Angels Are Falling

by Drethi A., Drethi Anis

They tell you to marry the man who shows you the world. Nobody warns you about the one who'd burn it down for you.

AMELIE

Stefan promised me forever, a life held together with love and overdue bills. We were the couple that couldn't be broken.

Then the Prince of Darster invited us to dinner. Cold. Calculating. Beautiful enough to make you forget both. Kai Cavendish took one look at our drowning finances and offered my husband everything—the fortune, the dream career, the crown of this town.

The price was me.

A real marriage. His ring. His bed. His name.

And Stefan, who'd once sworn that not even God could separate us, asked where to sign.

Everyone gets the fairy tale wrong. They think the villain gives up when the story ends. But the villain has been watching me longer than I want to believe, and he never learned how to lose.

I married two men.

One sold me. One bought me.

Only one gets to keep me, and it won't be the one you're rooting for.

KAI

They cast me as the villain. Accurate.

I told her husband I could be his genie. Three wishes, anything he wanted.

But he never asked what my wish was.

Every man has a price. Her love was the only thing I couldn't buy.

So I bought him instead.

Be careful what you wish for…

*This book contains dubious scenes, stalking, manipulation, and issues such as mental health and drugs. Please read the author's note for a complete list of triggers. Depending on your comfort zone, the content might disturb you.

Genres: Dark Romance, Dark

358 pages, Hardcover

Published July 22, 2026

Reviews

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be careful what you wish for! Full review to come. Absolute gold!

[Drethi Anis]

I'm so excited to share this dark Aladdin retelling with you. As most of my readers already know, I'm obsessed with retellings and I loved the idea of Jafar winning the girl. This love triangle between Kai, Stefan and Amelie took me almost a year to write, and at 120,000 words, it's my longest book yet.

There is another reason for writing this book. Two of the biggest parts of my identity are traveling the world and being a part of an interracial couple. My books often reflect that, as I love writing interracial couples where the focus isn't always on the cultural differences or tackling stereotypes, but rather on who they are and how they navigate their life.

I've found that Middle Eastern FMCs are severely underrepresented in the morally grey genre, and for years, I've wanted to write a character from Lebanon. I know that the Middle East gets a bad reputation. Despite the media portrayal, it is actually a normal place most of the time and probably my favorite part of the world. No matter how many times I visit, I have failed to see it the same way it is portrayed in the news. The FMC, Amelie, is everything I've experienced in real life, and I hope this book gives back some humanity to the people from the region and how they are perceived in mainstream media.

Thank you for reading.

[Hara Pieris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so excited for Kai and Amelie’s story! I can’t wait to see more of Drethi’s work.

[Katie Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking for a red flagged man who is absolutely devoted to his lady? Well let me introduce Kai Cavendish. This book is loosely based on the tale of Aladdin but instead of a Gene with 3 wishes you have Kai and with his wishes he wants something in return. But be warned as the hero may get more than he bargained for leaving the villain of the tale more better off.

Kai first laid eyes on his soul mate Amelie when he was giving a presentation at a university and from that day he was absolutely entranced. The issue was Amelie was 7 years younger than Kai and she was deeply in love with her boyfriend Stefan who she went on to marry upon finishing university. Even though Kai may have lost out on his chance he watched Amelie from a far, she was his world and over the years he started to devise a plan to ensure Amelie would be his.

While Kai’s life revolved around Amelie, her life revolved around her husband Stefan and his siblings, as now she found herself co-raising them with Stefan after they lost their parents. With financial burdens increasing Amelie decides to take a once off job for a yacht party, which you may remember it as Rose & Cadens engagement party from Unapologetic Obsession. Now despite all this Amelie isn’t aware of who Kai is so when she tends to his injured hand and accepts dinner with her husband and his little siblings as a thank you she doesn’t find anything strange.

It is during this dinner that Kai proposes a proposition to Stefan in which rather than steal his wife, he wants to join their family and he will make their financial problems evaporate. Yes Stefan was horrified by the proposal as you would expect from a man deeply in love with his wife but Kai’s manipulation tactics got him thinking and he didn’t want Amelie to resent him in the future if they didn’t solve their problems and as such he convinces Amelie to go along with the deal. The proposal notes that Amelie will divorce Stefan and legally marry Kai.

While Amelie was very hesitant and more or less against this in the first place this proposal actually opened her eyes as it did mine. Kai was a billionaire yes but he was lonely and wanted to devote his life to Amelie, he was always there when she needed him and he put her and the kids first in every single scenario in this book. On the other hand you have Stefan who had exactly what Kai dreamed of but once he got a taste of the wealth it was like his family didn’t seem to exist anymore and honestly my heart shattered for Amelie because she loved Stefan more than anything and yes he did with her at a point but he loved the wealth more and when he realised that, he had already lost Amelie’s heart to Kai.

