Timber

WHAT A FINALE! Timber digs deep....and then it digs deeper. Inarguably Tate James’ most emotionally complex, evocative, and heart-wrenching story to date, this is truly an author elevating her craft. All centered around one of the most captivating and ground breaking heroines I’ve ever read. EVER. Hade is truly a revelation- and reading this story from her eyes has been nothing short of transformative. The character journey she takes in this finale is pure brilliance, a story told with the bold and gusty finesse of a truly innovative, creative mastermind. <br /> <br />The narrative, though expansive, is tightly woven and completely engrossing- heartbreaking yet satisfying. I have NEVER felt a Tate James story as deeply as this one, and I’ve never cried such a wide gamut of tears- joy, hate, fear, heartbreak, healing, wholeness. And that is because of these characters- this harem. And the magic of Hades. Every single one of them is perfectly crafted and perfectly fused. Each evolves into the fullest version of themselves, but even more so, into the perfect foil to Hades herself, and to her own journey. As I’ve mentioned before, there is no harem like this one. The power, the architecture, the way the arcs intersect, the parallel journey of romance and friendship- it’s a unique and innovative construct intellectually, but EMOTIONALLY and psychologically it is truly literary art. Hades, Grumpdrop, Zeddy Bear, and GC are magical enough on their own, but together this is relational poetry. A romance so special, so powerful, pure and indomitable- a dynamic that shines all the brighter amidst all of the gritty trauma and violence that chaotically orbits these dynamic characters. But despite Hades starting as a character so abjectly against it for so long, love truly reigns supreme in Timber. It’s a finale full of pain, loss, heartbreak, and destruction, but also hope and healing. Amidst the flames a phoenix will rise, a love and connection that will NEVER fall. Brava, Tate. Brava.<br />

I’ve thought this throughout the entire series, I liked the <i> <b>Madison Kate</b> </i> books better. <br /><br />There was just something about those books that spoke more to me than this series. <br />However, I greatly appreciate the journey Hades went through. Especially in this last book. <br /><br />There was just <i>so. much. freaking. sex.</i> <br />In the last book, James made a comment that there was a reason for that. But this one was just as bad. <br />Not in the beginning, sure. But she definitely makes up for it later. <br /><br />They’re well written scenes, don’t get me wrong but it’s a little much. <br />Sometimes I ask ‘where the heck is the plot?’ <br />The repeated phrases didn’t help. <br /><br />Thinking about the Chase plot, I bet she wrote that conversation between Hades and Hannah because she knew that’s exactly what fans would think about the way that ended. <br />I had to agree with Hannah at that point but looking back on it, I realised that it <i>does</i> feel like a satisfying conclusion. <br />Hayden got her justice and revenge. <br /><br />I had hoped Seph would become a more likable character and she actually does! <br />I like that both she and Hades were able to heal from the past and move on to their better futures. <br /><br />I think the reason why I liked this less was because the relationship between Hades and her guys felt like it was mostly just physical. The genuine conversation’s were few and far between. <br />Plus, everything moved so quickly that before I knew it, they were one big working relationship! <br /><br />Overall, I really liked how we saw Hades’ past trauma affect her present actions and relationships. Then her journey of healing. Which looks vastly different to other people’s journeys. <br />I do wish we learned more about Hades’ men. <br /><br />This would’ve been 4.5 stars if not for some issues with the audio.

What an amazing ending! Truly wrapped up the whole series perfectly. This is my favorite book in the whole series. I love Hades and her men so much. I didn’t want to leave them. The spice in this book was on another level ? Im obsessed

