Whoa. Why was I not told I’d need one of those walk-in freezers while reading this book? Apart from being one of my most scorching reads of the year, the ‘realness’ of the love story took me totally off guard, and held me captive until the very last word. This is a book I expected to like, and found myself obsessively devouring. The level of emotion, the raw chemistry between the characters, the insight into both their personalities—this book was the total package for me and one I’d recommend unreservedly.
“I get up every morning and put on my perfect face and promise myself to have the perfect day and to someday have the perfect family. But I’m failing.”
We met Melanie Meyers in previous instalments of the series as Brooke’s loyal best friend, but it is not until now that we meet the real Melanie and the hopeless dreamer behind the mouthy vixen. Melanie has always been the perfect daughter, the bright hope in her parents’ life, perennially bubbly and optimistic, her appearance and attitude reflecting that positivity and cheerfulness. Deep down, however, Melanie feels like a fraud, unworthy of the life she was given because she keeps failing at the one thing her parents wish the most for her—finding a good man and falling head over heels in love with him. She keeps ‘kissing frogs’ in the hope of finding the man of her dreams, but all she is ever left with is a string of one-night stands and a heart that keeps breaking from the constant sting of disappointment. And yet, Melanie never stops hoping that her perfect man would suddenly walk into her life and love her the way she craves to be loved, the way she sees her friend Brooke being loved by her husband—completely and desperately.
“I am prepared to fall, and fall hard, if only I would just find him.”
Her loneliness and desire to have at least some parts of her life fall into place drive her to make the kind of mistake that puts her entire future in jeopardy, the very mistake that brings a dangerous man like Greyson King into her life.
“F*ck her prince charming. She’s getting me.”
Greyson is the ‘heir apparent’ to an organisation that sets up fighting events all across the country, called the Underground. They are also in charge of all gambling activities related to the fights, and Greyson is their collector, a ruthless man with very particular talents and an unmatched success rate. But Greyson never wanted the life he was forced to live or the future he is now asked to embrace. When his only weakness is used against him, he accepts a job that makes him cross paths with the only woman who has ever made him wish he were someone else.
“She makes me feel like I’m not a robot, like I’m flesh and blood, a man, not a number, not a job . . . not a monster, not a bastard, not a zero.”
What starts as just one night of earth-shattering passion, slowly grows into an emotional connection neither of them can deny. When they are in each other’s arms, nothing else matters, they belong to one another body and soul, but when they are apart, their personal demons try to pull them apart and make them doubt what their hearts have known from the very beginning—they belong to each other. While Greyson is convinced that his hands are too dirty to be worthy of a woman like Melanie, she allows her insecurities to make her believe that a man like Greyson could never love and want to keep someone like her, regardless of how much of her love, of herself she gives to him.
“He is the one. The one who’s going to wreck me. Hurt me. Demolish me. The one who is going to remove every inch of the girl in me. He will be the memory I will never forget, and good or bad, he will be THE one I dream of.”
I’ll be honest, I never expected to find this story, or rather, the intensity of it, when I first started reading this book. The way these characters were developed so flawlessly and so meticulously made me feel like I understood their every move, their every though, their every emotional struggle. I simply got them. And don’t get me started on the chemistry between them because it is electric. Devastating. Epic. The sex scenes between Melanie and Greyson are so powerful, urgent, almost savage in the way these characters part with their inhibitions and self-control while their bodies take over. This author has a very unique talent for transforming even the most explicit of sex scenes into moments of pure emotional vulnerability and demonstrativeness which end up only tying these characters even further to one another. I was overwhelmed, utterly ruined by those scenes, everything about them being just right for my taste.
“I look at him, and he doesn’t scare me. He lures me. He tempts me, exhilarates me. He makes me want to claim him as if I’m claiming back a part of me that was once lost. Makes me want to tame him. Let him tame me.”
There is also something extremely appealing to me about a heroine who is so emotionally unguarded and yet so resilient. Melanie’s strength of character, her unwillingness to let go of her dreams, even after so many disappointments, and her courage to put her heart on the line time after time, are qualities that made me love her from the very first page. Greyson might have been the dominant ‘alpha male’ in this scenario, but it is Melanie’s persistent heart that was the true hero of the story. I loved their romance beginning to end, every component of it fit just right, including the language used by the characters, and I found myself without objections.
“You are so f*cking mine you don’t even know how mine you are.”
A deeply emotional story, a story that caught me by surprise and made me adore every delicious, dirrrty moment of it. I was enthralled, I was moved, I was bewitched, and I never wanted it to end.
“Whoever you end up with, just know you were mine first. A part of you will always be mine. When you find your prince charming, the one who has everything you’re looking for, perfect, you’ll still be my f*cking princess and not any other’s.”
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