What I loved about this book is we got the a POVs from Amelie, Kai and Stefan. As readers we were able to have access to their thoughts and relationships and this was definitely beneficial throughout the book and also allow readers to come to their own conclusions on the characters.

Kai Cavendish is nothing but a patient man as he definitely played the waiting game here, did he manipulate some of Stefans choices oh absolutely but Stefan didn’t help himself either whatsoever.

Overall I absolutely loved this book. Thank you to the author who provided this e-arc for my honest thoughts 💭

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I caaaant wait pls release this 😭

[KatS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tried not to give many spoilers but I had to give a few to explain how I felt about the characters, one in particular.

I love Drethi books, which is why I always sign up to participate in her ARCs. One of the many reasons I enjoy her stories is the way she writes her heroes. I love jealous, possessive, stalkerish, obsessed antiheroes, and this author writes them exceptionally well. I 100% agree that Kai is a walking red flag, unreasonably jealous, manipulative, morally corrupt, and completely obsessed with Amelia and he is exactly the kind of dark-romance hero I want to read about. There was nothing that he wouldn’t do to have her, no price too high and I loved that. He changed his entire life for her. Like Axel from 5000 Nights of Obsession Kai played the long game to get her and I loved him for it.

I also enjoy romances that include dub-con scenes, and the scenes in this book were smokin’.

Fidelity means a lot to me, both in reality and romanceland and I especially appreciate that Drethis heroes are faithful once they are with the heroine. Kai didn’t even look at another woman after he and Amelie get together. Because the book never addresses what Kai did during all the years he stalked Amelie, I am also going to pretend that he was celibate the entire time, which I believe is around 6 years.

The OM, no heroines, in Drethi’s stories are generally likable, or at least have redeeming qualities, and Stefan was no exception. I could not imagine how this love triangle could be resolved without leaving me upset because I genuinely liked Stefan. What Stefan did was wrong, but I could also understand how he reached that point. Like Amelie, he was only in his early twenties when he suddenly became responsible for parenting all of his siblings. Taking on that burden at such a young age would have been extremely difficult as was giving up his dreams. If he had been more mature, like in his 30’s then I would have sympathized less with him.

I also respected Stefan’s fidelity. Even though he knew Amelie was sleeping with Kai, Stefan remained faithful to her. There was no sex or sexual contact with another woman, despite all the temptations Kai placed in front of him and Kai’s efforts to encourage him to cheat, both before and after Kai became part of their family.

Stefan’s ending was heartbreaking for me. At the same time, part of me liked it because, if Stefan is anything like Kai, he will never stop obsessing over Amelie. His feelings, and the unresolved possibilities they create, made the ending even more emotionally complicated. Yes, it is mean of me to not want the OM to move on but again romanceland and so I refuse to feel guilty about having that opinion.

This story held my attention from beginning to end, and I was never bored. Much to my detriment, I read the entire book in one evening and did not get to bed until after 2:30 a.m., even though I had to wake up at 7:00 a.m. That alone says a great deal about how compelling I found the story.

I look forward to reading more of Drethi’s new stories. Until then I will have to be content of rereading some of my favorites by her which are 5000 Nights of Obsession (because of Axel,) Quarantined, Fatal Obsession and Xander.

[Mary Gallitano · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Then let me be clear. I want your wife and kids.”

This book was a 10-star read for me. It grabbed me and never let me go. It was so incredibly good.
We meet the men in Amelie’s life before we ever get to know her.
We meet Kai Cavendish and immediately believe he’s our villain. He’s obsessed with Amelia, who is already married to Stefan. Kai’s been smitten with her for years and has taken steps to pull her closer to him without her ever knowing.
His best (and maybe only) friend Dr. Caden Maxwell, cautions Kai against pursuing a married woman. Caden incidentally is engaged to Amelie’s friend Rose.
Stefan, her husband, immediately tells us that “My life was a living hell. The house was a mess, I never had a minute to myself, and my bank account was constantly drained.”
Kai arranges a dinner at an upper scale restaurant where he proposes to Stefan that he will grant his wish for wealth in exchange for divorcing Amelie and letting Kai marry her in a 3 way situation. “Do you consider yourself a genie, Mr. Cavendish?” asks Stefan
And here is where I immediately thought of the old Robert Redford movie, An Indecent Proposal, which Drethi acknowledges in the afterword.
Stefan has to talk Amelie into the “wife sharing” agreement and she’s absolutely against it. She fully understands that the sacrifice is more hers to make than anyone else. She’s horrified to realize that Stefan is thinking about the money, and that she may not have a choice in the matter.
Amelie reluctantly agrees to the deal, and Stefan quickly gets everything he ever imagined he wanted but at a price.
It’s not until almost 90% through the story that we know where the book title comes from, but it’s such a beautiful story and provides so much insight into the woman that Amelie truly is. It also sheds so much light on Kai’s backstory and the reason he has made some of the choices he did. The thing that best describes Kai for me is when he says: “I didn’t break into things. I arrange to be let in, and then I never leave.”
The story is so good that you can’t put it down. Our 3 main characters are so nuanced and go through such character arcs throughout the book.
There is a happy ending, but it’s not the happy ending that you might think. Remember that this is a Dark retelling of Aladdin and do read the trigger warnings. But it’s so worth it! I ended this book and immediately pre-ordered the next book in this series and followed Drethi everywhere.
I was gifted an Advanced Reader Copy and am voluntarily leaving my honest review.

