RATING:⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
STEAM LEVEL: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
CONTENT WARNING: Graphic Violence, Sex, Abuse
No lie, the book comes with a warning, and I think it really needs to, and could maybe even be a little stronger. Here it is in case you didn't see it above:
Warning: This story is intended for mature audiences. It includes foul language, sexual scenes, and graphic violence. This twisted Little Red Riding Hood retelling isn’t for the faint of heart. Be advised this is a reverse harem novel where the main character ends up with more than one mate by the end of the book. And while this story can be read as a standalone and comes with its own HFN, it's recommended you read the books in order to fully enjoy the series since old characters like to pop back up every now and then.
I’m not kidding when I say it could even be a little stronger. This is not a knock against the author or the book, but everything was a little more graphic than I was even expecting including the violence and the sex. However, Chapman is certainly good at descriptions! I wouldn’t mind if there were a few more of them, though, as I still don’t have the clearest images of the characters (I didn’t know Rumple had white hair until well after we meet him, and Hunter is called "exotic" but we don't find out in what way).
This is sort of a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, but it’s different at the same time. I can see the parallels for sure. It’s not a long book, and the reading goes quickly, but I didn’t really feel like it was too short. At the same time, I also wouldn’t have minded if it was a little longer to build in more character development and a longer ending.
Everyone around her thinks Red is weak, a disgrace to her witch family because they see her as “soft” for being raised largely by her human father. Little could be further from the truth, especially once a hit is put out on her by someone she should be able to trust. Gathering her three mates to form her quad, something so rare it’s considered a myth at this point, Red and her men learn more and more as they go. Little surprises Wolf more than finding out his mate is not the weak submissive girl he first observed as a target.
I do think the character names were a little on the cliche side (Wolf, Hunter, and Rumple are kind of gimme names to me) but they worked. I did like that we don’t immediately jump into Red’s story, ut Wolf's. It was a nice change and made me curious about what was going on leading up to her introduction.
Truthfully, the men, and even Red herself, are not the nicest people. Until they come together there is little more the men care about other than themselves (though Rumple does carry quite a bit of responsibility on his shoulders too). Most, if not all of them, definitely carry the psychological scars of traumatic pasts, though it seems Red and Wolf take the cake on this front. Red is definitely on the fast track to becoming a very dark witch, but it’s perfect for her mates and they do not try to change her. All four of them are very good antiheroes and are unapologetically so.
I was not familiar with what turns out to be termed “omegaverse” so there were a few things I did not understand right off the bat, and it was not explained well in the book. So if you’re in the same boat as me, be ready to pull up Google to look up things like omegaverse and knotting.
There were a few small typos, so a final proofreader might have been handy, but really I’ve seen much (MUCH) worse and it’s not worth even removing a star over. I do think it’s an interesting book, but I think more character development (there’s a little, but I would like to see a little more of the building of connections between all of them) would have made it even better. Explaining some things too (what exactly is the jar?), and maybe not so quick a wrap-up at the end. But there is NO cliffhanger, which is insanely important for me as a reader.
This broadened my horizons in a way a book hasn’t done in a while, I’ll give it that! And I do like Red and her boys. I’m curious to see where things go with them in the future!