Tate JamesCritiques
Auteur de 7th Circle (Hades Book 1)
Critiques
Billionaires, Boarders, and Bastards par Tate James
Especially the bad guys and everything involving them couldn't be more twodimensional and stereotypical.
The book gets worse and worse towards the climax. Events become more and more unbelievable. Power levels are constantly being changed to fit the author's whims when she needs to craft the next scene. Everything we learned previously about the abilities and skill levels of characters all flies out the window and becomes entirely arbitrary not to mention random plot-convenient stupidity everywhere. You probably recognize the pattern.
It's lazily written, unoriginal and shallow.
For a Paranormal Romance book, it falls short in many areas. The storyline is sex, sex, sex, everyone fawning over one girl instantly then in the last 1/4 of the book it slaps you with a plot. The ending was also left field, so I ended up having to reread the last few pages just to make sure I didn't miss something. I will say that the general idea of the book was an intriguing one. It is what kept me reading, but overall it was just not flushed out enough. Since it is only book one, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt that it may improve with the next book. If they would have spanned the plot over the whole book and sprinkled in the sex it would have been a way better read. The writing also left a lot to be desired, but that is probably a given with all the above.
Wow, that ending made me question my sanity. I can’t wait to read the next one. Tate James, you are my new literary hero
Wow, that ending made me question my sanity. I can’t wait to read the next one. Tate James, you are my new literary hero
It picked up right after the last whopper of a cliffhanger. It went fast paced throughout the story. I was glad Chase got what he deserved especially, after certain events in this book. I enjoyed the characters and their connection.
There were some things I wish had been addressed is why this is only four stars. Still another solid book and I look forward to the next series ahe is writing. I'm so thankful for Tik Tok for introducing me to this author.
I love this series. I found it because of Tik Tok and devoured the MK and Hades series once I did. I love the depth of this series in particular. Often in RH romance, it can cone across as cheesy or over-the-top. That isn't the case here. The characters are both complex and dynamic. The storyline is just as important as the incredible steamy times.
This was a great chance to dive back into this world. I'm not really sure what the whole point of the diamond/vault part of the story was about as it didn't really enhance the overall story with the characters. At first, I thought it was going to be something that would tie into a spin-off but, I'm not sure that is it. Regardless, I loved getting a chance to see Madison Kate, Archer, Steele, and Kody again.
Too many unnecessary plot points for a concluding book that is less than 300 pages. I don't know why street racing was ever a part of this. it's completely extraneous and should have been cut or made more central to the story.
These books are just the right sort of crazy for me. They are very unconcerned with realism and extremely fast paced. I thought the relationship dynamic was fun! I liked the reverse-harem like relationship set up and I like how all the characters play off each other.
There's not that much I can say in this review that I haven't said in my previous reviews because this book is very similar. The plot is still very predictiable and packed full of action that is very unlikely.
In the author's letter, they talk about coming back to this world in the future and I hope they do! I would love to read more in this world with the same high-octane action that I've come to expect from this series!
This book picks up right where the last one ended and it doesn't stop moving until the very last page. New plot points and conflicts were being thrown in from every direction and it made for a wild, fun read. Even with the non-stop drama, this book never felt like it was lost. I always had a sense we were going somewhere and I did enjoy a lot of the choices that were made by the authors.
Its not a spoiler to say that Jordan becomes a love interest because it happens in like chapter 2. I know a lot of people didn't like this because of an expectation that this book would focus more on Rafe but because I wasn't too invested in that relationship at the end of the last book, I didn't mind this plot point and I actually ended up really liking the relationship dynamic. Maybe I'm one of the rare people that likes love triangles. What I did like about this one is that both legs felt mostly equal, even if I am pretty sure I know who she'll end up with.
I absolutely flew through this. It's probably one of the most plot-heavy, fast-paced romances I've read in a while. If you're looking for something like that, I would definitely recommend this. I gave it 3 stars because it isn't the most amazing thing I've read writing wise and I mostly enjoyed it because of how wild it was but I still would recommend it and I did have a good time reading it. It left me pretty excited to see what happens when book 3 comes out in August!!!
What I liked
- I appreciated that Violet called out some of the rich-person bullshit that was going on in this school. I don't really know how you teach socioeconomic in a way that shows rich people as the good guys but I'm glad she thought it was all stupid.
- I liked all the roles of the characters in this book. The main characters were good as were the side characters. Yes, some of them were a little OTT but generally, they kept me interested.
What I didn't like
- This whole book felt a little under-researched to me. The college in this book seemed so much more like a high school. Violet had to wear a uniform, she had no control over her schedule, and everyone acted like high school students. No one ever talked about what they were majoring in or anything. It was just weird and they all seemed to go to class at the same time which is also something that doesn't happen in college. Violet also was sent to this school when classes had already started which was weird. Also, I feel like it would be more likely to be called football in the future rather than soccer given that most of the world right now calls it football.
