Untamed

The Crystal Island #2

by Lilian T. James

Vera had always hoped to one day leave Matherin. To travel the world and escape a life that was never meant for her.

Bhasura would have everything she could ever want. Freedom, respect, family, and her mate. Her aitanta.

But behind the island’s beautiful cities and smiling citizens, she can hear the lies poisoning their stories.

She wants to believe it's all in her head, but a dark anger starts to grow inside her, and she can't ignore the feeling that something is wrong.

Something besides the vivid dreams that plague her sleep the moment she sets foot on the island.
​
**Content includes descriptions of torture, detailed intimacy, and dubious consent

Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Romance, Fae, Romantasy, High Fantasy, New Adult

Kindle Edition

First published November 29, 2022

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Edit to add: Just read the author changed the series from 3 books to 4, which might explain why this is so bad. Adding more to my disappointment since it's a blatant money grab.

Really disappointed in this second book. I LOVED the first in the series and was very excited for it to come out, but:
- This book is 90% characters thinking about/talking about/ having sex. 5% Physical fighting (including the main couple purposefully hurting each other). 5% non-forward moving plot.
- The MMC completely changes. I have never not rooted for a couple more. More often then not the relationship is them both abusing each other, both mentally AND physically. The characters hurt each other more than any "bad guys" in the series have.
- Nothing happens. Literally. This felt like an opening act/montage to catch you up on what each character has been doing since the last book (having sex apparantly) and then when the book is supposed to start it just....ends. It doesn't even end on an actual cliff hanger! It just ends

I wouldn't normally write such a long review but this was shockingly bad and so disappointing.



Spoiler-ish thoughts:

- Vera just learned about her family & is upset she won't be queen in 6 months? When she has no experience, education, can't speak the language, can't read... Are we supposed to agree with her frustration? Because that was ridiculous

- The whole story line either Eithan and writing a letter.....yet Vera never gets the letter. She never responds...all of the human world portions could have been cut since nothing comes from it - and the author should have just written a longer book to get to that rather than cut it off to extend the story.

- J & Vs abuse. What? Their first night together? He fighting at the palace? That was so different from book 1 and really made me dislike them both. Jaren has no control and it's disturbing, not attractive.

- Wtf is with the Eithan scene at the end? Why? Actually that's my thoughts on all the Eithan chapters. But especially that one I almost just stopped reading.


More plot. Less smut. Less trying to romanticize physical abuse & mental abuse. More actual book!

[Poppyflowerjj · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75/ 5⭐
2/5 🌶️

Jaren. Green Eyes. My favorite MC

Untamed is the sequel to the Crystal Island series and adult fantasy romance. This was such a fun read. It was a fuller book not a lot happen.

oh, how I love a possessive mate. The spice, chef kiss

Tropes:
-Fated Mates
-Grumpy Male
-Strong Female
-Multiple POVs

...........................................................................................................

I hope you are my next 5 star read.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are so many things I didn’t like with this book. And that just makes me so sad because I absolutely loved the first book. This one… not at all

First of all, nothing happened. At all. In the entire book.

Second of all, what is this toxic shit? Jaren, and just their whole relationship, in this book was the definition of toxic. Not good toxic. Just toxic. And boring. And lots of s*x. So unnecessary.

One small thing that annoyed the f out of me was the so called conversion she and Jaren and his parents had. They were gonna ask questions, yeah? So tell me why they didn’t ask a single relevant question. The literal thing we needed to know and was the entire issue, the reason Jaren was mad at them… and nothing. They didn’t mention at all.

So yeah, I was really disappointed with this🥲

[ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you alot for eARC.

Untamed is the sequel to the Crystal Island series and adult fantasy romance.

It continues where Vera and Jaren left travels to her homeland. Vera had been anxious about what her father would do when he sees her again after a very long time, her people, traditions and cultures she missed when she was kidnapped at the childhood. But Jaren was there as her soul mate to help Vera through everything. What they both didn't expect was when they landed, everything Vera had known was a complete lie and truth reveals made her world upside down.

Would Vera become the queen she destined as or be an outsider forever in own home?!

