I liked this, even more than the first book! Every time I started listening, I didn’t want to stop.

I’ll start by talking about the romance, and hear me out. This relationship was generally sweet in the end, but it also felt pretty toxic to me up until that point. But I liked it. It was definitely meant to be a rocky start, it’s a hate-to-love sorta thing. It’s just, they were always assuming the worst and getting angry at each other, and for the weirdest, most nonsensical reasons. It actually started feeling forced. Leofric was especially angry and mean, to the point that I felt bad for Cosmo. So many things weren’t even his fault. But as I said, I did like it, and I felt the feelings growing between these men more than I did between the first couple. I honestly wanted them to hate fuck in the forest when their anger turned horny 😅 And when they finally did have sex, the scenes were hot. Despite any lingering toxicity, I wanted them to be together. I think they can work on it. Or not, if the anger is fun for them. Live and let live.

The individual characters were interesting, and I did like them both. Cosmo was flirty and fun-loving. Leofric was scowly and serious and felt very strongly about his duty and his honor. They both had their own insecurities and guilt. Characters from the previous book were also around some, but not overpowering the story.

There was some magic! Cosmo is a demi-god of summer, so he had different magic than his brother. I feel like you see a lot of books with nature magic, but not specifically summer magic, it was fun to see what the author did with that.

The mystery was a little better, less obvious. It seems to be carrying over into the next book, and I haven’t figured it out yet. But I was still frustrated because characters were still ignoring the most obvious things. Or in this case, not asking the most obvious questions. Questions that I can’t believe no one would want answers to. It also seemed unrealistic that all these weird things kept happening, but, aside from Leofric a little bit, no one actually seemed that concerned, and even he sort of just let things go. I don’t think they ever sat down to lay it all out and compare notes and try to figure it out. It feels, again, like a forced way to either keep a mystery going or create red herrings.

This one was again narrated by Lance West, and I’ve realized the issue I couldn’t pinpoint last time. The narration is lively and works well when it’s narration, fits with the vibes of these books, but it feels a little unnatural and stiff when it’s dialogue, weird cadence or something, not the way I’d imagine a real person just talking. I’m picky about audiobooks though. Overall still good, and I’ll continue with this format.

Overall, despite a couple issues, I liked these two characters, the romance was fun and hot (sometimes literally), and I was pulled in!

*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2025 // Format: Audiobook*