This book went from a 10 minute voice memo rant to my best friend about how mad I was about this book after Act 1 and how I should DNF it to me finishing the 540 page romance novel in just over 24 hours. Not because it was a great book, but like Wyatt, I have insomnia and it kept me company without causing me to rage (as much) in Acts 2 and 3. Final Raw Score: 2.5

What This Book Does Well For all of my complaints - and there are many - the romantic dynamic at the center of the book ultimately worked even if it wasn’t my preference. By the second half of the book, I believed in Blake and Wyatt’s connection, the attraction landed, their chemistry was real enough that I stopped wanting to DNF it and was curious on how it would end. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the dialogue in this book, there were some moments of fun banter between the couple.

To be clear - I don’t care about billionaires’ problems, but I did find myself connecting with both leads with some of their deeper, emotional fears by the end of the novel when the heavy emphasis on just how wealthy these families are died down. The character’s fears are real regardless of tax bracket and the book earned those connections for me.

I don’t know how to say this without it really being more of a complaint, but in the latter half of the novel, the egregious displays of wealth were lessened and the rampant, crude misogyny also calmed down (some) making it so I could finish the novel.

Where It May Fall Short This book needed an editor with an axe, not a scalpel. And this is coming from ME who has never been succinct in her life! At 540 pages in my version, it is directly stated in the blurb that this is a standalone in the universe of an interconnected series, and while that is technically true I don’t think that’s fully honest. If I’m being generous, 10% of this book was fan service for readers of the other connected series, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was closer to 15-20%. Multiple (albeit short) chapters were group chat messages between characters I haven’t met, many paragraphs were dedicated to how hot, perfect, and talented the other characters are (again who I haven’t met), and I felt like some scenes existed purely to delight returning fans rather than serve this story. Coming in cold, it was actively alienating and, to be frank, felt like my time was being wasted.

As part of the additional round of edits this book needed - the continuity errors were frequent and obvious. For example, it's explicitly stated that it is currently midnight. Two Pages Later It's described as “hours from midnight.” Sometimes random pieces of information were added that were unnecessary AND incorrect in the established timeline. Maybe this wouldn’t have bothered me as much if there weren’t so many issues, but the rampant amount of continuity errors felt like salt in the wound.

I nearly DNFed this book after Act I. Not only is the wealth fantasy relentless - they are staying in a $30+ million lakeside 8000 sq ft “luxury compound” with over 16 separate rooms including a separate 4 bedroom apartment next to the main house FOR FREE. Already, not my favorite, but this actively combats other aspects of the plot. One of the many tropes in this book is close quarters. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY ARE PRACTICALLY ON TOP OF EACH OTHER?! THERE ARE 16 SEPARATE BEDROOMS AND MULTIPLE BUILDINGS!!!! In my opinion, you can't have your cake and eat it too if you get waht I mean. Additionally, both characters bring up multiple times throughout the book how they aren’t spoiled nepo babies. You. Literally. Are. Not only are you staying in the luxury compound for free including food and a “houseman” to do chores and maintenance, you also have access to 3 boats for free, Blake had all of her tuition paid for, and Wyatt has a large trust AND his mother is famous in the music industry. To me, it felt like the author knew the criticism they were going to get, particularly in this economy, and wanted to cover their bases while denying the literal reality of their insane wealth and privileges.

On the prose side of things, this is a dual 1st person POV where both characters randomly break the fourth wall with phrases like “I’m not gonna lie” as if the character is narrating their story to me, the reader, rather than living it. Maybe it’s a personal preference, but I did not like that. The book also over-explains a lot of its emotional beats instead of the very clearly messy characters being temporarily viewed in an imperfect light. But they are messy, imperfect characters! In a similar vein, some of the dialogue felt more like “Character A needs to say this” now “Character B needs to say this” to get their own stories/agendas across instead of a natural cause and effect dialogue.

This may be a personal gripe, but every single character in this book and the many, many characters from this interconnected series were described as the most physically perfect, talented, attractive people the world has ever seen and, at least for the men, they are crude and extremely horny. Almost aggressively so. I’m not opposed to spice at all, but the crude misogyny from the MMC and who I have to assume are the male leads of the other books in the interconnected series was off-putting at best.

Final Thoughts & Opinions To give the book kudos, I can’t express how frustrated I was at the beginning of this book and the fact I was able to finish the second two acts without wanting to consistently rage is a feat in itself. I also was ready to never read this author again after the first act, but, while I’m not actively seeking their backlist out, if another one in the future seemed perfectly up my alley, I might consider it.

I do see the market for this book and the series and I think fans of the other connected series are going to eat this book up because this book was clearly written with the fans in mind. But if you’re coming in cold like I did (again, because it said in the blurb this was a standalone) a significant portion of this book simply isn’t for us and I think you’ll feel that too. I am just not the target audience for this book/series.

My thanks to my local public library for having this copy available with a pretty short wait time! Go support your local public library!! They are the real MVPs!!

TL;DR Would I recommend it? If you read and enjoyed the other books in the connected series, yes. But even with setting act I aside, I can’t in good conscience recommend a 540 page allegedly standalone romance with this much bloat. Maybe the audiobook would not have dragged as much.

Would I continue with the connected series? No. The male leads and their crude misogyny isn’t something I want more of, and I’m not interested in the rest of the characters introduced in this book to commit any more time to this universe.

Star Score Breakdown Personal Enjoyment: 2.25 Overall Execution: 2.5 Craft & Writing Quality: 2.25 Characters: 3 Plot: 2.5 Final Raw Score: 2.5

edited to fix a typo - why do I always catch them AFTER I post?!? I swear I do read these before posting!