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A review by corvinascloud
When Villains Rise by Giana Darling
5.0
“this beats for you. it bleeds for you. i am yours. your sword, your champion, your lover, and your home. you don’t understand this yet, but i will never hurt you. i only ever hurt for you because fuck me, you’ve been through too much already. i will only ever hurt those who hurt you because i love you and i won’t let anyone else ever get away with putting pain in your heart without consequences.”
this book was all elena, there's no way around it. whereas the first half of the duet left me feeling like she wasn't given enough, this second one was a love letter to her. from the author, from dante, from everyone in her family, both blood and found. the conclusion to the happily ever after she fought to deserve. she stole the book away, made it her own. that was proven time and time again in the smallest, but most meaningful, of details, she was donna to his capo, his regina but he wasn't king. if "when heroes fall" was her villain origin story, the death of the ice queen, "when villains rise" was her accepting her heroism, the rebirth of the mafia goddess. dante might have saved her at first, but she saved herself in this one. he might have taught her how to love herself, but she taught him new meanings of love. they were one and the same, made of the same thing, made for each other.
the true testament of this story for me is how i dislike duets based on the fact that i believe 9 out of 10 times they can be told in one book so most of the plot is just filler. this is the one exception. there were no plot holes, nothing was mentioned that didn't make sense for the overall arc of the story, everything fit in the bigger picture, including the multiple mentions of the fallen men mc.
this book was all elena, there's no way around it. whereas the first half of the duet left me feeling like she wasn't given enough, this second one was a love letter to her. from the author, from dante, from everyone in her family, both blood and found. the conclusion to the happily ever after she fought to deserve. she stole the book away, made it her own. that was proven time and time again in the smallest, but most meaningful, of details, she was donna to his capo, his regina but he wasn't king. if "when heroes fall" was her villain origin story, the death of the ice queen, "when villains rise" was her accepting her heroism, the rebirth of the mafia goddess. dante might have saved her at first, but she saved herself in this one. he might have taught her how to love herself, but she taught him new meanings of love. they were one and the same, made of the same thing, made for each other.
the true testament of this story for me is how i dislike duets based on the fact that i believe 9 out of 10 times they can be told in one book so most of the plot is just filler. this is the one exception. there were no plot holes, nothing was mentioned that didn't make sense for the overall arc of the story, everything fit in the bigger picture, including the multiple mentions of the fallen men mc.