Proceed With Caution:
This book contains slavery, blood, violence, drugging, and mentions of rape and dismemberment.
The Basics:
Bad Guy is a spin-off novel of the Corsairs series. It stars Crulden, the most vicious gladiator in the universe who has just come out of a five year stasis. He's suppose to be training for an upcoming tournament, but he's completely uncooperative. At least until he gets what he wants: Mina. Mina is a human slave who just wants to fly under the radar until she finds her opportunity to escape. Catching Crulden's eye is not keeping her under the radar at all.
My Thoughts:
As always, I really enjoyed Bad Guy. Despite not being part of any of the authors main series, it's still connected, and is more of the same. So if you like her Risdaverse, Corsairs, or Corsair Brothers series, you should enjoy this one too. I really liked Mina from the beginning. She's not afraid of Crulden, but she's also not this super badass. She's just doing what she must to survive. As for Crulden...he is something special. He's suppose to be this rage-filled beast, but he's super sweet with Mina. Obviously they fall in love and need to find a way to escape with each other before Crulden's upcoming fight.
The mid-book conflict did not work for me at all. It made zero sense. Mina and Crulden are doing just fine together, until the scientist shows Mina vids of Crulden's past fights. To say they're brutal would be an understatement. She's understandably upset, but she immediately jumps to the conclusion that Cruldren's been lying to her this entire time. Huh? I could understand her now being afraid that he might flip at any moment and do the same to her, but to call him liar and say that he's been playing her? That is a leap in logic that I could not follow.
Bad Guy needed an inevitable breakup, but that was not it. Of course, that was all because Mina is super smart and knew there was a twist coming. She could feel it! I mean, I guessed this early on, and I didn't immediately think Crulden was a liar. Because surprise! Not really. I wasn't surprised, because it makes perfect sense given the situation. I liked this twist and it didn't need to be proceeded by that weird drama.
Despite all that, I did very much enjoy Bad Guy. I liked that Crulden was a different kind of hero. Not just because he has tusks (and he knows how to use them!). He's just precious when he's not in fight mode, which he only goes into in order to protect Mina. The ending was also interesting and not at all what I thought was going to happen. It was actually better!