Posted in Spicy Romance

Punished by the Prince

By Elle Lacerta

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This review is kind of a tough one for me. I really want to rate this book higher, but there is so much about the book that makes me go back and forth between 3 and 4 stars.

I really like the premise of this book. It is a good idea, and if you just take the story for what it is, it is exciting and makes you want to keep reading the series to find out what happens. The end of book one left you on a cliffhanger making you want to read the next one, and that happens again with book two. I do like Iris and Rowan, and I like seeing the relationship develop. I am itching to see what Alex and Naomi are up to, because we know they are up to no good. I am excited to see what happens in the next installment.

There are different BDSM elements in the book, this book focused mostly on the punishment aspect. I felt for Iris’ first punishment, it was a bit intense.

Ultimately, my biggest issue with the book is the overall editing. It doesn’t have grammatical/spelling errors and such, but it is the actual content itself. It is hard to tell how much time actually passes because the narrative jumps around. For instance, she is in class at the Academy for magic learning, and it talks about a class she is in. It goes on for a bit with her learning, and then it says “The day went on, and Iris managed to make it through her classes,” and then it immediately goes back to the class she was in and the class finishes. After an incident when the class finished, it then jumps back to talking about the rest of her day. It does this a lot, there are several scenes where I felt confused, this is just one example. The library scene was another example of being all over the place. I know the author is working on editing some of the books, but this is really my only and biggest critique of the stories so far. It just really needs cleaned up and fine tuned.

Posted in Spicy Romance

The Auction

By Maggie Cole

Rating: 2 Stars

Look, I finished this book a couple of days ago. And I have needed that time to process what I read and how I feel about it. I have like one trigger, and this did not hit it. BUT, there is something about this specific trope that grinds my gears. I literally believe 50 Shades is one of THE WORST BDSM BOOKS out there, and The Auction kept giving me the same feels. Hear me out

  • Super naïve FMC
  • Dom who is aggressively in control with zero respect for the lack of knowledge FMC has
  • FMC thinks she can change Dom to not be a Dom anymore because he must be broken (which he is)
  • Dom uses his trauma as a means to his control (without ever addressing it)
  • Dom gaslights and is abusive and toxic.
  • FMC just sucks. Like she just isn’t it

Also, to go further with it- these two acted like children. The Club should have stepped in. And then sending videos of her and pictures of her to HER FATHER to goad the man…like…seriously? I get it is a book. So this is my personal opinion, but he was always out of control around her. He broke all of his rules. This relationship seriously sucks. AND to top it off….he is so careful and meticulous in his dealings with her father, that he goes off and marries her and names a WING after her (with her name and married name) in a charity, like HER PARENTS WONT FIND OUT.

I can’t go on to book 2, but there is a cliffhanger. I read some of the spoilers, and it appears to be what I expected. Again, this was not my cup of tea, but it seems to have some decent ratings, so it is clearly for some. I love a good BDSM book, this just missed the mark for me, and I could not look past this kind of abuse and toxicity. It is very dangerous for a Sub and a Dom.