I nixed The Nix at 33% of the way in.  Boring and pointless.  Grab a sample first.  I was enticed by the title and the blurb.  I pre-ordered.  I should have waited.

No no no no no no no nooooooooooooooooo !!!

I'm just going to come out and say it... WHY??? Zhubaal is a major prudish asshole and the only person who can call himself 'Z' is Zsadist. And Vex can be awfully annoying.

There is NO chemistry between them.

And we have another VIRGIN? Oh come on. Really. Really. Really?!

He waited for his soul mate for a century after she got reincarnated and he thought she will remember him in other lives and stay a virgin. Oh please.

Did I mention how boring this was? As in, so boring I almost gave up reading.

And sex scenes... bloody hell. She fucked a hot tub, one might imagine that would be fun, well it wasn't. Dry and emotionless.

I just don't have the energy to write any sensible review today. I might come back to it tomorrow. Maybe. Or I'll just try to forget all the time wasted.

I'm... I'm... I'm at a loss for words really.

Why my dear author, I loved all your other books, all of them, why are you going down this path *sad*

So, let me start by shortly introducing the storyline. We have a big wealthy family who is in the Bourbon making business for generations and this family consists of a: shut-in-weak-never in the story-recluse mother, abusive-greedy-no heart-no emotions but sadism father and their 4 children, 3 boys and a girl. This particular town they live in is sort of built around them and their business. Everyone knows them, everyone envies them. They are the sort of people I hate from the bottom of my little black heart. Too wealthy, egoistic, self-righteous, pompous, womanising, whoring, abusing all others and can't see past their own egos and their money.

But of course, they all have their little problems which we ought to believe are more important than the problems of us, you know little insignificant people around them.

Let me shortly introduce the characters.

Mother was only a part of the story to produce children, for everything else she is shut in her room and is medicated all the time. Is she ill you might ask? Nope. Just weak. Must be all those millions wearing her out.

Father is trying to be portrayed as the abusive money-grabbing self-righteous as*hole but I really don't get that feel from him. Maybe because he was almost never in the damn story. Only people talking about him and children remembering the past when he beat them.

The eldest son, Edward, was the firstborn, smartest, most capable, most accomplished of the lot but after his kidnapping and some other things he survived in South America, he is out of the picture.

Lane, whom this story revolves around is a typical rich boy. Whored everywhere he could until he got one of those bimbos pregnant and because of a guilty conscience he married her although he was in love with Lizzie whose heart he broke by doing what he did. Lizzie is the second most important character. She works for the family as a horticulturist and all she does all the time is rearranging the damn flowers in all the rooms and the garden. Lane left the estate as soon as he got married to live on his friend's couch in New York and play poker all night for two bloody years. Yeah, what a catch indeed.

Max is a son we never hear anything about except that he is somewhere West. He is as you could have already guessed, a troublemaker.

And then there is the daughter, Gin. She is a whore. And I mean a slut, whore, bimbo, you name it. She whored throughout the town. And got pregnant young and has a daughter that is also nowhere in the story because she is at some boarding school or something. All Gin knows is how to look pretty and spend money. She is even willing to marry a person who will give her the lifestyle she is used to despite the fact that

and treats her like one of his properties.

And you practically know everything now. They keep going backwards and forward on stupid meaningless dialogues and monologues. They suspect that Father is ruining the company and that they'll be soon out of money. But that isn't as important as their self-righteous asses and the idea that other people who are below them just don't understand them.

Characters are extremely shallow. Unbelievably so which comes as a tremendous surprise for me knowing Ward's excellent writing.

I think that Ward just couldn't handle the contemporary romance drama genre. She is a master of paranormal romance but this is so beneath her level that I started to suspect she didn't even wrote it. I had to make myself read a little every day to finish it otherwise I would have dropped it in the first 50 pages. Characters have no depth, they have absolutely no chemistry, they are all sleeping around and are bad people and you just don't feel for them. Storyline is incredibly simple and unimaginative. All the so-called family secrets are described like a child would describe them.

I'd like my suffering to end now so I will just leave it at that. There isn't one good quality about this book. I only gave it two stars because it's a Ward book. And because it's freakishly long for this style books.

I'm sorry dear author, I love you but this book isn't you and I will not read any possible sequels to this nor will I buy a hard copy like I did with your other books. My recommendation is move along and don't waste your time on this book, it really isn't worth it.

