"Go but follow. I love you. You have my heart."
I would give this book all the stars in the world if I could for the way it made me feel.
LJ Evans' storytelling is always poetic in essence, but also heartfelt, loving, and kind. The small details she adds to each story never fail to amaze me. Dax and Jada's story was also darker, and sexier, than I've seen from her before. No complaints here!
I read it in 24 hours because I couldn't put it down. And, like every time I love a book, it's taken me a bit to sort out my thoughts to write this review and say everything I want to say. Everything this story deserves.
"Never had one woman consumed me the way she always had. Never."
Jada had my heart from the start. The messed up family, the loving friends, feeling unworthy. But what really punches me in the gut with Jada is that she's so strong all the time, even when she's crumbling inside. She needs someone in her corner, to fight for her, and more than that, she wants to feel deserving of it. Worthy of being loved for who she is. I can relate.
"I wanted him to need me safe because it would destroy him if I wasn't."
In previous books, Dax sort of came off as just the playboy, the charming, suave guy, but there are layers to him. He's the protector, the one who cares, the one who's conflicted about the love for his family and the love for the one who got away. The one he allowed to get away. The one for whom he would lay it all on the line. How can you not love this man?
"You glow like there's a power inside you that no one else has. Like the moonlight casting a beam across a dark pond."
Dax's family owns a respectable clothing empire, Jada's dad is the head of a crime syndicate. Their worlds shouldn't come together, but they run in the same circles, so it's unavoidable. They first met when she was 13 to his 15, at a charity function, and it changed everything for both of them. It turned their world upside down, and nothing could ever compare to the feeling of the two of them together.
But it can't happen.
Because often the sins of our fathers come between us and what we want and deserve.
"I'd give up anything and everything if it meant a life at your side."
The chemistry and passion between Dax and Jada is undeniable. They're steamy together, and I loved it. The love they have for each other is crystal clear. Getting small glimpses of what happened between them in the past was one of my favorite things, and it only offered further proof that they were always meant to be. Only the timing has never been right.
Thrown back into her father's world and being put in danger from unknown elements, Jada finds herself leaning on Dax for help. For comfort. For protection. For love. And he's there for whatever she needs.
The intricacies of the Japanese (fictitious) crime syndicate, and the suspense element in this book, drive their love story forward and turn this book into a definite page-turner.
"Through thick and thin. Through bloodshed as well as happiness. I was hers."
It's obvious that what they really need is each other. Anything short of that just won't do. She makes him whole, and he brings out the best of her – the carefree Jada who never allowed herself to just be. The barefoot Jada, the bare-chested Dax on a beach somewhere. I can almost see them.
"For those who feel like your happily ever after is never going to happen."
The dedication in this book touched me. I am one of those people. I stopped believing in my own happily ever after. But if the stars can align for Jada and Dax, maybe that can happen for all of us.
I love how happy this book made me feel.