Common Goal (Game Changers, #4) by Rachel Reid Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews of Game Changer, Heated Rivalry, and Tough Guy on my blog, now! Heated Rivalry is now streaming on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in select countries.

Thank the stars... an age gap romance that does not have me reaching for my phone to call the police!! Am I starting to shake in my boots now that reading books has main characters a year younger than me? Absolutely. I am simply going to pretend that Kyle is actually a year old and move on with my day. Eric and Kyle are definitely one of my new favorite couples in this series, second to Shane and Ilya. I loved how aware Eric was of his feelings and the way that he viewed Kyle - he was always respectful and honestly was so much more open about his feelings than I expected from him. Kyle was so much fun and honestly refreshing to see after Tough Guy - I just felt like the previous book was lacking a more playful feel to it.

Scott Hunter and Ilya Rozanov making their constant appearances is something that I will never complain about - you can always count on Ilya to make fun of everyone in a fifteen foot vicinity and to have Scott Hunter fighting for his life. Seeing Kip and Scott's relationship develop from where it was in Game Changers to them being at such a big moment in their lives was so full-circle realization. Reid does a decent job calling back to the other characters, but I will say she definitely has a fondness for Scott and Ilya. Shane and Kip certainly make their own appearances but they do not take as much page space as their counterparts. 

Eric exploring his sexuality with Kyle was such a fun read - you can tell that while he was nervous to "learn" with Kyle, he was very much comfortable with who he was and was happy and willing to try new things. Kyle was the perfect teacher for Eric, and it was honestly sweet to see how attentive they were to each other and how focused Kyle was on making sure Eric felt safe enough to explore things with him. Their communication throughout the book was pretty solid, but obviously there were moments where they struggled to convey their true feelings towards one another, which definitely lead them down a more rocky road towards the end.

Readers will appreciate the friendship aspect between Eric and Kyle in this book - while they are a more friends-with-benefits moment, you can clearly see how much they care for one another after meeting and getting to know each other. Watching them grow as individuals, open up to one another about their past relationships, and discover new things with each other made their relationship all the more authentic.

I cannot wait to see what is in store in Role Model, and considering we have concluded season one of Heated Rivalry, I will definitely be needing my hockey yaoi fix as we patiently await season two. This series as a whole has been so enjoyable, and if you are looking to find your way into some true hockey romance, there is no better time than now to dive into the Game Changers series.

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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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Mafia Captive by Kitty Thomas Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

I am a sucker for a good mafia romance, and Mafia Captive's free download was calling my name as I searched through iBooks for my next read. It has been some time since I have come across a dark romance that really entertained me, and this book really got me back into the groove of things. I had so much fun reading this book -- the pacing was just right, and the inner conflicts of Faith and Leo shown through their dual perspectives makes readers get a great sense of their characters.

After Faith witnesses a horrible crime, she is gifted to Leo, a member of a powerful mafia family who maintains his doctoral duties while indulging in some debauchery when the sun goes down. This was a surprise age gap romance to me, with Faith only twenty-two and Leo in his early forties. Thomas does a great job at showing the restraint and maturity in Leo, while mirroring it with Faith's naivety and minimal knowledge of how casual crime is in this family.

At first I thought there was going to be some form of love triangle between Faith, Leo, and Leo's brother, Angelo, but that was quickly dismissed -- however, that did not mean that there would be an end to the conflict between the brothers and how they view Faith's role in their family. With Angelo only saving Faith to basically torment his brother, the dynamic between the three of them becomes complicated to say the least.

Faith is constantly on high alert, and I cannot blame the girl -- she really was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and was thrown into the most insane circumstance in order to survive. Her development throughout the story seems slower to Leo's in comparison, but she is really the one that has to adapt to a new life, whereas Leo needed to adapt to having Faith in his life. I truly felt bad for Faith, she never seemed to have a moment of peace without someone threatening her, forcing her to put up a farce, or scaring her at every corner.

