*audiobook

I’m stopping here after this 1st book of this series. Unfortunately, the writing felt very rudimentary throughout, heavy on adverbs, excessive telling instead of showing, and character archetypes that never developed into anything original or compelling.

The tension was largely absent, and the emotional beats never landed for me. I suspect the rest of the series follows a similar pattern, so I won’t be continuing.

Also... this is yet another romance where the author treats it as acceptable for the MMC to graphically kill a woman. What is it lately with these authors and their obsession with writing male violence on women... in romance books...?

I don’t care how dark the book is, or how “evil” the female antagonist is.. and in this book's case, the FMC is wronged by Irene, so the fmc should have been the one to get her revenge. Watching the so-called romantic hero unload a gun into a woman is not compelling, romantic, and will never be justified to me, especially in a romance book. Every time it happens, i fall out of love with this genre a little, cause im literally so baffled lately with this trend of casual femicide in romance...

Romance authors need to stop doing this. I’m tired of it, and I will never be okay with it. A romance hero should never be killing women.

previous rating was 3 stars or something...

2026 re-read:

This was a re-read. I remember listening to this book way back in middle school. i was geeked. But upon re-reading in 2026, i was left underwhelmed and can't stand the over-sentimental heroine. She had zero self preservation and was too sentimental. I was cringing a lot.

Not to mention the author describing Fury as "natives american" and "exotic" in the same sentence lmaooo.

Also, the man-dog MMC was staring at the nurse's butt cause it had cellulites, whereas the fmc's butt was smooth, therefore the fmc had a better butt, according to the man-dog MMC, therefore the fmc's jealousy towards the nurse was appeased...?

im literally dying laughing!!