Forbidden Little Game (Crimson College Book 4)

Sweet sweet Noah! Gosh, he was so sweet and broke my heart a little bit with his struggles. Torin was the best. I absolutely loved him. He fell HARD and he was so overprotective of Noah that I was eating it up. I am SO EXCITED about the MMC for the next book. I need it ASAP lol

Even though I still think book 3 is the strongest in the series, I had a really good time with Forbidden Little Game. It didn’t hit the same as “Reckless,” but it kept me invested. Noah has been an interesting character since book 1, so I was happy to finally get to know more about him, his motivations, and see him grow, confront some of his toxic past habits, and make an effort to be better. It gave his arc more depth and made his story more engaging. Torin, on the other hand, didn’t work for me nearly as well. I wanted to connect with him more than I did, but something about his storyline felt all over the place, and because of that, I never fully clicked with his POV. He wasn’t a bad character, but compared to Noah, he just didn’t feel as emotionally compelling to me. I do have to say, I like the stepbrothers trope and it works here. The relationship feels believable enough within the world of the story, and the chemistry between them is very strong. There is a lot of tension, and the spicy scenes were probably some of the strongest parts of the book. That’s something this author does really well across the whole series. My main issue is something I’ve felt with the previous books too: there’s just so much going on around the main story that it starts to feel noisy. There are a lot of side threads, extra conflicts, and little plot points fighting for attention, but not all of them feel fully developed or properly tied up by the end. Because of that, the central…

Noah and Torin were oil and water, fire and ice, hating and avoiding each other for 4 years as their parents had a working relationship, then a romance, and finally a marriage, making the two stepbrothers, a situation neither welcomed. For four years each had harbored resentment for the other, believing the misconceptions each had in their head about the other. Torin believed Noah to be a spoiled rich kid, in college but spending much of his time drinking and sleeping around, aimless without a direction of what he wanted to do or be when he graduated. Noah’s reputation preceded him on campus, even though he had recently left that behind him, trying to change, but Torin didn’t know that. Noah believed Torin was this guy who had skills and could do everything, had a killer body constantly showing off without his shirt, and with a personal mission to do charitable work and save the environment and the people in it. Torin would attend all of his father’s charitable functions, and was this confident, had-it-together person which Noah could not compete with nor ever be. Even so, there was a connection between them that was a constant push-pull, a challenge to meet and one up each other, never really stopping long enough to see the real person underneath. Things came to a head in the weeks after the wedding when Torin ended up on Noah’s university campus, living in his frat house while taking summer classes. Noah tried to ignore him, but Torin enjoyed setting Noah off, so they…

ARC Review of Forbidden Little Game Book 4 in the Crimson College Series by Raleigh Ruebins. This book is part of an interconnected series but can be read as a full standalone. I love this book. It is definitely a 5 star read for me. I was hooked from the first page I didn’t want to put this book down. I loved all the suspense. I also love all the guys in Onyx and how they are a big family and always there for each other. This is Torin and Noah’s story. I love all the tension and back and forth between them. I love how territorial and protective Torin is over Noah even when he claims he doesn’t like him. This is a spicy, slow burn, MM, stepbrothers, forbidden, forced proximity, touch him and die, roommates, enemies to lovers, secret society, dark college romance. Noah attends Crimson College and is a member of Onyx Society, one of the three secret societies on campus. It’s the summer before Noah’s senior year and he’s staying on campus taking summer classes. Torin is taking summer classes at Crimson College as well and staying at Onyx Society for the summer. Torin volunteers with a bunch of different charities and is very skilled at woodworking. Torin's mom and Noah’s dad just got married and now they are stepbrothers but they can’t stand each other. They are completely different. Noah thinks Torin is an egotistical attention seeker and Torin thinks Noah is a spoiled rich kid who only wants to party. When Noah finds himself in danger Torin protects him. The tension between…

I enjoyed this book for the most part but I was really confused as to why they were after Noah so hard. That was never really explained. The spice was seriously lacking. I also wish we could have had a scene of them telling their parents that they were together. Just all around felt lacking. Was decent but not great.