Two Halves, One Brian

This is book 4 of the series. For our summary and review of the previous books, click the links below!

• Psycho Shifters, book 1
• Psycho Fae, book 2
• Psycho Beasts, book 3

Book Stats

• Book 4 of the Cruel Shifterverse series
• Format: ebook (Kindle Unlimited)
• Chapters: 39 (with 1 epilogue)
• Pages: 438
• POV: 1^st person, from Aran’s POV

Book Rating

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Spice: 🌶️🌶️/ 5

Summary & Review

Jasmine Mas, you never let me down. I enjoyed Aran’s character from the previous 3 books of this series, but I was concerned about meeting new characters. I mean, once you got to know the crazy alpha shifters, how could other men compare? But you did not disappoint!

This one is more intense than the previous books. While they were enemies-to-lovers, the characters in this book are just straight up enemies. The main male characters are bullies and enjoy being cruel to those they deem “lesser”.

Remember Aran/Arabella, the missing princess who ran away but was later brought back home, where she became queen by killing her mother and eating her heart, but then ran away again because she didn’t want to be queen? This book is about her.

She once again uses glamours to transform into a male. After the events that took place at the Equinox Ball in the previous book, Lothaire shows up, stating there was a power anomaly detected and rumors pointed to Aran as the source. He bites her, tasting her elite blood, then declares that Aran will officially be enrolled in Elite Academy. She wasn’t given a choice.

To start off the school year, Lothaire hosts “the reckoning” to test the power of all new students. Those with unimaginable power are trained in the assassin division by Lothaire himself. As expected, Aran’s power causes her to be assigned to the assassin group.

This is where we met several new charactors.

Corvus Mallum is the largest of the group at about 7 feet tall. He smells like whiskey and tobacco, has a buzz cut, silver eyes, and a tattoo of a dagger wrapped around his neck. He’s usually seen with fire dancing across his skin. We later learn that he has “Vicimus” tattooed on his body as well, meaning We Conquered.

Scorpius is leaner with pale skin, short slick-backed hair, and a massive eye tattooed on the side of his neck. He smells like bergamot and musk. He’s also blind and has “Vidimus” tattooed on his skin, meaning We Saw.

Orion is softer than the other two. His features are more feminine, with gold skin, wavy white-blond hair that falls around his shoulders, and large chocolate-brown eyes surrounded by long lashes. He smells like dark chocolate and raspberries. He has “Venimus” tattooed across his back, meaning We came.

Corvus, Scorpius, and Orion call themselves the kings and all have gold hardware curved across the top of their ears. We learn that they’ve been training at the academy for 10 years and everyone wants to get with them. They’re essentially the popular jocks who are untouchable and mean.

Also in the assassin group are Vegar, a demon with dark skin and dark features, Zennith, a demon with blond hair and blue eyes, Horace, a pale vampyre (and Lothaire’s nephew), and John, a human. John is boyish with his shaggy brown hair and dimples. He and Aran become fast friends.

The assassins are regularly tortured (I mean, trained?). They have to endure standing waist deep in the Black Ocean for 10+ hours, lift and lower heavy slabs of stone, and run 40+ miles. If they fall behind or don’t respond to Lothaire with “yes, sir”, he beats them with a baton and may even send them to the sensory deprivation tank for a few hours. It’s really rough.

After a few weeks of this training, things calms down slightly, allowing the group to focus on classes and train for war. They are sent out several times to fight the ungodly – insect like creatures who looked to be melded with man. They’re tall, all covered in exoskeleton patches, have 6 long, spindly legs, and massive pincers.

Aran is forced to navigate the difficult situations, all while dealing with the bullies who constantly try to put her down. During all of it, she’s smoking a pipe and providing us with some very entertaining inner monologue.

We learned in the previous book that after Sadie and Aran went to the fae sex clinic, Aran was brought before the queen by the half-fae warriors. The queen carved “WHORE” into Aran’s back with a blade that permanently marred the flesh and would be impervious to enchantments. The scars could never be hidden and they were enchanted to burn anytime Aran got the least bit aroused.

This comes into play several times, as Aran is surrounded by attractive (though toxic) men.

Toward the end of the book, we discover who Aran’s father is and why he wasn’t around when she was growing up. We learn an interesting sacrifice he made when Aran was only 3.

We also learn the kings are actual kings. They’re the 3 Devil Kings of the ancient and illustrious House of Malum and they’re searching for their 4th mate so they can complete their bond. Lothaire allows them to stay at the academy and uses his resources to help search for their missing mate. But in exchange, he requires the kings protect someone precious to him. This is done through extreme measures, which I won’t spoil. But it’s wild.

This was another 5 star read for me. I love Jasmine Mas’s writing style and humor. I will read anything she ever writes, regardless of the plot.

I gave 2 chili peppers because there were several mentions of other characters having sexual relations. Some were descriptive, while others were just vaguely mentioned.

Favorite Quotes

• Everyone knew humans were the most fucked-up race as a whole, but individually they were powerless and weak
• I grimaced at his cheery demeanor because happy people always freaked me out.
• They were the worst type of people in all the realms—men who knew they were hot.
• For some reason, it was impossible to spiral when a child was degrading your character.
• To punctuate his ignorant statement, Corvus stomped again with his enormous foot. He mangled the cot beyond repair. Bold move on his part, because if my foot was that creepily large, I would not be drawing attention to it.
• Why did our teacher sound like she’d just ran up a flight of stairs? Weak-lunged bitch.
• Unfortunately, my new friend was too dumb to understand sarcasm. Maybe it’s a human thing?
• Was he smiling or threatening me?
• Was he hot? Yes. But did I have standards? Probably not. I wasn’t going to tell him that though.
• I’d never really thought about what I wanted in a male partner, but now I realized I wanted them to be completely unhinged. Like, super messed up in the head. I wanted to look at them and think, I’m normal. They would bring me flowers and tell me I was being cute when I killed someone. And when they razed the world to the ground for me, I’d compliment them on their technique. Was that too much to ask for?
• Living with the recruits was making me question my sexuality because as far as I could tell, men served no purpose in society.
• I’d rather have intimate relations with a rock. At least a rock wouldn’t insult me.
• I sighed heavily. “I’m trying to enjoy my coma and you’re ruining my peace.” People had no manners these days.
• Just two bros chilling, killing, and spilling the gossip.
• There was something about a grown man acting like a homicidal maniac that tickled my funny bone.
• He exerted dominance. I exerted “needs medical help.”
• One simply didn’t call their mortal enemy by their first name. It wasn’t proper.
• How dare they assume I was a virgin that was into men. Was I a virgin? Yes. Was I into men? Yes. But it still didn’t give them any right to assume things about me. Nosy fuckers.