Kaitlin Ritter

Chains of Satin by Delilah St. Rivers follows Pet (Petunia) as she struggles with taking care of both of her parents. Her dad whom she doesn’t share much of a relationship with, sits in his chair most days. Pet’s mother is battling Alzheimer's and Pet works as a Houskeeper to pay the bills. This is where she catches the eye of Ethan, a successful and somewhat ruthless businessman, and owner of the house Pet cleans. As soon as Pet catches Ethans eye, there isn’t much time to blink or even breath before Ethan makes his move. Pet doesn’t know what to think, she’s always been the fixer, the one to handle it all. But Ethan is charging through whether Pet is on board or not. I have never been on board with an insta-romance, which this one certainly is. Ethan makes his intentions clear and isn’t afraid to push through boundaries to show it. Pet’s relationship with her father is non-existent. It makes it hard to believe their connection. Pet’s relationship with her mom is more thought out and you really want to empathize with her struggle to come to terms with her mom’s illness and episodes of violence. It really does tug at you during her mom's bad moments. Ethan acts as an anchor and a comfort, which I think Pet needs. But the relationship between Pet and Ethan seemed very fast, it felt more like love bombing to me and less like genuine care and affection. Throwing tons of gifts and money at her feels more like a control factor rather than love. I also didn’t enjoy the throuple situation as much as I thought. I wanted to like Daniel but he felt more like a borrowed plaything that was shoehorned in for the sex. Their relationship feels surface level and makes me feel kinda bad for Daniel despite the arrangement. And the ending definitely left something to be desired. Miscommunication tropes are okay, I like it when it serves a purpose. But again, this one felt shoehorned in to create conflict. It really just discredited Ethan and Pet’s relationship and all they've done to build up to this point. I mean they’ve always been able to talk it out and communicate in a healthy way. It really just feels like this ending wasn’t the intended ending. There are so many other approaches to setting up a “chasing/groveling” sequel and miscommunication isn’t the best. Overall, I would like to read a sequel just to see how they plan to resolve this, because in this instance I don’t think Ethan is in the wrong, nor do I think he should have to do any groveling.

Curiosity by Autumn Potts is an interesting new take on what life would be like if the human race were forced under the water into domes sectioned off from each other. Shady politics and decade long secrets start to come to light, and our main characters Argent, Doro and Luna have found themselves unknowingly put in the middle. Everyone seems to be hiding secrets and our main protagonists may be in over their heads. Overall, I enjoyed the authors choice to include the unique blend of French, Creole and Korean as noted in the appendix. I did find myself with several questions within the first few chapters and found myself struggling for answers. There were brief explanations as to how and why the world had to relocate underwater, but I do wish there were more time spent world building in the beginning. As we know little to nothing about the Merrans other than what is sprinkled in. I do also struggle to feel as though the relationships in this book were flushed out and genuine. The relationship between Argent, Doro and Luna is believable. But the quick and sudden change from Luna and Doro exploring their feelings, to Luna suddenly shifting focus to Gerris made it hard to believe the relationship. I had an easier time getting behind Argent’s character and his relationship with others. My main desire with this potential series is to see the world and these relationships be expanded and explored further; I will hold out hope that the sequel will answer my questions. I did enjoy getting to explore this world and I look forward to unraveling all the secrets of the Merrans.