Obsesión prohibida

by Caitlin Crews

Era su tutor, y la intimidaba, pero aun así... ¡se moría por sus caricias!

Tras la trágica muerte de sus amigos Clothilde y James, Izar Agustín había sido nombrado, por el deseo que ambos habían expresado en su testamento conjunto, tutor legal de su hija, la pequeña Liliana Girard Brooks.

Lo que no podría haber imaginado entonces el dominante empresario era que con el paso de los años aquella chiquilla se convertiría en una seductora mujer.

Liliana, que llevaba todos esos años obsesionada con su atractivo aunque frío y esquivo tutor, decidió una noche, con la esperanza de hacer añicos sus ingenuas fantasías y sacárselo de la cabeza, dejarse llevar por el deseo y entregarse a él. Sin embargo, las consecuencias de esa noche de pasión acabarían uniéndolos... para siempre.

Genres: Harlequin Presents, Harlequin, Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Fiction

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 22, 2016

About the author

Caitlin Crews discovered her first romance novel at the age of twelve, in a bargain bin at the local five and dime. It involved swashbuckling pirates, grand adventures, a heroine with rustling skirts and a mind of her own, and a seriously mouthwatering and masterful hero. The book (the title of which remains lost in the mists of time) made a serious impression. Caitlin was immediately smitten with romances and romance heroes, to the detriment of her middle school social life. And so began her life-long love affair with romance novels, many of which she insists on keeping near her at all times, thus creating a fire hazard of love wherever she lives.

Caitlin has made her home in places as far-flung as York, England and Atlanta, Georgia. She was raised near New York City, and fell in love with London on her first visit when she was a teenager. She has backpacked in Zimbabwe, been on safari in Botswana, and visited tiny villages in Namibia. She has, while visiting the place in question, declared her intention to live in Prague, Dublin, Paris, Athens, Nice, the Greek Islands, Rome, Venice, and/or any of the Hawaiian islands. Writing about exotic places seems like the next best thing to actually moving there.

She currently lives in Oregon with her animator/comic book artist husband and their menagerie of ridiculous animals.

Reviews

[Rgreader · Rating 1 out of 5]

On page 136 of the Guardian's Virgin Ward I lost complete interest in the journey to hea. Here's why-

The heroine-
Ashamed of being a virgin & willing to lose it to any guy. I don't respect that. There is no guarantee she gets an orgasm losing her virginity to a guy who doesn't care about her as a person
The heroine's friends- virgin shaming the heroine. They were sluts and wanted the heroine to join them in sleeping with random men who likely wouldn't give her great sex. They just wanted her to do the act not concerned if she got enjoyment from it. That repulsed me. Those friends didn’t respect the heroine's decision on sex and neither did she.
The hookup- no chemistry. Clinical. No emotional binding from it.
The story after the hookup- no chemistry developed between the heroine or hero. Sure they talked a lot but got no closer emotionally from it.


This Romance had a problem. It failed to be a romance. The hero could have left the heroine and not missed her and the same with the heroine.

[Carol Storm · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a big disappointment. When I read MAN BEHIND THE SCARS I thought Caitlin Crews was going to be the next big thing. She was an amazing, original talent and I thought she was going to take the Harlequin Presents line in a whole new direction. Smarter heroines, funnier dialogue, heroes who were tough and sexy without being over the top a** holes.

THE GUARDIAN'S VIRGIN WARD just didn't work for me. Liliana and Izar were two people I hated almost from the word go. Izar is the "hero," and he is a douchebag. I mean, part of the genre is strong, dominating males, and we all know how easily an author can slip and cross the line, making passion into brutality and intense seduction into creepy stalking and abuse. You have to make allowance for that when you read romance, just like in baseball you know that no pitcher can put every pitch in the strike zone and retire 27 batters without throwing a few balls.

But Izar is the Edsel of Harlequin heroes. Everything about him is weird and creepy, starting with his name. Does anyone here remember the Who's mini-opera, "A Quick One (While He's Away?)" Izar is just like Ivar (get it?) the creepy guy who forces himself on the heroine while her husband is away. I kept waiting for our hero to burst into song, like, "My name is Izar, I'm an engine driver, I'm lame as hell, and that's why you feel blue, but I'm the hero, there's nothing you can do."

