Plot : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice : 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (somehow I always end up ana huang’s books as four stars, maybe because i’m too morally gone, or something, but I like her men, just not as much) 😭
Tropes : billionaire romance, marriage in crisis, contemporary romance.
Pacing : medium.
💔 spoiler alert ❗

Characters : i) Alessandra : The story starts with the best line, “once upon a time, i’d loved my husband. his beauty, his ambition, his intelligence.”This line itself pulled me in, and I was invested when I read that line. Ale is sweet, kind, caring, especially because of her mother’s contant affairs and not being able to take care of Marcelo, her brother, and herself. Ale has always been the caretaker, first for her brother, and then for Dominic. Ale wanted a divorce because she felt like she was disappearing, while dom chased his ambition. Ale seemed confusing, or at conflict with her emotions, because one moment she decides she didn’t want anything to do with Dominic, and then she runs to him for comfort. but then, again, she was served for dom’s attention, love, touch, so I understand that she’d want to go to him. it wasn’t annoying for me. i’m sorry, but I don’t have much to say about her.
I also loved Ale’s will to build something of her own, rather than being a wife of a billionaire. her pressed flowers shop? perfect. I loved at the end of the book, they both had grown, and found each other.

ii) Dominic : now, I have seen some people say that he did not grovel much, and that Alessandra should have made him grovel more, and I get it. at some points in the book he got used to Ale’s sacrifices and understanding mistaking it for love, and that led to a breakup between them. It is only after the divorce (and I think the blurb of the book even says, “he had her, he lost her…and he’ll do anything to win her back”) I think the divorce was necessary, because i think — it was important for Dominic to realize Ale’s value. and what she gave in their relationship. Dom wanted Ale, he loved her, but he also is arrogant? a little? because he thinks they can just go on a vacation, and more things, before Ale comes back to him. Dom does realize what he lost after he had her, and everything that he thought she loved, or liked, or as a person, was all carefully crafted, and soon he realises that Ale’s wishes are different from her mother’s.

iii) roman : this man, (I read some reviews on this book, and someone said this man does it hard 😭☠️😂 who came up with this theory, please EXPLAIN to me, not my autocorrect correcting s••• in capital) butttt…roman did give me the creeps, but will I want his book? yes. will I swoon over him in his book? also yes. 😂 I loved roman, and his broody, scary demeanour. please give me more of this man. pleajjjj.

What I loved : I loved the story, and the plot, and the different destinations ana places in the books that I have read. I loved the pacing. it wasn’t rushed, but I wanted to rush because I wanted to finish the damn book, before I could rest and finish other books which have been sitting on my currently reading shelf for too long. I also loved dom’s early life, and his struggles, and his struggles, something about a hardworking man is a such an attractive turn on. (oops…🫣) I loved how dom’s reason for being ambitious and greedy was to never fall into the situation he worked so hard to get out of. I liked that about him. I also love how ana manages to squeeze a mysterious element in her books, makes reading a romance book worth it. the little element of roman giving creepy vibes? yeah, ma’am, thankyou so much for that, suddenly my reading speed increased.

What I struggled with : I didn’t struggle much, except when my attention was divided between reading two books simultaneously.

Loveable characters or not : likeable. (I didn’t love them, but I liked them)

Strong character development : yes. (there is character development, and it depends on person to person what they seem to deem fit.
Plot driven / character driven : I didn’t intend to read this book, after I finished twisted lies, but then I wanted to give a shot at reading another ana huang book, and i’m not disappointed. I love ana’s writing, and I loved this book! so, it was plot driven for me.
Favorite quotes/ highlights : “do you know what I asked myself every night when you were staying late at office again? i wondered, if there was an emergency at work and at home at the same time, who would you choose. me or your investors?” ☠️☠️ Ale woman, you hit the target right where it hurts, don’t you? 😭
“Mrs Davenport. as in my wife. if she wants to see me, she sees me. don’t ever prevent her from doing so again or the only part of new york office you’ll see is the outside when I throw you out. understand?”
“On a first name basis with your lawyer already. I see.”
“Don’t even think about playing the jealous husband card. not when you didn’t care who I spoke to or hung out with before I dented your ego—”
“you think this is what this is about ? my ego?”
“Dammit, Ále, it’s been a week. one week, and you already have that asshole lawyer serving me divorce papers. We haven’t even tried to fix things yet. there’s marriage counseling —”
“we tried that once, remember?”
“you didn’t show up because of a — surprise, surprise — work emergency.”
“f••• you. ” “you already did.” I saw it coming, but the crack of her palm against my cheek hurt more than I’d expected.
“Broken relationships belonged in the past with the old Dominic, who had nothing to keep people around. no one had cared about me until I made something of myself. the more I accumulated, the more people gravitated toward me. it was a law of human nature. I wasn’t supposed to lose the only person I cared about keeping now, when I was richer than I’d ever been. (poor baby, does not Ale didn’t want his money).
“we should talk about what happened at the lagoon.”“our kiss—” “was just a kiss.” “We were on a date. kisses happen on dates.” “Ále…” “No. Don’t make it into something more than it was.” “you asked for one date, and I gave it to you. That’s it.”“If it didn’t mean anything, you’d be able to look at me.” “No more lying to each other or ourselves. We deserve that much.”“I don’t know what you want me to say.” “Do you want me to say I enjoyed the kiss and I don’t regret it even though I should? Fine. I did, and I don’t. But physical attraction has never been the issue. when I look at you, I…”“I think I could never love anymore more than you or after you. that you took everything I had to give, and I gave it freely because I couldn’t imagine a world where we wouldn’t be together.”
“but i’m living in that world right now, and i’m scared.” “I don’t know how to live a life without you, Dom. I haven’t dated anyone else in ten years, and I just…I can’t…” “i can’t promise you anything more than I already have.”
“I know you’re trying. I know what you gave up to be in Brazil, to be here, and I truly appreciate it. but i’m not ready for anything more than we have. i’m not sure I ever will be.” “you broke my heart, and you weren’t even there to witness it.”
“I understand.”“If you need time, take it. if you want to date other people, do it i won’t interfere. I didn’t appreciate you when I had you, and that’s my cross to bear. but you’ll always be the love of my life, and i’ll always be here, whether it’s a month, a year, or a lifetime from now.” “There are probably hundreds of men who’d line up for the chance to be with you. I only ask that you let me be one of them.”