I not soo expected this kind of twists and even i felt my stomach drop. What good is there being mates but not claimed each other? Like i suspected in Untained, Jaren was damn territorial and possessive and spice between them made me sweating.

Untamed ending just left me, 'What the hell'??

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was excited for this one because I liked the first book - it was the kind of mind candy that I generally enjoy. But I can't even finish this one. I'm over half way through and nothing has happened plot wise, but mostly...he's just too mean. This is a bully romance I guess - it's not my thing, so if you're into that you might enjoy this! But for me, the first book read more like enemies to lovers type tropes. In this book, he's just straight up mean to her, despite them both acknowledging their bond. It's too much, and some of it is definitely nonconsensual (he doesn't explicitly rape her, but it's still not okay in my opinion).

Anyway this is mostly a warning - I would call this a bully romance. If you like that, you do you. If you don't, I would say there isn't so much tension between the two main characters as there is blatant aggression. I found myself repeatedly thinking "this dude really needs therapy".

[Diana_1 · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you start writing fantasy maybe you should take into consideration that you will need more than 300 pages to get the readers invested. I was disappointed. Nothing happened and when the action was truly going somewhere it ended. In 300 pages all we managed to achieve plot wise was a big load of nada. Spoilers I guess. They arrived at the castle. They spoke with the king twice. They trained twice. That’s it. I will never complain about fantasy books being longer because that is the only way to create solid world-building. The spice was present but forced and added nothing to the development of their relationship.

[Starre 🇵🇸 🍉 · Rating 2 out of 5]

babe this was so uninteresting and boring, nothing happened at all.

it took me so long to read this and I was just unsatisfied. and why was the last chapter an incel getting off, not doing it for me sorry

[Bailey Chadwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[BookGoddess · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

I was looking for something fun and easy but even with that in mind, I couldn't help but feel that the book felt unfinished - quite honestly, barely ANYTHING happened and somehow I found myself disliking Jaren immensely. I love an alpha male like no other but Jaren just came across as tone-deaf, one dimensional, selfish, emotionally stunted, unnecessarily aggressive without any real redeeming qualities, and he rarely provided the emotional support and security that Veralie needed, especially as she faced all these new challenges and found herself on completely unfamiliar terrain.

When she mused out loud whether her father, the king, blamed her for her mother’s death, he had the audacity to just say “maybe” without any additional context?? Or how about, when he told her that the king wouldn’t step down for someone who “knows next to nothing about our people.” Instead of spending all his time trying to get into her pants, maybe he could actually, I don’t know, help her?? He’s in a position to really help guide his partner - physically and emotionally- and instead, he spends a lot of his time fighting with her and not helping her to delve into her visions, and real problems. If he is allegedly so concerned about her safety, you would think he would be a little more concerned about her visions and try to get to the bottom of it instead of jumping her bones minutes after a near death experience. It just felt forced and unnatural.

Even his crippling fear for her safety and wanting to protect her above anything related to -HIS- emotional trauma and failings. Even a moment where she felt truly happy suddenly became about HIM and why couldn't HE make her feel that way instead of recognizing what made her happy, and then trying to do that for her or just being appreciative of the fact that she was happy. It felt so often that she made him whole, that she was his reason for living because it made HIM happy. I know that the author likely intends to help his character grow emotionally and there’s likely a character arc going on here, but it's either moving at a snail’s pace or just lacking.

Also. Trey. This was one of my pet peeves from book 1 and it continues. First, Veralie knew him for all of 5 minutes..literally, I think they’ve known each other for a few days? And in book 1, she suddenly loved him so much as a friend and etc. etc. It just felt so disingenuous and like the author was trying to speed warp a “found family” plot point without doing any of the actual background work for it. It’s frustrating how certain parts of the plot and character development move at a glacial - to non-existent speed while characters like Trey are suddenly loved like family. As a reader, you just simply don’t care because the author did not build the emotional connective tissue there. Trey’s blind loyalty to a girl whom he barely knew also was weird. It would have made more sense if the author had actually built that relationship instead of just telling us over and over how much they liked each other *as friends*. Therefore, his scenes in the second book dragged and were annoying to read. The characters also just spoke unnaturally at times and conversations felt forced/child-like with resolutions coming together unnaturally and too quickly at certain times.