[Emmy Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a genius masterpiece dark romance retelling of the Aladdin story. It hit parts of my heart in ways I never thought possible and also had the most outrageous plot twists. One of the catch lines of this book is “careful what you wish for” which kind of also reminds me of the movie Obsession that was very popular when I read it, and trust me it’s horrific and amazing in the same way (and yes Stefen the old husband is Bear, luckily Kai is there to “save” Amelie). I will not gaslight you into thinking that Kai is a good guy because he’s not. In this twisted Aladdin story he’s the genie but also the villain, but one thing he is NOT is Jafar and that’s an important distinction. He’s such an interesting character, on one hand he’s the Prince of Darster the zillionaire but also a man who lost everything to another, which is exactly why he built an empire to get it back. And even though he’s super hot and good with kids, he’s a total red flag (which both Amelie and I choose to ignore btw) and there is serious dubcon/grape in the start and major manipulation throughout the book so please check the triggers. Some parts of this story will be quite obvious if you’ve read couple of dark romances but I enjoyed the tiny bit of predictability before it all came crashing down. The plot twists in this book were freaking insane I was choking from shock, and gosh when you find out why this book is called “angels are falling” I swear you’ll never be the same. Drethi A is a freaking literary genius and the way this story was told was mastery. Even though I hated Stefan and dreaded his parts at first, see in the downfall of his life and him getting replaced by Kai, and realising it’s because of his dumb wish, was pure evil genius (and gave me quite some satisfaction too haha). Kai truly was a master manipulator but I loved him and Amelie together and honestly I can’t help but be impressed at his genius (courtesy of the amazing Drethi A) in making it happen. And honestly I felt quite bad for Amelie cause she was just a kind soul who wanted unconditional love, she just the wrong husband the first time around. It really has been a while since a book has had such a huge impact on me and this masterpiece will probably haunt me in my dreams. This book is a straight 6/5 and I can’t wait to see what comes next in this series (I’m seeing a beauty and the beast retelling is next and it’s one of my faves!).

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a unique storyline and a fun book, but ultimately a bit disappointing. Not 1 red flag. I went in expecting a darker, morally gray hero, but Kai felt more beige than anything. Aside from helping keep them in debt and stalking her behind the scenes, I never really found him as dark as I expected, and even the wedding night didn’t feel particularly dark given that she agreed to it. I also struggled with the FMC’s choices—She says that she agreed to the arrangement because she loved her husband, but her actions made it difficult for me to understand that reasoning. Once she eventually decides to love Kai, the complete shift in how she feels about her husband feels so abrupt. She basically does a complete 180 and suddenly decides that the man she claimed to love so much is just dead to her. I understand the Beirut situation, I really do, but there wasn’t even a discussion afterward—it was just over. It made her seem so dumb to me. And how did she not realize that Kai was lying and never actually intended to share her? It was so insanely obvious. Then, when she finally realizes what his intentions were all along, she doesn’t even seem to feel betrayed or acknowledge that he lied to her—she just accepts it.

I was also insanely disappointed in the siblings and how they treated Stefan, who basically rescued them from being split up into separate foster homes. He never seemed to get enough credit for taking them in and raising them, and I really hated that his siblings ultimately abandoned him too.

That said, it was still a fun and unique read—It just didn’t deliver the darker, morally gray romance I was hoping for.

1 star heroine 3 star hero 3 star story 2.5 read, bump up to 3 stars overall

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.

This is a modern story inspired by Aladdin, told from three perspectives. While there is no actual magic lamp, who needs a genie when you have all the money in the world?

This story is not for people wanting a soft fluff piece, it's for those of us who thought that scene with Jafar as sultan and Jasmine in her red veils had *potential*. He might be the bad guy, but damn, isn't that intensity kind of hot?

The author gets a bit too heavy handed in some places tying what is a modern story with modern people and issues to the Disney fantasy of Aladdin. In one scene everyone is wearing the modern day equivalent of the characters' signature outfits from the cartoon, down to a fez that they state is actually from an Abu doll? So Aladdin as a Disney movie exists in the world and they're constantly referencing the world with place names and turns of phrase ("diamond in the rough") and none of them think it's weird?

