Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1) by Penelope Douglas Review

This review contains major spoilers - read with caution. Please read trigger warnings - reader discretion advised.

Susan B. Anthony I apologize that I am putting feminism back one hundred years - these boys are unhinged and I am sorry that I enjoyed it so much. I was actually taken aback by the fact that I am supposed to see four basketball players be the center of some sort of dark and devious little group where they tun around the town acting like fools and wait in the darkness for Rika to turn eighteen before they start with her. Michael takes the forefront as the man behind the plan to make Rika's life a living hell for the role she played for sending his three friends behind bars - but they are out now and it is finally time for them to make her understand how far they are willing to go to show her how bad it can get.

Basketball players that have a "dark side" is a phrase that I never expected to come across in my lifetime. This is simply ridiculous and absurd - you cannot wear basketball shorts AND terrorize the town. You need to pick a struggle and frankly the basketball shorts are the worse trait in this situation. This is red flag central... what do you MEAN you waited in the shadows until Rika turned eighteen to start torturing this girl and ruining her life??? Absolute freaks in my opinion - and this is coming from someone who loves a good cat and mouse chase... but only with ADULTS!! Michael Crist is also absolutely certifiably insane - a man who covets his younger brother's girlfriend and stirs up a revenge plan over the course of three years on a girl who he has had ONE memorable interaction with that he claims is the reason behind his psycho friends being jailed.

The Crist family in general totally sucks - the only person who is likable is the mother, and she is present for approximately three pages before her use as a page filler is through. The father is just as deplorable as Michael, and Trevor is a nuisance that you can sense is up to no good but hiding behind ulterior motives. Rika, girl... run for your LIFE!! Kai, Damon, Will, and Michael basically have made it their mission to destroy Rika's life because they believe she is the one that leaked incriminating videos of Damon, Kai, and Will committing assault and engaging in improper relations with the mayor's daughter - that event is Damon's alone. Maybe... I don't know... ask her if she did it before deciding you are going to BURN down her house?? Absolute idiots sharing no brain cells.

The things that came out of Damon's mouth in this book had my jaw on the floor. "As long as they're old enough to crawl, they're in the right position." I beg your finest pardon??? This boy needs to go back to jail immediately for that comment alone. I literally could not believe my eyes reading that sentence - sure, his childhood past reveal may explain why he said that, but good lord if I had not already not liked Damon, that would have sealed the deal.

Michael and his merry gang of lame little friends basically commit financial abuse and essentially steal all of Rika's money and act like it's a casual thing. And we are not talking a couple thousand dollars, we are talking millions. And the kidnapping?? They do it so often?? Like guys she is clearly able to get away on her own, think of something better. That being said, they really take this kidnapping on a casual Tuesday very conveniently and are obsessed with making Rika fear for her life at every chance they can get. It is actually diabolical - it's not even a kidnapping where the girl is like "oh my god, nooo, don't!!" when she actually likes it - they girl is literally showing up armed because she thinks they will kill her.

"F**king Trevor" welcome back, Hardin Scott. I think we can all agree that the Trevor twist was something that you could see coming from a mile away. The second Michael and the boys said that Rika was the reason they were arrested, I called BS and said it had to be Trevor - it was clear from the beginning. Trevor was very vocal to Michael on how he wanted Michael to stay away from Rika, so this was obviously a ploy to ruin Michael's life and a way to try to guarantee that Michael would lose feelings from Rika. I cheered when Michael took that boy out on the yacht. Which is an entirely other scenario to address - Rika being kidnapped for about the sixth time in the book leads to Damon and Trevor holding her hostage on this boat because... get this... they're mad that Michael fell for her and does not want to continue the plan of ruining her life. Trevor more so because he wants to get back together with Rika and knock down Michael.

This entire book was nearly 600 pages of sexual harassment and straight up kidnapping. The smut was mildly decent towards the end of the book, which of course did not make up for the fact that the first 450 pages were the boys putting Rika through Saw traps left and right. I wish I could say that I would be abandoning this series because of my views of this book, but unfortunately I low-key want to know what happens with Kai, Will, and Damon.

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Ruthless Arrangement (Gallo Famiglia Series, #1) by Brooke Summers Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Please read trigger warnings - reader discretion is advised.

My past discretions from a Stuff Your Kindle day downloading haze have come back to bite me. I genuinely felt like I was being put through the wringer while reading this book - every single turn of the page ended up with Teagan being smacked around or abused, or someone literally not taking the time of day to understand that this girl is traumatized!! The author describes a number of abuses she endures in graphic detail, and considering she made it out alive is an achievement in itself. I wish it did not take until being two thirds into the book to really see how she was dealing with everything that she had to go through when she was living with the Dirty Demons. 

