Summary
I made a terrible mistake.
Being a mafia princess, I knew my fate was already decided.
But I went ahead and longed for the wrong one.
Creighton King is bad news with a gorgeous exterior.
He’s silent, brooding, and obviously emotionally unavailable.
So I thought it was over.
Until he awakens a beast inside me.
My name is Annika Volkov, and I’m Creighton’s worst enemy.
He won’t stop until he breaks me.
Or I break him.
Review
(audiobook) What a journey it was. And not an easy one! Dark romance at its finest.
There couldn’t be people more different than Creighton and Annika. She’s a mafia princess, but has been kept away from the family business, and though she knows what’s going on, she’s never been involved. She’s kind of pure, with a love for ballet and the color purple, and she’s genuine. Creighton is the opposite. Sure, his family has some dark secrets, and his father and brother have a twisted mind, but they aren’t mafia. But due to a dark past–that he barely remembers–he has some peculiar tastes, and he relishes inflecting pain. He’s somber, and somewhat reclusive and apathetic. Yet they meet on the most unexpected common ground: they’re sexually compatible.
I was sometimes disturbed with the stuff they experiment together. There’s nothing deviant or abnormal, just Creighton often pushes Annika’s boundaries, making their relationship dubiously consensual. But in the end, she finds what she needs, so I just had to accept that Creighton had to bring her outside of her comfort zone.
There are also genuine feelings in this story–though power and control are its core. Creighton has fascinated Annika for a long time when she finally approaches him. She has a typical case of bad boy, falling for the broody mysterious guy of the group. Though she’s girly and a bit too innocent for her own sake, I loved that she defies him, challenges him. She even takes control a couple of times. Through sheer determination and stubbornness, she brings Creighton into the light.
This is the story of a battle between the light and the dark, really. And the conclusion is that you’re never truly yourself until you find the grey inside you.
The narration was great. To assist the main narrators, who do a perfect job with Annika and Creighton, three narrators come back to play characters who appeared in previous books by the author. I’m not sure those chapters were totally necessary, but I enjoyed listening more to favorite narrators doing accents. And I really loved what the main narrators did with their characters. Annika’s energy and Creighton’s dark mood were on point. It was an emotional experience, sometimes difficult, but not an unpleasant one.
Quickie
- Series: Legacy of gods #2 (can be read as a standalone but linked to several other books by the same author)
- Hashtags: #mafia romance #college romance #enemies to lovers #grumpy/sunshine #kinks
- Triggers: mention of murder, suicide and abuse (domestic and sexual), violence, hard BDSM with dubious consent, kidnapping, mental health problems
- Main couple: Annika Volkov & Creighton King
- Hotness: 5/5
- Romance: 4/5
- + Creighton is slow admitting his feelings, but he often showed them anyway
- – it was riding the line between consent and rape, even when Annika seemed eager
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