This book starts off with Kirill masterminding his way out of his marriage to Kristina and getting her married to his brother Konstantin while also making sure that this doesn't hinder his plans of becoming the Pakhan. Once he gets all the needed votes and becomes the Pakhan, he can't wait to get back to Sasha but he finds out that there was an explosion at the cabin she was staying at and when he reaches there, he finds her "corpse".

Post this, Kirill goes on a murder spree to kill every single person who was involved in her death while also trying to figure out who ordered the hit. He blames himself for her death since she was targeted because of his ambition. And during this time, he goes through hell.

Sasha still thinks that she was attacked by Kirill in order to eliminate her so he could marry Kristina and become the Pakhan. She goes back to her family and plots a way to kill Kirill. But when the time comes, she finds herself unable to do so and Kirill forces her to return with him by threatening to kill Anton.

She reluctantly agrees but adds a condition that she would only return for 3 months, post which she needs a divorce. Kirill agrees just to appease her and they go back home. Now he just has to convince her to stay. While Kirill tries to figure out who was behind the attack, he and Sasha get ambushed again. This forces them to put their differences aside for now in order to survive.

As time goes by, Sasha's resolve to keep Kirill away starts to chip away but she still isn't sure how far he would go in order to reach his goals and if she would ever come first in his life. Kirill is trying his best to give Sasha her space but at the same time he needs to know that she isn't going to leave him.

There is a lot more drama and surprises that come up along the way and Sasha and Kirill try to navigate through all the chaos and figure out where their relationship is going.

This series started off really strong for me but I genuinely think that given the plot twist/reveal at the end of this book, this series could've been a duology and was unnecessarily dragged. The reveal was actually quite predictable so it didn't really surprise me. I had my doubts from the first book about that character. Everything seemed to be rushed right at the end but nothing much really went on for the rest of the book.

I felt terrible for Kirill

Spoiler

when he thought Sasha was dead and went on a killing spree and was so depressed that he wanted to die. That was the time he showed he actually had genuine feelings for her and cared about her more than his plans to be the Pakhan.

I also liked that even though Sasha was pissed at Kirill and even shot him, she didn't let anyone threaten or harm him in any way.

Their relationship had a lot of ups and downs in this book and a lot of drama going on. I also understand why Kirill was so antsy about knowing where Sasha was at any given time since he blamed himself for her "death" and went through hell for those two months. He had this constant fear that he would lose her or she would leave him. Which is why he puts a tracker in her arm, although I don't approve of it since she said no but he put it anyway, but I also understand where he was coming from.

Like in book 1 and 2, I loved the side characters and they definitely helped carry the book. Anton and Maksim have my heart. I definitely need their book.

What I didn't like:
Constantly referring to Kristina a robot was just not needed. We get that he only had eyes for Sasha but you don't have to make him talk that way about someone who was clearly threatened and forced to marry him by his family without a choice. She was actually quite brave cuz she had the balls to say no to the wedding and run away to be with Kosta.

The first 2 books focused on all his plans to get to where he is now. Being the Pakhan. But that role wasn't even given any attention or importance in this book. And didn't he promise his father that he would only be taking over to ruin everything his father had built?? But now he's changed his mind and is actually interested in being the leader??

Rai can't be the Pakhan cuz she's a woman?? Reallyy?? That's literally the only reason why???? What is the correlation between using your brains to run an empire and what's between your legs? And what's with all the hate Kirill has for Rai?? Why does it feel like the only reason he hates her is cuz she's a woman and involved in the organization. I was so goddamn sick of it cuz I really liked Rai.

Sasha kinda turned into a doormat in this book. She kept saying one thing but doing the opposite. And she never even gave Kirill the benefit of the doubt or even tried to hear him out when he was trying to explain that he wasn't behind the attack.

Once he knew Sasha was alive and got her back he seemed to change a lot. It felt more like he wanted to possess her and own her but not once did he truly hear what she had to say. He kept disregarding anything she had to say or laughed it off. He didn't care about her opinions or problems or pain and kept making it all about himself whenever she tried to communicate with him (which is funny cuz they barely communicated properly or even tried to clear the misunderstandings or issues between them).

I usually love the whole situation in a book where the MMC refers to the FMC as "my wife" but that was so overdone in this book that it made me cringe every time Kirill called Sasha his wife.

They kept going round and round the same conversation for the entire book and didn't reach any understanding or conclusions. There were misunderstandings and neither were trying to clear it or hear the other person out.

The book still kept me hooked despite all the issues and it was still a good ending to the trilogy and I definitely enjoyed it a lot.