this one is my least favorite of the series for several reasons.

1 and worst of all, carter’s RAMPANT internalized homophobia and sexism. like, we get it, dude, you’re a male. he goes between ‘im a big strong tough marine’ and literally admitting that he wasn’t that big or tough of a marine at all. which is it? also he’s in a culture that doesn’t even have females so the disgusting misogyny is just tired and annoying. I got it at first, but it just gets sooo overdone.

2, this will he/wont he about being able to have kids. like, he’s human. he cant have kids. he tells his partners he smells good bc humans all do and they cant have kids. why is this such a big deal? im not even upset that he realizes he’d give them kids in a heartbeat if he could, bc that’s totally reasonable but the persistence about them being SURE he can and him being SURE he can’t…very annoying. And then to be so wrong anyway? useless. Could’ve been one big conversation and been done.

3, If I have to hear the phrase ‘little c0ck’ one more time in my life, I’ll rip my ears off. Eileen, do you have ANY other words? does Pykh think about ANYTHING else? can he use ANY other descriptors?

4, speaking of my favorite himbo, my sweet Pykh gets dumber and dumber each book and I hate that. He’s learning so much, so why do you have to make him sound like an absolute idiot all the time? he didn’t always talk like that, but in this one it’s just unbearable.

5, the very sudden influx of having a million characters sprung on you is…not fun. It’s really hard to keep them straight. especially when most of them aren’t necessary.

6, I’m all for the element of surprise and plot twists but it’s like every single newish character in this book has either hidden intentions or is thought wrongly of and turns out to be completely different. Like, foreshadowing is a thing and it can definitely be used, but this doesn’t happen hardly at all. Do we like the general or not? Do we like the captain or not? Do we like the other omega or not? Do we like the head of omegas or not? Building tension would’ve gone so much easier without the will they/won’t they crap. It’s like it was just used for word count or filler.

7, Why is pykh only NOW realizing he can flirt/look at other people? I’m all for the sweet Siel-centered love scene when he realizes S and C are all he wants, but nothing comes of it so I don’t get why it’s even necessary. It happens twice and it’s completely irrelevant, even for character development.

8, the absolutely out of NOWHERE ptsd flashback+panic attack. There hasn’t even been a HINT of anything like that other than the m0l3st4t10n vibe he got in book 2 when pykh did the gentle tail touches. even then, it wasn’t like this one. Now he suddenly remembers being in the ship before waking up in the cave? and we haven’t heard about ANY of this? but being in a cage while a slave didn’t trigger this, only a cage by himself? mmm. not feeling it. And it’s brought up SO much for SO long, and for what? A woman with pink nails is mentioned a million times but his actual friend’s name is mentioned MAYBE three times? You’re more upset about a strange woman than your friend? And it doesn’t serve anything at all. Not a fan, I feel like it was more filler.

9, the chaos with the captain turning against them is confusing as hell. too chaotic to make sense.

10, the general being in love with the scout? for why? and the scout caring back? all because the general is saying ‘hey ily bud’ when there is NO hint that he likes the general AT ALL previous? I saw the general being in love with him, but. nah. And then to find out the scout’s young lover was in cahoots with the general all along? When he makes it clear he hates secrets AND hates the general beforehand? I would’ve been fine with these things in book 3 if we hadn’t have had such intense opposite feelings in book 2 with no hint of anything underneath. doesn’t seem like it’s necessary.

That being said, still love this damn series.

-love the humor. It’s wonderful.

-love the spice. aside from the ‘little c0ck’, it’s also wonderful.

-the fight scene was incredible. it was really well written.

-carter getting to have some closure? wonderful.

-the grief scene? amazing.

-the last surprise is also great, but I hate that he never remembered anything about it until he realized it.

I’m glad theres another book coming because there are SO many loose ends. I do love the series but I feel like this last book was more filler than necessary. Did Eileen have a word count quota, or something?