- I didn't like that we didn't get to learn really anything about Violets history before this school. She just had a tragic backstory that was alluded to that we knew almost nothing about.
- Violets relationship with Alex seemed to develop out of nowhere for me. I saw no reason she would be interested in him besides him just declaring that she was his future wife and because of that, I really did not care about their relationship.
I gave this 3 stars because this was an entertaining read and I was intrigued enough to maybe read the sequel. However, based on the rating of this book, I didn't like it as much as a lot of people and as I described, I had some problems with this one.
For an audio review of this book, please visit my blog!
This book is the first book in a series and I’ve read books by these authors before. I’ve read Trickery, which is the first book in a RH series and I’ve read the whole Royals or Arbon Academy series. I think that series was actually one of my first that played with the idea of RH and is what sort of got me reading more of that subgenre because I liked that series way more than I was expecting. That’s basically why I wanted to read this. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump and usually my way of getting out of those is to read quick romances by authors I’ve previously enjoyed so that I can try to read something even if it’s less that normal.
In this book we have Riley, who’s adopted parents recently died in a car crash. She is then reclaimed by her super wealthy birth mother and sent to a very fancy private school. This is where she meets the guys who are central to this book: Beck, Dylan, Jasper, and Evan. Riley also had a friend named Dante who she knows from before her parents died. This set up is very similar to other romances I’ve read like this. I don’t say that as a bad thing because it a plot that’s very readable and easy to get into but I don’t think this story is supposed to blow you away with it’s originality. Beck is the most central of the boys. He’s the one we see the most and get to know the most about. Second to him is probably Dylan because he’s the one kinda of helping Riley adjust the most. Jasper has some moments but I basically completely forgot about Evan until I started this review, so there definitely isn’t equal page time for these guys but this isn’t RH so that’s probably to be expected, though I do hope we find out more about these guys in later books.
This book is very similar to other books I’ve read in this sort of high school bully romance type thing where you really need to buy in because it is going to get a little ridiculous. This story is in no way believable but it is entertaining and that was probably the goal. I have no problem with this and I expected it going in but if you don’t go in with that mindset you probably won’t like this.
This book starts with Riley street racing, which then barely plays a role after that. I don’t know if this will become important in later books but is a little frustrating to me that the plot point was introduced and then didn’t actually really matter. The main focus of this book is one the business ventures of Riley’s birth family plus the families of the four other guys. I don’t want to get into too many details because you don’t find out much about it until further on but it’s an interesting enough plot point. Again, very unrealistic but entertaining.
As I said earlier there is a bit of a bully romance element to this. Riley didn’t grow up rich and now she’s at this very prestigious private school, which in the romance novel world means it’s basically guaranteed she’ll be bullied. The bullying between Riley and the guys is pretty tame, at least to me, and turns to protectiveness pretty quickly, but Riley definitely gets some heat from others at the school. Like with many high school bully romances, there are rich mean girls and a heavy dose of “not like other girls” from the heroine. If you really don’t like that, this book is not for you because there is a lot of that. This book does what a lot of wealthy private school-based romances does where there is calling out of explicit examples of sexism while the book still paints almost every other female character as awful people. That cognitive dissonance is frustrating to me but it is still entertaining and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with enjoying it for the entertainment value.
Also just a petty complaint about the not like other girls thing but Riley has to wear heels as part of her uniform and it is said many times that she is terrible and walking in them and she’s constantly almost falling but then she goes to a party and dresses in stilettos and seems to have no problem! Either have her be bad at heels or don’t but don’t make it so she can walk in them when she wants to and can’t when it makes her unique.
There are a few things in this book that are common in KU romances like this that do actually bother me. Like with other books I’ve reviewed, there are unsafe sex practices that I don’t like at all. The first time Riley has sex they do use a condom but it’s implied they only do so because she isn’t on birth control but really you should definitely still use a condom, just for another layer of protection and for STI reasons, especially since she had only met the guy quite recently. And in another sex scene they don’t use a condom and he just pulls out and Riley is like “thank goodness he understood that I wanted him to pull out” and that’s is definitely something she should have explicitly told him. I don’t really think any one is reading romance purely as instruction manuals but unsafe sex is something I’ll point out every time because there’s a lot of really bad sex education out there and this stuff is really important.
Overall I liked this and was very entertained. It was a quick read, which is exactly what I wanted. I don’t know how high of a priority it will be but I’ll continue with this series. This book does end on a bit of a cliff hanger and I am intrigued about where this will go next. Eve and James write books that are just really great at keeping me reading and I’m always at least curious about what will happen next.
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