This is a spoiler-free review!
I have returned to my never-ending pile of Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads... It is very much a Hades and Persephone retelling and I am always a sucker for those. After having her debut in society, Paige's family attempt to throw her into the arms of a man who hurt her in the past. As she scrambles to find a solution to save her from this fate, her mind turns to Hayes, the man she met the very night of her debut. Paige and Hayes each have their own motivations for pursuing on another, and after a chance encounter that sets off their own schemes, their relationship takes a number of turns.
Paige's mother is truly the worst in every capacity, and anytime she popped up, I was begging for her to go away. She is certainly a thorn in Paige's side, and that thorn definitely gets stuck into Hayes's side as the book goes on. I do wish there were more side characters to be friends for Paige - she was pretty alone through the entire book besides the first few chapters. Hayes had his brothers make a number of appearances and their presence was able to humanize him and give him development outside of his relationship with Paige.
I really enjoyed the side plot of Garrison and his past with Paige - it was intense, and the author was able to weave it into the story without overpowering the main plot. It was great to see a female lead stand up for herself consistently and not have to have others speak for her. Especially considering what he put her through, it was important to see Paige be the one to tackle her own feelings and show Garrison that he was not going to get what he wanted from her. Plus, it gave us protective Hayes, which was certainly a plus to see throughout the book.
The spice in this book was present but not overpowering, and with Paige's lack of experience, it made sense that things did not get too out of hand. There was still plot to the story once it was introduced, and the author kept the balance fairly well without sacrificing the story's other side plots. Regarding the pacing of their relationship, I was hoping to see more slow-burn action, and while that was present for the first half of the book, it went from zero to one hundred fairly quickly. The miscommunication trope... oh how I loathe you... accompanied by the sudden betrayal right in the last few chapters, Paige and Hayes quickly went from the perfect relationship to being at odds.
That cliffhanger!! I actually screamed when I turned the page only to discover the book was over. I had a lot of fun reading this book and it absolutely flies by if you have the chance to sit down and power through the story. Considering I was truly stunned by the abrupt ending, I will be finding myself seeing this series through to the next installment.
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