The Trap Of Ace

by Eva Zahan

With a shattered heart, Emerald Hutton flees to New York City for high school. Leaving behind her friends and family to escape him. Her brother's best friend. Now, seven years later, she returns home. The place where the cold-hearted billionaire resides.
Scarred by his past, Achilles Valencian became the man everyone feared. The scorch of his life filled his heart with crushing darkness. The only light that kept him sane was his Rosebud. The turquoise-eyed girl he's adored all his life. His best friend's little sister.
When the time comes to capture his only light back into his territory, Achilles will set a trap. A trap to lure the girl he once lost.
Despite her resistance to save herself from more heartaches, the devil will claim her this time. The girl who was rightfully his.

Genres: Romance, M F Romance, Smut, Dark, Fiction, Second Chance, Contemporary

584 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2022

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started to read this novel due to the lack of ideas on what to read next and pretty pushy FB ads. Unfortunately, I usually tend to read the book from cover to cover, even if I don't like it at first, to give it a chance. What can I say? It looks like a straight "50 shades of grey" fanfic, with the same poor language, stylistics, metaphors, plot twists, repetitive erotic scenes, and morally challenged heroes. Both protagonists are the perfect picture of codependent relationships full of gaslighting, psychosis, control, and manipulation. Both of them made me feel infuriatingly annoyed. This book promotes unhealthy relationships and serves the concept to the reader as something romantic and desirable. In real life - you see a guy like that, you run as fast as you can; and preferably leave him a good psychologist number. I would not advise this kind of read to anyone, tbh. You can spend your time more wisely than I did.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok. Let me start off by saying this was the first time I got sucked in by one of those cringey Facebook reels and thought “you know what, let me just see”. And it wasn’t as terrible as I was expecting.

This was a bit cringey and it needs an editor immediately, but I still managed to read the whole thing in a couple hours so idk.

[Lillie Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a five star story, but the grammer was rough. Definitely needs an editor to help find those mistakes and correct them. But I loved the story.

[Samantha Armstead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting

I wanted to love this book, I am a person who once starting a book I need to finish. With that being said I almost put this book down twice, but it cause to much anxiety. So I finished it.
**Trigger**
If you have ever suffered from mental abuse in a relationship or with a Narcissist. This book might not be for you. The controlling every aspect of someone's life, from job, what they wear, were they can and can't, to whom you can't talk too, and stalking is deeply romanticized in this book.
Not in a bdsm way either.
Nothing sane about the man male character.
So.....
I finished it but I regret spending money on it.

[Simone Keller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but costs$20 to read on any site. To expensive

[Katrina (Katie) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish it. It was so bad and boring.

[Brittney Janson · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF


Idk what tf i was thinking, thank god it was free

Was influenced by the brothers best friend/since they were kids trope…. this did not satisfy… no more ad books for me

[raquel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3🌟This was the first time I read a book because of an Instagram ad ahahah

I really liked the begging of the book, it was catchy with a lot of “AAAA” moments🤭. It was exactly what I needed to start enjoying reading non-stop again. However, I have to admit, at certain point, it was too hard for me to continue reading because the amount of red flags girlllll

Overall it was a good book, although it needs a little bit more editing and way less obsession and controlling,at least for me ahahah

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐4 stars for story, which was pretty good, though at times having extremely annoying characters with repetitive thought processes and stupid mistakes.
⭐5 stars for the character Cassie/Casie/Cassandra, who at all times were saying what the reader thought about said main characters.
⭐1 star (in lack of the option to give 0) for atrocious, however at times hilarious grammar, spelling and misconceptions of English language and basic geography by the author - e.g. consistently calling an office a 'cabin' and thinking California is a city. Non-existent proofreading.
⭐5 stars for the hilarious comments you will find in whatever app you read this in. But that doesn't really count in this evaluation of this book.

All in all a decent read, if you're into romance novels without too much character developement, and also are able to laugh at stupid shit.