Leo genuinely does not know what to do with Faith once she is thrown at his feet by Angelo, but his perspective really allows readers to work through his inner struggles as he confronts his past and who he wants to be now that Faith is tied to him. You can tell that Leo wants to do good by Faith, but he certainly had his faults that makes readers second guess on how saintly he really is, especially when it comes to what he wants to do to Faith.

For a stand alone novel, Thomas really captures the full story in a sufficient amount of pages without drawing out the plot -- I never felt as though there was a dull moment while reading this book, and honestly I had to force myself to not finish it in one sitting. Leo and Faith's story is complex and at times heartbreaking for both characters, as they are both going through so many adjustments in order to save themselves.

I will definitely be reading more works of Kitty Thomas -- this was a great introduction to her work, and I cannot wait to see what her other books have in store. If you are looking for a dark romance to read after Mafia Captive, I highly recommend Debit Inheritance by Pepper Winters.

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Promises and Pomegranates (Monsters & Muses, #1) by Sav R. Miller Review

This is a spoiler-free review! A list of trigger warnings can be found in the beginning of the book. You can read my review of Sweet Sin on my blog, here.

Imagine the absolute delight I experienced when I found out that this book was a cross between a loose Hades and Persephone retelling and a mafia romance -- giggling and kicking my feet before I even opened the book. Since I read Sweet Sin prior to getting into the book, I at least had a little background on Kallum and Elena's relationship dynamic and their characterization. The way you can tell that he is absolutely obsessed with Elena right from the beginning had me feeling all sorts of ways, and you could tell that he was not going to let it go until she was his.

The pacing moves pretty fast in the beginning of the book, where the author basically rushes through a ton of pretty big plot events that are happening in a short amount of time, so you can really feel the sense of urgency that Kallum and Elena are experiencing. They have this dynamic between them that just screams electricity while also very much giving into the enemies-to-lovers with a side of friends with benefits. Yes, he is fourteen years older than her and YES she did just turn eighteen.... technicalities, people, technicalities.

So WHAT if he basically kidnaps her?? I call it doing that girl a favor, because boy oh boy she would not have liked where her life ended up if things did not go according to his plan. And you can clearly tell that she secretly loves that it happened, because her home life was not giving The Brady Bunch happy family by any means. Not counting her sisters, my girl Elena needed to get away from her parents immediately. So shoutout to Kal for making that choice for her, we love a thoughtful gentleman.

I literally could not get over the way that Kal talks to Elena.. like oh?? my god?? The man has absolutely no filter and does not hold back for even a second. And the way that he talks about Elena to her mother? I nearly had a heart attack thinking every one of their conversations was going to end in bloodshed. He is totally possessive of her and does not let anyone manhandle or force her to doing anything... unless it's him. Elena is very confident in herself and definitely gives Kal a run for his money when it comes to being stubborn and hotheaded, but it makes their match so great. I would have loved to see more scenes of them being domestic or of Kal being protective over Elena, but the smutty scenes more than made up for it.

Elena's sisters had me cracking up, especially because they are younger than her yet seem so much more comfortable speaking in an "inappropriate" way in front of their parents, and definitely do not hold back when asking Elena about her relationships. Her parents on the other hand are a completely different story -- they agitated me so much throughout the entire book, and her mother is downright despicable when certain events are revealed. Elena's mother does this complete turn around as a character compared to how we originally view her in the beginning of the book, and I have to say I do not wish her the best.

The plot was pretty straight forward and there were not really any super crazy twists and turns, so it pretty much read as a forced relationship romance book with a darker undertone. I definitely would have loved some more action to happen, because there are some moments that do seem to drag on just a bit that made me wish the plot would just move forward. Some things were pretty underdeveloped and I found myself a little disappointed that the author did not dive into some more deeper stuff, especially because it is such a quick read that it felt like it was over way too soon. There was not nearly enough groveling at the end of the book -- the author pretty much drops a bomb on the main character (which was completely obvious) and then three chapters later the book is over.

If you're looking for a quick mafia romance read, this was a fun surface level read that filled the transition period as I decided on what I wanted to read next. I am not sure if I would continue reading the series, but I never say never and seem to always come back around in the end.

