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I feel like the plotlines of this series get stronger and stronger the further in you go. Which is awesome. In the beginning, I loved the characters, though the plot had a lot of stuff I felt like I had to overlook, because it didn't entirely hold up to scrutiny and/or make sense. But books 4, 5 and now 6 had pretty compelling stories, independent of watching the relationship between the h/h grow. In this book, that was almost the least interesting part - Riley's flock, and what happened with Wade, it was fascinating and tragic, and I found it really compelling to pick apart the emotional knot that surrounds a situation like that. I'm not going to say that I was surprised at the villain - I wasn't - but I really got into the complex emotional relationships between the characters. It was nice to not see something like that pared down to a simple, black and white situation.

One point of caution - I knew there was a spin-off series, and I was planning to read it after I wrapped up this series. But they seem to intertwine a it - this book refers to characters I don't know (Harley and Harley's cousins, for example) as if I should know them. I'm not entirely sure what order the books should be read in, across the two series, but I did feel I was missing something.

As for Tao and Riley, I did like them, but I didn't love them. Possibly, I've just powered through too many books in this series and they're sort of running together for me? I don't know. It's also, I think, that I wasn't much of a Tao fan... he's kind of a giant doucheburger. He was good in this book, but I think that after 5 books of him being a dick to people when he first meets them, I'm kind of meh on him. Same with Greta, honestly. I don't find her cute or funny. I find her to be a total asshole that they should have kicked out ages ago... particularly when she decided to be shitty to children.

Additionally, I feel like the Tao / Taryn thing from book 1 was a little retconned. (view spoiler)[Sorry, I don't buy that he didn't actually care for her and was just looking for someone who wouldn't need him. He was hurt that she chose Trey over her, and pretty emotional about it... willing to scrap his friendship with Trey to tell her how he feels. That's not a guy who is looking for a "marriage (mating) of convenience" ... which is basically how he describes it to Riley. Look, it was one-sided - Taryn didn't return the feelings - and nothing ever came of it, which means it didn't have to be an issue for Riley. I am just not a fan of retconning. (hide spoiler)]

Okay, so now that I'm wrapped up, here's how I'd rank my love for them, in terms of most to least favorite, in the series so far.

1. Trey and Taryn (book 1 ... though to be fair, I loved them in their book, but found them to be a little abrasive in later books. I think the "crazy Alpha" schtick is perhaps played too hard.)
2. Marcus and Roni (book 4)
3. Ryan and Makenna (book 5)
4. Dante and Jaime (book 2)
5. Tao and Riley (book 6)
6. Nick and Shaya (book 3)