A review by tendaii8
Fighting Instincts by Lana Kole

2.0

The overall premise for this book intrigued me and despite the reviews, I was excited to give it a go. I regret that now. I love the Sweetverse and I am actually upset that this has almost ruined it for me. By the 80% mark, I was exhausted from it all and got increasingly tedious. I had many issues with this book and I am going to give a warning right now that I am about to go off about Elise because I hated her and believe the story would have been better without her. 

Some overall things that bothered me:
  • The use of flashbacks was crazy. Not because they didn't have a place there. This is a second-chance romance, flashbacks are to be expected. But when they came, they were moments and things that felt redundant to the story. They were kind of jarring and the frequency at which they happened was irritating. 
  • Some of the driving forces of the book were half-assed and flimsy. The threat against him which kickstarted this whole thing did not give me the sense of urgency that it was trying to. Realistically, that kind of threat can be very easily dealt with and it was drawn out despite it being resolved halfway through the book (which is insane to me and proves how much of a non-issue it was). There were moments when it ramped up a little like when they destroyed his nest but that didn't make me feel a sense of fear at what this entertainment guy might do, it just made me feel bad for Stellan.
  • For the vast majority of this book, pretty much up until to 90% mark, the alphas weren't talking about Stellan like he was their decision and they genuinely wanted him there. Yes initially it was Elise wanting him there, but they all made that decision together, especially because 3 of the 4 guys were interested in him and made it clear they had the intention to court him. They still only refer to his place in the pack with him in reference to Elise. He says "his alphas" but they don't say the words "our omega" when talking about him until the last 2 chapters, they say "Elise's omega" or mention that Elise wants him there. I would think with all his insecurities regarding alphas and relationships (which he 100% has and was not addressed AT ALL in the book) there would have been much more reassurances from his alphas about his position in the pack. Stellan honestly deserved so much better from literally everyone involved and I found myself insulted on his behalf. Despite all this, the alphas that were interested in Stellan were my only saving grace for this book and the reason that .5 exists in rating (this says a lot)
  • This book could have been way shorter if the author had done a better job at writing development between the characters. So many of the chapters that showed their (minuscule and unsatisfying) development were 2X longer than they needed to be and felt both useless and annoying. 
  • I said it before but Stellan deserved better. I found myself just wishing that the book had been about him actually moving on from Elise, finding his own pack that actually makes him feel wanted as special as he is, and Elise still being sad because she now had to suffer the consequences of her actions. 

Now, on to my actual problem with this book, Elise 😒

One of my biggest issues with her was the fact that she is the one who made the conscious, out of the blue with no inciting incident, HALF-ASSED decision to literally abandon Stellan and find her own pack, only to regret it because she realized that it was a shit thing to do and it made me miserable, and we're (as an audience and Stellan as a character) is supposed to give a fuck about what she's feeling???? The number of times she or her alphas said "It was hard for her too" made me want to chuck my phone across the room and take a sledgehammer to it cause HUH????? This was your decision! I can understand doing what you need to do for yourself but that wasn't even what her motivation for leaving was. And this is going back to what I was saying before about the motivations for the book feeling flimsy because what do you mean after 9 years is when you all of a sudden became concerned about being a "good omega"? She was boring and unlikeable and had abysmal self-awareness, my anger issues and pettiness could not handle her as she single-handedly reminded me of why I don't like second-chance romance. They had to be done so well and this just wasn't. 

Don't even get me started on her inability to communicate with not only her own alphas but Stellan as well. You're telling him that you want him to join the pack but when the very much-needed conversation gets a little too personal for you, the exact kind of conversation that would actually convince him to join, you "don't feel like talking about it right now" like huh?? Half the problem was the fact that she didn't talk about her shit with anyone which in turn made everyone upset. For what reason would Stellan believe you? You decided to leave him for honestly no reason and he's just supposed to accept it? He's just supposed to roll over and do things you personally want just because? She felt like a parasite that made everyone around her miserable without them knowing it because they were too busy being blinded by thinking she was amazing. There was not a single moment in this entire book that showed me why everyone and their mother thought she was such an amazing person. 

Even her motivation for wanting him in the pack felt half-assed and disingenuous. For the most part, it just seemed like guilt itself was eating her up and she just wanted him there to absolve herself of her own guilt. Realistically, I know she was actually in love with him but nothing in her interactions with him or her inner monologue actually made me believe that. Every one of her decisions was driven by a selfish disregard for the people around her and I very quickly got sick of it. I didn't even start barely tolerating her until about the 60% mark when Stellan started integrating into the pack. <b>She was the Jason Grace POV of this book.</b> There were absolutely way too many chapters from her pov and I found myself becoming increasingly pissed off every time one came. 

I refuse to go into a reading slump over this book, I will not allow it.