[Halley Herman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t usually leave bad reviews. I wanted to like this book but there were a tonnnn of editing issues. Not sure they had anyone proofread at all because there was a lot of sentences that didn’t make any sense.

To all authors, quit using orbs to describe the eyes.. it is creepy, cringy, etc..

The story was repetitive as well. I thought this was just a second chance type but the way Ace is possessive and doesn’t allow Em to leave is cringy… I don’t usually mind a “your mine” trope but this book was almost a cringy stakerish vibe 😬

I think there needs to be to be major editing and rework some thing for this to be great book!

[Sara Vučić-Šneperger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really don’t know why I read this

[Zianya Mauricio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Caí por uno de esos anuncios de instagram y la escena que te anuncian en ese vídeo ni siquiera aparece en el librooooo😩 lo siento, lo siento, lo siento pero no me gustó. Los personajes decían una cosa y luego hacian otra, hablaban en primera persona y luego (en la misma oración) comenzaban a hablar en tercera persona. El protagonista es un zopenco, los hermanos tenían mucho potencial, pero literal si la prota no los necesitaba no existian, AÚN cuando se supone son mejores amigos del protagonista. El ex pues meh, tolerable. La historia de las amigas también quedó inconclusa. La protagonista una nadaqueverienta total, una pick me total y nefassssta, tenía rato que no leía una prota así de mal desarrollada, futerrimooo bb 0/10
La historia tenía buen potencial, es la típica historia de multimillonario loco por la prota, pero hubo muchas cosas q la escritora decía y luego JAMÁS se volvía a mencionar, como por ejemplo ¿Y la pintura?
En fin, muy largo para tan poco desempeño.

[Tannya D. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn’t bring myself to finish.

Not for lack of trying….

The author needs to take time to make some major edits. I managed to get through half of the book, but just wasn’t able. The grammar is horrible, the punctuation is redundant, and Emerald is such a dunce that she needs a coned hat with glittered letters!

I despise giving bad reviews and can only say that with severe editing, the story could possibly go somewhere.

[Sonry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha gustado y eso que la traducción esta fatal.

[Shughes87 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classically Written, A New Timeless Story

Just as the title of my review suggests, this story is a Classically styled written romance novel and I believe will become a new timeless classic.

It's not very often these days where I fall hopelessly in love with a story or its characters. Many Authors don't have the ability to breath life and soul into the stories they write. I am proud and honoured to have read The Trap of Ace by Eva Zahan. For this story carries the weight of a classically Written romance with a hint of modernism added to it's story line. Ace and His Rosebud feel as real as any living human being in the real world. Their story one a test of sacrifice, pain, betrayal and of pure love between two people. The kind of love that you in an old man and his wife enjoying a morning stroll. One that breaths a test for those who work for their love once they have it and not the kind of love that is bought.

Eva Zahan, If this is the quality of characters and story you can produce with a love story that provides a test of the times, then I thoroughly look forward to reading more of your work. For this book The Trap Of Ace, is a story I recommend to anyone who loves classically styled romance novels.

Thank you for writing something that helped me fall back in love with books.

[Ashlee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll start by saying that this book has promise. The base of the story line is there, it’s really there BUT this book needs some heavy editing. The word structure in so much of this book is off, it doesn’t flow and there are times where the wording is just so bad that I was literally re-reading sentences in my own way. So many of the same phrases were repeated to death. This book must have referenced “stormy orbs or stormy gray orbs” to describe eyes 1,000 times. It was too much. The tenses were often wrong, there were times the story times lines didn’t make sense either. How was it freezing cold and 30 seconds later she was in a sun dress in the rain? Again, the plot was there but this book needs so much flushing out to be what it can be.

As far as the characters go… Emerald came across as childish, immature and a little dumb. It went beyond being naive in my opinion. In the beginning, I really thought I was going to like Ace, but he quickly went from a dominant male character to seemingly toxic and overly controlling/demanding. I think both characters have potential, but like the rest of the book, they need work.

