Conflicted Thoughts — The Unwanted Book Series by Natasha Anders
It was a rollercoaster of emotions
So, as one usually does, I was craving a story about unrequited love.
During my extensive search on TikTok, I found Natasha Anders and her series called The Unwanted — a perfect name in my opinion, as it captures all the agony the unrequited love trope should encompass.
I want to preface by saying that I did enjoy some parts of the books, they had everything I wanted until they didn’t…
The series currently consists of three books, with the latest one released on June 17, 2024.
They follow the love stories of a group of male friends, all centered around making the female main character, as the title suggests, unwanted by the male main character.
There’s no need to read them in order, as I had no problem skipping the second book and jumping to the last one. You’ll know why I made that choice in a moment.
The structure of the series
They all follow the same recipe that, in hindsight, should be a chef’s kiss.
- First Act: The Female Main Character (FMC) is in love with the Male Main Character (MMC) who either hates her or simply doesn’t see her as a romantic partner.
- Second Act: There’s some type of miscommunication that makes the MMC act like a total douchebag. That leads to FMC trying to fight her love for the MMC, but that fight ends up being futile.
- Third Act: They overcome the miscommunication, the MMC is apologetic, and the FMC forgives him.
They live happily ever after.
The problem with executing the recipe by book
The recipe wasn’t recipeing.
This is the first book of the series, and it follows the love story of Theresa and Sandro.
This book features the trope of a marriage of convenience — he feels trapped, while she is in love and sees the situation as a glass half full.
This is by far the best book of the series. It made me feel all the angst and mushy feelings that I wanted, but something was missing.
The second act, in my opinion, was too short. It felt like there was a jump from the first to the third act. I say this because there’s no real struggle from Theresa to stop loving Sandro, and the miscommunication is rapidly resolved.
Sandro quickly changed his behavior, so I lost the perfect opportunity to feel more angst and for the groveling I was expecting and looking for in this type of trope.
But all in all, it did have groveling and angsty moments, just not in the way I was expecting, so I give it 4 stars.
Just no.
The second book follows the love story of Bronwyn and Bryce, with the connection being that Bryce is the brother of Theresa’s husband’s best friend, Lisa (hope that makes sense).
The trope of this book is second chance romance, which is one of my least favorite tropes. However, that’s not the only reason I DNF’d it; it had way more issues than I initially accounted for.
The book starts with a scene that is not salvageable. He’s accusing her of getting pregnant on purpose and explicitly telling her to get away, so obviously she does.
With that start, I was thinking, okay, there’s no need to escalate that miscommunication, I really can’t hate you more MMC, but oh boy, is there more to hate.
There’s a jump in time to what I remember as 18 months ahead. They end up living in the same house, and we then discover he is deaf because of a mysterious accident that will be explained in later pages.
Still, no reason could ever justify that type of behavior, he is just plain mean.
So, let’s recap all we have so far, and remember that I only got to page 104 of 304. He accused her of trapping him with a baby, even though they were already married. Then he accuses her of causing his car accident, which resulted in his deafness. I mean, that guy just hates taking responsibility for his actions. And to top it off, there’s a questionable sex scene that doesn’t seem very loving and feels more forced.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that I hated him and wanted Bronwyn to get her kid and get away from him. To thrive and find love elsewhere.
At that point I had enough. But if you’d like me to finish the book and provide a more in-depth review of A Husband’s Regret, let me know in the comments. I can take one for the team.
It’s a one star read for me but.
A friends-to-lovers story that got me thinking
why are they even friends?
This third book follows the love story of Bobbi and Gabe. She is the stereotypical tomboy in love with his best friend, who is the definition of a perfectionist.
While Gabe fits Bobbi’s ideal type, the ideal type for Gabe is everything that Bobbi isn’t. And let me tell you, I didn’t have to analyze that much to reach that conclusion. The book will time and time again remind you just how much Bobbi is not his type, to the point that you can’t help but get annoyed and hate him.
Why do I hate him? Isn’t it fair that he has a type? We all are entitled to one after all. Well, yes, I agree. What I don’t agree with is that he proposes a friends-with-benefits arrangement and then constantly makes the situation suit him while disregarding the feelings of his best friend. The very reason he is ashamed of her should have been reason enough to end the agreement.
He maintains that type of behavior even after the miscommunication trope is resolved. I was so ready to give this book a 1-star review until the last 10 pages when he finally stopped being ashamed of her. Wow, the standards are on hell, but he did say some cute stuff, so I gave the book a 2-star review.
This review got me thinking that there were several places where they could have addressed mental health, which I think would be interesting to explore.
If you would like to read about it please leave a comment!
End of my rant.. for now.
This is my survival kit for the series
A mug that reflects your mood
A Stress Relief Candle to get through all the shenanigans the MMC will put you through
And that’s it — you’re all set for the journey (I hope).
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Have other books you want me to review? Leave them in the comments!
Happy read, and may all your books have happy endings.
