Pen family. They’re all their own kind of crazy, but they had me laughing so much, and I love each and every single one of them.
I’m honestly so sad to see this series come to an end, but Nyla gave us the perfect conclusion.

[Karie (Beautifulwildromantic) · Rating 5 out of 5]

AP COMES TO A CLOSE🥺
EVERYONE FALLS HARDER FOR THE VILLAIN

I was not ready for the end, so many characters have found their way into my heart and it’s so sad to see this world end. I LOVE how the last book everyone had a POV “The gangs all here”- in shaggy voice. It was action packed, amazingly written and beautifully executed. If you haven’t read the first 5 books this one will not make sense to you, it’s HIGHLY RECOMMEND to read in order. AND FOR THOSE WHO GRIP ABOUT BIG THICK BOOKS…CLEARLY HAVE NEVER WANTED TO STAY IN A WORLD LONGER THAN YOU HAVE TO. So your opinions on longer books don’t count. 🙃 we like the thicker than a snicker over here in our Nylaverse!

[Sarah Dobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐

[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?

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILERS AHEAD!!







Book rating: 3.5

I'm going to start this off by saying that my review might be a little bit "iffy" considering that I read this book out of obligation to the compelling and dramatic storyline and to the return of my favourite characters (Ren, Lex, and Dash). I did not read this book because I was interested in the budding love between Ivory and Angel, but more for the history and drama between the two and the island itself.

That being said, here are some things I LOVED from this book!
Multiple POVs: I really liked getting POVs from everyone. My favourite part about reading this book was moving on to a different chapter and getting to see who is going to be featured in the next POV. I also didn't read Joyless (wompwomp) so I liked getting to see Velle's POV in this book because I've always been curious about him - not curious enough to read his book tho 😅.
I loved the build up between the main characters (Ivory and Angel). I think the pining was good.
I also liked how the Ivory begged 🫢 that part of the smut was incredibly hot. The dynamic between the two of them changed a lot during smut, and I enjoyed seeing the Ivory take on a pleading, submissive role - it was almost exactly what I wanted for him.

Now onto things that I'm critical about.
Although I liked the multiple POVs, I think the sheer amount of them really took away from the original storyline. We see so much from Dash/Kemper, and Lex/Ren that it takes you from the idea that this is supposed to be a book about the Ivory. The ending follows through with this as well as Felix/Dr.Love get married and everyone lives happily ever after.
Another thing I didn't like was Angel's potential - and downfall. I'm a sucker for enemies to lovers, and I feel like this book only partially delivered. At the beginning it was good, Angel's fall, his inner turmoil, fighting with his feelings, but after the night he cut the Ivory's hand, his inner monologue got very whiny. For a man who is supposed to have high combat skills, he really doesn't use them at all. There's no physical fight with him and the Ivory (much to my dismay), nor does he really fight anyone at all (probably because he stays wearing nightgowns instead of actual clothes). He gives in to the Ivory and swoons instantly which is a bit of a let-down.
If I remember correctly, there are like 3 or 4 smut scenes between him and the Ivory (sorry for my lack of rememberance, this book is pages upon PAGES of useless inner monologue) which was EASILY overshadowed by the library scene by Ren and Lex.
Do I think that the "side" characters should have had their own smut scenes? No. Save it for a Patreon piece or a special edition of the book, hell, maybe include it in the epilogue of their rightful books instead.....
Back to the Ivory and Angel, I know I said I liked some of their dynamic, I liked the pleading from the Ivory and some of the dominance shown from Angel, but man I was really hoping for Angel being the top. Nyla K goes on a whole rant about unconvetional sex tropes and yet this is NOT it. Angel is the bottom (I'm sorry but one time topping is NOT enough for the sheer amount of pages in this book...), there's a lot of feminization and a daddy kink on top of that. It just wasn't for me, and that's okay, because if you go back to what I said before, I really wasn't here for their relationship, I was here for the plot (surprisingly). Now I do have to say that I didn't understand how they fell in love at all, but maybe that's just because I had a very hard time understanding the Ivory's feelings and emotions (maybe because they're literally never explained at all).

