Other possible review titles:
There’s a duvet for that
AITA? YTA
A deliciously hot mess
A trainwreck I can’t quit reading
I can’t quit you
Battle of the puppetmasters
I like him cuz he’s pretty
Money won’t buy love, but it buys lawyers
Dangling participants
Consent really isn’t that hard to get right.
(It’s lovely to get books modeling healthy boundaries and clear consent.)
First, anyone who hasn’t read the first 2 novels and comes into this one expecting a standard romance will be thrown for a loop. The predestined OTP characters freely have sex with other people. I’m ok with romance characters dating around pre-commitment, but am aware some readers aren’t. There is also cheating and an attempted rape, and unabashed illegal drug use, so again, content warning.
Arden is a crying, snot producing, raggedy hot mess who spends most of this book being The Worst (TM) in a spurned princess way. He is also sufficiently compelling and good about issues of consent that I stuck out the whole messy book.
After Arden, Caspian takes a turn at being the worst. Then Ellory is the worst. Then Arden is the worst again. Then another several characters find new ways of being The Most Worst and some of those veer so hard into unforgivable territory that the difference in kinds of Worst is highlighted. Our main characters being the worst is still not great i& s likely to be dicey for some romance fans.
George is the real star, or rather, the magical fairy godmother of kink and friendship. And she is also the most consistent secondary character. Despite Arden being a drama llama, Caspian being in denial of emotions, and both doing some not nice things to other people WHILE being ¡Apart And Pining!, my worst criticism of this installment is how completely the secondary characters entirely vanish from the narrative when not directly in a scene. They pop in and out, and Arden is so focused on forgetting Caspian, that he sees only Caspian. The Woe, The Tragedy!
Arden spends most of his time with other characters thinking about Caspian and almost no time alone or with Caspian thinking of other characters. His much beloved mother doesn’t even get a speaking role. It’s odd. A lot goes on but anything non-Caspian gets dropped from the consciousness as they exit stage right. The imbalance annoyed me.
The rest of this will have spoilers:
I’m torn by the romance itself. The guys are kind of good for each other but kind of terrible for those in their orbit. And there is a lot of under developed connection. We see over and over how physically attractive Crispin is, though. Eventually more positives are innumerated but some are a stretch or mere projection on Arden’s part. Arden also constantly thinks and asserts that Caspian won’t hurt him in a bad way but Caspian emotionally eviscerates Arden at will. It’s kind of addressed but Caspian really is lousy for a while. Both guys are terrible to Nathan, who initially doesn’t deserve what comes his way, then willfully steps straight into a reddit classic AITA scenario and goes full YTA. What does Arden tell his boss about the interview after the breakup? I don’t need 30 pages, just some notion that this big feature needs some in world updating
Spoilers continue. Ellory is not bathed in glory either. If she wants to be first in a guy’s life, she has to stop picking best friends from her brother’s lovers. Giving an exhausted, jet lagged friend an intense drug, and dragging friend to a New Year party isn’t ideal. Flipping out over a new year kiss given by someone who is exhausted, lonely, wrung out, and high as a kite is also inappropriate and overreacting. But she does some nice stuff too. Ultimately, she is not Arden’s #1 concern and never will be. Although I think she’ll move into the guest suite at A& C’s new place. We somehow lose track of Ellory’s band too.
George, again, is fantastic. A little magical almost. I am convinced she is the primary puppet master engineering the desired outcome for Arden and Caspian: to be together. That she trains up Arden in kinky sex knowledge is a fun bonus. That other guy overplays his hand right after Arden gets a morality tale experience in not trusting bad dads so he’s inoculated against that manipulative pustule at least.
If you’re in for Arden going on various standard &/or kinky quests while spending most of the book having a no strings kink fest with a colleague and responding to all emotions with tears or witty observations, go ahead, read this. If you want coherence from secondary characters, and no cheating, maybe this book won’t suit. It breaks a lot of rules but makes up for it by being interesting, and in crucial moments, kind & loving.
Steam: High/low. Starts with a kinky bang, but it’s not our main couple. It’s good rebound fodder though. Then there’s the least sexy sex party, and our main M/M protags barely see each other let alone develop their physical relationship. Cue Marie Kondo “I love mess!“ .gif.
Narration: Really carried it for me. I might have been tempted to set the text down, but Joel Leslie as Arden the catastrotwink is sublime here. There are worse ways to use your ears for 11 hours, but it would be hard to find messier ways. None of the mess comes from the narration. Well done.