That's why I'm only giving 4 stars instead of 5. But it's just a couple of small scenes, just keep reading, the story is worth it in the end. It's really pretty unapologetic that the "bad guy" is actually a pretty terrible person, no one denies it, but he's doing it all for the love of a woman, and who wouldn't want that in a partner?

Perfect for unappreciated wives everywhere, tbh.

Over all, I recommend the book, and I plan to read the sequel, too! Just make sure you read the trigger warnings before you read the story and make sure you're ok with it all because once it starts, it becomes a bumpy ride really quick!

[MN Book Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

He may not have been the villain we were expecting.

Stephan and Amelia have been together for years and have been married for the last couple of years. Enter Kai with a proposal that Stephen thinks is a new thing since she helped with a wound on his hand. Kai marries Amelia, but they all live together, and Stephen gets the life he always dreamed of. Kai gets the family he wants, and everyone should be happy. Everyone, that is, except Amelia, who felt forced into this agreement. The more time she spends with Kai, the more she feels appreciated and the more Stephen spends away, getting to finally live his dream, the more she feels disconnected from him. So what happens when truths come out and Stephen's already lost Amelia's trust?

Kai and Amelia get their happy ending in this standalone book in a series.

I understand that Kai is supposed to be the villain in the story, but I really feel that Stephan was the villain in how he treated his family and what he was willing to trade for himself. Yes, Kai whispered it all in his ear, but he was willing to manipulate Amelia into agreeing to the arrangement at first, then went along with being gone for so long. So she did end up with the one who would treasure her above everything else in the end. I do have to wonder how long the kids went to supervised visits with Stephen before they worked to get those ended, and I could see Kai being able to do that with this power that he seemed to still hold.

I received an advance review copy from The Smuthood Promo, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Chai_Tea_Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite their outstanding debt, Amelie has it all: a loving husband, a home, and a family she'd do anything to protect... even if it means becoming another man's wife. Stefan promised her forever, but her husband has limits and yearns for something better. When tested, he chooses security over her and sells her to the Prince of Darster. Kai is a walking red flag, and a man willing to destroy everything to have Amelie, even if it means manipulation. His love is dangerous, obsessive, and morally corrupt. He sees Amelie as the one thing worth conquering, whose love cannot be bought, so he buys her husband instead. One man traded her away. The other traded everything else to possess her.

What you can expect:
Dark Aladdin Retelling
She’s married to another man
Taboo
Reclusive Tech Mogul x Nurse
Obsessed Anti-Hero 
Manipulation/Blackmail/Coercion
He Falls First and Hard
Dub-Con
Marriage of Convenience
Age Gap
Love to Hate
Polygamous Relationship/Love Triangle
The One That Got Away
Villain Gets the Girl
Just the Tip
"Touch Her & Die" Energy 
He’d Been Stalking Her For Years

[Ecem Esen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drethi what sorcery have you used?

I am a die hard fan of hers and every single book she writes is exactly every single trope i ever want in a book. Obsessive. Unapologetic. Manipulative. madly in love, and i can say for 100% certainty that Kai Cavendish covers all of this. It is now definitely my number 1 drethi anis book.

Where do i even start. The way she wrote this is so amazing, the mirroring of both men at the start and end of this book is crazy! I actually screamed when i was reading Stefans ( the husband but not the MMC) last chapter. He literally traded his life for Kai’s and ended up in exactly the same position.

I cant stop thinking about this omg i neeeeeeeeed more.

READ THIS pleeeaseee

[Reading is escaping reality · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one where the villain gets a happy ending. You’re not going to root for him, and it’s going to k be a wtf situation. But it goes to show to appreciate the things that you have in life and that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. This will not be your typical romance but with that being said, was actually amazing. Showing a different perspective of how I can go.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Megan Fernsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be careful what you wish for! This is a dark retelling of Aladdin.
It's dark. It's manipulative. It's very good! Kai knew what he wanted and he did everything he could to get it. Amelie wants love above everything else. Stefan wants to be the prince of the city and have his wife and siblings not have to worry about anything.

[Lila · Rating 5 out of 5]

If “be careful what you wish for…” was next level, it would be this book. One guy starts showing his true desires, while the other one gives what Amelie wants. It’s ironic with the wishes from one of the guys from the beginning to the end. I like the author’s writing style. The ending was so satisfying, especially when both guys talked to each other about their wishes.

[Zora Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ✨ I was glued to this book! This one is for my dark romance lovers. The plot was unique. While the HEA ending was beautiful & tragic at the same time. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND

What to expect:
• Morally grey / black MMC
• Dub-con
• Stalking
• Love triangle

[thelibraceli]

Just got accepted for an e-arc of this AHHH
*starts reading immediately*

[Rachel C · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️