Summary
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GENRE
TROPES
AO3 TAGS
One night. No one will know.
That was the deal. Every year, Livvy Kane and Nicholas Chandler would share one perfect night of illicit pleasure. The forbidden hours let them forget the tragedy that haunted their pasts–and the last names that made them enemies.
Until the night she didn’t show up.
Now Nicholas has an empire to run. He doesn’t have time for distractions and Livvy’s sudden reappearance in town is a major distraction. She’s the one woman he shouldn’t want . . . so why can’t he forget how right she feels in his bed?
Livvy didn’t come home for Nicholas, but fate seems determined to remind her of his presence–and their past. Although the passion between them might have once run hot and deep, not even love can overcome the scandal that divided their families.
Being together might be against all the rules . . . but being apart is impossible.
Hot Takes
What We Liked
Apers
For me, the first book is the hook that gets me invested in a series and my favorite part of this is the story that was happening outside of the main characters. I hope Sadia, Jackson, and Eve get their own books and their HEAs. (If you’ve read this series, please let us know because I’m simply not going to look it up and I’m definitely not going to read them based on my two-star review.)
What We Didn’t Like
Jems
I was really excited to read this story and while it hit some marks, it missed a couple for me in the pacing and character departments. The constant will they/won’t they got a bit repetitive and stalled the dynamic between Livvy and Nicholas when it should have been growing better (or worse). Also, there was far more chemistry and even intimacy between the siblings (yikes) than our actual leading couple; I would have loved to see more of the care shown between the brothers and sisters between Livvy and Nicholas.
Review
Apers
The spiciest thing in this spicy book was not what you’d expect because I’m not actually in the book, I was just reading it. (It’s me, I’m spicy.) Jemma has a formula she uses to rate books but I am a mood reader and therefore a mood rater and most of my notes were me being annoyed or frustrated because all the things keeping the couple apart weren’t things that I thought made sense unless you were a rich person with no real problems. Also the MMC sure did spend a lot of his time saying the FMC was “bad for him” and cookies were “bad for him” like just have fun my guy, I just don’t understand the morality of the emotional. I did like the representation of mental health issues and also the side characters, but I’m not a contemporary reader and it’s because I don’t think the things keeping most contemporary protagonists apart are real.
Jems
If you’re not down with boning in semi-public places, then this isn’t the book for you (it was the book for me though 🤭). Back of a tattoo shop? Yeah and she sucked his dick! In a crappy motel room with paper thin walls? Yeah and she was a screamer! In the woods? Yeah and it was actually romantic enough to make me not worry about getting ticks!
