Hmmm, what to say here… 1.5/5
Let me preface the rest of this review by stating that I love to read smut. But, unless it’s a short novella, I like to have a decent storyline to accompany said smut. I know everyone has different preferences and different things they look for/expect from a romance (especially when it comes to dark romances). So it’s fine if you like to get dickmatized!! Girl, me too!!!!! Sometimes the smut is the most important thing to a reader and having any sort of plot surrounding that is good enough. But I read so much, that I can’t help but compare every book I read to the last 200+ from this year, and it’s made me more picky with what I like. ESPECIALLY when my fav thing to read is a reverse harem dark romance- I tend to be extra snippy with these. That being said, if you liked this book, I’m so happy for you. Pls don’t crucify me for having qualms with it. Lol
I now know that this was originally a novella that was expanded upon to create this first book in what’s to be a duology. So, if the plan was to expand and add more, should we not have added enough to make this more cohesive and create a real plot? We have so many little things in this book that are CLEARLY connected but we don’t get lucky enough to get explanations for almost all of them, and are therefore left with soooo many questions at the end that we won’t get answered until the next book (whenever it may be that it’s released).
-What actually happened to the woman that died so many years ago? Was it a result of the game?
-Did Sage’s parents leave because of this? I’m assuming so but we don’t know.
-Were her parents murdered?
-How do they become hallows boys?
-How did this sick game start?
-Who runs the town now?
-We never see Juliet properly mourn her parents throughout the book, especially once’s she gets to Georgia. Are we gonna get into that?
-What role does Juliet play in all of this? I mean, I know it’s something and I have guesses. But not real info.
And again, this is my biggest problem with this book. There’s just not enough here, and it’s especially frustrating knowing this is a story the author is expanding upon. I find myself wondering if this is just because the author needed to get this first book out by a certain time, and she just figured she’d address everything in the second book? Like it feels as though she ran out of time.
Then, I’ll be honest, as hot as some of the smut is, I do fundamentally take issue with how rough we’re playing with no actual consent given and no safe word. These boys have plenty of willing girls but they pick Sage and they really do take advantage of her. Doesn’t matter if she likes it (which btw I beg to differ with some things). I know it’s a dark romance and so it’s going to have more moral ambiguity than a contemporary romance, for example, but I still think we’re lacking on important things that should be included. And also, these are still high schoolers which makes all of this WEIRD AF. I’m supposed to believe they’ve been doing this since they became hallows boys as freshman. They’re playing these sick bdsm sex games at 14?! LMAOOOOOOOOO I DONT THINK SO!