Source: Received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review

Publisher: Maverick's e-press

Publication Date: December 15, 2014

(My) Format: Kindle e-book

Page Count: 180

Whenever I get a book from the author, I want to like it. I hate telling someone that I don't like their book, but I'm also too honest to sugarcoat, so here we go.
All I can think about this book is, I just don't care.
I don't care about the plot. I don't care about the setting. Mostly, though, I don't care about the characters.
Now anyone who has read any of my reviews knows, I am all about the characters. Characters I love. Characters I hate. Just make me feel something for them.
I just don't feel anything here.
Gabe. Jake. Luce. Any of them. Nothing.
I'm glad that Gabe and Luce reconciled, but I could have told you that would happen just from the description. Jake got his art exhibit. But he was offered that from the beginning. I just felt that there was nothing to the story.
There was a lot of backstory about Julian, which was okay. In fact, he was probably the most interesting of the characters because of his, I don't know, depression? mania? But he was dead. Or at least missing. Honestly, he may have just taken off because he was tired of all these boring people.
There were snippets of story here and there like Julian's parents that were interesting, or had the potential to be, but they were only a few pages.
I wish I could say that I liked this more. :

I am done! Done, done, done with this novel. I am hugely disappointed with Hoover.

THIS IS NOT OK!

I hate when authors use other people's illness to build up their main character. It's wrong on so many levels, it's completely disrespectful and insulting. Hoover inadvertently says it's ok to lie to people if they are sick, it's ok to treat them differently because of it. It's ok to set them apart. That has another name, too..

Let's talk about Maggie, Ridge's sweet girlfriend who is sick with a terminal illness. Came to the point where she got so sick and had to be taken in to hospital, where Sydney finds out about her. I FLIPPED OUT!

So this is the reason why Ridge is so hell bent on staying with Maggie, she's sick. And we are supposed to say what? Awww Ridge you're a guy and a half! Living with the woman you are falling in love with and lusting over, but not being honest to the sick girl because of your guilt trip. Well here's a news flash: Maggie is a person, Maggie is not pathetic because she's sick, Maggie deserves the same consideration you give to the other cheating bastards in this story. She is used as a backdrop to highlight Ridge's maturity, her illness a cliché tearjerker that is supposed to enhance the angst in this novel. Low blow.

Ridge is placed up on a pedestal because of his choice of not leaving a sick girlfriend behind, no matter how he truly feels about her, because he RESPECTS Maggie.

If he really respected Maggie, and her illness he would have been honest, and given her the benefit of a doubt that she can think for herself. What do you think Maggie's choice would be? Would she like to be in a relationship with a dishonest cheating asshole, that is only staying in a relationship with her because he feels guilty, and he believes that's what's expected of him? Or do you think that she deserves enough RESPECT to make her own choices in her life, and to maybe find somebody that's not lying to her face because of imagined obligations? Here's a quote:

She sighs and turns her head, looking straight up to the ceiling. “I’m fine. It was just an insulin issue.” She turns back to face me. “You can’t baby me every time this happens, Ridge.”

My jaw clenches at “baby me.” “I’m not babying you, Maggie. I’m loving you. I’m taking care of you. There’s a difference.” - oh really? What about all the touching, all the kissing, all the messaging with Sydney? All the lyric writing, and singing?

Loving you? Taking care of you? UP YOURS RIDGE!

Just how do you think that poor Maggie would feel if she knew the truth? Would it make her happy to know her boyfriend thinks she's so pathetic because she's sick, she doesn't deserve to be treated equally? That all of his lies, and taking care of her comes out of his inability to deal with HIMSELF in this situation, to know he's not moving on with his life because he couldn't live with himself if he did. And finally after knowing all that, realizing that no matter what he says, this is not even remotely about her, it's all about him. Wow what a man, what a keeper, what a fucking hero.

Ridge knew he was attracted to Sydney when he moved her in. If he wanted to do the right thing, he would have helped her find a place to stay. Sydney knew she had the hots for Ridge, and after she found out he had a girlfriend, she should have done the respectable thing and pissed off. Ridge and Sydney are Tori and Hunter. Double standards? Hell yes, and I HATE DOUBLE STANDARDS! And the rest? What kind of message is Hoover trying to send? 

They knew what they were doing. Ridge is a cheating, pitiful asshole, and Sydney a self-absorbed hypocrite. I had enough of this shit.