3.5 Stars - Book One
1 Star - Book Two
DNF @ Chapter 4 - Book Three
Man, this started out so deliciously! I was starving and just ate it up like a buffet. And then book two happened..🤦🏻♀️
Why? Book two was essentially pointless and full of filler with predictable sex scenes, excessive detail about the expensive locations they visited, the clothes she wore and all while the heroine Mila began acting completely out of character in an attempt to be what? Bold, confident, strong? Honey child..no. No.
Saint was so angry and uptight that I desperately wanted him to unclench that booty, babe. Just relax for five minutes, kay? Like, wow. I love me a dominant antihero but the author went a bit over board. So much so that at times it felt tiresome and played out. Wash, rinse and repeat. Was that all his personality was? Sure felt like it. He had literally two moods, horny and pissed off and ready to kill someone or punish them sexually.
Mila on the other hand was amazing in those first few chapters of book one. I loved her reaction to seeing Brad murdered and bing kidnapped. It felt very organic and natural. The rapid fire of emotions from fear and anger to hate and defiance. It felt true to the Mila we had got to know briefly and the situation.
Particularly Mila crying every goddamn scene was pathetic. Specifically because after one particular scene where Saint humiliates her early in book one she has a complete break down. Just cracked right down the middle under the pressure of his casual cruelty. Which, hey. I understood and didn't blame her for...but then she remembers some little redheaded orphan girl who use to get so angry at herself for crying because she didn't want anyone else to have her tearsz that they were here. Well, Mila thinks ya know what? She's god a point and I'm gonna follow her lead. 😂🤣🥴😂🤣
Nah, that woman cried endlessly following that meaningless vow to herself. Literally all the damn time. I lost patience with her. I grew bored and exhausted by her endless crying. What a disappointment.
And then she went and began acting like every other lovestruck moron in thesr dominant antihero romances. Girl, you did not fall in love with Saint. Roll it back and examine your feels because ain't no way.
As interesting as this began, once book two began it fell right into the same category as other romances, dark or otherwise. It became predictable! The secret clause nobody wanted to speak of but kept vaguely discussing? FIGURED IT OUT IN ONE. Too easy! The fact Saint never attempted to tell Mila about it? Predictable! Mila being cornered by a jealous ex of Saint's and believing the bullshit she spewed at her and being "heartbroken" by it and once again running away with her brother???..Wow! I'm as far from surprised as a person could be. Especially because little miss Mila with her head in the clouds, telling Saint she trusted him and claiming to be in love with him to us (the reader) and his aunt Elena. Claiming to be in love with everything about him including his darkness (like bitch please you haven't even seen a crumb of his darkness) and then... AND THEN acting like a butthurt baby and not even attempting to confront him with what the ex said so he can defend himself? She seriously took the jealous exes words for gospel over the man she "claimed' to be in love with.
For fucks sake. Nahhhh. No that isn't love if she didn't atleast try to bring it up to him. She just takes it as fact, is so sure he lied to her and runs into danger doing the exact fucking opposite Saint asked her to do!
And then the dumb little twat had the sheer AUDACITY to think this:
"I glanced back at the entrance to the hall, part of me hoping Saint would come walking out, maybe try to stop me from running again. Maybe even tell me what Anete had said was a lie—that she was the liar, not him. But the other part of me, the less naive part, knew the real liar was me. I had been lying to myself thinking I could fit into this world of power and greed—where only the richest survived. A world I would be strong enough to rule as Saint’s queen. It was all lies I told myself so I could finally find a place I would fit in. A place I belonged."
WHAT. THE. HELL. How was Saint supposed to come chasing after her whiny ass when he had no clue she wasn't where he specifically told her to stay? That he hadn't known she ran into Anete in the bathroom when she wasn't supposed to have gone at all or let alone by herself??? You've got to be kidding me with that crap.
Lord, give me one heroine who doesn't run away crying when the shit hits the fan with the hero. Just one! Because it's such a tired and old drama. How about sticking around and fighting? 🤷🏻♀️
Honestly this had HELLA potential, but it didn't once reach it. Mila and Saint fell into the tired trope of the naive innocent falling under the dominance of a controlling man bent on revenge. She softens him to some degrees but ultimately becomes his weakness. He's cruel to her and has dark sexual desires that somehow align with her own. Blah blah blah.
The great love between Saint and Mila didn't exist. Mila was legitimately manipulated into accepting her role as wife by not just Saint himself but his aunt Elena too! She tried to sell her some bullshit line in Book One about using her kidnapping and forced marriage like an opportunity and to stop playing the victim card. Well, babygirl got fucked in more ways than one. Nothing about their connection felt deeper than a strong attraction and especially with the constant defiance Mila threw at Saint which urged him to put her in her place and punish her.
And Saint suddenly confessing he was in love with Mila at the end of book two? Sure. Right. Totally believable. (😉😉)
None of it was appealing. Not even the sex scenes felt intimate enough because they didn't share anything deeper than attraction and orgasms. Especially when the amount of sex scenes that occurred involved his punishments or restraining her. It was just some power trip and the author doing her best to make me believe Mila was into his kinks and need for absolute control.
Also did someone count how many metaphors were used in this series for the devil? Or perhaps how often the word devil and monster were used or any comparison to angels? Or better yet, how often Mila waxed poetic about something coming from HER SOUL??? No? Because that was another issue with this trilogy. So much filler with excessively boring details to ridiculous repetitive inner thoughts from the heroine Mila droning on about Saint's darkness or how she felt "something" from HER SOUL!
😂 Jesus, y'all. Okay honestly? This wasn't as bad as I might've made sound BUT it definitely could have been better especially because book two was essentially filled with filler and wasted my time. Saint really had all the delicious makings for my favorite kind of dark antihero but sadly he never grew as a character. He didn't evolve and show any inclination to either. And I didn't particularly believe in Mila being the difference maker for him. As if she was some special unicorn and "not like any other woman" that came before. It seemed more because of circumstances and because he actually NEEDED her for his vengeance and couldn't just fuck and dump her like all the rest. 🤷🏻♀️
I did like the writing style. I would and will definitely read more from this author. Simply put, the overall pacing and story focus ruined it for me. Any and all anticipation that may have been there in book one evaporated in book two as well as all interest in the Mila/Saint as a couple. By book three the big secret surrounding "the clause" in her father's will is still floating around and threatening saints price of mind with no intention of Mila ever finding out and his father is still a threat... Eh honestly? I couldn't bring myself to care enough to finish it. I had planned to skim but in the end I decided against it. I can imagine the dramatics that will occur when Mila learns the truth (likely cry and run away, possibly hide or even be caught by yet another bad guy 🙄) because obviously she will learn about the big secret andddd I'm already over it.