Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
Even when she hated him he still roped her into sex cause she just couldn’t deny the attraction. The mating bond was a crutch in this book. It was toxic. And I absolutely love fated mates. It has NEVER made me this uncomfortable. It felt like a way to make Estrella do things she didn’t want to because of the bond. I didn't think this one would top book 1 for me but it did. The loyalty and devotion from Caelum was perfection. I am so glad we got his POV and could see inside his mind and his feelings for Estrella. He is obsessed and absolutely in love and possessive but he also inspires her to find her strength. Never pretend to be something you’re not. Never dull how bright you burn so that others may feel comfortable in your presence.” DNF at 56%…life’s too short to read books that I can already guess the ending of (and it’s annoying). This book was gross, and I don't mean the porn-heavy bits, although those were also plentiful and some of them quite gross, but not all of them. It was gross how the MC was character-assassinated in the interest of serving the author's goals of writing more sex scenes. It was gross how both violence and death were fetishized. It was gross how trauma was used as a tool by the male MC to get what he wanted from the female MC. This is a character who is supposedly centuries old, behaving like a cave man, storming out in a huff and unable to control basic emotional impulses. Leaving it to his comparably infantile 'mate' to soothe his needs with sex even when she's terrified of him. Sorry but I couldn't get past how unbelievably stupid the whole thing was.
Normal? You are my mate. I could spend an eternity buried inside of you and still want more, Little One. There will never come a day when I do not enjoy watching you bring men to their knees and cut their throats when they underestimate you. You would do well to remember that,” sprinkled liberally throughout this book. It read like mewling drivel. And honestly after reading the sex scenes, I almost wonder if this author has ever actually had sex? I'm voicing this as someone who understands a setup contradiction statement (ie "You'll never defeat me!"--villain) playing out as foreshadowing for that exact thing happening later on in the payoff. This was not that. Either the characters in this book have the memory of goldfishes, or their EQ is in the single digits. All the things that were wrong with the first book in this series have been amplified in this book. The mate bond is not just a crutch anymore (in the first book, the author used it to force the female MC to like the male MC), now its a fully formed wheel chair rolling the plot forward. The crass and vulgar moments between characters are exacerbated, the mind-numbingly idiotic possessiveness and jealousy between characters is also played up to the point that it felt like they'd regressed to the age of teenagers (maybe its a young author? I don't know). In fact, a lot of the emotional pin-wheeling that the characters do in this book seems to be for no reason other than to stir up pointless emotional drama and hide the fact the book has no real action driving its plot. Book Genre: Dark, Dark Fantasy, Fae, Fairies, Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Magic, New Adult, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, RomanceEstrella: “If I have spent too much time with the witch, I find it necessary to remind you that I may be your Princess soon. I do not look favorably on men who call me ‘amusing.’ I am far more than a source of entertainment for you, Sidhe. Perhaps one day soon, I’ll make you entertain me, and I promise you, my idea of entertainment involves spilling blood. Not sex,” The secondary characters also got exponentially more interesting and solid in the second half of the book. Imelda and Holt 😏 Fallon and Estrella’s friendship 🥹 The wolves are incredible. THE CLIFFHANGER WAS BANGIN. Things I thought I knew… I most certainly did not 🤯👀 If only we had the next book to read 🥲🥲🥲
Now we come to the most toxic thing he did that made me actually nauseous. Now dubious consent is admittedly not my thing but this scene was almost literally rape. He gets all alpha angry about a dead Fae and comes after Estrella to assault her whether she likes it or not. And one of the worst things is there is another character there begging her to just give him what he wants. The audacity. Then she actually cries whilst he “has sex” with her. She even describes that she’s in pain but you know she just has to do this for him so he won’t hurt anyone else. Just no.In some ways I really enjoyed this sequel more than its predecessor–in some, I miss the first book and its simplicity of Estrella and Caelum finding love. Caldris: “You are too young to understand what we share. Just because you would take it for granted now does not mean that you will not come to appreciate me in time, as your fear and prejudice against my kind dissipates. You have a lifetime of untruths to overcome, but I can be patient for you. I have already waited centuries to feel the love we share. I would wait one hundred more.” Book two in the Of Flesh & Bone series! Once, I fell in love with a man who deceived me. Then, I discovered the truth of who he is. Now, another secret crouches, poised to change everything. Soon, they'll want me to pay the price the magic requires…
Beyond that bullshit there were references to some modern things that jarred me and lifted me right out of the setting. Caldris mentions the concept of baby trapping as if that’s a concept that exists in a supposedly medieval world. He says that something must have been “a bitter plant to swallow” cause you know no pills in this world. Admittedly that made me laugh.Estrella and Caelum have a dynamic that’s equal parts emotionally passionate and strategic: they both know exactly how to get others to get the reaction they want, and they don’t hesitate to do so. It creates many great moments where they push the tension between them to the limit and have moments of emotional catharsis. They both have a lot of feelings for each other and those moments when they let it out are incredibly satisfying. For weeks she was by my side, turning her words into pretty half-truths. He swept me away with his gentle temptation, leaving no corner of my being untouched. It consumed my mind and body and finally claimed my heart. But Caelum’s true identity is the terrifying enough to bring me to my knees. The heroine has this annoying habit of trying to die because of things she has no idea of that have been said to her. She's very happy to sacrifice herself at any small chance she has if it means that things stop with her. It's like she doesn't realize what will happen to the world once her mate realizes what was done. There will be a world no more if he has a say in it. Though on the flip side, Dark/Evil Estrela is a bad bitch and I'm here for the destruction she can and probably will cause. My favorite thing is when book 2 is better than book 1, and book 2 blew it out of the water for me. The character development was everything I wanted.
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