SPOILER ALERT !
(BECAUSE I LOVE SPOILING S••• ☠️)
TRIGGER WARNINGS : there’s many of them. Here. https://www.authorlolaking.com/series-content-warning
Please check the warnings for this book, because it’s intense, and your mental health is important.
As for the story, damn. I did not know, I needed another dose of lola’s North shore universe. I have not liked any universe of an author, but f••• — this universe tops it all off.
I will miss North shore universe, but then again, the last and the final book has me in its grips and did not let me go.
I was overwhelmed, reading it all in one go, but did i regret? Absolutely not. Lawless god is the final book in the north shore series, and although I mourned the ending of the series, i can’t help but want more. 😂
This book is dedicated to all the girls who will have Stockholm syndrome after the end of the book, and i was like, i will never.
Here we go, i do have a Stockholm syndrome now, nathan white, I hate to love you. Stupid boy.
Plot : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice :🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Rating :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Tropes : dark romance, contemporary romance, second chance, forced proximity, mafia elements, touch her and you die literally ☠️, single mother romance, plot twists.
Pacing : medium to fast.
Characters : i) nathan white — this man is my absolute favorite, square - rounded specs, blond hair, tall, yeah, that’s my type, for now, i’m loving it. This man knows what he was doing. He trapped kayla in a way she couldn’t get out. His brain is just like— works in the best ways, what can I say? He’s amazing. With his violent tendencies to his gentlest ways of taking care of kayla and their daughters, the way he tries his best to understand their emotions, ooof! 💕 Nathan makes sure kayla does not have a way to escape him. Nathan was adopted by the Bianco family, along with his siblings, he was raped by his foster father, so he kills him, takes care of his sister and brother, they were eight, and he was twelve, jake and rose, the twin siblings — he makes sure his fate is not repeated with them. Nate wanted to do more for them, but kayla testifies against him, for his father —mateo bianco’s murder, and he goes to prison for five years. During those five years, he’s unable to take care of his siblings, nor does he meet his daughters, Olivia and celia, kayla and nate also had twins. Kayla thinks she took down nate, when he went to prison, but does not realise that nate had bigger cards to play, he was out of prison for five months, and made sure, he had planned everything, before he kidnapped kayla from her broken house. I still don’t understand when Kayla and Nathan has twins, i know that it was before he went to prison, so the first time, she was forced to go to nathan’s house about the deal, when her father was alive? Someone help!
ii) kayla King/ white : kayla is strongest, baddest, and she does not take s••• from anyone, she is only scared of one person, nathan white, other than that, she could punch the living lights of anyone. She was perfect, throughout the book, out of all the heroines, i loved Alexandra, and kayla the most. Those two are just chefs kiss. Kayla tried so hard to get to the top, to be able to handle her crew, the kings she grew up in an abusive family, her mother leaves her life, so that her father would maybe leave her alone, if he had kayla, and he does, kayla’s mom is raped by her father. Kayla tried to help her mother,only to take the consequences of his actions on herself, and after all that, she still fights her way to become strong enough to lead, and be responsible, because she had to take care of caden, and while she was struggling, she still made sure her people were not struggling, she provided money, she made sure people from her crew were not getting killed, even when nathan had her, she still thought about all of them and wanted to be there for them. My girl is too responsible, she did so well. Too well for girl her age. She does not hesitate to kick anyone who is trouble, or hurts her family. Her mother takes care of her twins, but she is responsible for all the s••• that should not have happened to kayla. She was fighting for her town, to make sure she had power over NSC. NSC is another crew on the north shore fighting over themselves. The north shore is not rich, it has broken buildings, unfinished projects, broken homes, people struggle for the basic needs, and kayla did what she could, when her father died, she took better care of them, even when he messed up, especially when her father refused to work with nathan, and hence she was losing a lot of power, because nathan took that same proposal to the NSC, making emma her enemy more powerful.
The other side characters — Elliot, Ethan, jade, rose, malik, sam, jake, jamie, Alexandra, Xi, caden, billie, everyone’s cameo was a good cherry to add into the book, i loved that, also the way they call gather to find kayla, when she gets abducted by lucky, a member of the Russian family — luciano family. Nate was still being associated with the bratva, and therefore they wanted to talk to him, so they didn’t kill kayla, just kept her in their territory, when nate cut off ties with the cosa nostra, and took over the Bianco family. Vito, son of emiliano of the luciano family, was not informed of any plans nathan had, and took over the Canadian suppliers who worked for them which angered them. I still need to wrap my head around the mafia elements of the story.
