TBR & Tangents by Rachel

This had all the workings to be a spectacular journey with action, world-building, spice, and a plethora of species. Unfortunately, what was given to readers was a confusing and lukewarm story.

The premise of the story was given to readers in bits and pieces throughout the storyline. Even though I understood what was happened I felt pushed into the world with no more than a scrap of context to start off with. The storyline felt unfinished from the get-go which made it difficult to immerse myself in the world, and caused more than one hole in the plot to emerge. The second-hand characters had little to no explanation, and while I understand not all answers should have been given it would have been helpful to have world-building that felt more completed than this.

The men felt very by-the-book, and I could already tell their personalities within the first few pages of meeting them. There was some character developmental as the story progressed but it was easily anticipated. I did appreciate how much of a spitfire Lolani was, and I truly think she singlehandly kept the storyline moving. The spice felt immature and robotic, and mostly skip-worthy. There was insta-love which is honestly something I’m almost never a fan of. It will definitely be interesting to see how the addition of her third mate changes the dynamic of the 3 of them.

I’m hopeful that book 2 may give us more than we got in the first novel.

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