Nonetheless, I'm so sad that this series is over and I loved the cameos from my favourites. I really wish that Jasper and Hancock got a book, I'd love to read their story. (I know that it'd have similar content to Joyless but sue me, IDC FOR MMF).

All book ratings:
Distorted: 4.5
Joyless: will never read
Brainwashed: 4,5
Fragments: 5
Shadowman: 4
Ivory: 3.5

[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!

[Dodibook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been waiting SO long for answers in the Alabaster Penitentiary Series and finally getting them in Ivory… wow. Who is Ivory really—Manuel Blanco?? Why this penitentiary, all the blackmail, the manipulation… what was the actual goal here? We finally get those answers and I loved that, but at the same time I’m just really sad it’s over. Like really sad. I even waited to write this because I still don’t know how to talk about it without spoiling too much. And also… I did NOT expect this book to be this big 😭 I thought I was getting a normal finale and instead got this huge, 1000+ pages beast. I devoured it, but it also completely wrecked me. The ending was amazing, but I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet.

This book really dives into Manuel and everything behind his actions. You finally understand why the penitentiary exists and what he was trying to do all along. And it actually connects. Nothing felt random. You can see how everything has been building from the start, and that made it hit harder. But this series has always been DARK, and this book doesn’t suddenly make it lighter. It stays heavy, messy, sometimes uncomfortable, and you’re constantly reminded that these are not good people. Just complex ones.

Manuel… I don’t even know what to do with him. How did I go from hating him for so many books to actually understanding him? He’s still not a good person, not even close, but there’s something about how self-aware he is that makes it different. I didn’t struggle as much with what he did to Angel, but more with everything he did to the others—especially Velle, Ren, Dash and Byron. That’s what stayed with me. That’s what made it hard to just forgive him, even when you start to see more of who he really is.

Angel and Manuel together are just… complicated. There’s no clean label for them. It’s messy, intense, and sometimes confusing, but it works in a way that fits this story. Angel brings something softer, something grounding, and you really feel how much impact that has on Manuel and everything that happens.

I loved that we also got POVs from the rest of the crew/series. It really felt like seeing everyone one last time, getting those extra glimpses into their thoughts and emotions. And also… the inner monologues?? SO funny. I swear I was laughing out loud so many times, which made the contrast with the dark parts even stronger.

This book is a full commitment. It’s long, intense, and there’s a lot going on, but it feels deserved. A series like this couldn’t have ended in a short, simple way. It needed space to wrap everything up, and it really does that.

The ending felt like a real ending. Emotional, intense, and a bit overwhelming. Seeing everyone come together again, after everything, felt both comforting and painful at the same time. It’s that bittersweet feeling of being happy for them, but also not wanting to let them go.

This series honestly broke me a little and then put me back together again, and I’m going to miss these characters more than I expected.

🅡🅐🅣🅘🅝🅖
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ♾️

🅢🅟🅘🅒🅔
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

🅣🅡🅞🅟🅔🅢

🐦‍⬛The Origin of the Proxy Job
🐦‍⬛All The Found Family Vibes
🐦‍⬛Age Gap (22 years)
🐦‍⬛Enemies to Lovers
🐦‍⬛Cartel Romance
🐦‍⬛Touch Him and Die

[Dora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall: 3.5 stars - not the best not the worst (please understand before reading this my own opinion purely and sharing it as I've just finished the book).

I've read every book of this series, loved some more then others. This is a BEAST of a book and I have to say it's probably a lot longer then it should have been - some of the POV's that are happening could have been covered in their own book (?) Byron, Lex, Ren, Trevel, Velle even - I mean they had their book and I get we didn't want certain things revealed then, but why not? By then we all know about Dascha's mental state we could have revealed some of these things earlier - but I digress.

