Do NOT read this book if you have triggers for explicit adult content, violence, kidnapping, assault, slavery, alluding to rape. DO read it if you enjoy an ultra steamy, second chances, Mafia book with all the trappings, DO read this book if like a strong MC, DO read this if you like ultimate badboys and a story which will get you cheering and booing all at the same time. Sounds contradictory right? Well it's not. You'll be cheering for Nicolai, you'll be cheering for Rosiland and you'll be heartily booing for Derek and his consorts.
After the traumatic ending of book 2, this book couldn't come fast enough! It's a really very dramatic experience, one that sets emotions off the charts. One that has you second guessing yourself, one that will definitely have you rethinking what or who is actually good. See, Nicolai IS a bad boy but a badboy who has the burning inside him to right the wrongs of certain individuals. Whilst his method might raise a brow or two, his heart is pure and ultimately, this very heart of his betrays him. The further on I read, the more his purity was exposed. What he witnessed, what he endured, it's a miracle he has any goodness left in him. Don't get me wrong, he IS Mr Mafia personified, yes, he does all that Mafia boss would do without the faintest remorse. His need to punish himself, to see the monster within, is his guilt talking, taking over his entire being. Until Rose...
Soft, gentle, naive, frightened, stubborn Rose, who evolved progressively into a character of such strength and resilience. Who's inner conflicts and contradictions resolve slowly but steadily and how she releases the shackles biting down on her, forcing the tight cocoon around to explode and emerge as a beautiful but fierce butterfly. The thing (I can't in all fairness call it a romance) between Niko and Rose is so convoluted, so intricate, so intense, so utterly complex, it was just beautiful, extremely hot, sexy and steamed up my glasses a few times from the heat! But it's not just sex, sex and more sex, yes, there's quite a lot of that, it's the plot and the storytelling that had me in it's clutches. A story of so much horror at what people could put another through and the real well though out characters who are definitely not as they appear at face value.