Erin

That was a SLOG to get through. The writing was honestly just not up to SJM's standard. It should have gone through way more edits. The story was loosely thrown together with sex scenes a sloppy glue to hold it all. There was very little emotional impact or urgency to drive the story. SJM kept throwing twists at you, but because she'd spent so little time building the world in this book, she had to tell you how to feel about all of those twists, immediately losing any impact those twists should have given the story. I am so disappointed. I really enjoyed the first book. This one just did not hold up.
...

I am interested to see where she's going to take this, with the ending bringing her two worlds together.

...

And I'm sorry, but the hotly anticipated consummation of Bryce and Hunt's relationship happens with Ithan in the next room?! And then the next time in a gym?!?! What happened to all the romantic build of anticipation from the previous book? There was so much tension she could have built with the arrival of Cormac... But even that story arc was barely more than a convenient plot point.

I wavered on the edge of just not finishing this book so many times. The hero is a misogynistic creep. Both characters are honestly pretty bland. And for a book about assassination, there's very little actual assassinations, or really any action at all, occurring.

Misha seeks out Rikki 18 years after saving her from the burning wreckage of her home after his mother assassinates her father. Since then, Misha's basically been in love with Rikki. I'm not sure exactly how old Rikki is, but after her father died, she was placed in government child care. Misha was in his twenties when he saved her. That's pedophilia right there. He goes out of his way to say that he wasn't interested in her during that time, but that she changed his life and he never went a day without thinking of her since... At one point in his internal monologue he asks:

What would their lives have been like if he had stayed with her in the hospital and refused to go with his mother, refused to go back to the Guild? Who would have been then?

reasons

somehow

grateful