Do you ever wonder what happens to your favorite characters after an author writes The End?Now is your chance to find out! Check in with a few of these wily personalities and get a sneak peek into what they’ve all been up to since this author wrote The End on them.Is Mischa still in Italy?Is Constantine still crazy?Are Jameson and Tate still fighting?We may finish books, but stories are never … may finish books, but stories are never really over.
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND ALL NEW CHAPTERS CONTINUING THE STORIES FOR:
The Bad Ones
My Time in the Affair
The Mercenaries: Law
Muscle Memory
Twin Estates
The Kane Series
and a special chapter from an unpublished work –
While I Was Away
WARNING: This anthology was done as part of a four year publish-versary celebration. Chapters potentially contain spoilers in regards to their previously published full length editions. It is recommended to have read those editions before reading this anthology.
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I thought this was a brilliant idea, catching up with your favorites. Finding out what happens after ‘The End.
Of course, I read the Kane series first, as this was my first read of Stylo and Tatum is my fave female character of her.
Nice to see she’s still as sassy AF and Kane is still Satan, I loved it and Sanders of course.
Twin Estate was up next because Wulf is my fave male character. It was nice to see him and Liam playing nicely.
It was great catching up and again this is a brilliant idea.
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Shelby –
This book is a brilliant idea! Who hasn’t thought about characters in their favorite books, long after reading them? Checking In gave us teeny glimpses into the “current” lives of favorite characters – and I loved every single snippet. I might love Law the most (just because he’s the Law!).
We start this little journey with Constantine and Dulcie, who visit their hometown and reminisce. Of course, that’s not all that happens when these two are together! Kicking off the book with these two just set the entire mood for me. I loved The Bad Ones. Honestly, who am I kidding? I loved everything Stylo Fantôme has written.
Muscle Memory – this one just about killed me.
My Time in the Affair – this was beautiful, and absolutely the closure I needed for this story.
What can I say about Wulf, Katya, and Liam? These guys are a treat!
Every single update is an absolutely perfect addition to each story ever told by Fantôme.
Some are deep, some are light, but all are awesome!
Erica –
Checking In is an anthology, obviously checking in with the completed works by Stylo Fantôme. Since I’ve been a bad girl and have only read Twin Estates and The Kane series, I can testify to the fact that it was easy to navigate to the short stories I was looking forward to reading without spoiling the ones I’ve yet to try. As I clicked past other stories, I had the desire to check out the rest of the author’s published works in the near future. Win-win.
I’m reviewing only that which I read, unable to give an opinion about the shorts that are in other series I’ve yet to try.
Twin Estates
Escaping their reception, a randy Wulf showcases his douche-baggery as he and Katya take an elevator ride up to their wedding suite. Oh, how I’ve missed his grouchy, exacting personality. The married couple encounters the other two couples in the series, our naughty twins, alongside Wulf’s personal assistant and Katya’s right-hand woman.
It was a pleasure to see everyone again, after their series ended, a quick glimpse into their happily ever afters. A little hijinks to celebrate the momentous occasion.
The Kane Series
Narrated by Sanders.
This wasn’t a warm and fuzzy, comfortable read. Tatum is her usual irrational, train wreck self. Jameson is just as baiting as ever. Bickering and fighting for no good reason, with TSTL (too stupid to live) actions taking place, Sanders is left to play mediator.
While what takes place happens by accident, Tate always running off gets her into trouble as usual. Not blaming anyone but the driver, but at some point Tate must take responsibility for her irrational, irresponsible, immature behavior, with Jameson realizing he’s no better.
Truth be told, as much as I enjoyed this series, this just hammered home how toxic Tatum and Jameson truly are, and no relationship will ever function healthily with them. Sanders tries to spin it as faith and true love at the end of the story, but I just feel it’s the need for therapy and emotional maturity. They bait each other just for the drama of it, and it’s too much to swallow, especially combined with the deeper, darker emotions that were shown in this short story.
By the end of it, I felt no empathy for the train wrecks known as Tatum and Jameson, and wished Sanders had an ounce of self-preservation and would just walk away and never look back.
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Overall, I enjoyed the short story featuring Katya and company, wished I hadn’t read Sander’s story, and am curious to take a sneak peek at others featured in the anthology to figure out which of Fantôme’s other works would be a good fit for me to read.
Highly recommend by fans of the author/series/books who wish to know what happened after the epilogues.
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Checking In by Stylo Fantôme to read and review.
Well this was just a pleasant read. I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t read all of Stylo Fantôme’s books *gasp*, but not once did I feel confused or lost while reading this. If anything, it got me excited for the books that I have yet read!
You’re thinking “what about spoilers?! “. Well I am that unicorn that just loves spoilers, yep, I’m at that person. But don’t worry, I would never write a spoiler in a review, that’s just going against reviewer code.
The Twin Estates is a series that I’m familiar with the most because those are the only books I’ve read from her. And it was quite a treat to get that extra chapter, I never realized how much I missed the trio together… Well the trio in a much positive and happy light *wink*
Even if you didn’t read all of her books, it was still something I absolutely loved reading. It made me hungry to read more of her work that I enjoy so much!