Series of interchangeable protagonists. Way too much unnecessary rehashing of previous events, exposition dump that doesn’t actually impact the story, overexplanations, and setup tease for the next ships, which isn’t relevant to this book. The writing repeatedly states that “not all demons are bad” yet repeatedly uses demons as one-dimensional devices to instigate combat. The world building strives to rationalize and justify the toxic behavior of men in the story as being inherent in shifters, forcing the women to roll with it under threat of violence to others. Also plot holes. Much of Iris’ actions throughout are explained away with “for some reason” which means the author couldn’t actually think of a legitimate reason for scenes to play out the way they wanted them to. When it’s not that, it’s the equally flimsy “because Mother Nature said so,” whose trials just make the series very formulaic. And because the story isn’t contrived enough the author deploys a one-time truth serum to move things along. Despite claiming to not be stupid, Iris repeatedly does the exact opposite of what she was advised not five minutes ago, just to conclude after everything goes south that her actions were indeed ill-advised. Draven threatens to kill, stalks, and repeatedly forces himself onto Iris. He uses the threat of war to coerce her into what is effectively a political marriage. It doesn’t matter if she’s attracted, no means no. When Iris tells him to use condoms he dismisses the idea, telling her to stay on birth control if she doesn’t want to get pregnant, which forces the burden of contraception onto her. All of these issues are brushed aside in favor of “well we’re here now so might as well make the most of it” instead of actually allowing him to have meaningful character development. Do not ship.

Loved it! I desperately need Mags and Bram, but I’ll have to wait 😩 Looking forward to Rose and Rohan next