Another issue was that we had an entire book where the protagonist neither explored nor learned ANYTHING about her new surroundings and homeland. Aside from a few quick moments getting off the ship, the entirety of the book could have taken place anywhere else. The story barely progressed from the first book and the plot didn’t really move forward. Now, I understand it's meant to mimic this feeling of Vera feeling perpetually trapped and confined as a woman whose desires and innate humanity wasn't appreciated or recognized back on Aleron aka 'human land' and that, for security reasons, etc., she wasn't exactly allowed to roam around freely to explore. But despite those restrictions, the atmosphere felt really undeveloped - if Vera wasn't privy to the outside world, at least, life within the palace walls could have felt more fleshed out. I've read books with characters stuck in prison and confined to small cells with infinitely better world building.

Overall, I would say that this series suffers from a lack of well-rounded characters and relationships, a sufficient lack of world building, poor writing, and a plot that meanders without much movement. I know this all comes across harsh so I will say that I did read both books and I did find them to be fun, easy reads and I do think there are many readers out there who will enjoy this series - particularly if you enjoy enemies to lovers, fated mates, touch her and die, and fantasy worlds themes.

[Mal · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 ⭐️ if I’m feeling generous?

Jaren just sort of lost his personality and some scenes I was questioning how we felt about him??
I guess Eithan is a good villain because YUCK YEESH
And Vera just didn’t seem as cool this book?? And I wanted more secondary character POVs.
I’m also trying to remember the crystals and the magic and what it means… eh I just felt nothing was added this book and when we finally got to the end with things happened it just ended.

[Luce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I avoided this book for so long because everyone said it was bad... and they were right.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars because I enjoyed it, but there’s no plot whatsoever and I skipped Eithan’s and Trey’s chapters because literally who cares. There’s 2 training scenes, 2 sex scenes and she meets the king twice. That’s it. I feel like Eithan’s and Trey’s chapters could’ve been cut and the rest added to the next book because there was no need to make it its own book.
Still, I enjoyed it because I like boring slice of life in fantasy books

[ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf 23%- 2.5 stars

reasons why i had to stop reading:

1) veralie was, i think, drowning in her bathtub because she didn’t know how to swim and had to call him for help??? i think it was supposed to relate to something important about her past, but it was kind of confusing and stupid to read.

2) they are all either viciously horny or thinking about something that relates to sex 24/7. for example, after Eithan was literally BEAT by his father, he was thinking how he “couldn’t imagine giving up his tongue for a man who wouldn’t know how to use his own if a woman sat on his face” like why is that what you’re thinking about?!!? there are far more important things to measure your father’s worth like i don’t know maybe the fact that he BEATS his CHILDREN.

3) jaren acts like an angry brute who, majority of the time, thinks about all the sexually explicit things he can do to her to “claim her”. also, it’s just not my thing to have a guy say he’ll “pluck their eyes from their sockets” of anyone who looks at me as some sort of playful retort. he’s just too possessive and it’s not my cup of tea. i don’t know maybe i’m just picky.🤷‍♀️

4) at one point veralie said “take it out on me” to help with his anger which he, thankfully, refused to do but that barely salvaged the scene and nothing could make me forget that quote. nothing.


i know it’s young adult and supposed to be smutty and maybe i just don’t like those kind of books anymore, but i was cringing at the dialogue every five seconds. i’m sure the story had an interesting, fun plot, but i couldn’t even care enough about it because of all the unappealing sexual innuendos that were occupying the majority of my thoughts.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a long awaited sequel for me, and it did not disappoint. I really like Vera as a FMC. She strikes the right balance of badass, but also shy and naive, which is really difficult to do. I also love all of the side characters. The world-building is easy to follow, but still interesting and original enough--the plot kept me captivated. I also like how, despite Vera and Jaren being mated, they still continue to banter, fight (physically and verbally), and flirt with each other, rather than just repeatedly talking about their undying love (which happens in like 98% of other romantasy books once the MCs get together). I saw another review talk about how they don't like Jaren because he's too mean. I understand why they might say that, but I don't think I agree with that opinion. Jaren busts Vera's chops, but I think she gives it right back to him, and I enjoy their banter.

