Outcast (Ruthless Paradise, #1) (2024)

i cringed so hard every time i saw "baby girl"

shameless discrimination against indigenous peoples ft. unironically calling the love interest "baby girl" is just a no for me

if they still had social media, they would probably add the other's initial to their bio just to then delete it again 3 months later because they had a tragic break up when their honeymoon phase ended and finally noticed how insufferable the other is

After war changes the world as everyone knows it Kai and Callie can’t forget about each other. A party years ago has left them both with very complicated feelings. Kai hasn’t been able to forget how Callie left him and all Callie wants is to be able to remember. Callies excited is still playing puppet master behind the scenes, will his jealousy threaten everything? What will happen to Kai and Callie?

This was so good. A little spice, a little post war drama, a little spying. This book as it all!! Thank goodness Book 2 is out and I’ve got it!! I can’t wait to continue this story!!!

I really had high hopes for the plot of this book. It was like a mix between lord of the flies and lost with post apocalyptic nuclear fallout. It had a lot of promise to be super unique with the world building and the natural conflicts that come in that environment. It could’ve been built up so much more than it was. It was just disappointing.

The FMC was the stereotypical blushing virgin type. It was annoying and frustrating to read. The lack of communication between the two main characters was so frustrating. I understand they had a messy ending with the situation four years ago, but I feel like surviving a nuclear war and seeing all the evil they did would’ve given them some perspective. Maybe you could use the reasoning of their trauma, but it was still frustrating. They also kept being interrupted in important moments, but they are on an island in the apocalypse. It’s not like they have a schedule to keep really.

Their whole relationship was founded on a misunderstanding. Time after time, if they just communicated, most of their problems would be solved. I can’t tell you how many times one would think something but would make an assumption about the other and then the perspective would switch and the other one would think the exact same thing. They were always on the same page! They just didn’t f*cking talk about it!

I can’t stand Katura. Every time it was her perspective I disliked her more. She doesn’t think about anyone else and has no empathy considering she lost no one in the war. She also thinks she is this untouchable badass when really she was an arrogant, selfish bitch who needs to get her priorities straight. She mocked the survivors constantly while she was excited for her little adventure, they were just trying to survive and cope with their traumas. I do not care for her at all.

I finally got around to reading the ARC yesterday and within 5 minutes I was entranced. I DEVOURED this book in just a few hours. I'm not usually into post-apocalyptic books, but this one hit different. I love all the characters I love Callie and Kai (Why are the dark but sweet ones always named Kai?) but Ty is one of my top favorite side characters of all time. I'm so excited for the next book... I can't wait I want to know what happens with all these characters I love.

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I was bored

DNF @ 40% ... just not for me

Kai is such a sweetie

1 milion stars
this book was so unexpected
it got me out of my reading slump
but the end 😭😭😭

4.5 stars - super easy read, love the dystopian nuclear world, classic tropes that we love to see, needed something easy and enjoyable with some dramatics and thats what i got - beautiful

Personal opinion here (trigger Warner and spoiler alert): this book is just immature and very high school. They are supposed to be college aged and going through absolute chaos in the aftermath of nuclear war and there is no growth, just stagnant high school drama.

I am not a fan of miscommunication or lack of communication, especially when sexual assault is involved, and that is pretty much the story line of this book. I was waiting for it to get more interesting and for there to be some growth but just kept being disappointed.
I almost DNF it multiple times and put it down to read something else, but I stuck it out wanting to give it a chance.
I absolutely will not be reading any more into this series.

Amazing, I loved it. Read it in one sitting. Don’t have much to say except you should definitely read this book

I can't explain how much I loved this book!!! Is it the next literary classic? No. Did I love it and lived it? Totally.

First, I was delighted with the writing style! Classic, correct (even the verb tenses that most authors murder), fluid. All showing and very little telling. It's amazing when you can smell the rain and feel what the characters are feeling without needing to have everything described to you. It is RARE, but oh so amazing.
There were moments of pure pain, pure joy, pure happiness and pure angst, and I felt everything deeply.
This - along with the plot, of course - made the book "unputdownable".
If the next books in this series maintain this writing style, I will probably read everything written by this author. 😊

The plot: I could separate the plot into two lines - the romance story and the arc story. Both are great!
From the blurb, we know this is set in a post apocalyptic world, in an island that was spared to the doom and still harbours the spring breakers who where there at the time when the world went to hell and that those have split into two factions.

