Used by Leann Ryans

3 Stars

This novel was fairly cleanly written and edited, with not too many typos that I found in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building of this universe was excellent, just like most of this author's other m/f omegaverse romances. The characterization was competently done, with the heroine being a sympathetic character. The hero was definitely in the grey zone, as far as being a sympathetic character. * spoiler * I enjoyed the novel very much except for one part of the story where the hero engages in some cheating that was very exploitative. If that is a no-go for you, I would skip this novel entirely in favor of this author's other omegaverse series. She has quite a few, and this is the first novel that I have read by her that included the hero cheating on the heroine. * end spoiler * The development of the romantic relationship was natural and organic, considering how action-packed the plot was. The plot and pacing of this book was very exciting, with me turning pages rapidly to find out what was going to happen next. There was surprisingly little angst experienced by the heroine, considering all the massively traumatizing stuff she went through in this novel, and the stakes were very high. That tends to be one of my preferred narrative structures for a romance novel. This novel uses the Virgin and the Bad Boy trope, and also the Mating Bond trope common to omegaverse romances. There is also a variation on the Enemies to Lovers trope in here. The world building in this novel was four stars. The plot and pacing was five stars. The characterization and development of the romantic relationship was four stars. Normally, that would make the combined score of this novel four stars, but because of the story element that I spoil above, I took one star off the combined score for a total of three stars. One of the reasons I started auto buying this author's work is because she wrote m/f omegaverse where the hero was actually heroic instead of being a monster, like most of the other m/f omegaverse romance out there. Some dark omegaverse romances work for me, and some don't. This one did not work for me. This author is no longer an auto buy author for me when she comes out with a new release. I am going to be much more careful from now on about what novels I choose to read and buy of hers. I no longer trust that I will always enjoy the stories that she writes. This novel has a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a big plus for this novel. I recommend this novel to fans of dark m/f omegaverse romances who are not bothered by the plot spoiler above. I do not plan to buy a keeper copy of this novel for myself. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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