*I received an audio copy of this book via NetGalley. This has not influenced my review.*

I loved Orok! And I felt so much for him. I knew he was struggling, but I didn’t realize how much. He’s also very intense, something you don’t realize until you’re in his head. He’s possessive and obsessive with his relationships, and characters like that are a common romance trope, one that I usually feel somewhere between “whatever” and “no thanks” about, but it felt like it was done differently here. Orok is, at his core, a big sweetheart, and he knows when something is crossing a line, and he tries his best to make sure he doesn’t smother Alexo, and he’s so conflicted about wanting things but feeling like he shouldn’t, and it made him a really interesting character to me. 

I liked Alexo too. He had his own struggles he was hiding behind his bubbly personality. And he was also a sweetheart. Also the perfect complement to Orok, willing to stand up to him, whether it was for being too weird or for not embracing his weirdness enough.

And when it comes to the romance, this author somehow found a way to take that possessive “mine” trope and make it sexy in a way that I think people who like it will enjoy while also acknowledging that it could be problematic and making it clear that, for these two, it’s very consensual, so that even people who don’t normally like it can enjoy it. And it felt like a little more nuanced exploration of that dynamic than I’ve ever read about before.

As for everything else… There was a bit of non-romance plot about Alexo being in danger, Orok switching to a new rawball team, and Orok’s struggles and growth with his traumatic past, his parents, and the religion he was raised with but doesn’t fit in with. Sebastian and Thio made some appearances. The world was the same as the first book, like our modern world but DnD-esque with magic and different fantasy races.

I listened to the audiobook, and let me start by saying I love Vikas Adam as a narrator. He has a great voice, he makes characters sound different, he sounds natural, and one of the things I love most is how much emotion he brings. That being said, I felt he was a little overly dramatic in this book, especially in the sex scenes. For Orok, it at least made sense because he was intense and described as growly and whatnot. But the voice acting for Alexo was a lot sometimes. Maybe that was exactly how he was told to voice him though! And YMMV. It’s personal taste, just not how I would’ve imagined it. I still enjoyed the rest of the narration.

Overall, I enjoyed this one even more than the first book in the series! Orok and the dynamic between him and Alexo was interesting and approached in a way I’ve not seen it approached before, and both of them were lovable!

*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2026 // Format: Audiobook*