I requested and reviewed Acquisition as an e-ARC because I really enjoyed the first book in the series, Takeover. I'm just not sure what happened, but something went awry somewhere in the writing or editing process here.

Before I say anything else, I must say that I really do enjoy Nana Malone's writing. She has a fast, bright, and sexy style and always gives us fun characters that I want to spend time with as a reader. The billionaire romance tropes are perfect for her voice as an author. I love her dialogue, and she is great with settings. Her books are always page turners for me, so they are great palate cleansers, and a fun read on a casual Friday night with a glass of wine after a long day at work.

Takeover made me fall in love with Gwen and Atticus, and I was honestly blown away and quite devastated by the cliffhanger because it didn't ring true to Atticus' character at all. (view spoiler) But I was willing to reserve judgment and trust that the sequel would explain his actions in a satisfactory way.

Acquisition begins two months after the events of Takeover. We learn that Gwen moved to London, is rooming with her best friend Lance, and is actually making strides to get over Atticus and figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life. We also find out that Atticus has been stalking her the entire time she's been away, complete with hidden cameras all over Lance's flat so that he can watch her whenever she's not at work or within view of the security team he has on her 24/7. I'm sorry, but... what?

It gets worse. When Atticus arrives in London for meetings and they see each other for the first time since their engagement ended, he lets himself into her locked office and within 2 minutes, and despite the fact that she's devastated and betrayed, they're having wild passionate sex. Again, what?

I could let that mess go if Gwen had demanded, or if Atticus had offered, to clue her in to what actually happened with their engagement, and that Atticus is so fearful of his demon-spawn father that he didn't stop to think things through. (And then it took him two months to figure out how he should have handled it... but whatever.) Instead, they don't talk to each other until 50% through the book. This means that the first half is Gwen going back and forth between furious and crying while wringing her hands over how much she misses Atticus and that she can't control her hormones when she's around him.

There were other events that just didn't make sense: (view spoiler)

When I was reading this I felt like there were scenes missing because there was so much jumping around between events and Gwen and Atticus' meltdowns. It felt like the entire book was written so quickly and prep'd for release that it didn't even go through edits given the number of obvious continuity errors that had me struggling to piece together the timeline of what was even happening.

I'm also irritated because the e-ARCs were released for our review on May 7, two weeks before the release date. Maybe this is a hot take, but if a book is that close to release there is absolutely no excuse for the manuscript not to have been through a line and copy edit before it's sent out to critics. So I was even more frustrated with the spelling, syntax, and grammatical errors peppered throughout the whole thing, on top of the continuity issues.

At the end of the day, I have to assume that this sequel was rushed to publication for some reason, and it's unfortunate because if an editor had taken a look at this and flipped things around by having Atticus apologize and explain to Gwen what was going on immediately from the beginning, the rest of the novel would have been him having to grovel in the way that Gwen deserved rather than being nice for a few chapters after they were married.

The cliffhanger at the end of this one was predictable... but again, I'm reserving judgment. I will read the third book in this series but I will not be requesting or reviewing the ARC. Maybe that way I'll be able to enjoy the book after it's been edited properly.