Review: Reign of Wrath by Eva Ashwood

Reign of Wrath by Eva Ashwood

Series: Dirty Broken Savages #3

Publication date: December 10th, 2021

Pages: 383

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Reign of Wrath is the thrilling third installment in the Dirty Broken Savages series.

Note: The blurb below contains spoilers, so I'd highly recommend not reading it until you're caught up on the series, starting with book one, Kings of Chaos. You've been warned!

***

I was a good girl once. But now they've unleashed the devil in me.

My sister is gone. I held her in my arms while she took her last breath, and now I don't feel like I can breathe.

Once, I had a list with six names on it.

Now there's only one name that whispers through my mind like a siren call to my demons.

Julian fucking Maduro.

He took her from me. So I'm going to take everything from him. With the Kings of Chaos by my side, I'm going to dismantle his life piece by piece.

He's powerful, but we'll be stronger.

He's vicious, but we'll be more cruel.

He's cunning, but we'll be more devious.

And when all of this is over...

He'll be dead, and we'll be dancing on his ashes.

Reign of Wrath is a full length mafia/gang new adult romance featuring a slightly psycho heroine and four even more psychotic men. This book contains dark themes and possible triggers, so please read at your own discretion. It is book 3 of 4.

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Review:

Julian took away the one person that meant the most to River and now she wants to make him pay. River had finally thought that her life was becoming something of value. The person she thought was long gone returns and she thought if she got them free of their situation that they could live a happy life. But that was not in the cards. She really should have known with the history of just out of reach peace that seemed to always befall her. She thought once she completed her list of vengeance that she could move on with her life but her Kings dragged her back into their orbit and now want nothing more than for her to stay there. They are willing to do anything to keep her happy even if it means plotting vengeance to the extent River never would have dreamed of. She would destroy Julian and make him feel as lost and worthless as he made others feel and then she would kill him just like she did his father before him. But what if there is another evil lurking in the shadows that is watching and waiting to see just how things play out with her and Julian? Will she and her men make it out alive?

I will admit that this book sort of dragged for me. There is a situation in which I find myself waffling back and forth on, and that is when a book series should continue and when the author has found a good place to stop and wrap the story. In this series there felt like there was just one situation and one enemy after the other to the point where it felt like the characters just couldn't catch a break. I wanted to see him experience at least a little downtime and a little relaxation to let their relationships grow but they were just constantly inundated with stress and the press for time that I am not sure how they are achieved anything past raunchy sex and comradery. I feel as if the series should have been cut to a trilogy or lengthened to include a few more books. There are quite a few loose ends and a new big baddie to deal with in the next installment that I can't imagine it wrapping up neatly at the end of the final book. 

Out of all the guys I loved watching Priest's growth the best. He went from closed off, stoic ice lord to a warm and protective man. He was not afraid to show River affection as well as give her the strong foundation that she needed when she needed it. River and he seemed to have an almost cosmic level of understanding between them over their mutual losses and struggles with vengeance. They both seemed t have an indifference to whether they lived or died and that made them almost reckless but River was wild and fiery while Priest was calculated and chill. They were the strongest couple I saw between all of them. 

That is not to say the others didn't fill roles for each other either. River gave Gage submission and he took control from her so she didn't need to carry it all the time. Knox and River bonded over their mutual appreciation for sadomasochism making it acceptable to be the psycho they both believed themselves to be. And Ash was the joy that River never allowed herself to experience. 

I appreciate the series overall but this installment felt a little... stunted to me. Sure, they wanted to destroy Julian for what he did to River and what he took from her. But it felt like most chapters began with "and so they waited". It makes me wonder just how long it took to get the vengeance they wanted and it caused me to look at the stack of books and consider a deviation just to get something a little fresher to read. I am curious of this downward trend for the series I absolutely loved at the beginning will continue or if it will shoot back up with the conclusion.