Anyway, dipshit Izar is the legal guardian of dumb-ass Liliana, and he's set on "claiming" her as his own once she comes of age. This involves going to her apartment in the Bronx, making endless bitchy, catty, vaguely effeminate comments about her clothes, and unspeakably obnoxious (and vaguely racist) put downs of New York City as an "unsafe place" for a decent (i.e rich and white) young woman to live. Bear in mind this guy is supposed to have grown up in the worst slums of Spain, and escaped poverty only because he was some sort of a soccer super star. But every time he opened his mouth I kept picturing Dr. Smith from the old LOST IN SPACE TV show. Not a tough, sexy hero, but a creepy, campy, stuck up sissy. Whenever he tells Liliana to shut up (which is like, every other paragraph) you keep expecting him to say, "SILENCE, you blundering booby!"

Now to be fair, I hated Liliana just as much. Bear in mind that Angel in MBTS was hands down the smartest, funniest, most irreverent, most genuine heroine I've ever encountered in Harlequin land. Liliana was . . . well, it's like in WALK HARD where Dewey Cox's father keeps saying "The wrong kid died."

How could Liliana spend four years at Barnard College, the very center of modern feminism, the home of Erica Jong, Anna Quindlen, Mary Gordon, and countless other brilliant minds, and have emerged with no spine, no backbone, no career plans, and no mind of her own? How can we believe that this woman is a high school, let alone college graduate, when a man she barely knows can bully her, humiliate her, and take her virginity in the space of about 45 minutes . . . before abducting her with nearly a dozen kids her own age right in the next room?

The irony here is that I went to Columbia, across the street from Barnard, and I hated it. Really! But Caitlin Crews never mentions any of Barnard's real failings, i.e. how spoiled and stuck up the rich kids who go there really are. I would so love a romance novel about a girl who goes to Barnard and hates it for those reasons. But that was not to be. Liliana's presence at Barnard is window dressing, nothing more, just like Izar's past as a soccer superstar. We never do find out what made him so great, or what she liked about Barnard. It's just dumb, lazy shorthand by an author who could have done a much, much better job with the back stories.

So Izar abducts her, and oh, how I wish it had been like LOVE PLAY by Rosemary Rogers. There was a time when I thought Caitlin Crews was going to be the next Rosemary Rogers, but boy, she sure shot down that dream in a hurry. (What happens to a dream deferred?) I cannot count the times that the hero made some stupid crack about vulgar clothes, filthy poor people, or the stupidity of women getting an education. I am utterly at a loss how Caitlin Crews came up with this guy. I've never, ever seen any romance author in any time period or genre try to build up a hero by making him a snob who looks down on the poor. (Okay, Nicholas Van Ryn in DRAGONWYCK by Anya Seton. But that's more a classic Gothic than a romance. And Nicholas really was a Dutch patroon!) But with Izar, nothing in his background justifies the jaded aristocrat shtick. How did he play professional soccer with a whole team of guys from the streets like him? He clearly didn't learn anything about teamwork, loyalty, or anything else.

Oh, but it's okay, because after telling the heroine she's weak, stupid, childish and spoiled for about fifty pages, he goes down on her and licks her into multiple orgasms and total submission. It was the only time in twenty years of reading romance that I didn't buy the all-powerful attraction or the virtues of redemptive cunnilingus. I just felt burned, and bitter. And then there was the inevitable "yearning" scene where Izar skulks into Liliana's room and stands over her sleeping form and just . . . yearns. And then (just so he won't look like a wimp, I suppose) he tells us that he's "not the Heathcliff type." And that was when I just about fell out of my chair laughing.

First of all, Richard Nixon proved long ago that if you say you're not a crook, everyone will know you are a crook. Izar's lame "I am not a Heathcliff clone" just confirmed how unreal he was, how desperately Caitlin Crews was trying to give him an emotional core he didn't have. But there's something more basic and stupid about this, too. Izar keeps justifying his vile racist, classist remarks by saying "I grew up in the Spanish slums, with no education, no books, nothing but a soccer ball for company." He says that about fifty times. No education, got it!

