We vowed to escape together. I broke that promise. Now the men I loved just might break me.

There were six of us. Caged, turned into monsters, and tormented with brutal tests of our horrific emerging abilities.

We had only each other to count on… until our escape attempt ended with one dead, the others recaptured, and me dragged away into a different nightmare.

Now I’ve finally fought my way back to rescue them. Except the men I set free are hardened, beastly versions of the devoted boys I remember.

They see me as a traitor and a murderer—but they refuse to let me go now that they have me back.

They have no idea that the greatest threat may be the new darkness that’s woken up inside me.

I don’t know how to control it. And if these men break me, I could destroy us all.

I have the most mind penetrating, nausea inducing, back pain searing migraine that’s been lingering in my system for 3 days now. Most people who experience migraines are probably trembling in their seats knowing that not only am I currently writing this review but that it also means I have been reading. Let me say this, I suffer from so many migraines that simply cowering in a blanket in the dark would lead me to have no life at all. I am so in tune with my migraines that I knew after day two that this wouldn’t be a migraine I could shift with any soothing techniques. It’s a Monday, I have to work. Fortunately, I can wor from home when I have these types of migraines but I still have to work. My entire laptop is set up with black backgrounds and I’m able to work in the dark from home.

But the severity of this migraine knocked me for six and the nausea along with the dizziness has been incredibly hard to work through. If however, I took a sick day for every migraine I had, no one would employ me. So, to keep me somewhat calm within this chaos and trying to at least work at 50%, yes, I have been reading.

It’s the only thing that has helped with the nausea. I read this on the Kindle reader on my laptop. I’ve had this book in my library for a couple of months and I just woke up this morning knowing that this was the book I needed to read.

This is a reverse harem, so a female character with multiple men. It is also a supernatural book. The book showcases chapter point of views from all the characters, so as the reader, you can get a great sense of the characters individualities and how their views flow between each other to create one image.

As usual for these multiple reverse harem books, I’ll break down my opinions of each character.

Before that, let me state – the characters in this book have been part of some kind of experimental program, they have been kept prisoners in underground compounds and as such, their mental states have been warped.

Riva – Riva is the first point of view we get and the voice of the majority of this book. Riva’s character has such strength, yet she carries herself like a seasoned soldier. From the first instance you get the sense of her character as being deep and complex. She had thought of 1 thing for the past four years and upon finding it she can’t comprehend how the memory and the hope she had could be so wrong. Still, she doesn’t give up and she decides to stick with the current course of action despite all that stands against her.

She shows great resilience and a strong determination that she is where she should be despite the animosity she faces. It was through Riva’s eyes that I actually shed a few tears but that also could have been the intensity of the chapter mixed with the crushing pain of my skull. Riva has shown herself to be a lot of things in this book and I had many ideas as to what the ending would hold for her. I am interested in seeing the response to her cliffhanger at the end of this book.

Jacob – Jacob is the most vocally unhinged during this book. He carries the most anger and hostility towards Riva. He pushes her down and attacks her verbally at every moment. He has the most anger from the past and it is clear from very early on that he isn’t willing to believe there might be an alternate version of events.

Out of all the characters, Jacob is the point of view we see the least and I think that’s because the essence of his character is perfectly captured by the other characters but also because he isn’t ready to follow any narrative that differs from what he believes.

Zian – Through reading I thought Zian was the most similar to Riva but his anger is a lot stronger than she could have remembered. Like each of the men, he carries his own demons and getting to know that demon and the memories that come from it is something the reader has to prise from the character’s fingers.

Dominic – Dominic is such a quiet soul with a secret that he carries around with him that seems to cause him extreme anguish. Riva fixates on him being the most changed from the boy she remembered him being. As the story progresses, I really didn’t think we’d ever understand what strains this character was under – thankfully we do – but the reveal of what pressure he was under just made his character need more compassion and made the weight he was carrying more complex.

Andreas – This is the one character that we see the most of other than Riva. The tearful moment I had actually involved Riva and Andreas so I do feel more passionately towards his character than I do the others. Andreas is the more easy-going of the four men but I think that stems from his belief that he needed to be the one to pick them up and keep them smiling because he saw himself as the only one able to ‘hold himself together’ and taking on that role made him feel like he had some purpose.

Andreas is the first one to thaw when it comes to Riva and though she is hesitant to the warmth he offers, it does spark hope to the reader that the sparks of anger and mistrust between the characters might one day be resolved.

By the end of the book, Andreas has the most to come back from and it is unclear whether Riva will be able to see him with the same level of openheartedness that she did before.

None of the characters were expecting what they found within each other upon reuniting and that made their interactions more special. The plot structure and narrative of having characters go from enemies to something more is something I’ve always found incredibly complex. I know I wouldn’t be able to write anything close to it but it’s a thin line to traverse. When it’s done right, like here, it can make for explosive reading but when it’s done incorrectly, you get more of what I refer to as ‘porn without plot’.

I have deep respect for Eva Chase’s writing. It just manages to carve its place into my book heart with such easiness and I can immerse myself in her stories so quickly.

As I have mentioned, this book does end on a cliffhanger and I do have the next book in my kindle library. This book is the first in a series of 4 (currently) and all 4 are available on Kindle Unlimited. This book took me 3 hours on and off to read. During the tail end of reading this my nausea came back and really, focusing on this was the only thing that got me through till I could take another anti-nausea pill.

I give this book: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice: 🌶️