TRIGGER WARNINGS ALERT Stay away from this one if you prefer safe reads. Don't read my review if the word "rape" makes you unconfortable, because I use it a lot, because this book has a lot of that. My review contains spoilers so beware.


I don't recommend this if you feel uncomfortable reading about:

Pedophilia Nicasius is only 13 and he's used as a sex slave. The worst is that he is supposed to be willing to be forever a sex slave because the king, his master, gets tired of children when they grow up and Nicasious is eagerly searching for a new master. 

Rape and Sexual violence Damianos the Main character is entered in a slave contest where the loser gets raped. He gets drugged by Laurent "his love interest" so that he'll get weakened and lose the contest and Laurent can watch when Damianos gets raped...publicily!! In this book the court takes rape as a sport. Later Damiano's forced to receive oral sex from another slave to the enjoyment of Laurent. I repeat, Laurent is the "love interest". 

No romance  by the end of the book there's not even a kiss

Stockholm Syndrome Erasmus, A sexual slave, gets raped all the time but he supposedly enjoys being a sex pet and is all grateful when he gets to serve another master because said master treats sex-slaves "better". Sorry but in what sick world a sex-slave enjoys being a slave?How is that romantic or sexy? 

Extreme violence  Laurent, the MC "love interest", is a Prince and he gives orders to whip Damianos. This is vividly described and Damianos spends some time recovering from his injuries. How is that romantic? 

Double standards So Christian Grey gets the sh*t here in GR although he NEVER raped ANA, (although, to be honest he pushed her consent, but NEVER raped her) yet Laurent gets nothing but praise??? So dubious consent, sexual violence, and rape are okay when the characters are male? NO JUST NO!! That's not feminist at all, that's not fair. If the main character had been Princess Damiana everyone and their dog would be screaming murder. "Oh the abusive relationship in romance!" But because the victim is a male then it's okay? How is that fair? 

Unsafe reads This is supposedly a slow-burn-romance between two males, but there's a lot of cheating and disloyalty. [ In the sequel of this rape -fest Laurent who is Damianos owner and master, "lends" Damianos to a group of women warriors so that they can use him for reproductive purposes. Laurent's not even slightly jealous! He laughs with joy when Damianos returns to their tent worn-out from having sex with a lot of women in just one night. Damianos is attracted to Laurent but he is more attracted to women than to males. So we the readers don't get a little bit of cute jealousy and the couple doesn't kiss until way into the second book. 

I'm not the most articulated, coherent reviewer, so I invite you to read these reviews if you want more info on the problematic issues of this book.

Cait's review
Lainey's review

This book makes me angry. The writing is exquisite and clever, but it's the most disgusting portrayal of an M/M relationship. Contrary to what this book portrays, Homosexual Men have healthy, committed relationships . This is not the best book to portray diverse couples, because, as it is, a lot of people think wrongly that homosexuality and bisexuality are against nature and that Bisexuals and Homosexual aren't capable of loving, committed relationships. This book only re-inforces the idea of sexually "degenerated" characters. In real life gay people aren't like this. Not at all.

I gave two stars to the sequel because the graphic rapes aren't present. It's cleverly written and it's addictive, but it's still a harsh read because poor Nicaise. It's not fair what happened to him.

Final note: There are reviewers here in GR who praise this book to no end, and yet get all angry and write rants about romances like Twilight, Hopeless, FSOG, Beautiful disaster and other romance books of the romance genre. At time it feels like some of those reviewers are trying to make the people who enjoy, for example, FSOG bad with themselves because "they are supporting a book that portrays an abusive relationship". Yet they go and praise this very abusive book. 

This isn't about me having a problem with the people who like this book. I think it's okay if people enjoy this kind of books because

* Everyone has different tastes and opinions and all opinions are equally valid. You enjoy this book? That's fine.
* WE ALL ARE SMART! WE ALL KNOW HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE REALITY FROM BOOKS. We all know that In real life rape is wrong. The people who love this book to death aren't supporters of rape, this is just a book. But just like the the captive prince fanbase knows the difference between reality and books, the FSOG fanbase knows better than go and get themselves in abusive relationships because of a book.

My problem is when the double standard comes:Contrary to popular GR belief the people who enjoy books that portray abusive M/F relationships are as smart as the people who enjoys Captive prince. Just saying. 

So anyone who enjoys FSOG or any other bad-reviewed romance, but never says it aloud for fear of how their opinion will make them look in a site like GR where people trash "abusive relationship" books, should say it aloud. Most of FSOG bashers are top reviewers who praise this rape-fest so there's nothing wrong with liking FSOG or any other poorly-reviewed romance. 

If you like me feel unconfortable reading certain topics, ignore most of the 5 star reviews, very few of them mention the problematic issues of this book and most lack trigger warnings. Read some 3 stars reviews and some triggers warnings before deciding if this book is for you or not

TRIGGER FOR DATE RAPE VICTIMS
I hate when this happens. When everyone loves a book that I don't. I hate being minority. I signed up to goodreads to fangirl over books with other people, to like the five star reviews and ignore the haters. 



I love when all my friends read the same book and love it as much as I did.

I hate to rate this book. A lot of my goodreads friends have LOVED IT! And I can see why. For the most part of the book I loved it, too. Then the twist happens and everyone still loves the book, but I don't. I'm left outside. So, yeah it sucks to be minority.




I hate giving bad ratings. I'd rather not finish a book than give a bad rating. However if in other occassions I prefer not to post a review or even a rating because 
a) I don't want to waste more time than the book deserves
or

b)I can't pinpoint what I didn't like,

In this case I think I have to warn other readers who might have the same problem than I have. If you are warned, you might enjoy the book more than I did. In addition, I can tell when the book was ruined FOR ME. If you are warned of what you will find you might even give a 5 star rating, that I think the authors deserve because for the most part their book is not bad.


I think everyone will love this book way more than I do. People should give it a try. The authors have a way with words and for the majority of the book I THOUGHT THIS WAS FANTASTICLY compelling and AWESOME, I never considered not finishing it because the emotions, the characters, the journey were so good that I just couldn't put the book down. I would recommend this book to anyone who isn't a freak like me: A freak who has a high sensibility on hero having sexual activity of any kind with other women.




Why? Oh Why? Can't authors think of another way to create drama? Everything was going so well, then that twist. IIt ruins the sequels for me. I asked a refund from amazon and I'm not continuing with the series. Again that's me. I'm extremely sensitive to disloyal heroes
I wish there had been a warning for that twist. I hate hate hate hate when the authors write sexual content, date rape and disloyal heroes without a warning.

This is also a NA book marketed as YA. I'm okay with sex scenes, actually I get bored if a NA book doesn't have at least a bit of sexual tension and I prefer self-published authors because they cross the YA/NA boundaries more often than traditional published books. I just think the ethical thing to do is to warn the readers that there's sex in the book so people who like sex will buy it, and people who prefer "clean" reads stay away. Readers under 18 should stay clear from this book as it contains sexual content, language, date rape and dubious consent.

This book reminded me of Tijan's fallen crest series, except the twist I mentioned. I think that I wouldn't have hated the ending as much as I did if I haven't been so involved with Ella and Reed. If you don't mind  edgy content and you like Tiijan give this book a try. If you hate dark contet in books labeled as YA then this book might not be for you.