The one scene in the book that really did NOT do it for me was when Jaren bit Vera against her will after she had healed his previous bite because she wasn't ready for a mating bite mark. That was a little fuzzy on the consent, in my opinion, and it made me uncomfortable. That was by far my least favorite part of the book. I understand that the Fae in this series are written to be extremely animalistic and less human in some scenarios (particularly when it comes to mates), but I didn't like that scene where Vera lost of her virginity. It started with them literally beating the absolute shit out of each other (like covered in blood and wounds--there was very detailed description of them assaulting each other), and then he bit her against her will after she told him not to, and then they had extremely aggressive "rutting" sex despite it being her first time having sex. It gave me the ick to read. This is not because I believe that every ~losing virginity sex scene~ has to be super tender and loving, but this just seemed outright unenjoyable, and consent seemed blurry. I really could have gone without the detailed description of their wrestling, punches, hits, kicks, etc. right before they had sex for the first time.

Additionally, I do agree with reviews that argue that this book was a little lighter on plot than the first book was. There was not a lot that happened, and it almost felt like this book needed another 50-100 pages or so. This felt like more of a filler book.

All that said, the cliffhanger was really killer, and I cannot WAIT to read the next book. I'm really excited to see what happens with Trey, Jensen, Coleman, Elric vs. Eithan. I hope they outsmart Eithan, and I hope he has a terrible demise after what he did to my poor baby Trey. Also, why am I low key shipping Trey and Vera? Like, I want this to become a reverse harem so that they can be together too. Their friendship and flirty banter is 10/10.

Anyways, really solid book. I loved it. With the exception of that one chapter, everything else was great. Highly recommend!!!

[Jordan Fischer | julietfoxreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. my. goodness. This book (and this series) is amazing, and I absolutely devoured Untamed. I signed up to receive an ARC as soon as I finished reading Untainted a few weeks ago. I was lucky enough to get one from Lilian's team last night, and I am SO grateful. I am not, however, grateful that I got the ARC in the evening, as I was up SUPER late reading because I couldn't put it down. This story and these characters have completely sucked me in, and I NEED more.

The story picks up with Veralie and Jaren returning to Bhasura so that she can finally see her homeland after being taken as a child and claim her place as the Daughter to the Throne. Vera has a LOT to learn about her own history, Bhasura's history, and her newly awakened magic. I feel like she has so far to go at this point that I'm REALLY hoping there are (at least) two more books planned in this series. Even at the end there are so many questions unanswered and so many things going on, it's going to take a lot to get to a HEA (please say there is one!!).

We find out a lot more about Jaren's troubled childhood and why he is so gruff with and overprotective of Vera. He is SO broken, and I don't know why his obvious craziness doesn't bother me more, but I am ALL about it. This series has one of the best fated mates storylines I've ever read (and I'm a BIG fan of this trope). Jaren and Vera have been known mates since childhood, and their bond continues to get stronger in this book (to a pretty serious fever pitch). I love that Vera is constantly questioning Jaren for being a total nut around her, but she also makes an effort to understand why he is the way he is. There is a LOT more spice in this one, and it is REALLY good...

Back in Aleron, we find out what happens to Trey after his betrayal was revealed to Eithan. Eithan is devastated that Vera is gone and seems to have completely gone out of his mind. I hated these chapters, mostly because I wanted to find out more of what was going on with Vera, but also because Eithan basically turns into the Ramsay Bolton of Aleron. I am not looking forward to this storyline playing out.

I love that this book is written with multiple POVs, including multiple chapters where the exact same event is told from both Vera and Jaren's perspectives. It definitely helps the reader figure out character motivations. I also just love reading how delightfully unhinged Jaren gets when he's in Vera's presence.

The book ends on some cliffhangers, but overall it's pretty satisfying (for now). I'm still going to be on the lookout for the next book(s) as SOON as they are available!

