“Was this my fate in life, to always wear an oppressor’s chains?”
At the end of book one we were left with a major cliff hanger, and book two picks up right where we left off…confused, heartbroken, and angry! Leaf has just been taken prisoner (again!) on the orders of King Arrowyn, her now former lover.
“Oh, Arrow. How could you break me like this? After everything you said. Everything you did. And all you promised. For dust’s sake, why?”
I hated that Leaf was in pain from Arrow’s betrayal, but it showed us the depth of trauma she has experienced in her life, and her incredible resilience for survival. And also her knee-jerk reaction for vengeance. As we know from book one, she’s a little violent. Even though we hate Arrow at this point, this lunk of a fae has his reasons and I loved every time we got his point of view in the story. He grows tremendously all because of his little Leaf.
“Each tear I shed is a vow to you, a prayer, and a wish that you will return my love forever.”
A truly beautiful and perfect ending to Arrow and Leaf's story. The light-as-a-feather feeling (pun intended) and contentment for little spit-fire Leaf, and our hard as a rock outside and smushy cinnamon roll on the inside King Arrow, is simply overwhelming.
**CONTENT WARNING:**
spicy scenes, including pretend dub-con, discussion of death of MMC’s family, mention of slavery and addiction to gold serum, strong language, violence.