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Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking
Minor: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicide, Kidnapping
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Minor: Suicide
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder
This book was...something. And it's a weird one for me to wrap my head around to review. I think part of the issue is that this is a "brother's best friend romance" in the same way that Twilight is about falling in love with your biology lab partner. Like yeah, it's technically true, but it also is so little of the story that playing that up in the description feels like false advertising.
The first half of the book is a solid 3 stars. I enjoyed the tension between the characters, even if it didn't have much foundation. I was interested in the admittedly unrealistic friend group. And I really like the FMC overall. At first, it honestly seemed like a half-decent escapist romance. Aloof billionaire with moderately kinky bedroom interests falls for the bubbly, sweet nice girl--not my fave, but it fills a purpose. The MMC was a little creepy with his possessiveness at times, but I read the trigger warnings and expected this to be a dark romance so it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I was even willing to look past the weird trauma-induced horniness that kept seeming to pop up (every time they talked about how terrible their past was, suddenly they were falling rapidly into lust with each other) because what followed was usually enjoyable.
But then, we got to the second half and whoo-boy, this took a turn for the worse.
What seemed like it was a moderately-dark romance turned into a murder mystery without any mystery exposition? We went from billionaire-brother's-best-friend to something that felt more mafia-like and involved all this betrayal? It was confusing because there were so many subplots that were smooshed together, without any logical relation, and that were resolved without any genuine build to make you about the twists. Not to mention that characters switched their personalities like turning on and off a light switch. And at one point, a character suddenly starts singing without any preamble? For what? It felt like whiplash with all the character and storyline changes, and not in a fast-paced, look-at-all-this-come-together sort of way. Instead it was a the-story-doesn't-feel-well-thought-through sort of way.
I gave this story 2 stars as an average of the decent first half and the terrible second half. I'm just so confused by this book and why so many people seemed so in love with it. It's not even like it was just a book filled with good spicy scenes. There's only like 2 actually smutty scenes and maybe 2 or 3 spicy scenes that I recall in the whole book, and the rest was telling without showing. It was a fast enough read (I finished it in 2 nights), and I honestly enjoyed a lot of the interactions between the leads. But man...I cannot recommend this book.
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Stalking
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting
Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use