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a massive book hangover after this one, and I will definitely be rereading the series before another book comes out. Absolutely one of my favorite books I've read this year.

[Taylornicg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad to say it but…disappointing

Will start off by saying I’m not done with this series. Am definitely still excited for the next book, but considering Untainted was one of my favorite reads of 2022 it hurt even more that I feel this books was lacking.

What I loved about Untainted was completely forgotten in Untamed. There was so much character development in Vera and Jaren that I was so excited to see their relationship grow. But honestly it was just physical between them. All Jaren became was a cycle of protect and claim while Vera was push back but then concede.
I really thought we would have gotten more of the story of the night Vera was taken and involvement of Jarens dad. Thought the confrontation was going to be epic. But it was kind of brushed over with hardly more details of the rebellion. Both Vera and Jaren were disappointing because they didn’t try to do anything but minimum training. They literally spent one afternoon researching. There was very little plot development regarding the taint and what we did get was so ambiguous that it didn’t amount much to me.

Untainted was so action packed and full of plot that I couldn’t put it down. I loved the hints of spice and the promise of more. But dare I say there was too much in this one. Untamed was smut with a side of plot. Don’t get me wrong I want smut but I wanted this to be a better balance of plot with smut. The excess of spice felt like fan service for anyone who complained of slow burn in the first book. There should have been a better compromise.
I’m low key disappointed in the way the king was written out. I guess I wanted a little happiness for Vera but am interested in where it will lead. I am excited for the villain Eithan is turning out to be and hoping for more Elric.

Ultimately I still like the series. But book 3 has a lot of ground work to make up for Untamed

[EDS · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the potential of this series. I just hate that the books are so short, especially for a fantasy. The multiple POV in such a short book just detracted from the main storyline. I didn’t really care about this secondary storyline and it didn’t add much to the overall plot. It almost seemed like it was added in to space out the main storyline. Also, Vera’s relationships with the side characters baffle me. Trey and Reniya become her best friends after she spent like 5 minutes with them. The relationships need a lot more work. I know some people will dislike the direction of the romance but I didn’t mind it. What I was really confused about was that the author decided to split the book into 2 separate books. The series would have really benefited from a longer second book. Maybe the relationships could have been fleshed out to be more believable. There could have been more world building. More suspense. More attention to moving the plot along. In general, the world building was lacking, despite the potential, and I’m still not understanding the role of gods and these crystals. The stakes weren’t high enough in this book and there’s no actual cliff hanger. The book just ended. Seemed as if she just took the original longer book and split it in two with the lack of an ending. I’ll stick with the series because I’m invested in the main characters. I just really hope she’ll consider a longer third installment to really flesh out this world and the plot line.

[MG · Rating 3 out of 5]

this felt a bit like a disappointment compared to the last book, I wasn't expecting a Pulitzer prize winner but this felt flat. The first installment was fast paced, had lots of tension, and great world building. This book felt a bit like filler to get to the next one, from my understanding the Author split the second book into two making it a four book series instead of two, and really much of this book should have been edited out and kept in one book. It wasn't horrible, but bland and a disappointment compared to the first. There is a lot of internal dialogue and while I don't mind character growth, the issue was there is not a lot of growth and this and the previous book are not character driven books.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. The first book blew me away, I just felt the plot didn’t really move forward in this book. Towards the end the author set some things into motion that will take place in book 3, and I am very excited about that.

Basically Jaren and Vera accepted the mate bond, and well couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Which I do not mind, I just wish the plot moved more. I did really enjoy the other POVs we got in this book as well!

Cannot wait for book 3!

[Michela Canuti · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ I liked this book, but I can see that this is a second book. Waiting for the third one!

[Linds (honeyy.fae) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did I run and apply for an ARC as soon as I inhaled Untainted? Yes. Did I get approved for the ARC and dive in immediately? ALSO YES!! THANK YOU!

Wooooo honey this book was an amazing follow up to the first book. Here’s a few of the many great things/tropes listed in this book!