<b>Kicking ass and taking names!</b><br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1676320318i/33937583._SY540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br><b>The following ratings are out of 5:</b><br>Romance: ???❤️<br>Heat/Steam: ?????<br>Story/Plot: ?????<br>World building: ????<br>Character development: ?????<br>Narrator(s): ?????<br>Narration Type: Duet Narration<br><br><b>The heroine:</b> <u>Hayden Darling Timber (a.k.a. Hades, a.k.a. Daria Wolfe, a.k.a. Dare)</u> - she has been fighting against an old foe who keeps sabotaging her businesses and the people closest to her. The end of the last book had some big reveals that seemed way to implausible to even happen in a work of fiction. But hey, it did complicate things for Hades, so why not?<br><br><b>The Heroes:</b> <u>Lucas (a.k.a. Gumdrop), Cass (a.k.a. Grumpy Cat), Zed (a.k.a. Zeddy Bear)</u> - Lucas is a genuinely nice guy and working toward getting certified as an EMT to help out more. Cass is a former gang leader that was dead and needs to be resurrected. Zed is Hades right hand man who betrayed her in the worst possible way. <br><br><b>The Story:</b> Everything is falling apart from the events at the end of the last book. It is unknown how Hayden will come back from it and be cleared of all the allegations against her. Her nemesis always seems to come out on top and now it seems he may have won. Dare wasn’t the only one that was betrayed, Zed was betrayed as well. <br><br>What I liked about this book is that Hades and her men finally started to make plans and play offense with the man that is out to get her. They ultimately began to make some moves against him and get some wins under their belts. I have been waiting for this and even mentioned in my review of the last book that I wanted them to start scheming instead of just reacting to everything their nemesis had done.<br><br>This series was told in Hades point of view via duet narration, and narrated by Noelle Bridges and Lucas Webley. Noelle has the perfect voice for Hades and though I don’t like Hayden’s personality all the time, Noelle does a fantastic job at portraying her in all her fierce glory. Lucas Webley also does a terrific job, he has a deep sexy voice for Zed, and rough growly voice for Cass and a sincere guileless voice for Lucas. <br><br>I do love the duet narration, but I also wish that the book and series was told in multiple points of view so I could get more of a feel for what the guys were thinking at any given time. Though we know they love Hades, I still like getting the male point of view in a romance novel. <br><br>I was afraid that the part where they finally defeat their enemy would be anticlimactic and I found that I really liked the way it all worked out. The only thing I can say I sort of disliked was the amount of intimate scenes. It seemed like nearly every other scene was a sex scene and I just really wanted to find out what happened. I think the book could have definitely been shortened a bit by taking out about half of those scenes. <br><br><a href="https://www.ilikebooksbest.com" rel="nofollow noopener">Blog</a>|<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/wennel" rel="nofollow noopener">Goodreads</a>|<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ilikebooksbest" rel="nofollow noopener">Facebook</a>|<a href="https://www.instagram.com/ilikebooksbest" rel="nofollow noopener">Instagram</a>|<a href="https://www.twitter.com/wendysu020202" rel="nofollow noopener">Twitter</a>|<a href="https://www.bookbub.com/profile/1895823057" rel="nofollow noopener">BookBub</a>

I sobbed for a good amount of time over the beginning of this book. What sucks to me is, Hades never properly deals with what happens to her… doesn’t communicate with the guys about it… and everything that happened with Chase and Zed (separately) are just kind of swept under the rug. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="e80d26c6-11ae-4aea-8a3e-c94326040217" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="e80d26c6-11ae-4aea-8a3e-c94326040217">Zed reveals he’s been working with the FBI “for her” and it was basically a fake-hiring to the FBI as an informant… and she just forgives him. Just like that? No discussion over what happened to lead up to her arrest.</label> <br /><br />Again, the resolution to the cliffhanger and the impact to the relationship was cleared very quickly.<br /><br />A lot of the middle of this book felt boring to me. I’m someone who loves steaminess in books but the sex scenes started to feel so frequent and similar it became gratuitous and I was really just skimming them. (There’s only so many times I can read about a “hard c*ck” being shoved into her “aching c*nt”.) <br /><br />Lastly, the “big ending”… was incredibly unsatisfying to me. Part of what made Madison Kate’s series so addicting was they had so many false leads and the true stalker and mysteries weren’t unraveled until the end of the last book. In the Hades series, we knew who the villain was the whole time. He had plenty of time on page. And for some reason, they just kept… not… killing him. <br /><br />And then at the end we find out it’s because <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="e96496ec-9009-40d0-b7eb-3afd79b3aba1" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="e96496ec-9009-40d0-b7eb-3afd79b3aba1">Hades and Cass have been working off-page to compile evidence to send him to prison? Really? The scene with Hannah being like “doesn’t that feel unsatisfying?” and Hades retorting “does it just feel unsatisfying because you didn’t see all the work we did in secret?” felt like a cop out to assuage readers questions. But like… YES. That’s exactly why it feels unsatisfying! <br /><br />We as readers were left in the dark to what was going on inside the narrator’s head. We were given an epilogue of “two years later” where we learn he’s been tortured and raped in prison the whole two years but that honestly just made me feel icky, not vindicated for Hades.</label><br /><br />TW heroine has been raped in the past, heroine is raped on page, PTSD, heroine is drugged, sex trafficking victims, on page violence, torture, murder

