Ok kids – I know, I know – I outed myself as only a third of the way through this yesterday around this time and now I’m saying I finished it. I can already hear you “Wow, her lack of a life is kind of impressive.” To that, I have two things to say:
- That is remarkably accurate
- It’s still rude to point it out
So, obviously I enjoyed it enough to finish it even though I called out a few items I with which I was struggling, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. So, here goes…
This book is about Hailey/Haliee, an 18 year old girl in witness protection with her dad after her mother sold her to a Russian something (they don’t really explain who is yet) to pay off some debts and save her own life. She ends up in a nowhere town with 7 boys who have dark pasts. They identify with one of the deadly sins, covering all 7 and immediately feel drawn to protect her. Because this is the first of a tetralogy, we really only see their relationships introduced and start to bloom.
Now, some things I didn’t love:
- Some legit editing needs to happen. We have words missing in sentences. Others randomly capitalized. It’s off putting.
- The point of view switches often. Because the guys are all dark and broody, it doesn’t really add to the affect. In fact, their voices are similar enough that it being in first person just means you have to keep looking back to confirm who’s speaking.
- There are weird moments where you’re like “hmmmm.” Look, it’s a reverse harem where 7 dudes regularly murder people and never have anyone follow up on it, so you’re already taking a leap to dive into the book, but when Haliee is like “he’s doing this like always” and it’s never been present before, you have questions. Or he’s seen her once from afar and suddenly knows she’s the light in his life. Eh.
Ok, enough negativity, some things I did love:
- Obviously the book is engaging enough for me to have read the rest of it last night, so that by itself says something.
- Despite their crazy, the boys are hot… IF you’re into that kind of thing.
- The idea behind the boys representing sins related to their past is super cool.
In the end, I’d say this: if editing errors bother you, I’d move on. If you can get through them and don’t mind a slightly constant disappointment in the fact that the idea could be executed so much better then I think it’s an entertaining read. Enough so that I downloaded book 2. I’ll keep you posted.