Why Does 'The State Of Us' Have Mixed Reviews?

Bruises. That’s all Louis has ever known. At twenty-seven, you’d think he’d have escaped the violent grip of his abusive father—but breaking free from the man who raised you, no matter how monstrous, is never simple. Life has never gone easy on Louis, and now, he carries a secret that’ll finally get him killed by his father: his sexuality. He hides it, suffocates it, tries to erase it—but it never leaves him. All he needs is a savior. Someone to pull him from the dark hole he’s sinking in. But hope has never been more than a cruel fantasy—and he’s long since stopped believing in rescue. Then comes Elias Montgomery. The most feared and ruthless Don in the Midwest. Silent. Disciplined. Calculating. And utterly alone. No one dares cross Elias. He keeps his enemies close, and the traitors? Six feet under. Love has never been part of the equation, not after what happened the last time. So, what happens when, against all odds, Elias crosses paths with Louis? Will he bury the tension—and the dangerous spark between them—for the sake of his image and empire. Or will he risk it all for a boy who’s known nothing but pain?

Holly thought she had it all—a decade-long marriage to the love of her life, Michael, a cozy home, and a sense of stability. But when Michael starts pulling away and forming a suspiciously close bond with a charming coworker, Holly feels the familiar pangs of being invisible in her own love story. Determined not to jump to conclusions, she supports Michael through his stress, even as her own insecurities and loneliness deepen. But everything changes during his work trip. Faced with the slow unraveling of her marriage, Holly chooses herself for the first time in years. She throws herself into therapy, fitness, and healing—reconnecting with parts of herself she had long buried. By chance, she meets Finn, a magnetic bartender with a guarded past and a knack for listening. Their late-night conversations turn into something more… something safe, yet electric. Now caught between the ashes of a long-term love and the flicker of something new, Holly must answer the hardest question of all: Can love survive betrayal—or is it time to let go of what once was, to make room for what could be?

Forever Us is part 2 of the book Us. It picks up where Crystal Martini and Brooks Milner leave off in the first part, after getting engaged and finding out they are expecting.

In a city where ambition shines brighter than honesty, Ethan Blackwood has built his life on control. A rising executive with a flawless image, Ethan keeps his emotions tightly guarded, believing that vulnerability is a weakness he cannot afford. Love, if it exists at all, is something distant—something meant for other people. Kai Rivera lives by an entirely different rulebook. A bold, intuitive photographer, Kai sees the world through shadows and light, capturing truths others work hard to conceal. Unafraid of emotion or connection, he moves through life with fearless curiosity—until a chance encounter at a rain-soaked art gallery collides him with Ethan. What begins as a charged glance turns into an undeniable pull. As Kai’s uninvited lens follows Ethan into quiet cafés, crowded elevators, and hidden rooftops, tension grows into something neither of them can escape. Ethan’s carefully built walls begin to crack under Kai’s relentless honesty, while Kai finds himself drawn deeper into a man who refuses to admit how much he wants to be seen. But desire is never simple. Jealousy, misunderstandings, and the pressure of expectations threaten to tear them apart. Forced into moments of uncomfortable proximity, both men are pushed to confront the truths they’ve been avoiding—about fear, identity, and the cost of loving openly. When emotions finally collide, Ethan must decide whether protecting his image is worth losing the one person who sees him completely. Shadows Between Us is a slow-burn BL romance about longing, restraint, and the courage it takes to step out of the shadows. It is a story of two men learning that love does not demand perfection—only honesty.

When Alex takes a high-paying job under the notoriously controlling CEO, Rowan Vale, they know the environment will be intensebut nothing prepares them for the psychological grip Rowan holds over every employee. Rules are absolute. Loyalty is demanded. Escape is impossible. Alex quickly becomes a target of Rowan’s attention, pulled into a dangerous dynamic where power is constantly tested and boundaries are deliberately broken. What begins as manipulation turns into a volatile push-and-pull, charged with tension neither of them can ignore. But beneath Rowan’s cold dominance lies something fractured something eerily familiar to Alex. As secrets unravel, Alex discovers that Rowan is just as trapped as everyone else, bound by expectations, past trauma, and a system they didn’t create but now control. Their connection deepens into something raw and consuming, forcing both of them to confront their own cages emotional, psychological, and physical. Together, they begin to push against the walls that confine them, but freedom comes at a price. Because breaking out might mean destroying everything Rowan has built… and risking the fragile bond forming between them. In the end, they must choose: remain prisoners of their pasts or burn the entire system down to finally be free.

After an explosion in Philadelphia, Mike loses his mother while his fiance, Rose , is at the verge of dying. He vows within himself to take up the fight and put and end to the national crisis. His best friend, Steve who was a brother stood with him in the fight. He goes through too many life seeking encounters in his course to know the truth behind the crisis. But he is stunned by a strange discovery. The head of the secret organization behind the crisis happened to be his biological father who his mother had left pathways to find. Was he going to put an end to his own father? While battling with this reality, he also finds out that his best friend, Steve, was not who he thought him to be. Steve was a traitor who was sent by his father to keep an eye on him. Justice demands that he end his father and best friend, Steve while bond calls on him to do otherwise. While standing at this crossroad, an outbreak of a deadly virus sought to wipe the whole country. Will this be the end of the United States of America? The answer now rested upon his shoulders.