➕ Fated MATES!!! 🤌🏽🤌🏽🤌🏽
➕ Dual POVS 💯
➕ Easy to understand world building 🌎
➕ Found families… 😐😂 (IFKYK)
➕ Possessive, alpha males who bite 😏
➕ all-consuming, obsessive romantic tension
➕ 🔥 🌶️ that’ll get you shielding your kindle Lmao
➕ cliffhangERRRR but it’s one that’ll hype you for the next book

We start off where the last one ended, Vera and Jeran are in the boat sailing away from the humans and back to their homeland. Vera is super stoked to meet her people and finally feel like she belongs. But she got another thing coming because the Magykai are low key kinda mean and a little sus of her… especially since she looks identical to their dead queen. 👀

Once here, we finally meet Jaren’s dads and Vera’s dad. That doesn’t go as well as she hoped and her dad isn’t acting how she thought. (Spoiler territory here so I’ll not say more) Vera struggles with self identity a lot here because she feels like she’s with her people, but she still has a lot of “human” tendencies that get her ridiculed and judged.

We get to see a little more history play out - a few sprinklings of explanations and tidbits on what happened to cause the mess they are in, and why our little feral, slightly crazy Jaren is a little nuts when it comes to his mate. I felt so bad for him, but I also adore his crazy. Sorry not sorry. I know my book persona boarders on toxic but if I can’t be like that irl I may as well enjoy it in fiction. 😂

We get POVs of Eithan and a friend who also read the arc said it best when she described him as the Ramsay Bolton of GOT. She wasn’t lying, he IS! This man has officially lost it and his scenes were intense and pretty wild.

The ending is a very big cliffhanger ngl, and I was yelling, “PLS NO I NEED MORE! I need answers PLSSSSS” but then that epilogue I was HYPE for the next book - but also still needing answers Lilian please. 😂

I am so thankful I got picked for an ARC. If y’all haven’t read the first book Untainted - please read it asap! And then when this book launches - GO GET IT! It’s a great installment to the series and I cannot wait for more!

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I desperately tried to finish this. But I’m dnfing at 57% because the plot and character choices are driving me crazy. The jumping between 4 characters is a lot considering in book one we only had 2 POVs. I truly could care less about Trey and Eithans thoughts - truly those chapters feel more like filler than actual driving plot points.

I’m super upset cause I LOVED the first book. It had so much potential and the writing was so so good. The writing in this book isn’t bad it’s actually good but the character choices are just laughably unbelievable. Honestly Vera flip flops between naive and smart. Her connection to Trey is also confusing because they really didn’t know each other that long and she feels deep friendship and love for him?? It just feels all forced and fast. Eithans POV is just pointless - if I wanted to be inside the mind of the villain I would find something that’s meant for that. I don’t want to know all his plans and thoughts. Jaren is honestly the most compelling character and I prefer his POV above everyone else’s. While he has a fucked up way of thinking, his chapters are compelling to read and really enjoyable. But everyone else’s sucks…

Maybe some problems would be solved too if we didn’t move at a weird pace? It’s like some spots are moving too fast cause there’s only 300 pages to tell the story (which in imo is too short for a high fantasy sequel) but other parts are soooooo slow. Like why are dragging this shit out?

Anyway 2 stars cause the writing is still good. I’m just super disappointed that this highly anticipated sequel is a big swing and a miss. 😭

[Jace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay I DNF this book at 15%
I was looking forward to it. I really enjoyed the first book and dived right into this one but I just don't find myself liking it.

Veralie and Jaren take the ship to his country, during the voyage nothing happens between them. Apparently the lack of bathing is enough to damper things between them.
In the first book jaren is a bit of a jerk but still kind in his own way to her, but so far in this one he just sucks. He constantly makes innuendos for her that he doesn't follow through on, he pushes her to learn more and be better without actually teaching her. He calls her stupid and foolish when she isn't succeeding, and when she tells him he needs to be a better teacher he just cops right out and tells her it's something she should be able to just do instinctively. He basically just sucks as a male and I'm kind of wishing she gets to meet someone better.

