RH MMMM/Witches-Shifters-Vampires/Academy
SYNOPSIS (of 6 Book Series): This story is set in the modern world but where humans do not know that supernaturals exist. The FC, Saige, discovers that she is a witch/shifter hybrid whose birth parents were killed when she was young and she was brought up by the human best friends. The world is governed by a Council who are anti hybrids. 17 years ago many hybrids and mixed couples were killed and that is starting up again. The FC is sent to Drexel Academy to learn to control her powers but must hide that she is a hybrid. There she meets her 4 bond mates. The story covers the development of their relationship and the rising danger of the Council seeking to kill/control supernaturals that are different or in mixed relationships. There's a HEA
Heat Level: 🌶️🥶/🍆 This is very slow burn. The FC only just kisses 2 of the 4 MCs by 75% into Book 3. No real sex happens until Book 6 although there is a bit of fooling around in Book 4. It’s as if the FC is 12 and was raised in a convent with her apparent lack of understanding of sex 🫣 The sex scenes are often one way with the MCs doing things to the FC but without her reciprocating or initiating and it is cringeworthy when they have to talk her through exactly what to do. It all feels too juvenile. Chemistry between the FC and MCs is not high. There’s a bit more with Niall but it’s not exactly steamy and the writing felt clunky not hot.
As a summary this series is too long, has a ridiculous amount of typos and editing issues, is limited in any excitement or drama, with a whiny complaining FC that really gets on your nerves and, after plowing through 6 Books, the ending is a massive let down 😡. Outside of the torture descriptions I think this series is aimed at a young audience.
As for the sex scenes, the FC makes a big issue of not being ready to bond with the MCs and not wanting to jump into sex then gets bent out of shape when none of her Bonds make a pass at her after the bonding 🙄 There’s even a whole scene where Hannah has a go at the MCs for NOT hooking up with the FC which is childish and unfair. The chemistry is weak and I never really felt any deep connection between the FC and any of the MCs. As with other books of this kind it was hard to see what the MCs saw in the FC outside of the enforced bond. The MCs themselves didn't really seem to get along and the whole Bond felt fragmented and never really seemed to come together as a cohesive group.
By Book 3 we’ve had 1 short lived dramatic/exciting scene. There is a cliffhanger of sorts at the end of Books 4 & 5 but they are low level. The last half of Book 3 & first half of Book 4 are like Groundhog Day. They’re full of the FC whining about being alone and no one focusing on the bond and about how the group is fragmented. Noone really seems to be bothered about being a unit. It’s interspersed by some cringy descriptions of the FC being introduced to sex (but not full sex). I almost gave up at the end of Book 3 and wish I had. As these were KU I decided to skim and see if things picked up much. They didn't really. There's a bit of excitement at the end of Book 5 but the story just drags interminably and the characters become progressively more annoying. Book 6 is taken up with a ridiculous merry-go-round of the FC wanting to storm in and attack the Council's stronghold and the resistance doing nothing.
The whole story is superficial. You never really get to know the villains as they are mostly just an amorphous Council. There is a brief introduction of an evil council member in Book 4 and then nothing until Book 6 which goes overboard with showing how evil the Council are.
Ultimately Book 6 did not really make sense to me. The resistance seemed to do nothing to fight back and even invited one of the Council to their uber secret hideout. By the time the climax came I really did not see the point of the FC and her Bonds. With the training that they did I expected them to do something to save people and take down the Council. It turns out that they were completely redundant and actually just got themselves into trouble. ***SPOILER***The author appears to try to create real drama by having the FC & her Bonds walk into an obvious trap where, despite all their training and strength they are easily captured and then the Book goes into detail about how each is then tortured horribly. There is a big scene where we can see how evil the Council Members are (its all very Mwah-ha-ha and OTT) when they come to look at their handywork. The Council is then taken down by an attack by the shifter pack and some of the resistance although it is unclear who exactly it was and how they took down the stronghold which appeared to not be very strong. Neither the FC nor her Bonds help to take down the stronghold and in fact have to be rescued. There was no reference to the FC being betrayed or to what happened to the evil doctors undertaking the experiments or why the resistance was so ineffectual. As I mention above, you only get a brief reference to the fact that the Council Members are put on trial and executed a while after the fact. Its ridiculously anti climactic despite there being a long epilogue which, to me, again made no sense as it tells us how the FC and her Bonds go to Alaska and build cabins. Really? What's that about??