Please be aware of triggers, rape, kidnapping, abuse, adult content
If I thought book I was dark, book 2 is a Tartarean! I felt as though I had been thrust into the pits of Hades, barely able to keep my churning fear at bay. Fear for Rose that is...talk about from the fire into the frying pan! Yeah, sorry, no spoilers so you'll have to find out yourself but let me tell you it's tense! Intense! Dramatic! Have you downloaded it yet????
Rose is a character of many contradictions, what she thinks, what she feels, what she does, what she says are all completely opposed to each other, although each one of these is with an intensity one feels, I could really understand her conflicts. I love that she refuses to take things lying down, well..... tongue in cheek, she does...but it's her snark and her attitude that stand out. She gives as much as she gets. Her relationship, if we can call it a relationship, with Nikolai is so complicated, desire, hate, love and need all rear their head as they both try to deny any of it. The steamy scenes between them threatened to burn through my kindle!
The situations Rose finds herself in are horrific and that's putting it very mildly! Which is why I said I was fearful for her....the author never let up for a minute, keeping the tempo on a high note throughout and I honestly had no idea if Rose would come out the other side physically or emotionally intact. Very vivid violent scenes, not only physical but mental ones too. But through all this trauma, Rose discovers so much about herself, her childhood and what she's capable of.
Nikolai is actually a very likeable character, strange to say that I know, he's a Mafia boss, he's ruthless, he DID kidnap Rose but the glimpses from his POV opens up a different Nikolai, a gentle Nikolai, a Nikolai who guards his heart with a fierceness that would rival the best swordsman. I loved his perspective of events and his thoughts, really insightful. The full picture is not yet displayed in all it's gory details, just snippets of past and present, the burning need for revenge and a vengeance that is a constant.
But like all things in life, when does a plan ever turn out as planned? That ending had me gasping and desperate for the next book!