Since when do uneducated soccer playing superstars from Spain read WUTHERING HEIGHTS and ponder the yearning emotions of Heathcliff? I'll lay you five to one that you could quiz every soccer pro in Spain and none of them have even HEARD of Heathcliff! Or Hamlet, for that matter. Hell, I'm not even sure all of them have heard of Don Quixote De La Mancha! Oh, it was so real, this story.

So very, very real.

Just in case you don't understand yet what a total wuss Izar really is, he takes Liliana to Moritz, a classy ski resort town in Europe, and then he actually has to tell her how classy it is! I swear to God he says something like, "This is Moritz, a skiing resort of elegance and opulence, not some two bit white trash podunk mountain town in Colorado, where horribly vulgar young boys in fluffy hats walk around in cheap department store parkas and call each other dude!"

And that's when Eric Cartman of South Park Colorado kicked him . . . squah . . . in the nuts.

And Liliana said, "Thank you . . . sir!"

[Jenny]

Book starts with a sex scene and I hate that when it happens plus sex scene was lame! DNF!

[Julie (Let's Read Good Books) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

Good God! I love Caitlin Crews' writing. I have said that numerous times. But some of her books just don't work for me. This one. Ugh. I loved the beginning. Liliana is bold and feisty, and she pushes back when Izar tries to control her. But then. Not so much. She becomes a doormat when he whisks her away to Saint Moritz after seducing her and deciding that he will marry her. Just. Yuck! He's her guardian, and while she's trapped in the villa, all I could think of was - Stockholm Syndrome. Yuck! I wasn't convinced in any way that their love was genuine, or that it would last. Because. YUCK!

I am of two minds with the guardian romances. This one didn't bother me at first because Liliana has been at boarding school, and then college, and hasn't seen Izar in ten years. So when they reunite in New York City, I didn't feel that there was a vast power inequity between them. Liliana pretty much takes control of the situation - until she doesn't. And the doesn't allows Izar to pack her up, stash her on his private plane, and hide her away in his mountain villa. He then dictates everything about her life, from her clothing choices to how he expects her to behave. I just found it distasteful. And her earlier rebellion was gone. It had long fled the scene, allowing her to be content with her, for all intents and purposes, captivity. Just. NO! Even Crews' emotional, angsty writing couldn't save this one. I felt that Liliana was manipulated the entire book, that Izar would always lord over her, and that soon Liliana would be a shadow of her previous self. Boo!

[Maria Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Guardian’s Virgin Ward by Caitlin Crews is part of the One The-Guardians-virgin-wardNight with Consequences series, written by several different authors. The series name gives a pretty clear indication of what’s going to drive the plot and the title takes a present day twist on what is more commonly seen in a historical romance but works well in this story of strangers bound by fate.

Liliana Gerard Brooks is an orphaned heiress, her loving parents having died tragically several years earlier. They’d left their best friend and business partner, Izar Agustin as her guardian. Just under 30 years himself, Izar didn’t know what to do with the girl in his care and sent her off to boarding school in the Alps for her formative years. Liliana grew into a beautiful young woman, her contact with Izar always impersonal. Once she went to college in the United States, she managed to get out from under his thumb, deceiving him into thinking she was living in an old family home when in fact she’d moved in with friends in a sketchy part of town. When Izar becomes aware of her situation (a heads up from a paparazzi looking to make a scoop), he swoops in to take care of things, expecting little resistance. But the Liliana of his memory is not the stunning woman in front of him. Struck with an equal attraction, they sleep together, Liliana losing her virginity to Izar. But with that act, she’s also lost her freedom, as Izar insists that they go back together to Europe, and that she must now become his wife. Liliana has purposefully put her heritage out of her mind, but when confronted with the reality of her wealth, her clothes and the lifestyle that she could have with Izar it’s hard to remember why she’d choose something else. But will she be willing to settle for anything less than love?

