Jameshawilkerson Wilkerson's Reviews > Hydrous

Not that good-SPOILERS!

Left a 5 star just so the review would be seen, even though I really wanted to give it a 2! I'm extremely disappointed in this book, firstly let's just clear the air here, she was raped, there is no way around that, she wasn't in control of her emotions or body and Fin had sex with her without her consent. I'm not against non/dub con, but the author trying to use any word but rape for what happened and making the character accept everything he did and said (that he would have children with another women) after left an extremely unpleasant taste in my mouth. I was so excited for this book because Naiyas character was hyped up to be this badass leader but when it came to Fin she basically let him do/say anything to her, under the guise of "letting go" of the stress of leadership. It was extremely hard to enjoy the story because her character was written from this aspect. She was incredibly weak willed and it really didn't make any sense and If she had put up any kind of fight, I would have been more willing to give this a genuine higher rating but even without that glaring and honestly gross start,
Secondly- Women falling slave to the bond aspect doesn't make any sense when we hear so much about abusive mates in the world surrounding them. Just let the supposedly "rare" mates be without the abuse and cruelty aspect or it makes the whole concept of mating and fate seem not that special or important. The thing about the other half of your soul being abusive really cheapened the whole idea, when mates were seen as so special and rare but there were so many mentions of abusive ones or mated couples who neglected their children. What makes mates so different and special besides the constant urge to have sex? Didn't like that aspect at all.
Thirdly- The plot wasn't all that interesting, her lying about her father only added more to her pathetic submissiveness as it read as an excuse not to be rescued. The whole thing was lackluster and unenjoyable because of how their "relationship" started, I found it hard to believe that any genuine emotions were being felt, all that bonded them was sex and her submission. It cheapened the romance aspect for me and that was sad because I feel like with some tweaks this would have been a real 5 star read for me. It just felt like the bond was the only thing that kept them together and it forced emotions on them, her especially, where there really shouldn't have been any.
Fourthly- No redemption ark for Fin, like at all. I'm not even gonna say anymore but geesh, I love a dominant MMC but how this was written made him extremely intolerable to me.

All that being said, I know this is only the second book of the series and while I read and liked the first book, I had initially skipped ahead to the third, because I had a feeling from the synopsis that I wouldn't like this book very much, but I ended up liking the depiction of Naiya/Fin in that book so much that I got excited to read it, I should have stuck to my gut feeling though, because if I had gone in order, I would have been so pissed off that I would have probably DNF the series. This won't stop me from reading the others, at least I know from the 3rd book that the writing gets a little better. But I had to rant about these grievances, I never felt so betrayed lol I was really looking forward to N/Fs story because of how they are in the third book and their story just doesn't give what I was hoping it would.