Umm okay I’m just gonna say this book had part I loved and parts that were like pretty indifferent
Ésme
“Abracadabra, presto change-o: the don’s daughter.
His beautiful, caged bird.
It makes me sick to my fucking stomach.”
Literal love of my life, girl was trapped in a cage by her father. She’s a Mexican drug lord’s daughter and the dad is an abusive piece of shit. HOWEVER, she is shockingly not the innocent virgin who like barely understands mafia. Like she has fucked ppl, she like idk she’s a human who makes sense like she’s a badass bitch okay.
“I remind myself of who I am—or at least, who I’m expected to be: Esmeralda Moreno, princess of the Moreno cartel, the most eligible bachelorette in the entire Mexican drug world.”
Like yes I do the cooking, yes I do the cleaning. Idk I liked her character, like the way she was truly trapped was so sad but really intresting to see. Also she spits absolute facts such as
“Men are vile.”
Like so true best friend.
Anyways she is almost like assaulted and she’s saved by main guy whuch I do indeed hate this trope especially sense they fuck after, however I think it’s important to say that yes it was used as a plot device however at least she was like affected by it and sjit, also like idk
“Papa is dead.
And I’m relieved?
That’s the first thing that I feel the moment he says the words.
Does that make me an awful person? Does that make a terrible daughter?
I don’t know.”
LIKE BASED BESTIE BASED BESTIE
“No,” I correct, “my father controlled me. I wasn’t allowed to go to a normal school with other kids because he didn’t want me to be influenced by ideas other than his. He didn’t want me meeting boys or having a life of my own. I was raised in a cage, and I thought when my father died, I would be free from it. But here I am again, right back where I started. Same bird, different cage.”
She deserves everything
“Except that in this version, Cinderella is being forced to marry the prince, who’s more brutal than charming and she also happens to be pregnant with his child, though she’s keeping that from him, even though they already had sex in a club bathroom months ago and then parted ways without exchanging names, and that would’ve been the end of it but then he came charging back into her life to murder her father and burn down the only home she’s ever known…”
Plus like idk she’s just funny and shit bye
Um okay artem
So his name is artem which I’m sorry like artem....artem like girl was going “yes artem harder” which 🧍🏾♀️
He was daddy issues, dead mom, son of mafia don, Russian, dead wife, só like the traumatic past is checked off. Umm he was funny sometimes
“I’m used to waging war with my guns and fists.
Esme is ready to do it with her ass and tits.”
Like HELP.
“Are you, Artem?” I ask in a muted voice. “Are you a monster?”
“Aren’t we all? At the end of the day, we’re all just beasts.”
That’s a coward’s answer. He knows it. I know it.
I want more truth.
“And what kind of beast are you?”
“The kind that would die to protect you.”
Also just like king behavior I’m sorry like ughhh
“Why not?” she counters, her chin jutting out a little. “It’s peaceful and quiet and we don’t have to worry about anyone trying to kill us.”
“I’ll kill every single man who even thinks of hurting you,” I tell her firmly.
She nods. “I know that. I just wish you didn’t need to.”
Like what he would sacrifice for her and omg okay
So like here was my issues:
This book was long like long asf and like it didn’t need to be, I’m not gonna say I struggled to read it cuz I didn’t however it was like 650 pages like it could be cut down to like 500 there was a lot of uneccesary fluff like the last 100 pages or so where nothing rlly happened and I was just like ig this is cute but like plot besties plot. There are 0 characters rlly besides the main, and like every friend type character besides cillian is purely created to just advance the plot in someway like they have 0 depth at all.