I struggled hard with this one.

I really loved Gage's character in the first two books of the Deadly Beauties with Alyssa. When I read this was going to be his story of course I was salivating! I really wasn't ever a huge fan of Kane despite being where the earlier series ended up so I was beyond excited to see my favorite, Gage, fall in love. However, I'm very sad to say it wasn't really redeemable after how things ended in the Deadly Beauties original series. I always saw Gage as the hopeless romantic I mean he did so many things trying to obtain Alyssa's love... He doesn't do even a fraction of that for Kimber. He pushes her away, has her the first time at a succubus induced party, he doesn't seem to return her love despite us hearing how he falls in love so deeply, I didn't feel it. (Hearing about his first two loves could have been used to propel his love for Limber but instead it felt like those two loves were greater romances than his love for Kimber.) If that makes sense, I more felt like I was being told he was deeply in love. Kimber was a pretty good character, except I felt embarrassed for her more times than I could count. I'm just not sure C. M. Owens did the best thing by making Gage end up with Kimber, Alyssa's adopted sister. He loved Alyssa and I think if she had ended up with Gage & Kane it would have been better. Honestly this entire book I just felt bad for Kimber like she was an Alyssa stand in. In the book Gage actually says "We’ve been here for two weeks, and Kimber is more mine than anyone has ever been." I'm not sure why that sentence put me off so much, I guess because he really just wanted someone to love him back so badly he'd accept anyone. It felt like for once he wanted someone to love him more than he loved them... Poor Kimber. Ugh. This was not my favorite, I just don't think Gage should have had his own story not with the lengths he went through to get another woman in the other books. But hey that's just my opinion, if you haven't read those then you won't see the same things & you might genuinely enjoy this book. Overall though, it made me a little sad, I never quite felt Kimber was the love of Gage's life despite how the author tried to tell us she was... Idk 2.5 stars for me. One last thing I never minded the "smirk" thing in the first series but every other sentence had someone smirking or winking. It became a bit over the top. Still love C. M. Owens and I'll read Thad's story but I might stop there if things don't get a bit more exciting.

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