Kristy Cunning

Initially, it was nothing special but somewhat entertaining.
It got a bit tedious throughout the middle because there is just a lot of repetition which, among other things, slows plot progression to a crawl.

The final death strike came at the end of the last chapter in the final revelation climax.
Any logic or common sense flies out of the window to preserve the reverse harem setup.
Broken trust? who cares, betrayal? who cares, vicious slaughter? kidnapping? sexual assault? nobody cares! Gotta get that harem working!
I dropped the audiobook not 15 minutes before the end and I regret nothing.
This was a colossal waste of time because the book only revealed its true face right at the end.… (mais)

I have lots of thoughts about this series but I can't put it into words properly.

The reverse harem setup was done in a unique and interesting way that allows the author to believably pass by lots of the issues most RH struggles with like how the woman can believably develop feelings for all of them without looking like a bitch.
This is a prime example that you indeed can do RH in a really believable and enjoyable way and that it is worth holding the RH flood in general to a higher standard than it currently is.

Sadly, the final L-word acceptance seemed very forced and out of place to me despite not being insta-lovey at all. The series fell short at the final hurdle in this. The author stretches the whole antagonistic back and forth for so long that when she finally tries to resolve it, it just feels wrong.

Something similar happens with the worldbuilding. The more we know, the more it limps and in the end, it all feels much more clichée than I think it deserves because there is so much original stuff in here.
It's tragic really. Great mind with great ideas but she is just not able to properly finish any of them.

There are so many interesting and (at least to me) new ideas in this book especially at first that I very much enjoyed it but it really struggles to get them all under the same hat towards the end of the series.
Things start to fray at the edges and more and more obvious intervention by the author is necessary to keep it all together.
There is a lot of long term planning with a great payoff in some cases but at the same time, there are lots of plotholes between all these interesting and/or new things.

As a reader, you need to be willing to suspend disbelief in a big way especially towards the later books to properly enjoy it and I always struggle with that. I rarely was completely booted out of the story flow by contradictions but there was always one thing or another nagging at me.


Despite these shortcomings and all my complaining, I think this is a must-read for everyone that enjoys and want's to read this because of the RH aspect.
It is so different and unique that I think everyone should give it at least a try just to get a taste again of how much can be done in seemingly stale genres.… (mais)