Elio as the male lead made me want to scream externally into the sky - there was not a single thing he did that made me want to root for him except for the fact that he had Teagan go to therapy. That is the only nice thing he ever did for her that actually warranted a good reaction out of me. The entirety of their relationship is based on the fact that her father wrong him and his family, and he seeks revenge by taking Teagan and forcing her to be his bride. The girl has never left the house in over eighteen years and somehow Elio thinks this is the perfect torture for her - she literally has only ever known torture and abuse, so this ends up being just another Tuesday for her, trapped with a mob family and revenge-obsessed Elio.

I did not love the glamorization of Elio and Teagan's relationship at all. It felt as though he was keeping her as a sex slave - which he basically was - and using her as a toy. Sure, his plan all along was to basically torture this girl for the rest of her days, so why would he treat her with any form of respect? Even his entire family was like dude what are you getting out of doing this to a girl who does not even know the extent of what her father did outside of what he allowed people to do to her? The brothers were much more enjoyable to read about when they appeared on page, and even the two friends Teagan had made before being "taken" by Elio were better entertainment than the man himself.

The most intriguing plot line of this entire book was when Teagan was being sought out by another mob family - it provided actual stakes to the game and showed the dangers that waited for her outside of Elio's home, even though Elio's home was basically a danger in its own right. Those scenes of Teagan being pulled between two rival families were the only times that I was actually locked into the book - I frankly did not care about her and Elio's relationship because I simply could not stand Elio at all. Even when he was "turning a corner" and realized what he was putting Teagan through was wrong, it still left a sour taste in my mouth. Maybe it is because the book is not marketed as taboo and instead just a dark mafia romance - if it was something they were both into from the start, then my opinion may have ended differently. The set up for the next book has me intrigued - I may find myself back into this series if the timing presents itself.

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God of Fury (Legacy of Gods, #5) by Rina Kent Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews of God of Malice, God of Pain, God of Wrath, and God of Ruin on my blog, now! Reader discretion is advised.

Nikolai is YOUNGER than Brandon??? How did I miss this??? Also immediately throwing us back into the initiation night.. oh how I have been waiting for this moment since God of Malice. Rina Kent's tendency to describe the family trees and two schools at the beginning of every single one of the books in this series is starting to get on my nerves, but it is understandable if someone is reading these as stand alones and not as a series. This is the first time reading this series where I did not go crazy when the parent perspectives were brought up - I actually enjoyed them this time.

Someone needs to protect Brandon at all costs - the man is going through it constantly and is plagued with so much every day, and it feels as though he is the one that everyone expects to keep it together. Watching his inner turmoil fester and grow was heartbreaking. He is going through a sexuality realization and dealing with a ton of mental health issues, while trying to understand Nikolai's actions towards him and accept some form of love from someone who unexpectedly came into his life. We get to see a lot of different sides of Brandon throughout this book - more than just his video game playing with Mia and the occasional appearance next to Landon and Glyndon at family gatherings.

Nikolai is literally one of the funniest characters I have come across - every single thing that came out of his mouth had me rolling on the floor. I genuinely was cackling at some of the things he said, and his inner monologue was just as hilarious. "That would be crazy. Just kidding, I am crazy." is one of the earliest lines from Nikolai and it truly sets the tone for his entire attitude for the book. I used to bag on him in the other books for being completely unhinged, but finally getting to see what goes on inside his head makes everything make so much sense. He is very much aware that he has psychopathic tendencies and fully embraces them - he is honestly surprised when people do not resort to the type of violence that is his first reaction.

The smut is in this book.. insane. I thought Rina would not be able to top God of Ruin's levels of craziness, but Nikolai and Brandon take it to a whole new level - they are beating each other up and off - the duality of man! I know I said God of Wrath was the best of the series when I first read it, but good grief God of Fury definitely takes the cake. There were sentences in this book that truly had my mouth on the floor and had me doing laps around my apartment - Nikolai is already unhinged on a regular basis, but put him and Brandon together and it unleashes an entirely new animal. He is definitely the one that adds to the craziness of all of those scenes, considering Brandon is more on the reserved side - that does not mean that Brandon does not get down and dirty, literally and figuratively.

Brandon's internal struggles play a major role in the way he views himself and how he approaches his relationship with Nikolai. We see from Nikolai's perspective how confused he gets when Brandon's emotions and personality suddenly shift when he feels cornered or is confronted by a past trauma. I was literally sick to my stomach reading what he has been through, and readers bear witness to his struggles in a first-hand account in his perspective, along with Nikolai's reactions and attempts to understand what is going on with Brandon. Brandon and Landon's relationship as twins definitely grows and expands in this book, and considering their past qualms with one another, it was nice to see them actually work through things and become closer - as a twin, I cannot imagine not being close with my sister.