I hope this author is able to continue honing her craft and takes the feedback I have seen in so many other reviews as well. It would be nice to see this book re-done.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I, like a lot of other reviewers, got sucked in by a pushy social media ad, with a spicy scene that never even appeared in the actual text. I read it mostly out of spite. I should have known with the amount of core-references and hips grinding that there wouldn't be any actual explicit spice but I was still disappointed when all that slow burn and bad editing left me blue balled. Even if I look past the terrible writing, the characters were confusing and irredeemable at best. Most of her friends and family gaslit the MFC into staying with this guy she had wanted for so long and invalidated her feelings which left her with a significant amount of trauma yet his trauma was justified because it was worse. I didn't know grown adults could compare trauma in romantic relationships and try to one-up each other but here we are. The entire build up made me roll my eyes and I sped-read the remainder of the book after the first time it faded to black. I would say don't get sucked in by ads with spicy scenes anymore but we all know how that turns out.

[Ems · Rating 3 out of 5]

A second chance romance

Its a good intriguing story about lost childhood love, and overcoming past issues. The FMC, Emerald is a very shy girl which i think is cute, and i like that her child like behaviour is consistent through out the book. I like that the MMC, Ace is a possessive cavemen, but as tamed as a lamb for his rosebud.

I give this book 3 stars out of 5 stars because even though the story is quite good, there are a few holes that makes the story not that believable and there are several misspellings and grammatic errors that gave me the feeling of this being a new author with a debute book and english not being their first language.

But, the plot is very good, and the story in general, i just had issues with the grammar and language.

I can recommend this book to anyone who enjoys second chance, closed door romance with a obsessive caveman and who do not have some issues with there being grammatic errors

[Charity · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downloaded this on kindle after being bombarded with fb ads for it...yep I was a sucker.
This is the story of Em and Ace...in a very unhealthy relationship. I enjoyed the story which is why I kept going, but the behavior never got better.
Controlling every aspect of someone's life, from job, what they wear, were they can and can't go, to who they can and can't talk too, and stalking is the main themes in this story...and not in a sexy way.

However, the main thing wrong in this book is the editing and grammar. It is hugely apparent that this is an amateur writer and I suspect English isn't their first language. Some terms and the order things are said are distracting. Hopefully this book has been successful enough they can afford a professional editor.

[Tasha Binfield · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started this and had to finish. Firstly lots of grammatical mistakes throughout which added to the irritation that I had towards the main characters.
At the beginning of the book Ace was a gentleman and you could imagine him being the knight in shining armour and his Rose had the potential of being a strong female character, but no, I still don’t know how Aces character changed so dramatically and how pathetic Rose became.
The story line was predictable and followed a similar path to 50 Shades, but don’t let that make you think it is any good it’s disappointing. There’s no 🌶️ just a very unhealthy relationship where the female character is forced to heel and be submissive with the promise of love as a carrot 🤮 but it’s ok he’s only doing it for her!!

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a waste of time. I swear it's the last time I'm getting sucked in by those FB ads.
I really can't stop reading books because I need to know what happens otherwise I would have stopped a hundred times.
Ace is a psychotic manipulative caveman who just can't respect consent. Like, never. Worse, people around them enable, encourage and excuse his behavior.
Emerald is acting like a poor little girl all the time. Always too much, never having measured reactions. It's all or nothing.

And let me say the tension building up had me thinking maybe the sexy scenes would make up for some of the horrors of this book. Nope. Because ... no sexy scenes. We're just flying past their encounters.

And the ending? Awful. Too easy.
Really, do yourself a favor and go read something else.

[Julia (scriptamortalia) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started this on Nov 17, got to 41% in one day, and have not touched it since. I now realize I never will again.
This is quite terrible and if I share my full thoughts it’ll just be mean. To save unnecessary cruelty being put out into the world I’ll just say: please save yourself the time. It’s barely English & not even close to edited. Author was just inventing contractions and phrases. Thanking the editor in this acknowledgement HAS to be a joke.
You get a headache from reading this because you’re trying to mentally re-write/translate the story as you’re reading it into normal, coherent words & sentences and the story is just not good enough to justify that. They get together at 40% and there is not a thing to care about beyond that. That’s all!

