Overall: ⭐️⭐️ (I ended up liking some of the steamy scenes or else this would be 1 star)
Readability: 📖 (I ALWAYS finish my reads. And god this book tempted me to break that streak. I didn’t want to read it. And every time I picked it back up, I continued not wanting to read it)
Feels: 🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔 (There’s a lot of recovery for the heroine in the latter half, and some more family elements introduced for the heroine but overall not a ton of character depth here. And I still don’t really have an idea how Zade can literally have and do whatever he wants. He’s like a gazillionaire with infinite replenishable resources)
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡ (There is some build up once the mains are together again. But since I was just coming off book 1 a lot of that tension was broken)
Romance: 💞💞💞 (Some things there toxic and over the top but I still found them romantic that the hero said and did 😅
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋 (I loved these intimate scenes. I thought there was a good mix of ‘in the head’ emotional feels and explicit details)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥+ (I didn’t keep track this time but there’s a plethora in the latter half of the book)
Humor: Not much – this book was a lot darker than book 1 in some ways because so much happened to the heroine. There might be some lines of line humor but it’s not a humorous book. I do like Zades one liners when he’s murdering people though...
Perspective: First person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? plot
How did the speed of the story feel? medium? Slow? I felt like I was stuck in places forever….
When mains are first on page together: I just thought book 1 took forever. Half the freaking book before the mains are on page together and I am so salty over it and will never get over it. Bleh.
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with an HEA
Epilogue: I don’t remember and don’t care to check
Format: listened to audiobook (owned)
Why I chose this book: Because I loved book 1 and was so eager to read more.

Should I read in order?
Yes! Please read book 1 first as this is a direct continuation of the story and all the plot is remainder from the actions of book 1.

Basic plot:
Adeline is taken and Zade works to rescue her.

Give this a try if you want:
- Dark romance! Plenty of content warnings, including murder on page, torture, death, child/human trafficking, as well as toxic relationship elements like severe stalking and codependent relationships (remnants from book), and some extreme torture and rape on page for the heroine – 200+ pages worth
- stalker/jealous/protective/possessive hero
- revenge on your rapists
- hero has heterochromia
- scarred and tattooed hero
- Seattle setting
- higher steam but it had a little bit of a slower burn feel – you get to read about the heroine getting tortured and raped for the first 200 pages, then the latter half does have a number of sex scenes between the hero and heroine. I didn’t count them.

Ages:
- heroine is 26, hero is 32 in book 1, so maybe they aged a year if that

First lines:
Smell. The first of my senses to trickle in.

My thoughts:
I hated this book. I am so betrayed. After my high of book 1, I guess I was expecting to like this one similarly but that was not the case.

The mains aren’t together for the first half of the book. And that entire first half was so awful for me to read. It was just pages and pages and pages….hundreds of pages...of rape and torture. I hated it.

When they come together, I liked a few elements here and there – the revenge on the rapists was satisfying and some of the sex scenes were fine but I was so fucking annoyed and salty over the first 300 pages I read that I barely cared. Not a fan.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: 2
Average rating: 3.5 stars
Favorite book: Book 1, by a lot

Endearments

Hero calls the heroine ‘little mouse’. 

Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.

- god, lots of them. I’m sure I’m going to miss a bunch.
- elements of dubious/non-consent between the hero and heroine. They have a stalker relationship where the hero didn’t take no for an answer
- there’s a lot of death, murder, torture on page. The hero has a torture chamber and has murdered plenty of people and it happens on page multiple times
- there’s pages….hundreds of pages...of reading about the heroine being abused and raped and tortured and tormented and beaten and it’s fucking awful
- I don’t want to relive any more...if you have a specific question just send me a message and I’ll see if I know!

Author content warnings? Didn’t hear them in the audiobook but I think they are in the e-book and on Carlton’s website

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex aspects, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:

 
Safe sex: 

  No, but I think the heroine is on birth control 

 
Hows the consent? 

  The heroine is raped on page multiple times by multiple people in the first half. The sex with the hero is more consensual but if you’ve read book 1 you know their whole relationship is based on dubious consent at best. These novels are not for the consent seeking. 

 
Pregnancy/children in story? (Please note this is the best to my memory/note taking. If you see something I missed please feel free to message!) 

  No children in the story, but there is some mention I think of the hero wanting to get the heroine pregnant? But there is no pregnancy on page or mentioned in this story. He also talks about removing her birth control without her consent 

 
I didn’t take notes. The first 200 pages has the heroine being raped repeatedly. The latter half of the book has a plethora of scenes with the hero. Higher steam but slow burn for the mains again.