Reviews

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Review | "Beyond Surrender" By Kit Rocha

I was sent a digital ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

This has got to be one of the hardest reviews I've had to write in a while. I haven't
has this tough of a time getting myself to give my thoughts on a book since I read
Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong.
Why is this so difficult?- you might be curious about, well, simply put- this is the
final part to a 9 book 3 novella series that I've been so invested in for like five years.
Ever since I won Beyond Shame in a Goodreads giveaway and was completely intimidated
by the concept because it was my first time venturing into books that could typically
would be listed under 'erotica' (I will not be referring to this series as such because,
like I say in all my reviews, while there is a lot of sex, and it's written graphically
this series is about more than that.) Saying goodbye to these characters, at least in
this context, has been extremely difficult, and if it weren't for the impending release
date I would have continued to push off reading it just so it wouldn't have to end
just yet.

Now,I'm quite a ways into this review already, and I still haven't mentioned my thoughts.
Don't worry, they're coming, but first, for those of you who need an extra boost of
excitement for the release, here's a little blurb to get you going.

She’s the heart of O’Kane liquor.

For years, Nessa has been focused on work. She keeps the whiskey—and the money—flowing,
and life is sweet. Sure, she’s tired of being everyone’s baby sister, and she longs
for a man who can stand up to her overprotective O’Kane brothers. But she never
thought she’d meet him in the middle of a war.

He’s the brains of the revolution.

War is all Ryder knows. He was raised with one goal: to ensure the sectors’ successful
rebellion against Eden. His father and his mentor both died for freedom, and nothing
will stop him from securing their legacies with victory. He doesn’t have time for
distractions—especially beautiful, impulsive ones like Nessa.

Opposites don’t just attract, they combust. Together, Nessa and Ryder have a chance
for something more than the lives they’ve always known. But this is war—deadly,
 bloody war—and the only way to happily-ever-after is straight through Eden.

Okay, so onto what I thought.
The short answer: I loved it. It was fast paced and wrapped
up this world that has been falling apart in the best and most believable way possible
for a dystopian book.

The long answer: While did thoroughly enjoy the book, I felt like it suffered the
accelerated relationship curse that has plagued the last few installments. Nessa and
Ryder meet and boom, right away they're a thing. Not much build-up, and they get to
know each other when they're already as close to an item as the couples in these books
ever are at the beginning of the stories. We as readers don't know much about Ryder
when he bursts into the story, and that would work, if the book was only told from
Nessa's perspective, but it's not. Ryder gets a POV too, so us not knowing much about
him doesn't make a lot of sense.
Also, without getting into specifics and spoilers, the medical developments in this world
don't make much sense to me at times, they have all of these high grade ways to patch
people up in a matter of hours, but other things, which are super high tech when they
are working seem like they can just dissipate into nothingness when they're not being
implemented. <spoiler> like the contraceptives. Noelle had been taking them her entire
life in Eden, they were in the water supply, then six months after the war, not only
is there no longer anything in the water, but the effects have also completely worn off?
It can take six months for birth control to lose its entire effect now, let alone in a
future where med gel exists. <end spoiler>

Also, my last complaint, I promise, that cover change! It bothers me so much. Had the other
covers matched it, I would have nothing against the new cover, but it goes against the
aesthetic of the all the other books in the series and that will irk me forever.

What I loved, the perspectives. Every book in the series has had chapters told from
the point of view of someone other than the two main characters, and this one brought
back a lot of old favorites. I just wish that there had been more. Even if they were a
page long, just to be able to say goodbye to those character voices.

And this is a bit of both, this book made me tear up. There I was, at work, in public,
tearing up over the loss of characters I didn't even get a chance to get to know, but
grew attached to anyway- and that, I think, is a great credit to the authors.

I will be purchasing this book to put the physical copy with the others on my shelf as
soon as it is available and will no doubt be rereading the entire series soon. In the meantime,
I will dutifully await the release of the first book in the spin-off series.

To all the fans who have fallen in love with the books as much as I have, O'kane for life.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Review | "Beyond Ruin" by Kit Rocha

Finally, after months of taking time off reviewing, I'm back with a review over Kit Rocha's latest installment to the Beyond series. I was sent an e-arc by the authors a few months ago, but the book fell farther down on my to-read list than intended so I only got around to reviewing it now.
I have to say, however, that I don't have much to write here. I was worried when I first heard that the book would contain a romance between four characters that I would have problems with it- similar to my problems with Beyond Jealousy- and I was right.  Before I go any further, however, here's the book's Goodreads description:

Beyond Ruin (Beyond, #7)Adrian Maddox fled his royal life—and tragic past—in Sector One, choosing instead to join up with the O’Kanes. For years, he’s lived by one rule: love fast, love hard, and always be willing to walk away. He’s managed to guard his heart, keep it whole and untouched—until now.
They couldn’t be more different—Dylan, the brilliant, burned-out doctor from Eden who drowns his pain with drugs and self-destruction. Scarlet, the sensuous, sexy rocker from Three, a woman unafraid to embrace the world. And Jade, the whore turned spy from Sector Two, who battled addiction and came out stronger than anyone he’s ever met.
Separately, they make Mad long to open his heart, to tumble head-first into a sea of possibilities and wild love. Together, they make him burn, inside and out, with lust and unbearable, unimaginable pleasure.
Then one fateful moment shakes their world to its foundations—and leaves the sectors on the verge of all-out war with Eden. It’s the biggest fight the O’Kanes have ever faced, and Mad and his lovers are at the dead center of it. They could end up with everything they never knew they wanted—or lose it all. Including their lives.


I would like to start out by saying, my problem is not the fact that this book contains a polyamorous  relationship. My problem is that I didn't believe it.
Much like in Beyond jealousy, where for the first three books we were lead to believe that Rachel and Ace would be the main focus, with perhaps Cruz getting his own romance later- thus causing a huge surprise to me when all of a sudden the rivals become lovers with no sort of transitional period, this book didn't have much of a lead up to me. Sure in previous books, things were hinted at, vaguely...but again, if it weren't for the fact that the main characters of this book were revealed ages ago, I would have been under the impression that the romance of this story would have been Mad/Scarlet or Jade/Dylan, not Mad/Dylan/Scarlet/Jade. Sure, Jade and Dylan have a stronger relationship, and Scarlet and Mad are more of a pairing, but it didn't seem like a realistic romance that would actually work. It seemed thrown together in my opinion, and that made the rest of the story less interesting. I didn't care much for the love scenes because it felt like they were written to be hot, but that was really it. If I don't buy the relationship behind it, and the scenes are supposed to be driven by a relationship, then I'll find myself flipping ahead and counting down the pages until the next chapter.
Sadly, I've been noticing a lot of scenes in the recent books after Beyond Pain (and there was even a scene in that book as well) that seem like their there to pander to a fantasy, and I understand that completely, but if that's it, if there's no substance beyond that, nothing leading up to it that would make it make sense, then I'll find myself losing interest.
In the end, this is probably my least favorite of the installments, Beyond Pain is still my favorite and I hope the future books go back to that a little more. I look forward to reading the next book, but I'm not quite as excited for it as I would have been for some of the previous novels.