Similar authors : no recommendations.
Similar book recommendations : none.
Any other details : I know that people have different views on this book, and that’s completely okay. I loved Alessandra and Dominic’s story. this is my first book from the kings of sin series. So, I need to read all the books before I decide which one is my favorite. also, i’m looking forward to roman’s book, need his book so bad. 😭 it’s not funny, ana.

This is officially the first Ana Huang book that I like.

I usually love tropes where the couple meet each other but I was very curious to read about a relationship already in crisis. And I really like that we didn’t get too much in the past because I tend to lose interest when it doesn’t add anything to the plot, and some authors looove to write half the book about it. Ana kept it very simple and only showed us important things like how they met and specific moments in their early relationship.

I really liked Ale and Dom, which was a huge relief because I didn’t like the other main characters in the past books of the series. I couldn’t put it down, I was so invested in their relationship and totally wanted them to get back together. Even though I love man groveling I must admit I wanted Ale to forgive Dom very early in the story. He’s my favorite Ana Huang mmc so far <3.
However, there are two things that I didn’t like and really bothered me throughout the story: 1) The miscommunication that made Dom look like a villain and 2) that Alessandra was supposed to grow up as a single person without her husband, but the author developed it in a way that in my opinion was not the best

Spoiler

(The dates).

First the miscommunication , I won’t justify Dom’s previous actions that led to their divorce, but he wasn’t the only one in the marriage. You must speak up about how you’re feeling and Alessandra just expected her husband to read her mind. Yes, Dom did ignore Ale, should’ve given her the attention she deserved, and never broke his promises, but the day she decided she wanted to leave and have a divorce was the first time she was speaking to him about how lonely she felt. Dom shouldn’t have been clueless either but it was the first time he was hearing all these problems he had no idea existed. It felt like Dom was always the villain in their marriage when he got lost in his ambitions but never stopped loving Ale and he was not given a chance to mend anything before the relationship was over.

And then… the dates. It was strange how sudden Alessandra starts to think about going out with other people, and how even her friends encourage her to date and try new relationships, don’t get me wrong, she was absolutely free to do whatever she wanted, but I think that when you’re getting out of an 11 years relationship the last thing that goes in your head is seeing someone else? especially when you still love the other person and your motivation to leave was to get to know yourself outside your marriage. I was hoping to see more of her growth as a person, because her business was already running on its own, so it’s not like she discovered something new, she just got a vacation. The dates made no sense and at some point the reason for her going out with another man was to test Dominic. Sloan even says that dating is part of being single… no it’s not. You can be single and enjoy time with your friends, family and most important with yourself.

And a third thing that it’s not related to the story at all but made my eye tweak every time I saw “Ále” is why is it so hard for english speakers to understand how to pronounce “Ale”? Why does it even have a tilde in this book “Ále''? If you know that the name is “Alessandra” then you know how to spell and pronounce the nickname, it doesn’t need a tilde. I swear something in my brain dies every time a Starbucks barista in the US looks at me with no clue how to write it. It’s the three first letters in “ALEjandra '' it’s not that hard.

But personal matters aside… I enjoyed it, and it made me have hope for the rest of the series. I don’t know why I don’t feel that much excited about Sloan’s story (I guess it is with her client) but I’ll read it anyway because this one was a very nice surprise.