This is the fifth installment in this series and yet I am constantly still surprised by the way that nineteen-year-old Nikolai speaks and the things that come out of nearly every character's mouths - who taught y'all to speak like this!! I am sure that if I finally venture out and actually read all of their parents' books, I will clearly find my answering in those works. Considering God of War is the final piece in this series, I am intrigued to see where Kent takes us next with Eli and Ava - they have been relatively absent from this series other than the occasional mentioning, but just by taking a look at the summary, I know I will be in for a treat.

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A Debt to Repay (Lured to the Mob, #1) by Stacey Ortel Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

Y'all I was once again lured into a free mafia romance from Stuff Your Kindle Day and I will once again be questioning why I pick up some of these books. Whoever allowed to go to print should be jailed - was an editor involved?? The story is choppy and full of confusing character choices - the allure of the age gap romance was what definitely made me download this, but good grief it was only ever mentioned once or twice and did not even play a role in the main plot of this book. If I was Clara, I would have sold my dad out so fast, it would not have even been a question. He continues to put her in danger and is shocked when his actions have consequences that directly affect her - newsflash buddy, you mess with the mob, they mess with your family!

Sure, kidnapping someone may just be a regular Tuesday in a mob family, but how was no one questioning the kidnapping of a twenty-year-old student who clearly was there against her will? I love a good kidnapping trope, but make it believable and make the girl at least struggle a little bit before becoming besties with the entire family - it felt as though there was nothing at stake internally with the Ricci family. That being said, the other mob family was a lot "scarier" than the Riccis, and that plot point was the most intriguing to read. You could actually tell there was something on the line for Clara when Roberto would show up, unlike Antonio who was just not all that exciting to me.

This is a super quick read and honestly it went by so fast I felt as though I forgot the entire thing by the time it ended - there was not enough time to truly get to know the characters and form any type of attachment to them. I was also under the impression that this was a series following one couple, not a duology (possibly a series?) that is made up of interconnected stand alones. The super rushed ending definitely is explained by that set up, but it causes readers to lose out on seeing a more fleshed out relationship between Clara and Antonio. Antonio's character seems very one-dimensional and I did not feel drawn to him at all - he is quick to accuse and quick to judge - maybe if he joined Clara at college and took Communication 101 he would have avoided every bad thing that happened in this book.

I am glad that I finished this book so quickly, because if it took up any more of my time, I would have begged a genie to give the minutes spent reading this back to me. If you are looking for something low stakes and just a quick filler book in between reading larger books, this may be for you. If you are looking for a book that will make you attached to its characters, then this is definitely a pass.

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The Last Storm (Rogue X Ara, #1) by J.D. Linton Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

I have been on yet another romance binge and needed a fantasy to cleanse the palette before diving right back into the romance genre - I downloaded this book - and the next two - on a Stuff Your Kindle Day a while back, and I figured now was a great time to finally crack it open. I am a big fan of a book with an enemies to lovers moment, and while I would not say Rogue and Ara are true enemies, they definitely have a distain for each other in the beginning that really lights s fire for their relationship.

Unexpected age gap win for me!!! I am not even joking when I say this but I was literally kicking my feet every single time Ara and Rogue would get into an argument or Rogue would be chasing this girl down whenever she tried to escape that castle. Forever grateful for a 26-year-old female lead because I was just tormented with a 15-year-old lead in another series and I though my brain was going to fall out of my skull. That being said, Ara has been so sheltered her entire life by her father, she often comes across as naive and impulsive - she does not understand the urgency of certain situations. She definitely turns a corner at one point and finally grasps the gravity of everything that is happening around her and takes accountability in attempt to held those around her.

Rogue's harshness towards Ara is more out of how he grew up rather than a trait he desires to exhibit, and watching him try to reign it in when he is with Ara was refreshing to see - though I did enjoy when he would acknowledge his harshness with pride. Ara shows similar traits to Rogue, but more in response to his actions and her uncertainty of the future - she is essentially attempting to protect herself by building walls, but that inhibits her abilities to get to her full potential and open up to Rogue. Watching their relationship develop and the banter between them blossom from stubbornness to grown fondness and teasing was very enjoyable. Their "hate" period could have lasted a touch longer than it did to really build up that tension, but I think the author did a decent job of setting up their hate to love.

