Description: Kian didn’t anticipate being dragged along while his friend got a tattoo as anything but a waste of time. Then he meets Silver, a handsome tattoo artist who provokes all sort of x-rated thoughts and ambitions. More intriguing, Silver’s been waiting for a chance to get to know Kian.

A relationship wasn’t what Kian was expecting when they fall into bed, but he’s not opposed. But the beginning of a relationship is the easy part, it’s everything after that’s a challenge—especially when the danger of disease and infection enter the picture.

Rating: 1.5/5 stars

Cover: The cover drew me in, love the greenish tones.

Review: I haven’t read the first part (and considering my rating, I’ll never will), but since Inked Souls features a new pairing, I gave it a go.

I wish I didn’t.

Let me start with the characters. The more I got to know about Kian, the less I liked him. Putting myself in his shoes wasn’t something I could do. His crush on Silver is not believable. Just because he is oh-so-gorgeous – which the reader gets told again and again and again and, you get the drill – he’s the love of his life? They have a lot of unsafe sex and even the sex scenes couldn’t hold my attention. I’m sorry, but I just didn’t feel their relationship.

On top of this there are the repetitions. Things I have just read a few pages before get told again. And even if there were more than a few pages in between, this is no book with hundreds of pages. No need to tell the reader what has happened in this book.

If these were the only thing bothering me, I’d given a rating of 3 stars. But there is more. Something I didn’t expect and which I found to be executed poorly, too: Mental illnesses.

There was no trigger warning on the book and to be honest I would have needed one. If I knew there was a bpd (Borderline Personality Disorder) character in this book and talk about self-harm and suicide, I would have never read this book. The way a character’s asexuality was handled or to be more exact talked about, didn’t sit well with me as well.

Overall this book made me feel really bad. Because I don’t want my lovely readers to feel the same way, here’s a trigger list for this book: Mental illnesses (bpd, bipolar disorder, depression, self-harm, suicide (nearly attempted)), anti asexuality, child rape, sexual assault, unsafe sex, child neglect. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten one.

I got a copy for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

If you are interested, you can buy and sample it here.