Book Review: Riot Rules by Callie Hart

“If the girls here are foolish enough to call me Sun God, then you are the goddess of the moon. Diana. Selene. Artemis. Luna. My pale and ethereal queen.”

This is the second book in the Crooked Sinners series, and God I don't even know what storyline I enjoyed the most. Riot Rules follows a cool timeline because it begins way before the events that take place in Riot House, which is Wren and Elodie's story. Riot Rules follow Carina and Dash. In this installment we finally get to see the reason for Carina's attitude in book 1 and get the prequel that we needed. We also get her relationship with Mara and how the whole situation was dealt with in the present tense.

I enjoyed Carina's character a bit more in the beginning. I felt like I overall enyoyed the first half more than I did the second half. The reason for that is because the second one is a neat recounting of what happened on book 1 but from Dash and Carina's POV. Although it wasn't bad, it did feel a little rushed and hence why I didn't give it a 5 stars. Overall, I really fell in love with the characters and the author's writing once again.

One thing I really like about the author is how she describes and writes about pain, grief and heartbreak. She definitely shows you not only tells you what the characters are going through and you really see them going through the motions and you feel for them greatly. Which I feel is a great feat not many authors can do.

The plot is incredible once again. I don't think it is JUST a romance because it actually includes some thrilling and mysterious aspects that really adds to the atmospheric and moody watch of the book. Carina and Dash are raw and intoxicating characters and I loved seeing them develop into a couple and then see that love diminished and broken only to be put back together again.

A thing this book did though is get me really interested in Pax's story because I actually have never enjoyed reading the scenes where Presley appears as I have felt her character is a bit naive and yet I know I am going to be surprised by their story line. The bonus chapter where Pax's POV is hinted at makes me want to pick up his book ASAP, because for some reason I feel he is the one that (although not really obvious) is the darkest and moodiest because of his upbringing which we still don't know much about.

In conclusion the writing for this series is 10/10 and the character development is great. The only fault I saw was how the whole book 1 and 2 were combined in parts and thus ended up making Carina and Dash's ending seem a bit rushed.

side note: I also highly related with Carina and her love for NASA and astronomy and in general the way she felt pain. I don't think i have ever felt as described in a book as this one.

"I stole her fucking stars"

Overal rating: 4.5 stars