First off - this book NEEDS trigger warnings.

I’ll start this list as best as I can: Serious physical and emotional dubcon. Degradation. Breath play. One MC is mentally abusive. The heroine is drugged and branded without her consent. Graphic violence and unaliving.

I’m going to try to keep this vague and spoiler free because I refuse to hide it. At least a vague picture of these things need to be seen.

I wanted to like this book, but this guy treated her abominably. Absolutely horribly. And by the time things leveled out for them drama happened and it got worse. He drugged her and had her tattooed without a lick of her consent. She was leaving the relationship and he did this to claim her. Worlds of f’ed up y’all.

There is a big moment that made most readers cry. Honestly, I was so removed from every character besides the female MC (the entire book was in her POV) that it didn’t hit me hard at all. I was more sad about the second half of the book - the ‘now’ - than I was over that. Her reaction to it hurt more than the actual thing if that makes sense.

These books are deeply weird. If you check the triggers beforehand (they should REALLY be added to the books - ESPECIALLY this one) and you’re intrigued and want to read - it’s on KU, go for it. I can’t say I’d never recommend it. But it’s not for me. It’s definitely an interesting story that’s very hard to put down.

I rate it so low because the content is triggering and there is no warning. The blurb and cover give the reader an idea that they’ll be getting something strange, but I don’t think it’s enough. And frankly people keep so hush hush about the contents of these books - again the ‘can you keep a secret’ thing was a brilliant unintended marketing strategy - I needed this to be noticed and we all know, people don’t look at 3 star reviews.

I’m not going to be reading book three. Honestly, after this I have absolutely no desire to. I read the first few pages and immediately got more weird stuff. No thanks.