4.5 stars 
 Love this series. It has so much goodness in it. Challenges rape culture. Characters who deeply value consent and talk a lot about consent. Chosen family. Queerness and polyamory are no big deal and everywhere. Characters who value and honor desire, including women who honor their own desire and men who value and honor women's desire. Complex and nuanced representation of sex work and sex workers. All of which is rare in both romance and post apocalyptic fiction. 
 This book sets off and sets up the entire thing, builds the world, shows you the characters, sets up the next 5 books at least. Rereading it was a deep pleasure and comfort on a hard day. I fell for Noelle all over again, and for this universe. I adore Lex so much, she is amazing and my favorite Beyond character and I wish I could be friends with her. I really liked Lex and Noelle together so much. 
 I like Noelle's arc in this a lot, it was really satisfying all the way through. I did want Jasper to prove himself a bit more before the end, and I wished that there was a bit more room in the book and especially in Jasper's mind for Noelle to be into humiliation play. 
 The sex and the kink was wonderful, particularly the way D/s dynamics unfolded, and the group scene. This series really delivers on that front every time. It was especially fun to watch Noelle struggle between her desires and what she had been told to feel about sex, that arc was lovely. 
 Trigger warnings: (view spoiler)[ Physical violence, both using weapons and more performatively in organized matches. Substantial injuries from violence. References to torture, trauma and past sexual assault; nothing occurs on page. References to being trained in sex work as a child. 
 Consensual kink and sex: Sex: vaginal sex, oral sex, anal sex, use of toys. Bondage. D/s. Pain play. Light humiliation play. Punishment play. (hide spoiler)]