[Sue Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story

What a lovely story. 2 children, Emerald and Achilles (Ace) who met as children and a bond was formed. Unfortunately, Ace had to pull away during their teens as he was having serious issues due to the death of hus father Emerald, distraught at him turning his back on her, went off to university. Upon he return home, she soon realised that Ace had overcome his issues (for her) and had been keeping a close watch over her for the past 7 years.
So if you want to learn how they worked through all their issues (and there are a few!), then please, please read this wonderful novel

[Rachel Way · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this was an interesting one.
I REALLY enjoyed the premise and the majority of the plot.
But the writing itself! Ooft, it was a lil bit all over the place. I’m not sure if it was proofread/edited… but a lot of the wording and phrases used made absolutely no sense. Parts of the book were repetitive and cringy.
The spicy bits were touched on but skipped and, considering the type of book it was, I was expecting a bit more.
Overall and good read; just needed some proper editing. And maybe condense it a little so it is more concise (nearly 600 pages that could’ve been 350-400), otherwise it had a good story line.

[Emily Reads Romance_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've honestly reread this story about 4 times over the course of a few years. There are some major flaws in regards to grammar, it needs editing. Regardless, I absolutely love the way this author pulls at my heart strings. It's angsty and full of longing. It's not perfect, but it's a story I go back and re read time and time again. Emerald and Ace are by no means perfect characters, you may not agree with everything they do, but that's not the point with this kind of story. The point is two people obsessed with each other and what they would do to be together.

[alison lirio · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star

I initially wanted to give this 0.5 stars but then I read the about the author and I was like damn this is what she wants to do.

I picked this up because I had nothing to read and Instagram gave me one of those pushy romance reads. It was rough. I didn’t enjoy the experience this novel gave me but I appreciate the author’s effort. Never have I ever cringed so hard that it broke my face while I was taking the metro. I literally had to put this book down several times so I could survive.

Also, this is a closed door romance. If you want to pick this up, you better know this.

[Paula Rouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

You need to get a good editor to take all the mistakes out!!!

Honestly, some of the words used were hilarious! I couldn’t stop laughing when Arthur was behind the bars 😂😂
You seriously need someone to edit this because the amount of mistake in it was unreal. Also I feel like the use of a thesaurus to change certain words to make it sound more intelligent was hilarious, made the whole sentence wrong! I questioned if the authors first language was English - turns out it is…….. who’d have guessed it

[georgia 💗 · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️ Meh 🫤

This book was not what I was expecting. There were many grammatical errors. The fact that the next chapter did not pick up where the previous one left off when something was happening at the end of each chapter was another thing I detested. It would be a completely different scene, and she would find herself thinking about the previous chapter. It was really choppy. I really wanted to DNF, but I also wanted to see how it would have turned out. I also guessed most of the plot and who did what. I liked the storyline, but it could have been better.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming story and a genuinely good time—except for the repetitive word choices. Rosebud was the worst offender, driving me to the brink of madness. Every single time it came up (and it came up a lot), I wanted to gouge my eyes out. Add to that the constant use of “beautiful” and, strangely, “felicity,” and it all started to feel like overkill.

I wanted to give this book 4 stars, but as I neared the end, Rosebud became so pervasive it was impossible to ignore. I may have to take away half a point.

3.5/5 ⭐️. Great story, but the repetition really wears you down.

[Janine Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

vanilla story

This is just a lighthearted possessive hero romance. Good for those who like wholesome and dragged plot stories. My little naive young adult self years ago would love this story. This was recommended on my group page because of tiktok ads about posessive hero, but then its a TRAP! I myself had been trapped by this Trap of Ace because of some snippets. For readers who likes darker themes, beware, not for us babes. Vanillas all over the floor.