You can add Promises and Pomegranates on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

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Sweet Sin (Monsters & Muses, #0.5) by Sav R. Miller Review

This review contains spoilers for Sweet Sin.

Sweet Sin is a short prequel to Promises and Pomegranates -- it is recommended that you read it before diving into P&P, but ultimately it is up to the reader's choice if they want the background information provided.

Let me tell you, I did not know what to expect from this series, but Kallum ripping off a man's nails and killing him on page two certainly set the scene for the rest of the novella. Now he may have murdered people, and may watch Elena through security cameras in her home, but at least he has the decency to not watch her in the shower! A match made in heaven.

Elena is engaged to Mateo, an incredibly annoying and abusive son of another important mafia family. She clearly has absolutely no interest in him whatsoever, and Kal watches Mateo like a hawk anytime he steps near Elena, especially when he always sees the faint outlines of bruises that litter her body after she is with him. Kal is her family's security/hitman/fixer -- a man of many talents -- and nearly twice Elena's age, making him all the more tempting and very off limits.

To the absolute no surprise of anyone, Kal and Elena are drawn to each other every single time they argue and tempt one another in the most inappropriate places they can find. With a tormented past between them, it only heightens their obvious infatuation with one another, leading to Kal taking her virginity and basically claiming her on every surface he can find.

And Kal... the mouth that man has and the things he says had me speechless. They are feral for each other and that bathroom probably needs to be fumigated and coated in bleach after what they did to each other. So sweet too -- writing her poetry after carving his initial into her thigh -- this is the height of romance, if I do say so myself. Kal is completely unhinged and does not stop himself from doing what he wants to Elena, and that includes having someone right outside the door while he unravels her.

Even knowing that this is a prequel, I was still wishing that it was longer -- the development felt rushed and you are just thrown into the story and have to orient yourself into understanding who everyone is without a solid introduction that you would typically find in a full length novel. It is much shorter than the average novella, being less than one hundred pages where others are usually right under the two hundred page mark. I will definitely be reading Promises and Pomegranates, because boy oh boy I need to see more of Kal and his unhinged actions like my life depends on it.

You can add Sweet Sin on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

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Gabriel's Redemption (Gabriel's Inferno Series, #3) by Sylvain Reynard Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews for Gabriel's Inferno and Gabriel's Rapture on my blog now.

This is the first time that I was going into a book in this series blind -- as I mentioned in my reviews for Gabriel's Inferno and Gabriel's Rapture, I watched all of the movies before starting the series. Since Part I of Gabriel's Redemption is being released on June 22nd, I did not know what to expect in this installment and was excited to see what was in store for Julia and Gabriel.

Julia and Gabriel seem to be constantly fighting and making up the next day, and a majority of those times I found myself wondering what was happening to Julia's character development and confidence that she acquired during Gabriel's Rapture. She really seemed to finally start to stick up for herself and lose the timidness that followed her, but not even a quarter of the way into the third book do we see her slowly descending in a downward spiral and backtracking on the progress that she had made. She has to compromise with Gabriel on a number of things, and it felt as if Gabriel's opinions and feelings were the only ones that mattered in their relationship.

It only took two and a half books, but the sex scenes finally started moving toward something other than a fade to black chapter. After watching Julia come out of her shell more and more, it was definitely expected to see her lean toward Gabriel's old habits before they got together. I was actually hoping that something like that would happen, because you can only read so many scenes alluding to something more before you start to want to skim the chapters. The scenes were definite improvements compared to the first two installments, and really played into Julia and Gabriel's individual desires.

The side characters are really going through it in this books -- Paul, Tom, Rachel, even Christa. It felt like one blow after another, watching each person suffer right after the other. I do have to admit that I was enjoying the expansion the author made on these characters, as in the previous books they felt like they were being used as stepping stones for Julia and Gabriel, but now they have their own stories to be told. 

Not to mention the number of medical emergencies and issues that side and main characters are going through as well -- I swear, if one more person was in the hospital or seeing a doctor, I was going to be able to graduate medical school by the end of the book. Pregnancy seems to be as contagious as the common cold in this book, with everyone getting knocked up as if the world was in a population crisis. The author went a little overboard when it came to the wellbeing of nearly half of the main characters, making it feel more like a fiction book rather than a romance.

