2.5

I don't know...I feel like Sherwood kind of phoned it in on this one. It seemed like there was even less plot than in the first installment and I wasn't as into the relationship between Ivan and Aiden. Everything was way too easy. Of course, Sherwood worked to explain why exactly Aiden was so cool with a bunch of criminals, but I just had a harder time believing it.

Something that also bothered me was how quickly Ivan trusted Aiden and told him everything, including his compatriots' real names. Um, hello? The first book did nothing but stress secrecy and protecting Remi, but then Ivan throws everything out there after a day? It didn't feel right.

I also got the sense that this book was up its own ass a little bit. It revels in its own series with all those wink, wink, nudge, nudge moments. That's probably the author's effort to read newbies into the series if they're starting with the second book, but since I read the two books one after another it was unnecessary and felt like the book was trying too hard with in-jokes and appreciating its own characters.

The more I thought about this book, the more I feel that the first book had similar flaws, but the couple plus the kid hit that sweet spot I'm looking for so I was blinded to its problems. I'm still interested in reading the third book because Kyou's relationship with his love interest is already so strange and different. I think that'll be a fun one. I never was as invested in Ivan as Ari and I think the author wasn't either.