In all honesty, I wasn't sure how much I would like this book going into it. I read the first book, and despite loving the premise and world, I found the writing itself lacking in some respects, so I was reluctantly hopeful as I approached this next book. I am so happy that my apprehensions were all for naught because this was a great installment to the series, and it expanded on a lot of things I was craving from the first!

I absolutely loved Reece's and Cyrus's relationship and their individual growth as characters in learning to love each other. I really appreciated the fact that after the initial acceptance of his feelings for Cyrus, his biggest hurdle was finding the strength to open up to those close in his life. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if he had been stuck on Cyrus's appearance, but he was able to acknowledge his newfound elevated taste pretty quickly 😂.

Cyrus was practically breaking my heart throughout the book. I can't imagine living that long without a companion and at the same time dealing with insecurities about your own appearance and place in the world on top of it. It was beautiful watching him accept himself and find his passion through love.

There was a teaser at the end of the book for the next one, and I typically don't read those because I like to stay surprised, but I can say it thoroughly did its job, and I am beyond hyped for Pam's story to come out. There are not enough romances with FMC's in their 50's, let alone in the monster romance genre, so I can't wait to see that story unfold. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book!

This was a great conclusion to the Cozyverse and the story of these small-town omegas. I have to say I think Summer's story was one of my favourites next to Ivy's. Eliana Lee does a great job balancing all of the characters, giving them each depth in their personality as well as enough time for us as the reader to really get connected to them.

One of my favourite aspects (other than Jae's tattoos and piercings 😏) was honestly the relationship between the brothers. It was quick and witty and incredibly believable, which is something I've realized can be difficult to achieve when trying to capture the dynamics siblings can have. Summer's wit blended very well with theirs, which made reading about their interactions even more enjoyable.

Summer is my favourite kind of FMC. Sarcastic, witty, and straight to the point. She didn't have time for miscommunication, and when it did happen because one or more of them fell to their fears and insecurities, it was resolved quickly and in a way that actually satisfied me. Which is also another thing I realized is hard to achieve, but that's more of a me problem.

Something else I loved was the exploration of insecurity of being "other" in a community and eventual acceptance of identity and culture. As an African bi-racial woman who also ended up moving into a very white town, this aspect of the story really spoke to me. I was very lucky in the fact that my mother was staunch in her sharing her culture with me, but there is only so much you can do surrounded by a community like that (I don't even speak or understand her languages yet, and she speaks 4 of them). I loved reading about how Summer came out of her shell enough to want to share her cultural foods with the community she grew to love, and how Jae kept his name to stay connected to his own. It meant a lot to me that these elements were included and given the importance they deserved in the story and characters.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of the book, and I had so much fun with it.

There was a lot that I liked about this book, but there was also a lot that didn’t work for me. In general, I could find myself really connecting with Lucy and her insecurities in feeling like too much. It made her a believable and relatable character in the first half of the book which is something I really appreciated.

I really liked each of the guys individually and their dynamic with each other (for the most part). Wilder, King, and Leo were all personalities I really enjoyed exploring throughout the book and it was nice to see each of them grow as the story progressed.

With that being said, all these characters that are supposed to be in their 30s-40s spoke, acted, and communicated like teenagers to young adults in their early 20s. What do you mean that you as a man at your big age can’t figure out how to communicate when you’re upset at something and need to divulge important information in a relationship. I loathe miscommunication is books because it’s often very avoidable and the biggest conflict of the book not only felt undeserved, but also anticlimactic in its avoidability.

For what it was, the book honestly went a bit too long which made ignoring the cringiness of some aspects completely unavoidable which started to irritate me.

I do really enjoy this series so I’m just hoping I enjoy the next one more than this one.