I was really looking forward to Julia growing into herself and becoming just as confident as Gabriel, and the book was definitely headed that way until the third act. Due to a certain circumstance, she withdraws on herself again, and while Gabriel does try to talk to her to the best of his abilities, he is also hiding a number of things from Julia. With both of them harboring their feelings to themselves and stepping around one another, the third act became a back-and-forth of Gabriel and Julia deciding on their lives, while being supplemented by what I consider too many chapters of Paul's perspective. He was an interesting character, but was only a source of argument when it came to Julia and Gabriel's relationship.

Of the first three books, Gabriel's Redemption has the most development for all of the characters by a mile. With the addition of a few new characters, I was hoping that Julia could maybe make a friend or two in her PhD program, especially because she mentioned previously that she was not very close to anyone in her classes. Unfortunately, we do not get to see that, at least on page. It did feel like Gabriel was backtracking on his development towards the end of the book, and he seemed to be getting everything that he wanted, whereas Julia was constantly having to compromise or deal with the consequences of his actions.

If I did not know that there was another book after this one, I would say that the conclusion was pretty solid, save for a few side characters and their own little plots. I do wish that we would have gotten some moments of Julia and Gabriel where everything was going their way and they did not have anything interrupting their lives, but alas, the drama really moved the plot forward.

Gabriel's Inferno Parts I, II, and III, along with Gabriel's Rapture Parts I, II, and III are now available to watch through streaming on Passionflix.

You can add Gabriel's Redemption on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Gabriel's Rapture (Gabriel's Inferno Series, #2) by Sylvain Reynard Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of Gabriel's Inferno on my blog, here.

Once again I am back into this series after not being able to shake it -- the movies are enjoyable and nearly exactly like the books, so I had no surprises coming my way in this book as I have already watched the three parts to Gabriel's Rapture. Compared to the first three movies, I found myself enjoying the plot of the second book a little bit more, even though there were not as many "conflicts" compared to Gabriel's Inferno.

As I mentioned in my review for Gabriel's Inferno, I have watched all movies for Gabriel's Inferno and Gabriel's Rapture prior to starting this series, so the events were of no surprise to me. I actually found that watching the movie before reading the books does not take away from the story, and it was nice to read what was not included in the movie adaptations -- which was few and far between, as the movies are basically scene for scene taken from the books.

I enjoyed diving deeper into Gabriel's character and inner turmoil that continues to follow him as he and Julia work on their relationship and discover more about each other. We get to see a lot of personal development for Gabriel, which was definitely beneficial for him, especially because he continues to be his biggest critic when it comes to romantic relationships and how he treats and views Julia in their own relationship.

Meanwhile, we get to see Julia's own development and finally start to see her stray from her timid nature and become more confident in herself and defending her relationship to a number of people that seem to be constantly interfering at every turn. She is still quite the wallflower, but I think the author did a significantly better job at personifying her in this book compared to the first -- we see a lot less misogyny in this installment, which was a welcomed change, since it was one of my biggest peeves during my read of Gabriel's Inferno.

The author continues to give the readers little glimpses into the side character's perspectives, which add to the story in the sense of being able to view Julia and Gabriel through an outsider's eyes while not straying from our main characters. Paul appears to us once again, along with a number of Rabbit references that continue to drive me up a wall in annoyance. However, the references were significantly less compared to the first book, so I will take it as a win and hope that the references do not follow us to the third book.

Julia and Gabriel go through a number of personal conflicts, along with a major issue that puts a strain on their relationship and tests their love for one another. Outside forces are working against them in hopes that their relationship crumbles just as quickly as it was built, and it seems that Julia continues to get the short end of the stick when it comes with coping with constant blows. Gabriel, while still suffering, seems to be able to find solace and realization much quicker than Julia, but not without having to retreat à la Edward Cullen-style in New Moon.

The sex scenes were on the same levels as the ones in the first book -- we get more scenes, but they are on the more sensual side rather than in the erotic style as seen in Fifty Shades of Grey. You can tell that the author uses the scenes more to development the characters and explore their vulnerabilities, rather than solely to add a sex scene when the plot needs a little boost.

