TW: Rape and slavery

I don't really know how to start this review so...

First of all, let's talk about the sex scenes… They weren't fun or sexy which was a huge letdown since there are a lot of them in this first book and I've read a couple of reviews were the smut was described as great. I think the main issue I had with it was that it was referred as "Nourishment", and every time it was mentioned that way I could only think about a mother with her child which had nothing to do with what was actually happening, it seriously took me out of the story and I had to concentrate to continue with it.

Once I realised the sex scenes weren't going to be good, I focus my attention more on the world and boy that was a mess too. I'm left with so many questions! I get that it's a long series so a lot of things are probably (hopefully) going to be explain later but at the same time I should have some answers since I read 334 pages of people living there. Basically I have no idea

who is the voice that asks them what they would change or how she decides who to change to a pure one. Also, how does the mate thing works? Because of what I understood people risk having sex with someone they really like and it's like playing a game, you are lucky if that person just happens to be your mate or else you turn into a vampire. So the Pure ones never actually know who their mates are until they risk everything?

. And those are just the main questions I have about the world.

And lastly, there were a lot of characters that I didn't care about and that weren't really important but we still got entire chapters narrated from their points of view which just drag the story for me. Thankfully the chapters aren't that long but while I was reading I couldn't concentrate because all I was thinking was "Can we please go back to Rain and Velarius?? I don't care about you!". Moreover, the evil character was so confusing, I don't understand what it was trying to do with its plan, I was waiting for something epic to happen but at the end it was super meh.

I don't know why it took all the time and effort to destroy Sophie's house just to get Dalair to say a secret, like what?.

Talking about Velarius, I loved him since the beginning of the book that's why he has made it to my list of bookboyfriends!. He's the type of character that's always with a straight face, that seems very stoic but once they fall in love they turn into a cinammon roll with their partner, those types of romance are honestly my downfall and in this one it didn't disappoint. What really took me by surprise was his past, I've read a ton of tragic pasts but his was so horrible and detailed, I almost cried while reading it.

I couldn't bear to think about a poor 14 years old going through so much pain and abuse, I know for sure his story will forever be stuck in my mind from now on.

Rain, on the other side, was an amazing person and I loved how real her story felt, I was able to understand her motivations and decisions fully. I do have to admit that her powers were hard to picture from time to time as well as that she annoyed me when she wouldn't speak her mind.

I understand she can't be with Velarius because of her powers but how difficult could it be to tell him "Hey, I love you but we can't be together because I love my passion more"?

I definitely liked her but not as much as Velarius.

Another character that stood out for me was Dalair, one of Sophie's bodyguard, I'm really curious to find out more about him because he also has that vibe of tough guy that is a cinammon roll inside.

I have this teory that Sophie and him are going to end up together and that Ere is from the bad side, if it's that way I'm gonna be hella dissapointed.

All in all, at first I thought this was a 4 stars for me but now looking back there are a lot of small things that took away from my enjoyment so I had to lower the rating to 3 stars. I would recommend it to anyone that gets attached easily to characters because I think Velarius really deserves to be known but aside from that sadly I don't think there were other things that I enjoyed as much.