I liked this story. It’s the first Caitlin Crews book I’ve read (though I’ve read several of her books written under the Megan Crane pen name) and as I expected she has a flowing writing style and engaging characters. Izar comes across as a powerful figure, an arrogant but charming man. He’s a bit of an enigma with Liliana though, mostly because he is struck by her beauty and his desire for her. He tries to maintain his composure around her but doesn’t always succeed. He’s definitely used to women falling at his feet so he has expectations that Liliana will fall into line with him, though she is clear that she doesn’t think much of his proposal. Still it doesn’t take long for him to persuade her that a life with him won’t be so bad. Their love scenes are sensual and well written, and Liliana can see past the facade Izar puts up for the rest of the world. I would have liked to see a bit more grovelling from Izar, and a bit more agency from Liliana. I felt that she gave into Izar’s demands a bit too easily and wanted her to stand up more for herself, even as she was falling in love with him. Still at the end there is the definite sense that they have an equal amount of power over each other and they get their happy ever after. It’s an enjoyable read. 3.5 stars

Note: a copy of this story was provided by the publisher for review.

This review appears as a blog post at Harlequin Junkie: http://harlequinjunkie.com/review-the...

[iamGamz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it wrong of me to love this book because the H was so old school alpha? He was plucked straight out of a bodice ripper and slightly altered for today's romance.

I love a man's man and that is exactly what Izar is. A overbearing, domineering, bossy bastard of a man. But he does it so well that it makes you want him. When he says "You are Mine" it makes you squeal "Yes! Yes! A million times yes!" On the inside while your rational self is rebelling at his bossiness.

Izar at 30 becomes the guardian to Liliana, his business partners 12 year old daughter after their death. He shoves her away in boarding school with only an occasional business-like phone call or a curt note.

13 years later, Liliana is celebrating her 23rd birthday and gets the shock of her life when Izar shows up and begins to criticize her home, friends and choices. One thing leads to another and before you know it, their relationship takes a whole new turn.

I loved that Izar was such an over the top alpha but I do wish that Liliana was a stronger h. She gave it way to easily to him every time he looked at her. She wasn't wushu washy, but she was too easily manipulated by Izar.

A great read. I didn't want to put it down but sadly I had to work. I recommend this one to readers like me, who love the classic alpha males.

[Melluvsbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok. Again, the need to be PC watered it down. It could have been way more entertaining.

If you were waiting for the scene where he pushed her to her knees and told her to “prove that she’s a big girl”… 👀… I mean, obviously, that would make it complete filth…👀 … and well, you know, if you were *worried* that might happen, you can exhale with relief now. It never got that scandalous (interesting). 👀🤡

I’ll try one of her older ones before I move on.



FOR THE SAFETY SQUAD

- no cheating or sharing
- no OW drama
- no dubcon

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very disappointed with this book. My expectations for this book was very high with the concept that could have lead to a really good story and very good conflict to create all that tension and angst that I love, but this story didn't have that.

First of all I hated him. He was such a bully and jerk that made him completely unlikable and beyond redemption that it was really hard to connect and root for him. He was too brutal for my liking. And his gesture towards her in the end came way too late. There needed to be a more tenderness and gentleness earlier on in the story than what was shown. He came off as uncaring and very selfish. He did nothing to woo her until later on.

On a related point I hated them as a couple. They just didn't fit or suit. Yes, they had passion and lust, but that was it. There wasn't a lot of falling in love. There was no romance between them. They didn't grow together. I didn't think they were meant to be. I wished she left and didn't return to him after the awful way he treated her. This was not a love story.

This book didn't have an angst or build up to it. There could have been, but it wasn't there. Instead it was him pushing her around and her allowing him to. There was no development there or gut wrenching emotion that should have been there. I didn't feel anything aside from disappointment and annoyance.

The one upside to this story was the love scenes. They were really hot and kept my eyes locked on the pages. They were full of passion and got the pulse racing. They were the most interesting part of the entire story. I enjoyed the physical side of their relationship but not much else.

This book was very disappointing, and I still gave this a very generous three stars, but I really wasn't thrilled with the story, the characters, or the relationship between the couple. There was so much potential but it fell flat for me. I even had to skim parts of this just to get through it. I think if there were more scenes showing the couple together and building of their relationship I would have liked it more, instead there was too much commentary, which was what I skimmed through. And I needed more on an emotional level. It was a shame because I was really looking forward to this book ever since I heard about it, but unfortunately it just didn't hit the mark.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is creepy. Like eek I couldn't read it.

[Sandra R · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written by a favourite author of mine. Unfortunately there was so much inner monologue, that it was 😴

[Susan in Perthshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to say this but sadly, this is not one of Caitlin Crews best books. Although her prose can never be anything other than clever and literate, the story and the characters just don't work for me.