The arc story revolves around the why, how and future of this island and factions. And we come to see that at the center of the conflict are two former best friends who got separated by the jealousy of one regarding one girl... Callie.

The romance revolves around Callie and Kai who have met way before all this and who, due to a serious misunderstanding (I hate the misunderstanding trope but this one was not due to the stupidity of the characters and was solved kinda early on the book) hate each other. The development of their new relationship was beautiful to watch - it took some serious pride swallowing from both (IMO) and I swooned a lot 💖😍💖. And there were seriously HOT 🔥 moments between those two!! I loved how consent was so important to Kai and how he melted near Callie.

The main characters were awesome! Flawed, lovable, traumatized, strong and pure. Neither was flawless: Kai was always too much in his head and Callie was a bit naïve and not intelligent despite all she's gone through (or maybe because of it - trauma does weird stuff to people). But you can relate to those flaws, understand where they are coming from. And I loved them more for it.

The secondary characters were AWESOME!!! Kat, Ty and Maddy are my new fictional best friends! Wish I could grab a drink with them every week 😂

This book ends in a cliff-hanger so I am jumping straight to the next one. Well, maybe after I read the novella about Ty 😏.

It was a fun quick read and a great break between all the crime books I’ve been reading. Initially I was confused how they were going to make it captivating enough to make it a series but it definitely left me wanting to know what happens next. A part of me wishes that this first book wasn’t completely surrounded by the romance between the main characters but the other half of me understands that it provides the ability for the story to be stretched over a few books. I also appreciated that the intimacy wasn’t aggressive and confronting like a lot of other books usually are. Most of the series is free on kindle unlimited too apart from the last unreleased one.

Tanta coisa e bro code? Achei essa parte do Archer que é tão esperto e que falam tão bem dele um tanto ridícula e infantil. A Callie gostei, mas ela esqueceu-me muito rápido do seu propósito de querer ir para lá. A personagem que acabei por gostar mais foi o Kai. É um quase 4. O baby girl foi um grande no.

I love the way they love each other. I’m in love and literally obsessed with Kai’s love for her. It’s soo deep.

I was also eager to finally meet Archer and it was worth the wait. Can’t wait to read more about him and Kat and to see where and how will they all end up 😩

This is probably one of my fav reads of January. It started out a little slow but it picked up fast and it did not stop the rest of the book. It did leave off on a cliffhanger which I did not like but ig that just means I’ll have to read the next book asap!!

1. Why so many repetition?? I dont have that bad of a memory i can remember stuff that was said 10 pages before.
2. The hot scenes were good tho
3 «my heart starts beating so heavily in my heart» yes xD

Will i read the second one…..maybe. Just to see if he gets the girl

I really liked it, it was a bit fast and the book could have been dragged out a bit more, I didn’t like the multiple POV’s but it was pretty good!

I really liked this book! I love how Callie is so innocent, and it is written so well to show that she is.
I can not wait to read the rest in this series.

Am Anfang echt gut, hatte Hoffnung auf eine gute Storyline. Leider kam man im Buch nicht vorwärts.. die ganze Geschichte spielt sich innerhalb von 2 Wochen ab :/

3.5

This could have been a really good book/series. Post apocalypse vibes but wayyyyy to cheesy for me.

DNF @7%

Was not holding my interest.

How dare she? Proč to je tak dobrý fr? Kámo miscommunication trope 10 out of 10. Bylo to sweet, smut nic moc, ale byl to takový fajn vývoj. Sice jakože nukleární apokalypsa, ale jakoby👑

DNF @ 4% because the writing is clunky and it's pissing me off already.

so boring nothing exciting happened

DNF

The general plot had such potential:.. that’s probably the only reason it got two stars… but the dialogue… I just couldn’t stand it… it was too childish for me. And the characters aren’t the brightest ones in the bunch …

I had to DNF. This book seemed interesting but I just couldn't get into it. Like nuclear war that only effects one country even though it affects the air. Countries unwilling to help innocent people. A magical island (seemingly the only one though their are many islands in the world) where theres trauma but it's paradise. The slowburn was a little to slow for me and I hated the FMC. She was such an idiot sometimes. I also didn't understand Katura and didn't really like her character. 1/5 stars. Maybe I'll try to pick it up in the future but probably not.