June was quite a roller coaster of reads. Classic tales to finding another book to call my favorite. Sprinkle in a mafia dark-romance series and some Ana Huang – that was my June reading life.

I have no idea how I came across Syndicate of the Legion series. Stuff Your Kindle maybe? There have been a few series and books that have been true winners that have randomly found their way into my hands. Rather my kindle as it was in this case. This was a really good series (keep reading to find out why).

Once Upon a Wardrobe also found its way into my hot little hands. That book opened me up to another great author that shared my love of C.S. Lewis. I’m currently reading another book by Patti Callahan Henry and I’m absolutely loving it.

As I had said in May, I’m not typically a season themed reader unless it’s Halloween or Christmas. So, no beach-y reads here. At least not this month. I’ll save those for January when I’m missing the warm weather.

 The language flows flawlessly. The characters are complex and stay true to their nature. I hate it when a character is portrayed one way and rarely behaves according to that portrayal. We get a clear cut picture of who each individual is. Which makes the story seamless and any character growth that much more poignant.  

I enjoy these types of books not for the mystery, action, or suspense. For me it all boils down to the language and innocence of story. I know, I’m being redundant. It becomes so immersive, truly transporting me back to that time and plopping me right in the middle of Misselthwaite Manor searching for the secret garden. That is all I really look for in a good read, to be transported and engulfed in the story.

give her an answer because there is no simple answer. Every time she visits, he tells her stories of his life. I knew the broad strokes of his life before this, so it was fascinating to hear a few more details. I realize this is not a biography and some liberties most certainly were taken on the details, that didn’t mean the event, in general, didn’t happen.  

It’s a bit of a coming of age story. Megs is young, living away from her family for the first time to attend college and growing into a young woman. Since Megs is a science major and understands all things revolving around logic and facts, this aspect of fantasy and even religion eludes her. She seeks answers, definitions, and reasoning. Jack tires to break her of this.

Watching Megs come into her own in the world, living the revelation that not all things are easily categorized and definable. The characters are as dynamic as the English countryside and the Kilns. Seeing what Megs future holds brings the whole story together. Absolute delight to read.

Persephone exudes strength from the beginning even if it is buried beneath a thick layer of naivete. Defying her mother and living as an unknown deity. Hades, as most men in his position are written, is ruthless on the outside but nothing but an over-caring big squishy hero on the inside. Of course, he’s misunderstood and vilified by everyone who knows him by reputation only.

The story flows seamlessly taking us through both the above and underworld. Building the world without over explaining, giving us just enough to keep the reader immersed and engaged. The book did its job, I’m excited to continue reading the series. However, I am skeptical of a Game of Fate. Reading one book from Persephone’s POV and then re-reading the story from Hades’s? I’ll give it a try to see how it goes, then decide if I’ll stick with the Darkness aspect or throw in a Game or two.

understand this one. It just gives some foundation on a few menial characters. It’s small details like that is something I really appreciate. Keeps the characters alive.

It is very clear even before starting the book what the conflict is going to be. It’s an arranged marriage where the wife-to-be is kept in the dark about the true reason the marriage was arranged. Deception like that never pans out well. Being that predictable, it was handled as well as could be, I suppose. A bit anticlimactic. On this, as well as in all her books I have read, there is a lot of waffling about with unnecessary events. Most of her stories span a good chunk of time. Sure, things need to be summarized and skipped over. Then don’t add minor events to showcase personality traits we already know exist. We get it, the guy has soft spot only for the FMC and would burn the world for her. Instead of 15 mini scenes highlighting this, cut it down to maybe five or six. Regardless, I definitely like this series starter better than the entire Twisted series (still have one book to go). Whereas Twisted is just meh for me, I want to stick in this world with these characters and see what happens.

After reading H.D. Carlton and Jade West, novels such as these seem a bit more tame but nonetheless interesting and spicy.