Reynard does not tread lightly when it comes to sprinkling in classics references whenever he can, and it certainly has followed Julia and Gabriel's story in this book as well. Exploring more references through paintings and poems compared to stories, the author enhances their relationship by showing the similarities between Beatrice and Dante that are mirrored in Julia and Gabriel's relationship. The pretentiousness was taken down a notch, but still present enough that you need to pay just a little bit of attention as the references are made if you want to be able to predict where the story is headed.

I am really finding myself becoming attached to these characters, and am even more excited to dive into the third book without having seen a movie adaptation. Gabriel's Redemption: Part I will be available to stream on Passionflix on June 22nd.

Gabriel's Inferno Parts I, II, and III, along with Gabriel's Rapture Parts I, II, and III are now available to watch through streaming on Passionflix.

You can add Gabriel's Rapture and the rest of the series on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno Series, #1) by Sylvain Reynard Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

I saw one clip of a scene from Gabriel's Inferno on TikTok, which lead me to binge watching the six available movies on Passionflix in one day. Once I found out that the next movie is being released in two months, I just knew that I needed to read the books. I will say that by watching the movie first followed by reading the book, I was so surprised to see how book-accurate the movie actually was. It was as if they simply changed the format from a novel to script, and kept nearly everything that happened in the book.

There is a ton of POV changing in the book that is not explicitly stated, which was throwing me off as I continued reading. We have Julia and Gabriel's perspectives, but then would randomly get Paul's POV in the middle of a paragraph when he was talking to Julia or when they were in seminar. Since the chapters do not have a designated character's perspective attached to them, you have to go in prepared to listen to anyone leading the story. You can also totally tell that this started out as Twilight fan fiction -- I was able to point out so many scenes that felt like replicas of Bella and Edward's story.

I actually had a lot of fun reading this, despite knowing everything that was going to happen due to my movie-watching over the rainy weekend. Julia is a shy student at the University of Toronto working on her Master's degree, on her way to become a Dante specialist. Gabriel is her Dante seminar professor, riddled with a dark past and an unknowing connection to Julia that he cannot quite place. There is enough tension between the two of them to cause a building to collapse under it, but as they become more acquainted with one another, we see that tension turn from distain to admiration and desire. However, their relationship and the way that they spoke to and about one another felt cheesy -- no one actually calls someone an angel out loud to their family, it was cringy reading a lot of their outside interactions.

Gabriel is extremely hot-tempered when it comes to Julia and anyone who basically interacts with her that may resemble them being interested in her. There are a number of times in the book where Julia is out with Gabriel and his sister, Rachel, and he notices her speaking to a guy and stomps on over to her, asking why she would be talking to them. Each time, she is typically just helping someone out, and since her and Gabriel are not together at any of these points, he looks crazed. He keeps secrets about his past from Julia because for some reason, he thinks she is the picture of purity and that knowing anything bad about him will ruin her forever? There is so much emphasis on the fact that she is shy and a virgin, you would think she would have won a prize for being a saint. You can tell that this book was written by a man through the way he places a level of emphasis on Julia's innocence and Gabriel's supposed torrid past.

Despite the excessive amount of times that both Julia and Gabriel bring up the strict non-fraternization policy at the university, they sure seem to love to run around the city together and be in each other's company whenever they can. I was genuinely surprised when they were not found out during one of their many interactions in broad daylight. They are running around town using the excuse that if anyone sees them together, that they are discussing Julia's thesis topic, since he is her advisor. Personally, if I saw my classmate having a candle lit dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant, her thesis being the topic of discussion would be the last thing on my mind. I also could not stand the emails and text messages that they would send each other -- they were cringe-worthy and did not feel genuine, almost as if they were using classics references in an attempt to impress one another.