Then they get there, they run into his dad and the dad is terrified when he realises she is there, he's all "What have you done Jaren?!"
Which of course indicates that there's some complex stuff going on behind the scenes that Jaren has no idea about. You know, like his own father's faking the death of his mate and ripping them apart.
Anyways, I'm not really into political subterfuge type books, it's why I stay away from lots of the Fae worlds and this one is just getting a little too much for me.

Combined with Eithan's pure evil sickness that we keep getting chapters of and I'm finding that I just don't want to keep reading this series. Such a bummer because I really liked the first book.

[Bre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoilers ahead

There was a lot of smut in this one, it felt a little quick I thought and the meeting with her father was a little anti climatic. I also didn’t think this book had a lot of meat to it, all they really did was get on a ship, get on a horse, go to the castle and fuck. That’s all that happened. Eithan had some odd scenes but I could have done with out them and seen more action from Veralie and Jeren. I was honestly hoping for a longer book with a better plot since the release was pushed back but it honestly felt like a massive filler. There wasn’t plot and it felt like none of the questions that I had were answered. The ending also felt a little rushed and with the pacing of the rest of the book/the plot it didn’t make sense. Like, why end on a cliff hanger when nothing of note has happened in the rest of the book? Also the torture scene with Trey only kind of made sense. I half expected Eithan to ask Veras dad to marry him. That’s the plot twist I expected. And maybe it’s to come but I don’t know. I felt like more action would have been pretty cool

I don’t know, it was a good book but nothing really happened. I honestly feel like this one could have been skipped or turned into a couple of chapters.

[Layla · Rating 4 out of 5]

*spoiler free review based on ARC sent out on Nov 19 via BookFunnel*

This series continues to hold my rapt attention. Veralie and Jaren are two of my absolute favorite characters and their bond fills me with so much joy. I think my favorite thing about this book is the new characters, but the world building is definitely a close second. Every time Vera discovered something new about her home, I was on the edge of my seat, just as eager for the information as she was. Vera’s mental state had me absolutely enthralled, and I think that is one of the most interesting aspects of the story. The small glimpses we get at her vulnerability are like a drug to me.

My one complaint—and the reason my review is 4 stars as opposed to 5 stars—is that the plot of Untamed seemed somewhat unfinished. Certain parts of the story felt rushed, but my main issue is that the ending was very abrupt. It felt as though the story randomly cut off instead of stopping at a good stopping point in the plot. It feels like this is the first half of a book and the second half went missing somehow.

[Brittany Conkling · Rating 2 out of 5]

The potential of the world is still there… but Jaren felt flat. I think his character is fine, but the writing is bad. I don’t think the author ment to have him strangling Vera the time, but that’s the way it read. The way it’s written it just didn’t make sense for him to just be grabbing her neck in situations and ways he did that were mentioned. And his physicality with her didn’t make sense with the rest of his character. Like I get it faeish creatures and mates… animalistic yada yada yada but it read brutish. Jaren is most likeable when he’s vulnerable. There wasn’t enough time spent on Vera learning her powers or training. Over all very little actually happened in this book, which is okay if the romance part makes up for the lack of forward movement but it didn’t.

[mon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jaren (MMC) went from a little cringe in book 1 to repugnant, abusive and violent. I have not rooted for a relationship to fail as much as I have this one. every scene I wished he wasn’t there or that I could see Veralie interact with ANYONE else. I dont understand how Veralie, who initially questioned his behaviour a lot, just accepted it? their relationship makes no sense and I feel like they have had barely any actual meaningful interactions.
there could be a story here thats interesting but this felt like a filler book. every chapter I was interested in was quickly wrapped up with an unnecessary J&V scene.
this book needed 100% more plot and 100% less Jaren.

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book!!

After reading, I don't feel that I know much more than what was revealed in the first book. I wish there was more development of secondary character and more substance.

[Vanessa97 · Rating 3 out of 5]

in this book literally nothing happened... on this pace I don't know if i will read the last two books...

[Sanne-Maxime · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first book was so good so I was really looking forward to this one, but seriously nothing happened.
And when something DID happen the book was over, like literally the next page. It felt like I read half a book. *cries angry tears*