I adore CC's writing and most the books I have read have been 5 star reads, so it hurts to describe any of her books as disappointing and horrible.

The 2 characters were one dimensional and unlikeable. There was nothing romantic or tender or loving in the vast majority of the story. Izar, a poor Spanish boy who becomes successful through his football skills and is now a billionaire umpteen times over is an arrogant, unpleasant snob of the worst possible kind and his behaviour at the beginning was so questionable as to make me cringe.

Liliana is an unappealing, unattractive adolescent, despite being 23. I disliked the 18 year age gap. Izar was too old to change. There was nothing about either of them which made me care about them.

If you’re not attracted to the characters - the story becomes unenjoyable. As always, I bow to CC’s gift with language but this one is not for me.

[Amara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, passion, romance, and angst are all present in this one! Not to mention one of my favorite tropes, the guardian-ward. Delicious! Izar is sooooo over the top, old-school style, but that's what makes me love him. I wouldn't want him in real life, but to fantasize about? Sure. And the heroine was a lovely change, she was sarcastic, feisty, and actually had a backbone. She stood up to him and called him out on his unrealistic expectations and misogyny. Way go, chica!!!

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Doormat-y heroin. I don't know how many times her inner monologue started with "she knew she should object" and blah blah blah.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trashy romance

Mom said to say something nice....the grammar and spelling were spot on...and Amazon requires 8 more words for my review.

[Calysta · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, gross

[Limecello · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book - and it has a really truly lovely ending. But sadly for the rest of it I was like "whaaaaatt theee fuuuccckk isss haaaappeeenninngggg"

Hm. I thought I tweeted about it but I guess not.
Like... there was no growth. Not until the end/then you just "assume" it happened.

Her ... just stripping in front of her "guardian"
which also? It's her 23rd birthday. The age difference - considering he's "her guardian" is already creepy but ...
how does it even work? She's legally an adult. She's not [legally] incompetent, not disabled etc ... there's ... O_o no reason for her to have a guardian? Granted I don't know [whatever European country law- it's never quite clear] - but ... I wouldn't think it'd differ THAT much? Like maybe he's the trustee of the trust for her inheritance? And he WAS her guardian? But ... not anymore...
So that felt forced and a bit creepy.

Then her calling him "sir" - then her being such an utter doormat.
Like she'd have moments of having a brain AND a spine ... then just roll over.

And then she said all sorts of shitty things - and he was shitty too. He was ABSOLUTELY UNEMOTIONAL - he's in his head with lust but never even SAYS anything...
And we all go by simply the expression on his face when he proposes, and that he says "will you marry me" instead of "marry me" - just making it a question apparently makes it ok for kidnapping and coercing her?

It's a fucking mess.
I kept reading hoping something would change ...
but it doesn't until the end ...she finds out she's pregnant and then she just ... goes back after he kicks her out "to protect her" and ... ugh.

D+ => the + because the lovely ending

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 ⭐️
I really liked the base story and characters for this Harlequin Presents, but there was way, way too much internal monologue from third-person POV of both characters. Some of their internal thoughts and feelings were interesting but taken altogether there was nowhere near enough activity and dialogue so it had this book reading very slow and boring when it really had a good premise.

And yes, it has all the outdated, old-fashioned ideas and misogyny that has always been inherent to this line but since I read them as a child I still like them even if I roll my eyes sometimes. At least the heroine made some protests too, which is more than a lot of the HP heroines do.

Oh, though guardian/ward is one of my favorite tropes this one is really that in name only - her parents left her to the hero, their best friend and business partner, when they died when she was twelve, but she only saw him when he told her she was off to boarding school and don't meet in person again until the opening of the book, when she is twenty-three. Brief, instructional emails was there only contact.

[Nightwitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was curious to see how Crews would pull this off without the storyline veering into creepy, and the answer is she didn't. The hero is brooding - about nothing in particular - and in an effort to keep the hero from assuming a parental role towards the heroine, the author instead had the hero deposit her in a miserable boarding school where she spent the entirety of her adolescence deprived of any love, affection, or fun. This is horrifying. Throw in the fifteen-year age difference and the hero's dictatorial personality and you've got kind of a mess.