The combination of Fae and dragon shifting was certainly something that I have not seen before - it was a unique premise, and I found that the author seemed to favor the Fae portion over diving too deep into the shifting aspect of the Fae's abilities. It turned out to all be for good reason in the book, but I did keep expecting the shifting to play a larger role. It would have been great to read more about the dragon shifters from the past to get an idea of what to expect - we get glimpses, but I really wanted to see this aspect further explored. I think this series has a lot of promise and it has definitely captured my attention enough that I will be continuing on with the next installment,

For fans of The Divine and the Cursed by J.E. Reed and The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent, this fantasy series takes its readers on a romantic and action-driven story as Rogue and Ara discover things about themselves, their people, and their past.

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If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You by Leigh Stein ARC Review

This is a spoiler-free review! If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You was published on August 26, 2025 and is now available at select book retailers.

I would first like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review. A combination of literary fiction intertwined with mystery and thriller, Stein's novel pulls the reader in as a viewer in this influencer-centric search for a missing Tarot card reader who vanished without a trace. This book is weird, gothic, and obsessive - every character has a compulsive attribute about them as they work towards fame and attention. You can see that when the attention or focus is not on one of them for too long, they begin to unravel at the seems. The internet is a compelling place that can have sinister consequences when one strives to do whatever it takes to stay on top.

I wish this book was a little weirder - the author really could have pulled through on that end and made the characters and subplots more erratic and disorienting. The mysterious and eeriness that surrounded Becca's disappearance was definitely hovering over the book throughout, but it felt underwhelming in what my expectations were going into Stein's work. Her disappearing certainly haunted the narrative, but with a "haunted" mansion being the center of the story and the main location of the book, it would have been great to see the author really turn the story more twisted for the characters and for the house.

The house feels like it is its own character - it carries an energy that overtakes the page, and the characters seem to treat it as a great entity rather than a 10,000 square foot house. There is a mysteriousness to it that consumes its residents and draws outsiders to want to look in and see what stories and secrets it holds. The energy given off by the house definitely adds to the uneasiness felt throughout the story as the search for Becca continues and answers are sought out. Considering one of the main focus points is to preserve the house for its next heir, it is always lingering in the background, whether the characters are using it for their videos or the owner is attempting to acquire more money to restore the mansion.

Dayna and her rabbit, Owen Wilson, take center stage in this gothic tale as she returns back to the hype house after a not-so-mutual break up with her boyfriend through a Reddit post. Her career in journalism has been not quite a flourishing as she had hoped, and moving into the hype house in order to help its owner save it from decay could be her ticket back into the game. You could tell that Dayna's influence in the house creates some tension between the influencers there, as they fight for her attention - or more so, for Owen Wilson and using him in their videos. Attempting to profit off of Becca's sudden disappearance through a social media campaign, Dayna's presence seems to be the thing that ties everything together once Olivia, Becca's biggest fan, comes to live in the house.

Stein's work poses an interesting combination of modern internet influencers with the gothic nature of the unknown and uncertainty. The pacing moves quickly and draws the reader in as they are sucked into the search for Becca, but also become an inside viewer to the realities that these influencers live in order to make content, at whatever the cost.

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God of Ruin (Legacy of Gods, #4) by Rina Kent Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews of God of Malice, God of Pain, and God of Wrath on my blog, now! Reader discretion is advised.

This boy is crazy!!! I should not be surprised considering the line up of men Rina Kent has supplied us in this series, but good grief it actually makes me laugh when every single male lead in these books brags about their sociopathic or psychopathic diagnosis like it is a badge of honor. Landon is no exception to this Rina Kent-character trait, and he is just as twisted as the rest of them - maybe not as crazy as Killian, but he certainly earned his title. The things that came out of Landon's mouth would genuinely make Jesus weep, my jaw was on the floor. I literally felt like I was the one being degraded instead of Mia. Honestly I should have seen this behavior coming from a mile away considering how Landon acts in the previous books, but good grief the man has got a mouth on him. Which is ironic considering Mia literally cannot speak.

Mia has gone through something traumatic over a decade ago and since then has not been able to speak - using sign language to communicate with everyone, her friends and family learned how to sign to help her adjust. Landon becomes no exception to this rule and learns sign language to properly communicate with Mia, which only goes to show how dedicated he was - or obsessed - to inserting himself into her life. Considering the trauma Mia has gone through, I can only imagine how it impacted her - I do wish Kent spent more time exploring it instead of making it this huge reveal at the end of the book, but I guess it would have revealed too much to readers if spaced out throughout this installment.

