Review // Wretched, The Fae King's Curse, and For Christiano, With Hate

As you know, not every book I read will get 4 or 5 stars. Here are a few that I still enjoyed!

Wretched by Emily McIntire

My Rating - ★★★
Genre/Trope - Contemporary Romance / retelling
POV - Dual 1st person
Heat - more than descriptive, less than explicit
Source - borrowed from Kindle Unlimited
Length - 282 pages

Wretched was a play on the Wizard of Oz, but I didn’t really SEE it. Ah well, no matter. I enjoyed it just the same.

What I liked:
* Evelina being the ‘bad guy’ made me smile. I loved that the woman was the one causing trouble, being on the wrong side of the law, ruling from the shadows. It gave this story a unique twist.
* The whole enemies-to-lovers and forbidden vibes of this story kept me engaged with the plot. I’m a sucker for a protective hero and while Nicholas was undercover in this crime family, his true nature always had a way of shining through.

However, as much as I enjoyed this book, I was also bored. I skimmed through a lot of it. So please take my rating with a grain of salt.

If I’m her calm, then she is my chaos, and if I can’t live with her forever, then I don’t want to live at all.

The Fae King's Curse by Jamie Schlosser

My Rating - ★★★
Genre/Trope - Fantasy Romance / fated mates
POV - Dual 1st person
Heat - descriptive
Source - borrowed from Kindle Unlimited
Length - 281 pages

For the most part, I loved this book. However… the setup of Quinn fighting against Kirian’s declared feelings turned me off from pretty much the start. I found it hard to get on board with their happy ending when for so much of this book, Quinn was being silly. You’re in love with the man. He’s already proven that he doesn’t care about the curse because he chose you. Why then hurt him by denying him what you both want?

I wasn’t trying to read a children’s book.

If it weren’t for Kirian and his cousins and all of their awesomeness, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this story as much.

Kudos to the author for writing in this subgenre and allowing me to enjoy the world created. Will I read the next book? Ummm yeah because I really need to see Damon get some!

"I can live without my sight, but I cannot live without you."

For Christiano, With Hate by Soraya Naomi

My Rating - ★★★
Genre/Trope - Contemporary Romance / mafia / arranged marriage
POV - Dual 1st person
Heat - more than descriptive, less than explicit
Source - eARC provided by the author
Length - approx. 250 pages

Teagan has stepped into it. Now that she knows of her best friend’s connection to the Syndicate, she has to either step up or… So while she wants no part of any of it, she agrees to be married to Christiano, the Syndicate’s assassin. He wants this marriage as much as she does—which is none at all. Off to a bad start, he barely spends time with her, she tries to gain his attention through passive-aggressive means, and nothing seems to get done. When they finally do make an effort, that’s when the magic happens.

I’ve loved the Chicago Syndicate series from the beginning and I loved seeing all of the characters I fell in love with sprinkled throughout this story. I enjoyed seeing some of them take big roles in the plot (looking at you Luca and Henry!). I failed to connect with the main characters and it mostly boiled down to Teagan and her childish behavior. I kept having to remind myself that she was 30 years old because she was very OTT and out of control. She made rash decisions, she constantly challenged when it wasn’t necessary, and her irrational thoughts drove me mad.

Most of my frustration came from the fact that these characters lacked emotional depth. I knew very little about what drove them to be the way they were. I didn’t know what motivated or inspired them. Aside from Christiano’s revelation about his parents’ death and Teagan’s mention of not knowing her father and having a distant relationship with her mother, there wasn’t much else to learn. I knew so many details about the individual items Teagan and Christiano would wear though. I’d take emotional growth over superficial details any day.

Overall, I had a blast hanging out with some of my favorite people and I’m a bit sad knowing that this will probably be the last book for them. I’ll miss the drama, the action, and the sense of family these characters engender the most.

The Syndicate, once a shadowy organization, has transformed into a haven of love, acceptance, and unbreakable bonds.