The Big A.S.S. Party by Susanne Valenti & Caroline Peckham

Okay, Geraldine, I see you sis. Get that cantankerous crustacean and make him fall in looooove with you. 

This novella obviously takes place over the course of book 5. Max’s entire included POV should have been in here instead of book 5. I feel like with the fact that the authors keep adding novellas and side novels from different POV’s, they can easily cut the fat from the main series by pivoting to a format like this for any POV’s not in line with the main characters. If having the love interests is important, that’s totally fine and cool by me, Darcy & Tory and Darius & Lance. It makes sense that way anyway, since the main plot is dominantly focused around the four of them. It just feels so unnecessary to have so many other POV’s outside of them. There could easily be side novels that are a retelling (like book one has a retelling from the Heir’s POV’s) from the other characters POV’s like Caleb, Seth, Max, Geraldine, Xavier, whomthefuckever. 

Despite everything else, the one truly redeeming quality about this series is the authenticity of the friendships. Geraldine is easily my favorite character, so I loved the novella just for the sake of having more of her POV, but I loved the way she’s loved and loves in return. Despite how peculiar she is, Darcy and Tory truly truly love her and care about her emotional well being, about protecting her feelings, about making her feel supported. In return, she’s so fiercely loyal it’s almost unbelievable. 

There were so many grammar and formatting errors. It was exhausting. This was a high star rating for me because Geraldine is just such an incredibly unique character and Max’s obsession with her is so cute. Yet, the issues with the actual freaking writing were insane.