JasperKazai’s Reviews > The Duelist 2 > Status Update

They built up this friendship with Horus (which, again, was way too fast and forced) only to have him be on the run at the end. Weird choice.
As of right now, I don't think I want to ever continue this series. It's not good, and the sex scenes aren't even all that great (which, let's be honest, is the main draw of these dumb books). I hate this guy's writing style.

I started skim reading like 20% ago because I was So Done With the fake cheeriness and forced camaraderie of the main cast. There was also another prolonged segment about building a barn that No One Needs to Read.
I'll finish this out, but I don't think I need to read any more of this series. But, I've made stupider decisions in the past, and I already have book 3 downloaded, so we'll see.

A thing that both books have done, but this one more, is that recent trend of Capitalizing Random Words to give emphasis. I hate it, it's Very Obnoxious and Not Good Writing. Although I gotta say, less similes in this book. So that's a plus.
Going out on a limb here and assuming the "villain" lady will be redeemed and become a full wife. BTW, she's a villain b/c she was mean *once*. That's all it takes in this series

Everyone is all chummy or in love with each other, and so they start acting overly happy and make these awkward and terrible jokes at each other that everyone roars with laughter at. It all comes off as terribly fake and feeling like when you're kind of awkward in company you aren't super familiar with so you overcompensate and act abnormally. Perhaps that's the author's default state? It's really cringe-inducing.

During the inevitable threesome with his wives, he went on a tangent about how he had 2 threesomes in the past (meaning before the story started) and they weren't as good. ...What? Alex is supposed to have been a listless loner before he got transported to this world. Now you're saying he had threesomes? More than one? What a fucking weird factoid to include, for no real purpose to boot.

Really hammering home this foster dad nonsense. Even had a villain come up basically with the sole reason of sneering at the concept (even though he's right). No 14 year-old would be that enthused to have a 25 year-old be their "dad."
Other than that, there's still plenty other cringe happening. Zoie and Shay are way too close for how long it's been. Feels so forced

After all that Rylan crap, I thought that maybe I had misjudged his age. I thought he was supposed to be a young teen, but all the saccharine nonsense made it feel like he was very young, like 8-10 range maybe. But nope, they casually mention again he's 14. A 14 year-old would not be that clingy to an unrelated adult! Not to mention, Alex is only like 11 years older than he is! Foster father my ass.

As if to emphasize my point about it feeling fake, they have Alex have a heart-to-heart with Rylan, which did have the barest hint of feeling genuine, but then of course his wives happened to be in the hallway and overheard all of it. So he can earn those 'oh my god I love you so much' points. All of it is so fake and only serves to make Alex seem like a really good guy. Nah.

Similar to how the OP MC got weirdly into detail about hunting and skinning, this did it about construction. Why do they do this? It adds nothing to the story, because it's such a non sequitur. My only guess is that it helps pad out your thin story.
Sure is a lot of head/face cupping in these books. That's the go-to move, for some reason.
This stuff about Rylan feeling like his kid is so forced and fake.

"For these people to already be so loyal to me so quickly was... I didn't have words for it." That's ok, I have some words for you: unearned, unrealistic, ridiculous, stupid.
The fact that everyone instantly loves this guy will never not be dumb as hell.