Paul, a doctoral student who sits next to Julia in the Dante seminar, constantly refers to her as Rabbit, which he does not ever stop doing and does not explain to Julia why he calls her that. Personally, his little rabbit fetish was driving me insanely and was flashing red flags over his head any time that he interacted with Julia. He becomes very protective of her in the sense that he is romantically interested in Julia and well Julia... she just wants a friend in a new city. It is alluded throughout the book that she has been hurt in the past by a past boyfriend, and as the story goes on, we learn more and more about what exactly she had been through before coming to Toronto.

Julia's relationship to her father is very complicated, and with the extensive background the author gives us about her childhood and issues with familial relationships, we see that played out when she has to talk to her father. He does not seem to respect her boundaries at all, and basically drops her at any chance something else he deems more important comes up. It was disheartening to see her constantly being left behind or her feelings being dismissed by him just because he thinks he knows better.

This is an utterly pretentious book that may leave the reader thinking that they do not understand the context in which Julia and Gabriel speak in. Most of the time, they love using Dante and Beatrice metaphors and references to talk about themselves with each other and with other people. They also have a knack of Botticelli, one of my favorite painters, so I was very much enjoying any time he was brought into conversation. If you do not have a background in classics or Italian studies, you might be unfamiliar with topics discussed, but otherwise I think it should be easy for anyone to understand. It is pretty much just the basic classics knowledge you would find in an article online or just looking up a summary of Dante's works. I was already pretty familiar with the work they discussed, so it was very interesting to see how heavily it impacted Julia and Gabriel's relationship.

I think there was a different level of categorization of being erotic when this book was first published -- if you are looking for something that has a ton of sex scenes, this is not the book for you. Everything in this book is more on the sensual side, with the added touch of high-tension scenes between Julia and Gabriel that fall into the category of just being erotic in essence but not fully played out on the page. However, I think that was a good choice by the author, given Julia's past and Gabriel's constant worry that he will ruin her.

Gabriel's Inferno Parts I, II, and III, along with Gabriel's Rapture Parts I, II, and III are now available to watch through streaming on Passionflix.

You can add Gabriel's Inferno and the rest of the series on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Falling for Them (Cinderella's Daddies, #1) by Calista Jayne Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Falling for Them is currently available for free on iBooks and Kindle.

I honestly did not know what to expect from this book -- the taboo age gap definitely peaked my interest, since I have not read too many books with that trope before, unless we are counting Credence by Penelope Douglas. If you did not have the chance to look at the name of the series like I did before I started reading, you will be pleasantly surprised to find out that this is a Cinderella-inspired erotic MFM romance. I have to say that it exceeded my expectations and had me so entertained that I nearly finished it in one sitting. It is a great taboo romance that just skims the surface of Ella, Kingston, and Sebastian’s story.

The author does a great job at developing the characters and their background as the story moves forward, and you find that you know a lot about each individual character before you see them start to really interact with one another. We see Ella, our female lead, start off in this rocky situationship that she thinks is much bigger than it actually is -- being involved with one of the company's higher ups, you can only imagine the difficulties it will bring. But when he breaks off their barely-there relationship, she falls into the lap of his father -- and his father's best friend.

We get POVs from everyone, which was absolutely fantastic. I loved getting into Ella's mind, but even more so with Kingston and Sebastian. It is not too often that we get male leads in romance novels that are given both in depth character develop and well-versed POVs that show how much they care for the female lead. Yes, there are 100% books out there that have it, but I would say that it is hard to come by in taboo romance, only because we are exposed to a ton of insta-love relationships that tend to skip development and go straight into the relationship.

There are definitely a lot of obstacles that Ella, Kingston, and Sebastian have to overcome in order to get to the point in their relationship where they feel comfortable around each other and are comfortable with the prospect of having multiple people in a relationship. Ella certainly struggles a lot as she tries to come to terms with how she exactly ended up in this kinkier-than-expected relationship, when Kingston's son could only screw her in a broom closet and leave her without any real pleasure.

The author definitely incorporates the main aspects of Cinderella's story into Falling for Them, and you can certainly try to guess what twists and turns that their story will take. The smut scenes are really well done and the plot moves at a pace that leaves you turning the page until you are at the very end. I would definitely recommend this to fans of modern retellings with just enough spice for a quick read that will leave you wanting more.

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