I read this for the Second Chances square for Romance Bingo.

"You're my greatest weakness and my greatest strength."

Y'all. I'm so ridiculously entertained by this series and world the author has created. This is a second chance romance because the hero orchestrated a scene where the heroine thought he was cheating on her because he thought his world was too dangerous for her. I know, I know, Drama-lama but while there are a few romanclandia roll-eye tropes, I completely let them slide on by because of overall enjoyment of characters and story.

I think I mentioned this in a review for another in the series but there are times where the sheer amount of characters and connecting off-shoot storylines gets a bit overwhelming, you need to start at the beginning with this series, but man oh man, I am eating it up with a spoon.

We don't initially get to see Alek and Sacha fall in love or their first meetings, some reminiscing about it, and the romance has a different feel and structure from the usual romance step-by-step. I missed some aspects of the usual route, cheesy romance moments or excitement of firsts but the deeper, real, and dealing with hurts did a great job of making up for it.

With Russian mafia, Italian mafia, Romanian mafia, and MCs (see why I mention an overwhelming feeling sometimes) there is definitely something for everyone. The plethora of characters and storylines is crazy but the author does an amazing job of keeping a pretty tight rein on things. You may find some coincidences or situations a bit unbelievable but you'll go along with it because like I said, it's so gosh entertaining. I love the myriad things there are to keep track of.

The romance might suffer a bit for some because of all the plots going on I mentioned but only enough for me to take away half a star.

THAT ENDING.

Safe to say I'll be sticking with this series and am dying for Lucian's story.
I guess I should also give a fair warning that this one is a little gory, let's just say Vlad the Impaler must be a relative of Lucian. I'm a horror movie lover who has watched more than my fair share of slashers, so I didn't mind the sometime descriptions of acts carried out in vengeance.
Give me MOAR of this series.

I have really grown to love this series with every book that I've read. When I started this book it felt way different from the other books that I had read and loved. The writing was very awkward in the beginning and it was a bit painful to read at times. The more that I read the better the writing became.

Alek comes across his ex Sasha at a restaurant and he wants to explain himself and win her back. Sasha wants nothing to do with him as the last time she saw him he was cheating on her (or so she thought). Little does Alek know that Sasha has a secret that she is keeping from him that will turn his life upside down. 

So for most of the first half of the book Alek is trying to explain himself to Sasha and she is trying to avoid him. The more this kept going on the more annoyed I became. When Sasha's secret finally came out I felt like the story finally progressed but I didn't like who Alek became when he first found out. Once the two of themselves finally got over their issues I loved seeing their relationship progress.

There was a villain in this book and I really didn't like the parts from his point of view. I can completely understand why he was driven to act the way that he did. That doesn't mean I liked him at all though.

The action towards the end and the twist at the end definitely saved this book for me. The action was amazing and you honestly didn't know who would make it out alive. If not for the action and that awesome twist at the end I probably would not have continued on with this series.

I have really enjoyed this series so far but my god this has been painful to read so far. The writing is just awkward right now. I know I am only two percent of the way in but this is not the kind of writing that I have loved previously from this series.