I think my one and only gripe is that Camilla is only eighteen. As in the book starts on here 18^th birthday. Only one out of the men has a significant age gap, and it’s not even that big. That doesn’t bother me. Picturing a teenager in the position she is in, not only with these guys but in her mafia family among all the other empires. Who is going to take a teenager like her seriously? Sure, it is constantly pointed out how strong she is and how well her father trained her. But when you have heads of families that are three times her age, it doesn’t matter her body count, theirs is higher and so is their experience level. Camilla can talk and threaten, but at the end of the day she is still a child compared to the others. There is enough interaction with the elder members to ruin the authenticity for me. Taking me out of the story slightly. There’s enough foundation laid here to set up a great platform for the rest of the series.

Regardless, the story just keeps getting juicer, the steam gets even spicier, and the body count continues to grow. And I am here for all three. This one left on the best cliff hanger yet! This is why I prefer to read a series once they’re completely released. I can binge the whole thing in a week!

My only other criticism is completely subjective but a major pet peeve of mine. Unfortunately it spans the entire series. Will someone please teach the author the difference between further and farther!!!! I don’t think ‘farther’ was in any of the four books when ‘further’ should have only been used a handful of times. Like I said, it’s a pet peeve of mine and most might not even notice, but it became frustrating.

 Other than that, I love how consistent each character remained. These are the first books I’ve read by this author. As some characters from other cities made a cameo, I got the impression they are from other books and that the Syndicate had appeared in those books as well. I love when authors do that! I will definitely have to check out more of her novels.

proceeds to tell us about all the sexual escapades they had together. One part of her personality doesn’t match with the other.

While this is a case of story-as-an-excuse for smut, it’s not half bad.

The story, minus the spice, is a classic Romeo and Juliet. Forbidden love without an absurd amount of theatrics. The story took up a small amount of the novel. It focuses on Lauren and her fictional version of an Only Fans page and a BDSM club. Choosing to see her sexuality as empowering and totally embracing it. Kudos to her and Navessa for choosing this as her route – it was well done. This could have gone wrong so quickly; diving deep into the slut-shaming side of the sex industry. It covered a lot of the aspects, good, bad, political, and safety issues. As well as the right to be treated as equals in the workforce.

While I definitely liked this better than Lights Out by a lot, there was still something keeping me from falling into the story. The characters are diverse and the writing kept me engaged. I always like it when past characters are in the next installment. Ali and Josh appear quite often. There’s mob drama and a bit of suspense. The main conflict is not drawn out. You would think I would rate this pretty high. There’s just a bunch of small things that didn’t seem to fit. Small details that were thrown in to maybe make the characters come to life more or go for a bit of comedy. It came across as awkward for me. The ending clearly paved the way for the third in the series and I’m curious to see how it goes. But a bit sad it doesn’t seem to follow one of Nico’s brothers. Still. looking forward to it.

deception and praying for forgiveness even though the other had conveniently, purposefully said something along the lines of ‘just talk to me and we’ll figure things out together.’ It is one of my biggest, personal, literary pet peeves.

It’s one thing to be predictable. it’s another to rage bait disguising it as a misunderstanding. The solution? Act more despicable than the other person. It’s like fighting fire with napalm. I understand feelings are hurt and betrayal can cause irrational thought. Cruelty for the sake of cruelty is something I can’t appreciate unless the goal is for the reader to hate the villainous character.  The last third of the book was difficult to get through. Up to that point I was enjoying the book, this completely ruined it for me.

the local daycare. See where this is going? The closer she gets to boy (a widower) and the kids, the more she fits in with the family. But, oh no, even though they clearly love each other, one of them gets scared and pushes the other away. Any guesses who?

Overall, it is cute and eventually heartwarming. But the fact that everything is just kind of beige, makes it alright. The writing isn’t bad, it flows well, puts you right in the middle of things, and gives us dimensional characters – for the most part. It is a sweet story that I enjoyed but can’t rate it higher than three stars.