[anisa fitri zakirah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The heroine was trying to get way from her guardian. Idk how many years the heroine and the hero were apart, i know age is just number but I hope that it wasn't too far cause it is disgusting cause he knew her as a child, and he had sex with her anyway. It isn't considered as pedophilia though, as the heroine was an adult. The hero just expected too much from the heroine as he insisted them to marry just because he took her virginity. And the heroine was a real was for saying she didn't want the baby. Bitch, you made the decision to fuck with him, now face the fucking consequence. The hero at least was a gentleman to let her go, at least he gave her what she wanted which to get away and do whatever she wants with the baby when he wanted the baby so much. The heroine also acused the hero that he got her pregnant on purpose. LMAOOO. When I mean i like heroines with characters, doesn't mean I like them acting childish, selfish, and stupid.

[Aleja · Rating 1 out of 5]

¡¡Diossssss!!
Juro que si no fuera por el ultimo capítulo yo estaría llorando de la impotencia y bronca que tengo por este libro.
En pocas palabras, es una mierda. El tipo era super machista y la otra una idiota total que hacía todo lo que él decía porque claro, ella lo "amaba" y no podía no hacerle caso a lo que el decía. Y esos berrinches de niña pelotuda, diossssssss , no la aguantaba. Gracias a Dios que era cortito.
Esa única estrella es por el último capítulo.

[c.kingreads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Estoy que lloro. No me ha gustado nada, de hecho lo he odiado. No me esperaba un libro así. Los protas eran insoportables y jamás sentí su romance. Es más, su amor fue re forzado. Fue de repente OH te amo SJGKDNG. No me gustó tampoco las actitudes de los protas.

[Vijay · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a short story and hardly a 3-hour read!
Great Narration!
I loved how unlike every other book; it had dual narration from both perspectives.
Story is very similar to movies like 365 days or 50 shades series but with a little sharp edge to it.

[*CJ* · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Guardian's Virgin Ward" is the story of Liliana and Izar.

Extremely boring guardian-ward romance, and the worst part is heroine going on and on about not wanting his child

SWE
1/5

[Desca Ang]

review on process

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had picked this up months ago and didn't like it. I started to read it and was hooked! Loved the characters and loved the ending.

[Isa Centeno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wey... Que intenso, ese hombre es de otro mundo 🌚🌚🌚🌚

[Shushma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Jo]

Obsesión Prohibida (Spanish Version)

Con amigas como los de la Heroina, ¿quién necesita enemigos?

Cuando leo amigas como estas, siempre me dan la impresión de celosas. Porque las verdaderas amigas no juzgan ni tratan de convencer a otra, para que se tire al primer tipo que se le cruce por el camino para que deje de ser virgen, ya que al parecer, debe molestarles mucho que lo sea.

Por otro lado:

1. No soooopoooortooo a las heroínas idiotas que se dejan convencer por los "consejos" estúpidos de amigas, igual o más idiotas.

2. No me gustan las heroinas que tratan la virginidad como si fuera un tumor maligno que hay que extirpar cuanto antes y con el que sea. Como si es Pepito de los Palotes. ¡Que más da! La cosa es deshacerse de ella, no sea que a las amiguitas les de un patatús o la excluyan del grupito de envidiosas. Porque eso parecen, cuando no aceptan a alguien e imponen lo que ellas hacen.

[RomLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

When domineering Spaniard Izar Agustin was made guardian to innocent Liliana Girard Brooks, he couldn't have known that the passing years would turn this young girl into an alluring woman begging to be shown the unconscious desires of her body.

For as long as she can remember, Liliana's coolly elusive keeper has haunted her fevered imagination. Hoping to sever the ties that bind them, she recklessly gives in to one night of sensual abandon, shattering her naive fantasies irrevocably. But the consequences of that night will bind them together…forever!

[Hana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started with such promise. Liliana seduces her guardian, a man she hasn't seen in ten years and despises, and it was damn hot. And then Izar tramples all over Liliana's agency and forces her into the mold he demands for his perfect wife. That's fine with Liliana, who is revealed to be a cardboard character with no ambitions of her own. What did she study in college and what did she plan to do afterward? It doesn't matter because apparently not even Liliana cares. She passively becomes the best Stepford wife she can be to a guy that honestly repulsed me the more I read. Blergh.