Wil Loves Books!'s Reviews > Swink

2.5 Stars

I'm going to be super honest and have an unpopular opinion, but this was a huge disappointment. It pains me because 1) I was looking forward to this book so much, I mean Camilla's "mystery man" has been hinted at for 3 books! 2) I adore this author and her books.

The first thing I have to say is that in my opinion, this is not a standalone. The fan of the series in me appreciates all the Landry family appearances and major milestones of other couples that appear in this book, but the objective reader/reviewer in me cannot recommend this as a standalone. This is basically the book that wraps up this series, and to be honest all of the books in the series are way too interconnected to be standalones. When major milestones like weddings and engagements and babies, etc of previous characters happen in books that are not their own, and we're talking, full-on, pages long scenes, then it's a continuation of a story. I do recommend the series, by all means. I loved all the previous books, especially the audiobooks. I just think you'll be completely lost if you pick up this book without reading the others.

However, this is not the reason for my low rating. The main reason is that I found this to have little to no plot. Like I said, this Camilla has a mystery man subplot has been going on for several books, yet this book picks up right after book 4 ends and this couple has been together for 10 months! I thought this would run parallel with the other books so we could see some relationship development, you know, initial spark, initial attraction, lots of firsts, lots of feels. Nope, that already happened outside the book, and you're just told in passing, no flashbacks or anything. You're thrown into an existing relationship that is wishy washy at best with a lot of back and forth, especially from the hero.

Other than she's rich and he's poor and they keep the relationship secret cause they fear her rich family won't accept it there's very little conflict. Anything you think might be a huge deal, like her family involvement/acceptance, or even his fighting "career" gets resolved rather quickly. So again, you're left with a lot of nothing, except for Landry family fillers about the other couples and a lot of silly push and pull between the H and h. No anticipation, no conflict, no feels. It's so different from the other books in this series but not in a positive way. I guess the hero is hot and "overprotective" but he also goes back and forth about his feelings for the heroine for a good 95% of the book, serious whiplash. He's also super wishy washy about other aspects in his life I won't go into details cause I don't want to spoil it for anyone. And Camilla is just meh, she has her moments here and there but she's also neither here nor there.

Again, it might be just me and not the book but I just didn't get it, I'm still struggling to find the plot of the book. There were some other things and inconsistencies about the book that rubbed me the wrong way but I don't want to write a dissertation ragging on the book. At the end of the day I love this author and will keep reading her books. I just expected so much more from this book and sadly IMO it didn't deliver. Still absolutely recommend this author, especially Written in the Scars!!!!