Ok spoilers!

Ivory: On a personal note I love a wicked evil character like him but - I didn't fully understand or care for his continued obsession with Velle. It just didn't make sense to me why he was so hell bent over him and then saying he's been only thinking of Angel for 20 years? Throwing literally tantrums over him even looking at other people but he kind of messed around with everybody on the island?

In the end he kind of made himself seem like the head of a matchmaking service - "I've put you through a lot but hey you are here fighting against me and loving each other so it's all good right?". As much as he and Angel are HOT their s*x scenes are great there is a lot of back and forth and repetitive language that in my humble opinion, was unnecessary.

However, maybe the last 15% of the book, especially the ending of the "war" is quite comical (?) in a sense that it almost becomes like a romcom where everybody is happy and falls in love and almost breaks out in a song - I didn't care for that part because it felt a lot. Towards the end bringing old characters back (Leah, Avi) - everybody has known/seen each other before (Byron's first stalking was Leah, Angel met her too etc) - does it have to be this convenient? And Angel who's apparently knew everybody, and just hid in the prison for months and showered in the mansion, like how? Wasn't the whole premise that the Ivory had stalked the cameras but he didn't know about her/him being there?

Now to Angel - I mean he speaks about his trauma, witnessing the Ivory killing his parents when he was 3 and basically developing a love/hate obsession with the Ivory - ok - then he trains in ALL the martial arts you can imagine, but yet comes across as a super naiv (?) character (to me). In the end they live happily ever after, but of course - I am happy for them.

Again the whole book is a lot - a lot of things I wanted to know from before but a lot of extra things we, quite frankly, didn't really need imo.

Just for the ones who may care for it my favourites to least are as per below:

1. Distorted (ALWAYS and forever - even though it's a JOURNEY)
2. (BUT CLOSE SECOND) Brainwashed
3. Fregments
4. Ivory
5. Joyless
6. Shadowman

The last two are inner-changable for me but I really didn't buy or feel Trevel and Byron's connection (sorry not sorry) Byron has never been a character to me that needed his own book but please this is only my opinion.

[Fairy Queen · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - Disrespectful to Spanish-speaking readers.

I feel obligated to leave this review because I know most of this author’s audience isn’t Spanish-speaking, and many readers won’t notice or comment on this issue. But it needs to be said.

It’s deeply frustrating to see an author who, for years, told Spanish-speaking readers to “learn English” if they wanted access to her books instead of pursuing proper translations, now deliver a book where the Spanish is so poorly handled. Accents are missing or misplaced, grammatical agreement is often wrong, and many words feel like they’ve been translated without any understanding of context. Some phrases read as if they were pulled straight from a machine translation, and not even a good one.

What makes it worse is the note at the beginning suggesting that English-speaking readers can simply use translation tools to learn new words. Anyone familiar with translation knows that this doesn’t work reliably. Context matters, and without it, meaning is often lost or distorted (pun intended).

I’ve loved this series for years, ever since Distorted came out, and I’ve hesitated to be openly critical. I’ve discussed this with friends instead because I didn’t want to come across as overly negative. But at some point, it feels irresponsible to stay silent. This book crossed that line for me.

I couldn’t finish it. Every time I encountered Spanish, it pulled me out of the story. Instead of adding authenticity, it felt careless and, ultimately, disrespectful.

I also noticed in the acknowledgments that someone assisted with the Spanish. I don’t know their qualifications, but the result doesn’t reflect professional-level accuracy.

I genuinely wanted to enjoy this book. But I have a strong aversion to poorly written Spanish in fiction, especially when it’s used superficially or incorrectly. Adding random Spanish words doesn’t create authenticity, particularly when a native speaker wouldn’t use them that way. Even something as simple as “Sí” is written incorrectly here, it needs an accent, for starters.

I’m sorry to be so blunt, but this needed to be said.