I quite enjoy this story even if it is a bit less than the previous installments. I’m generally just not as much of a fan of Colin and Judd and feel like a lot of the interest in who Judd is and where is came from is a little glossed over. It dictates who he is, but it’s also very transcendental. I don’t really feel like I know who Judd is, but just a very vague idea of what lead him to his present place within the world.
I do enjoy Colin a bit more and Trick is very amusing. But overall I don’t think either Colin or Judd can carry the story like either Max, Isaac, or Marvin. Which might be why we have so much Trick in the story even though it’s a romance between Colin and Judd.
Still, I like the story overall. There are only a few things that really stood out to me in terms of things I disliked. One is that there is just too much internal monologuing on how much both of them want the other forever and being completely depressive over the fact that they think the other doesn’t want the same or deserves better. It gets super old after you as the reader knows how they both feel and the lack of communication or at the very least Isaac noticing something and encouraging them to open up to each other more. I’m not sure if it would have been better if it was addressed in some way, even if Colin and Judd still took forever about it in the end, but it did stand out.
The second thing was that Instalam and whatever the Youtube equivalent was just came across as really juvenile, like a fanfiction writer who is terrified that they are going to get sued for saying Kleenex, as a brand. You are more than allowed to use Instagram in your writing. And at the very, very least, if you’re going to use a fictional pseudonym for the company at least be creative about it. Instagram is Instant and Gram, like a telegram/cablegram/radiogram. Changing one part of the name to a pointless rhyme to indicate it’s obviously Instagram but “don’t sue me” hurts my soul.
The final thing was the entire Country backdrop. I hated everything about it and find so little point in the portrayal. If you hate Country, as all of the shifters and the author seem to, then I have no idea why so much of it and so many lyrics are actually forced upon the readers. If you like Country, which I do, the absolutely garbage that are those lyrics is insulting. Every song comes across as the joke version people make Old Country out to be, while the persona displayed is definitely New Country pop idol. I can’t imagine anyone who likes or hates Country music actually enjoyed how much this story portrayed….whatever that was. Lexi Blanc can be designed to be hated no problem. That’s by design. But I cannot comprehend why any of us had to be subjected to “Fangs” so often.