Run Riot

State of Grace Series, Book 1

By: Colette Rhodes

Narrated by: Lance West, Rebecca Estrella

Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

By the time an agathos woman reaches twenty-five, she's supposed to be one thing, and one thing only:

Bonded.

I'm zero for four soul bonds, a disgrace to my family, and the black sheep of my community.

It had me feeling reckless. Impulsive. Daring. In a moment of weakness, I let the darkness lurking inside of me rule, and it changed everything.

I was supposed to embrace the light, but how could I fear the dark, when it brought me Riot?

Contains mature themes.

©2021 Colette Rhodes (P)2023 Tantor

I ADORE this series

This is my second read through of this entire series. I thought I really liked it the first time, but after I finished all the books I realized I missed all the main characters. And to me, that’s the sign a book is incredible. I wish the rest of the series had an audiobook but maybe we will be lucky enough to get them soon.

I think the way mainstream religion and extremism and bigotry is explored in this series is the truly captivating part. The spice in this book is minimal but it does heat up for the rest of the series. I highly recommend the entire series.

It's not great.

I like this author, but this book just wasn't it. The effects of religious cult brainwashing I get, but this girl is late twenties and STILL acts like a teenager. I almost DNFed over the constant use of "sugar." The MMC was a jobless loser who basically moved into her house. No money, no job, no real powers. By chapter 18, we've still not moved ahead. The FMC finally, barely back talked her mom. That was the big bad. Her "darkness." LOL

Narration is ok, but the story is not great

Not even superb narration could fix this one, imo.
West is good, Estrella is fine. If y'all really want to slog through this one or actually *like* MC's that are pushovers with no motivation, then I suggest speeding up the narration, at least.

This book's plot didn't go anywhere by chapter 9 when I DNF'ed. [Literally! The mc's had met, feelings ensued thus creating a conundrum for CHAPTERS.] It was by that point merely a junior-high level soap opera about some piteous girl-child stuck in a religious cult. This poor mooncalf's internal monologue was constant self-recrimination and self-pity and was extremely repetitious. Also, she somehow, despite living outside of her family and away from her weirdo cult members, had never figured out that their ideas and social strictures were strange and harmful.
It's a fairly skeevy book, really! The thoughts and motivations of the fmc better reflect a naive teenage girl and the mmc's thoughts and behaviors better represent a guy only slightly older than that, who is a deadbeat and a loser. Do not see the appeal of the characters or the book.

I think the writing is technically good though, e.g. the prose is just peachy as far as I can tell.

Ima go listen to some RH about demons or something. Something a little more grounded than this.