The author definitely knows their ages of consent in all states and what age gaps are legal. That's a yikes. People who have the Romeo and Juliet laws memorized are scary to me.

I now realize this is labeled as #1 meaning there's going to be more books in this series and I don't know why I keep on seeing things through when it can only get worse than this.

Gives me Jacob on Renesme energy and I don't remember asking for that. That one werewolf in Twilight who is having a tea party with a toddler that's his mate once she reaches eighteen is the exact energy of this book.

Now knowing that, I'm not about to stop where I am which is partway through. So I kept going. Maybe this is a horror and she'll escape her godfather and Uncle Torren who has been enamored with her since she was little.

No.

They're not related but it doesn't change the fact that he's imagining her as a kid while touching himself and remembering her birth. The fuck? Ew. It would be a little less quick if he didn't keep remembering her as a BABY.

He preordered his bride in simple words.

This book is an exercise in not gagging or feeling threatened. He's pining for a child and admits when she is fifteen, he's been pining for years! What was she, eight? Seven? Five? When it started? Fifteen is extremely young!

On top of that we get flashbacks of her when she's eight or seven which makes me think he was after that child and is pretending to be surprised by it. Faking surprise but secretly planning this all along.

He's written like he's not in the wrong. At least Lolita can make the predator obviously in the wrong and readers don't side with the nonce in it. Torn wants us to side with the nonce and see it as romantic.

They don't even have chemistry beyond the obvious EW.

1.5 stars. Could have been a great horror instead of a ""romance"". ( )

I enjoyed this forbidden love story. Sometimes age gaps can feel -how do you say - WEIRD. I think the background of the characters established their connection early on and it was believable they would have an attraction to one another. ( )

I got tired of the flashes into the past even though they weren't really long. They were in every single chapter though. I was getting restless about 3/4 through and started skimming some. I really hated the ending. It was so distorted and talk about speeding through the time! I felt Kenzi made some stupid decisions that hurt Tor. He was the best part of the book. I just wished the story had moved faster. ( )

"None of this a normal situation, so how could there have been a normal result?"

I enjoyed the characters and I didn't have any issues with the ending. My only problem was the pacing - some parts of this just went sooo slowly for me. That's probably because I was really expecting this to be more strictly erotica and not so focused on the process of these two getting together. There's nothing wholly wrong with that, I just suppose my expectations weren't in the right ballpark for getting into this. I found myself skimming heavily through a lot of the dialogue, flashbacks, and whatever parts were dragging. Especially once Kenzi and Tor had decided to be together together, it took so long for them to tell her father it was absolutely killing me. But other than that I thought this was a really sweet romance, definitely good for people who want to read something kind of taboo but not too heavy.

Ultimately - not my fav age gap ever, but it was too sweet not to feel at least a bit attached to these guys. ( )

I thought this story was brave but the push/pull got on my nerves a bit.

It does have the ew factor. Age difference.
( )