Reckless by Lauren Roberts

4/5 stars

SPOILERS AHEAD

I feel similarly this second time around to how I did the first time. This one was not as incredible as the first one, but it was still a great read. The best way to describe this one, is fluff. There was so much extra fluff that I, personally, found unnecessary. I would say that the first 50% of this was really engaging and then it started feeling like déjà vu.

I understand the back and forth of Kai and Paedyn not wanting to hurt each other but feeling like they have to, Paedyn in order to survive and Kai because of his duty to Kitt, but it dragged on a little too long. Their whole journey out of Dor, through the Scorches, and then back to Dor and then through Dor and then on and on was overlong in my opinion. There were so many repetitive instances of Paedyn getting away from Kai, just for him to find her again not long after and tie her back up. They did the same thing over and over. So many instances of them having a knife to each other's throat only to hesitate a little too long. So many instances of them going back and forth saying how they know they should kill the other one but that they just can't do it. I think if this book had been maybe half the length and cut out a couple of those repetitive instances it would have flowed better. This felt almost like a screenplay for a tv show spelling out every single moment or thought of betrayal and hesitation, which would honestly be fantastic, but it was starting to get a little sluggish to read by the one millionth time that Paedyn hid a knife in order to kill him or they "pretended" not to hate each other so they could smooch or check each other's endless wounds. I love Kai so much, and he's definitely a top tier book boyfriend, but he was perhaps a little whiny in this one.

I wish that I had found Kai as charming in this one as I did in the first book, but the charm felt reused from the first book and didn't quite make me feel the same way. The whole Enforcer personality just kind of disappeared and he became so soft and almost... weak?All of that work to bring her back to Ilya despite his desire not to, only to decide to release her when they finally reach the outskirts of the city until they're spotted by his guards was insane. He and Paedyn were just so wishy washy the entire book. It wouldn't have annoyed me so much if it wasn't 400 pages of it. Granted, 400 pages is not that long, so it could have been much worse. I did a combination audio/reading of this one as a reread before starting the third book, and I found that listening to the audiobook was a lot more fun and kept me going. Like I said in my review of Powerless, Chase Brown is a fantastic narrator and really made Kai come to life. If it had been any other narrator I probably would have gotten fully sick of Kai by the end. I did love when he found her in Dor in the fighting pits and challenged her to a fight.

The one thing Lauren Robert's doesn't shy away from is letting Paedyn get her shit rocked by Kai, which she absolutely deserved and is exactly what I would do if I crossed her in the street.

Sweet Kitt was breaking my heart throughout this book because I just love him so much. I so badly want to know what he was writing in those letters, and I'm so curious about the reasonings for him marrying Paedyn. And Calum being his advisor was not something I remembered from my first read, so I'm excited to see how the hell the leader of the resistance became the king's advisor. It's going to make me so sad when Paedyn inevitably ends up with Kai because it's going to shatter his perfect little golden retriever heart and I will never be able to forgive her for that.

All of this griping to say, I did still really enjoy this book, just not as much as the first one. I'm really looking forward to starting the third one that just came out and seeing if it lives up to the hype. And to get the love triangle tension back, because I just KNOW it's going to be good with Kitt and Paedyn potentially getting married.