Y'all I literally cannot believe what Landon and Mia are getting up to like my body literally had a visceral reaction to reading some of their moments together. I fear for this girl and the absolute ringer Landon puts her through at every chance he gets. All of Kent's male leads seem to love lurking around and snatching up the girls they are interested in to do whatever they want to do to them at a moment's notice. This is low-key kidnapping!! The way I would be putting out Amber Alerts every single chance I got if I was a character in this book would have the Citizen app go into overdrive. It is hilarious that this is such a common occurrence for everyone that no one bats an eye on why girls suddenly disappearing would be anything but concerning. Landon and Mia's communication seemed to be the best out of all the couples so far, so I was grateful there was no real miscommunication happening in this book.

Once again I am tormented by the parent perspectives but at least they are only ever a few chapters. Maybe one day I will actually go back and read all of those series and trilogies, but for now I am solely sticking to the Legacy of Gods series until I have finished them completely. I am sure their chapters are more entertaining for those who read the parent books, but I find they typically only add character development for the male leads and that the female leads tend to not get as explored as I would have liked. On that note, it also feels like all of Kent's leading men are little copies of each other, just with slightly different interests and the insanity dial adjusted. I wish they were more distinguishable and not blending together - they each have one or two characteristics that stand out, but for the most part I am just seeing these little psycho men run around terrorizing college campuses on the regular.

I actually enjoyed Nikolai's presence in this book more than I was enjoying Landon's presence at one point, and Landon is literally the lead here. Nikolai's characteristics and personality really shined through here in terms of highlighting how violent and impulsive he was, which I am sure was a set up considering he is one of the leads in the next installment. I am not going to lie, the only reason why I started this series was so that I could read God of Fury and not be confused on who the couples were or what happened in their books. I am definitely looking forward to seeing what Kent has in store for him in the next installment.

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Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1) by Chloe Walsh Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

Y'all this book moves at the pace of a snail - I understand that it is a slow burn, but that should not mean that the plot also moves as if it is stuck in time. I kept having to push myself to sit and read this book, and considering I have had it on my TBR two and a half years ago, I would have hoped it was going to live up to expectations. I did not realize that Shannon was 15 years old in this book - it feels very odd to read about a main character who is so young, and I felt as though I could not immerse myself into the story because I was so focused on how young she was - not to mention the constant mentioning of how teeny tiny she was for her age. Yes, I understand that it is important in the story, but it was constant and mentioned no less twenty times in the first one hundred pages - it became repetitive very quickly.

Thank goodness I borrowed this from the library because I simply cannot imagine using my hard earned cash to pay to read over 600 pages of this nonsense. Shannon is literally getting tossed around like a rag doll with her horrible home life and the only person that even remotely tries to do anything is Johnny - even her brother, Joey, is very much aware of what is going on, and yet seems to think that telling her to finally fight back is enough advice to get her through the next few years until she turns eighteen. I have conflicted feelings about Joey - I can understand where he is coming from, but he seems to do the bare minimum when it comes to protecting Shannon. Obviously I know it is not his job to make sure Shannon is safe, but I would have loved a little more initiative. 

Johnny is basically obsessed with Shannon but of course rugby comes first to him, yet he cannot stay away from her. At least he is not obsessed in the sense that he is running around kidnapping her - oh wait, he basically does that in the most loose of terms. You can tell that his infatuation with Shannon has overtaken his mind, but considering his mindset is rugby over everything, you can only imagine how well he handles having a "distraction" around during his most critical time to make the U20s.

Shannon's friends were pretty solid, and considering all of the bullying and harassment she went through at her old schools, I was glad she actually had people in her corner. I thought it was absolutely insane that just because Shannon would be standing near Johnny, there were people who considered her a threat and began to terrorize her. Bella in particular was the saddest excuse for a girl I have ever read and her insecurity was basically flying off the page. Considering Shannon was bullied for being small - and having big eyes? - I did think it was strange that high-school-aged people were still using those characteristics as their bullying points. It felt overused after the tenth mention, but I can see how the author wanted to drive the point home on how severe the bullying was for her at her previous school.

The worst offenders in this book are Shannon's mother and father - I was literally wishing they would disappear every other page. They are hands down some of the worst book parents I have ever encountered and I was perplexed on how they were able to carry on with their lives. It was physically nauseating to see how they treated their own daughter, and I wanted to put the book down by the last few chapters. This is not the worst I have seen, but definitely graphic enough to make me jump back as I turned the pages.

I wish I enjoyed this book as much I thought I was going to - I can certainly see the appeal, but I was expecting a lot more from this first installment, and with over 600 pages, I wanted to see more character development from Shannon. Johnny had his moments and his development after the first half of the book, but it was minimal in my eyes, and it frankly took a scenario that I will not spoil for him to get his act together and have his realization moment.

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