What I loved : l loved the story, how everything unfolded, I knew that it was going to be twisted. Lola knows how to write a book that has her readers questioning the whole damn book. I loved the writing, nate, kayla, i loved the other characters, i loved nate’s tendency to hurt kayla and have his fun with it.
What I struggled with : nothing. This book was too good.
Loveable characters or not : 100% loveable.
Strong character development : yes.
Plot driven / character driven : plot driven.
Favorite quotes/ highlights : - I want to touch my little sunflower and feel her soft petals between my fingers.
I want to make her mine over and over again, so she has no doubt in her mind who she belongs to.
I want something as simple as feeling my wife close to me.
-She turns away, hurrying to the counter to rid herself of the tray, and Nate uses the occasion to wink at me. Just like that, I know the champagne was fine, certainly to his tastes. He just didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable not liking it.
- “Little sunflower.” I press a hand to her cheek, forcing her to focus on me. “What did he do?”
I watch her throat tightening as she struggles to swallow. “He assaulted me.”
“Then he dies.” I lose myself in her incredible eyes as I repeat, “It’s as simple as that.”
- I feel my eyes widen, and I sit up, forcing him to let me go. “I-I’m confused. How do you know what time my night terrors are? How do you even know I actually have night terrors? I don’t know if I do.”
“Because you don’t remember them.”
He sits up, yawning as he twists to open the drawer of his bedside table. Then he turns on the small lamp. “I know because they wake me up.” Opening the small notebook he just pulled out of his drawer, he shows me what he’s written in there. “Look.”
- “Monday, four twenty-seven,” he reads. “Tuesday, four thirty-one. Wednesday, four thirty, Thursday—”
“Whoa, wait, wait, wait.” I snatch the notebook out of his hands. “You…you’ve been keeping track of when those things happen?”
“How am I meant to help if I don’t keep track? That’s what the article said,” he explains as impassively as ever.
“Daddy,” he corrects me right away. I’m going to have to explain to him that I won’t force my daughters to call him Dad or Daddy until he’s earned it or if they want to do so.
He’s holding the knife in a way that ensures I can’t cut myself. His hand is protecting the blade, so that must mean he’s holding some of it, cutting himself.
“Oh, sweetie,” I sigh. My heart threatens to break, barely held together by the beautiful eyes of my daughter looking up at me. “The things you must have seen. I wish I could get inside your little head and erase them.”
Taking her other hand, I add, “Now is the time you surprise all of us by talking, sweetie. Maybe even show us you’re some secret genius who remembered the exact license plate of that car. Something crazy like that.”
- She reaches to grab her phone. “Should I set the alarm for 4:15 a.m.?” she asks.
I shake my head, taking the device out of her hands and putting it away. “They’re gone, little sunflower. All we’re doing now is waking you up in the middle of the night for no reason. Just because you’re used to it and it reassures you.”
She licks her lips, hesitant. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, baby. No more night terrors. Because you’re safe now. You’ll always be safe with me.”
And this is a promise I intend to keep until the end of days. Not only for Kay, but for our entire family. I will always keep them safe.
Any other details : now, onto the cover, the sunflower is obviously a reference for kayla being the sunflower of nathan’s life, since he tells her, he’s her sun, and also the tattoo he gets done during the night, by drugging her, on her stomach, or abdomen? It’s at her front. Then, the knife being the reference for the way he uses it on her, there’s too many references for that, the knife could also be the reference for when Kayla attacks his shoulder and makes him bleed, during her captivity. The prenup or the marriage contract where she signs her name, and her freedom to nathan. The bracelet being the reference for when they go to a charity ball in the stoneview hall, where he makes her wear two of them, just so he could cuff her hands together 😂boy is whipped and loved kayla’s helplessness too much. But it’s mutual. The chains being the reference for when he ties her ankles with a leather shackle attached to a chain that was bolted to the floor, so she can’t run, or try to move much, or can’t reach the water bottle when she’s thirsty, and he tells her to take a bath but she refuses to. Also, the way nate smacks her everytime she downplays herself. Love that. Where’s my nate?
I loved nathan white, and now I have stockholm syndrome. Taking my words back. Thankyou nate.