First and foremost: <b>Please, check the Trigger Warnings before reading this book.</b><br />Also, this review contains the mentioning of said triggers. So if you're a sensitive reader and/or don't want to read about disturbing topics in general, please skip this review!<br /><br /><input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="dc6461be-8611-454d-91a7-e8c8dace8fe4" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="dc6461be-8611-454d-91a7-e8c8dace8fe4">The first three books contained heavy, adult topics and were also on the darker side of dark romance. So I kinda knew what to expect from Timber. <br />But especially the beginning of this book and the aftermath of the MCs captivity was way above everything I consider "enjoyable" in a romance novel - as dark as it may be. <br />Not necessarily because I can't read about rape, mental and physical abuse, waterboarding, drug abuse and so much more but rather the way her obvious trauma was handled. <br />The torture she had to endure during her captivity reminded me more of a detailed Psychothriller than a Dark Romance novel.<br /><br />So understably the MC so obviously struggled the days after being freed from her psychopath of an Ex. And what was the reaction of one of her boyfriends? Pushing her into a serious conversation so that he can redeem himself after betraying her for years. <br />As if thats the most important thing after she’s been torturted for 12 days. She clearly didn’t want to deal with him and the heartbreak and instead of respecting her boundaries, he repeteadly tried to talk to her until she ultimately gave in. <br /><br />Right after she was captured the other two boyfriends also talked about if she got raped or not by her Ex while she slept. One of them literally said that he knew she got raped – in such a horrible way. <br /><i>“[…]didn’t abduckt her and drug her mindless so they could play Monopoly and have pillow fights.“</i><br />Way to go Cass, way to go. What a cute, sensitive boyfriend he is.<br />Not to say that it was really, really sad that while eavesdropping she felt guilty and ashamed for lying in the first place which just makes me sad. A women who got recently traumatized (also same applies to almost every human being), doesn’t have to justify her behavior to anyone. And a book shouldn’t give the impression that she in fact should feel guilty for something like this. <br /><br />But what was even worse was the fact that at least 2 of the boyfriends knew that she got raped (the third one, Lucas, believed her when she told him she wasn’t and would’nt let himself be convinced otherwise. Not even from the sensitive way Cass explained things. Just one other thing in endless list of naive things Lucas did).<br />They knew and deliberatly decided not to give this a second thought. She didn’t want to talk about it/didn’t brought it up by herself but to not even ackknowledge it before initiating sexual intercourse again was the turning point for me to not like this book.<br /><br />I don’t care if this is Dark Romance or not. If they didn’t knew about her trauma I would give them a pass – but they knew. And the way they ignored it for their own satisfaction was more than a single red flag for me. Especially because these boyfriends were portrayed as caring, protective characters, but their restraint didn’t even last a whole week before they started with the heated eyes again. <br /><br />After this point I couldn’t read any of the smut scenes anymore. They just felt wrong to me.<br /><br />Also, after there was an opening for her boyfriends to talk about this sensitive topic because they saw a video of her abuse, it still wasn't addressed properly and after the initial shock everyone just brushed over the topic once again. <br /><br />The fact that the author decided to brush over the trauma in such an uncaring way was really disappointing. 200 pages into the book you wouldn’t even know that the abduction and torture did happen because almost everything was back to normal. Once again, don’t care if Dark Romance or not – you don’t write about torture and the resulting trauma like this for the sole purpose to speed up the story and then just brush over it like its nothing more than a little disturbance for the character. Thats nothing I want to read in Romance. </label>

Can you release this book earlier or something?? I need it right now??

5 star series! ?

3.5 stars<br /><br />Why are Tate James books so freaking addicting.<br /><br />This was an intense series and I'm sad it's over. I had a wild time with Hades, Zed, Lucas, and Cass. There was nonstop action, suspense, and steam throughout the entire series. This final book is LONG and even though I did enjoy it, for me it's the weakest book in the series. The conclusion with Chase was a little unsatisfying, especially since most of the lead-up to his ending happened off-page. I was still happy Hades got her revenge, but I wanted to at least be able to see what was done.<br /><br />The bond between our 3 guys is SO wonderful. I love them all but Lucas is probably my favorite. He's a total sweetheart.<br /><br />I know we're getting the Guild next, but I totally wouldn't mind a series for Seph!! (And Rex's boys??)<br /><br />Allll the triggers for this one: rape, physical/psychological/sexual/forced drug abuse, torture, mutilation. Things get DARK in this finale.

<b>Tate James, aka: The Queen of Addictive Reverse Harems.</b><br /><br />MAN OH MAN DID I LOVE THIS FINALE. I was a little shocked when I saw it was over 700 pages, but trust me we needed it. It was such a beautiful conclusion to Hayden's quest for vengeance and I was so happy to see [redacted] get what they deserved. Hayden went through SO much in this finale and I strongly suggest you check out the TWs below because there are A LOT. Hayden is the true bad bitch supreme and you better check yourself before you even think about thinking of messing with her. Her and her gorgeous harem of men are killer and I stand by them every day. <br /><br />I will admit that I do love Zed and Gumdrop the most, sorry Cass.<br /><br />This last book has a lovely scene where our girl does the deed by a dead body, and you bet your butt she makes direct eye contact with it.<br /><br />Also, in the classic Tate James style, this does have a beautiful four-way scene where two shlongs enter the lady hole at the same time. We stan it. I expect every time now.<br /><br />Overall, this was a great quartet and I adore Tate James with my mind, body, and soul. <br /><br /><i>“Thank you,” he whispered. <br />“For what?” I asked, licking my lips to savor the feeling of his kiss. He gave me a wise sort of look. <br />“For loving me.”</i><br /><br />TW: on page SA, forced drugging, torture, water torture, etc.