Warped Minds

Boys of Briar Hall, Book 4

By: Elena Lawson

Narrated by: Bridget Bordeaux, Jake Bordeaux

Warped Minds is the fourth and final book in the Boys of Briar Hall series and should be listened to after Twisted Games.

©2022 Elena Lawson (P)2022 Petal and Thorn Books

What a finale!

The final book in Ava Jade and the Crows love story was high-octane, steamy, gripping, and emotional! I could not stop listening, I needed to get to their reunion, make sure everyone made it out alive, and see how they would enact their revenge. And boy this author kept us on our toes!

Let's start with the narration first. This dynamic duo did a fabulous job with the characters in this series, I felt Jake brought these 3 guys (who are so different) to life and I could feel their anguish, anger, loss of control with losing Ava Jade, seeing her hurt and all the twists and shocking events that I won't spoil in this review. My heart stopped with Rook's big decision. I was punched in the gut, almost cried. The performance was so good and believable. Bravo! And Bridget, the scenes she had to read and really get into AJ's mindset while being held hostage and tortured....phew even my mind hurt after all that (because I was so immersed in the story and the brutality of it all). I can't imagine performing it. She did a fabulous job with her rendition.

For the story, I wanted to give this 5 stars because it was so epic in moments and I think the author did a good job ending their story and opening it up for a future spinoff (as we know now is Becca's story). The ending....oh my goodness I wanted to give a certain side character a hug so badly! I am excited to see what the Crows cousins have in store for us and see the Uncle and how he differs from Diesel. So for me I thought the pacing was done well, I know some reviews say the beginning was boring. I mean the group was separated and if she got found early it wouldn't have had as much impact. I won't say I liked that part because it was hard to hear what Ava Jade was going through and the aftermath of the slaughter of the Crows, but I thought it was super important to the story and the arc of her stalker and Ava Jade getting her karmic justice. I won't give things away but we get to learn a lot of the stalker and with one of the guys everything finally clicks and the harem can be a cohesive unit after all is said and done. I think for me some of the injuries and the recoveries were not realistic enough. Yes I know its fiction but this is in the contemporary genre so you need to do your research and pick injuries that fit the timeline you need. Some of these things were too fatal of an injury to have people come back from, esp in that short of time/with that kinda of recovery. Also, the part where Corvus does something extreme, I am not sure what was up but I got so confused. I had to replay the chapter a couple times because I was confused where they all were in relation to one another. Can't say much without giving stuff away but I think there was a plot hole or continuity issues in that area that took me out of the story trying to figure out what was going on.

Everything else was great. The emotion of the characters was palpable, the forgiveness and rebuilding of their unit was fun to watch. I liked the groveling and the vulnerability these tough Crows showed Ava Jade and some of the side characters. Seeing how they treated Becca was heartwarming. The way they were there for each other as brothers and their father. How the Saints treated Ava Jade towards the end. So many amazing moments, couldnt give it less than 4 stars for this fabulous finale. Sad to see it over, but hoping Becca's book gets audio as well so I can continue to listen to these characters in the future ❤️

Enjoyment!

I really enjoyed the series and recommend. The Narration was amazing as always, I have all four books through Audible. The only downfall was the main characters were supposedly in high-school, but acted and behaved more as young adults. The story would of been more realistic if they were in college vs high-school. Overall highly recommend the series.

Wow!!!

What a great conclusion to this series. Love the writing of Elena Lawson. this is the best dark romance series. Jake and Bridget Bordeaux did a great job with the narration.

Warped Minds

Well 💩, talk about a great finish. This is the last book in this series and let me tell you it did not let you down. we all know the danger is a never-ending story in the life of gangs, but at least the biggest threat was taking care of. man, I'm so happy for Ava Jane & her boys. she so deserves all the happiness. but man I have never been so sad for a series to finish. but hopefully and to be honest I would like to get a story about the uncle's son's, hey Elena Lawson maybe an idea. lol, just a thought. like always Bridget and Jake Bordeaux did a wonderful job.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒔: Contemporary Dark Reverse Harem, Gang
𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒆: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
𝑷𝑶𝑽: Multiple, all members of the harem, Duet Narration
𝑻𝑾: This series contains foul language, explicit sexual content, graphic depictions of gang violence, dubcon, and jealous/possessive themes. Recommended for readers aged eighteen and up. Please read responsibly.

“𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆. 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏. 𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌. 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏’𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌. 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆. 𝑺𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕. 𝑻𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍. 𝑰’𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆.”

Oh wow, this was a seriously epic conclusion to this series. And oh my goodness, that twist was something I definitely did not see coming.

The narrators do such an amazing job bringing this story to life, I absolutely love the duet narration for this book, it is so well done.

This book will give you all the feels and cause you to tops your kindle hoping when you pick it up again that you definitely didn’t just read that part, it clearly wasn’t happening in the book.

I have loved Ava Jade so much since book 1. She is such a strong character & her strength really shows in this book. I love each of her crows as well.

This series is so good and it is definitely one to check out.

Must have!

The Bordeauxs did it again! The narration is top notch and brings the book to life. The series is well written and doesn’t lag. HEA given!

Beautifully Warped

This book has soooo much going on! I have been all about dark and dirty and this book gives it to you in spades. If you have trigger warnings keep scrolling but if you don’t come to the dark side. Packed with emotions and a truly twisted story line this book will have you biting your nails and holding your breath over and over! I couldn’t put it down. Completely blocked out the crap in my world for a few beautiful hours as I got lost in the this world!

Hea

The twists the turns the heartache. I didn't think I could take anymore and yet. I survived. I survived. Bravo. All around top series in my eyes

Enjoyed.

Okay okay, disbelief over the healing injuries and the fact that they are all 18ish years old a side, I did enjoy this series!! Eva Jade was a pretty good FMC and the guys are delectable!! I did get really annoyed a few times. When the inevitable separation happens I hate when authors throw in a fake dream sex scene to fill in space just because the main characters are trying to get back to one another. I also disliked how long her internal monologs got at times. Overall a solid mafia RH, just leave any realm of believability behind and enjoy the sexy ride.

WTF

Wow. I mean, let’s be honest—the whole series is really over the top & unrealistic, but the majority of it was written in a way that I could choose to ignore some of the most ridiculous aspects (these are supposed to be high schoolers?! Ummmm. No.). But this book was just one eye-roll-inducing moment after another. Don’t get me wrong—I couldn’t put it down. I really had to find out what happened! But it was just SO over the top that it, unfortunately, ruined things for me.

*****VENTING WITH SPOILER ALERTS*****

The injuries are recovery times are absolutely insane. Why not just add in that these “kids” (who really have the character development of late 20’s or early 30’s characters) have superpowers since they’re able to still run with gunshot wounds, go on with life with a puncture wound that went completely through a shoulder, survive a fall from a VERY TALL rooftop, have wild, crazy, rough, um….”intimate romps”? IMMEDIATELY after being held captive for weeks, beaten within an inch of life, injured so badly that you got a fractured pelvis AND lost the ability to conceive, oh—and also didn’t even need to be hospitalized for any of those injuries. Sure. Also run 20 miles. Barefoot & naked. Ok.
No mention of birth control or STI prevention, despite the boys being rather promiscuous, no use of lube for, um, back door activities…, taking tons of precautions to cover your tracks when doing a B&E but then deciding to have a wild group “romp” & leave DNA allllll over the place, while also knowing it’s very likely that your psycho stalker could be coming to get you any second.

I’m also disappointed that there were so many loose ends & unnecessary subplots mixed in, and not a single “I love you” was ever exchanged.

I don’t understand what happened. This series started out so strong, but it felt like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a mystery/suspense kind of story or a p0rn. All of the 🔥 scenes were so badly timed & grossly inappropriate in every way that it really felt icky.
Ugh.
I’m sad.