Controlled

Chastain Castle #2

by Hunter Bailey

357 pages, Paperback

Published July 10, 2026

Reviews

[Rachael Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

I was absolutely foaming at the mouth to get into this one after how much I loved the first book. From the prologue alone, I was already on the edge of my seat.

I'm just as obsessed with these characters as I was the last book. Atticus is the most perfect dom. He has such a strong commanding presence even from the first book, and he is so protective of Cameron. All he wants is to give Cameron the best life possible. And Camerons backstory gives him so much complexity and you can't help but feel for him and root for him to get everything he deserves. The spice and chemistry between these two? Absolutely 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

Once the mysterious and unexplainable occurrences started happening, this book gave me genuine anxiety. I can't say too much without spoiling anything, but I knew I was in for it again and I couldn't stop flipping pages to figure out what was going on.

Hunter Bailey's writing never drags. It pulls you in completely from cover to cover. I don't know what she's putting in these books, but I am fully addicted.

[Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounding up to 3. Oof this one didn’t hit NEARLY as hard as the first one. Plot didn’t even start until like 50% in. I was just curious enough about the storyline to not DNF. There was so much miscommunication (not a fan of the trope to begin with) that was repeated so many times and could have been solved if the characters weren’t so unnecessarily stubborn. There was just so much back and forth, it drove me crazy. I felt like so many of the characters actions just did not have strong enough justifications at all, felt like a lot of the interactions were almost forced for the plot. I was really excited for this one and was left feeling pretty disappointed, considering I absolutely devoured the first one. I wish the author had gotten into the supernatural aspect a little sooner. The entire first 30% was just backstory which could have been summed up ALOT faster, and then we didn’t even get our first taste of the supernatural until muchhh further into the book I think it was like 70%. There was so little time to explore the dynamic the two MC’s had during that arc (trying to keep this spoiler free but you know the one). The first book focused heavily on the internal feelings of the MC that had the condition, and they were so descriptive and dark but also made a lot of sense. I just don’t feel like either of the MC’s in this book had a ton of development. Atticus, maybe, but Cam? There was just SO MUCH POTENTIAL with this one, once the plot finally hit I was so confused because it was such a good and unique plot line, I was just thinking why is this book only just now starting? Idk I’m gonna read the third book but feeling nervous about it now.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75/5!

The plot was soooo good, and I loved the characters. Atticus and Cam felt a little surface level at the beginning of the book, I think because their relationship moved fairly quickly, but the depth to their characters was fantastic by the end of the book.

As always, I loved the worldbuilding. The descriptions were great, and I LOVE that we got glimpses of Julian and Atlas enjoying their life after the first book. I was worried that the first book and second book would be too similar because it seemed like it could have had really similar plots, but they were so different. There were moments where I genuinely laughed out loud or gasped in shock.