3 Stars 🌟
The Initiation is the first book in the 4 Horsemen series and follows Grimm (Death) and Abigail. This is a Dark Romance with strong secret society and cult vibes. As this is a Dark romance there is some content warning for anxiety, addiction, mentions of animal cruelty and attempted sexual assault.
I love Elena's writing I always find her books easy to read/follow and I love getting lost in these worlds she creates. The Cult vibes and elements in this story were probably my favourite parts. They were well written and kept me invested in the story and wanting more. They had those mysterious and sinister elements that this book promises and I'm hoping with each new book that they get explored more and are even darker and grittier.
The beginning of the book was a little slow for my liking and it took me longer to get into the story than I would've liked and as much as I did end up enjoying this story I found it very hard to connect with either Abigail or Grimm. They had chemistry and their steamy scenes had a lot of fire and passion but the flow and development of their relationship was something that didn't work for me. It was a lot of hot and cold, push and pull, give and take which is something that doesn't bother me but everytime I thought they (mainly Grimm) were going to admit that their relationship and feelings were more serious than just replacing one addiction for another it would turn cold again and this made it hard for me to really invest in them as a couple.
I understand both characters had difficult pasts that bled into their present and were affecting their actions but I wish that even these events had been explored more. A lot of Grimm's issues were explored and heavily influenced the story but it also felt repetitive. I would've loved more of Abigail's past explored, which it was but I wanted more of it as it would've helped connect more to her and understand why she was so quick to accept Grimm in all his dark and twisted glory.
Another major part of Elena's story telling that I love is her ability to write secondary characters. Before the story was even over I found myself craving the stories of the other 3 horsemen as they all had qualities that intrigued me and I'm very excited to see what comes next and how the story plays out as a whole.
I love Elena's writing I always find her books easy to read/follow and I love getting lost in these worlds she creates. The Cult vibes and elements in this story were probably my favourite parts. They were well written and kept me invested in the story and wanting more. They had those mysterious and sinister elements that this book promises and I'm hoping with each new book that they get explored more and are even darker and grittier.
The beginning of the book was a little slow for my liking and it took me longer to get into the story than I would've liked and as much as I did end up enjoying this story I found it very hard to connect with either Abigail or Grimm. They had chemistry and their steamy scenes had a lot of fire and passion but the flow and development of their relationship was something that didn't work for me. It was a lot of hot and cold, push and pull, give and take which is something that doesn't bother me but everytime I thought they (mainly Grimm) were going to admit that their relationship and feelings were more serious than just replacing one addiction for another it would turn cold again and this made it hard for me to really invest in them as a couple.
I understand both characters had difficult pasts that bled into their present and were affecting their actions but I wish that even these events had been explored more. A lot of Grimm's issues were explored and heavily influenced the story but it also felt repetitive. I would've loved more of Abigail's past explored, which it was but I wanted more of it as it would've helped connect more to her and understand why she was so quick to accept Grimm in all his dark and twisted glory.
Another major part of Elena's story telling that I love is her ability to write secondary characters. Before the story was even over I found myself craving the stories of the other 3 horsemen as they all had qualities that intrigued me and I'm very excited to see what comes next and how the story plays out as a whole.
Title: The Initiation
Series: The 4Horsemen #1
Author: Elena Monroe
Genre: Dark New Adult Romance
Release Date: August 4, 2020
Blurb
The seals have
been revealed and God’s judgments on the earth is in. The Clave is here to
deliver the news.
ABIGAIL
LA wasn’t home… just
home for now.
Transplanted here to
model I learned Hollywood isn’t where dreams survive the harsh reality of
millions all sharing that same dream.
Executive assistant
is who I am now.
Slave.
Hollywood’s darling
took a liking to me. One not easily ignored when they give you a taste of the
high life.
I was supposed to
give up hope and give in to LA’s bad reputation but I had rules.
Well, just
one: read the rules before you break them.
Unwilling to abandon
all my morals, the filter came off my life to see the world I was one foot in
was invitation only...
GRIMM
I’m not sure I was
ever really Jason.
Whoever he was, was
a distant memory now.
Grimm is who I am
now.
Death.
I abandoned my birth
name, companionship, happiness that wasn’t shaped like Xanax all because I was
expected to be the kind of elite that pulls the strings.
Pull the strings but
follow the rules.
No distractions.
No serious
relationships.
Keep what we do
secret.
Born into a rite I
didn’t ask for, a society of puppeteers.
An invitation I
marked not attending...
Purchase Links
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Excerpt
We were all related
to monsters.
All heir to corrupt
kingdoms.
Forced to uphold
some delusion that we are doing God’s will by ridding the world of the bad
people when we should be included in that kind of purge.
“It’s down to the
right. There’s a bunker. That’s where they keep the sacrifices,” I was finally
tired of wondering around when I knew exactly where to go.
I found them by
mistake one year when I was ten, back when inviting your whole family was more
common. They expected everyone to be present even if you weren’t weilding a
musket and shooting real people down.
The four of us used
to play hide and seek on the grounds just to keep ourselves entertained. I
always had the best hiding places, this was our vacation home when it wasn’t
being used for some ceremony the Clave hosted.
I was ten years old
when I found people in cages in the bunker we were told to stay away from. They
were all dugged, out of it like they were dreaming with their eyes open. I
envied them. Dreaming with your eyes wide open seemed like the perfect antidote
to life, too bad that kind of safety only came before you died.
It wasn’t until my
first attendance I realized these people weren’t lucky at all. They were bait,
aggression running wild, enemies of the Clave that we hunted for sport.
None of them were
going to survive - the least we could do was let them dream with their eyes
wide open.
Author Bio
Elena Monroe
grew up in Florida scribbling down stories from a very young age. These stories
were really just wavy lines filling the paper, but she knew each word, each
emotion, each character's name, and there was no tricking her into forgetting
what each line signified. Just like her unconventional way of writing as a
toddler Elena is setting her own rules and just telling stories.
Much like her debut novel, The Best Years, life certainly imitated art. Transplanting from the South to the East Coast, Elena currently lives in Connecticut with her soon to be husband, reformed bad boy.
Find her on her social media through Twitter at @elenamonroe, Instagram at @elenamonroewrites, Facebook at @elenamonroewrites, and more!
Much like her debut novel, The Best Years, life certainly imitated art. Transplanting from the South to the East Coast, Elena currently lives in Connecticut with her soon to be husband, reformed bad boy.
Find her on her social media through Twitter at @elenamonroe, Instagram at @elenamonroewrites, Facebook at @elenamonroewrites, and more!
Author Links
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