I love this series! I was waiting for this one to come out because I love Baron "Vicious" and wanted to see how his son was. As it turns out, he is more complicated than we thought. Incidents from his past have caused him to behave the way he is today.

Like all of the books in this series you have a dark "secret" that is pretty heavy. Of course we don't know what it is until near the end.

Other than that you have a lot of the same "bully" type of romance/hatemance, the formula isn't broke so L.J. isn't going to fix it. I will say however, that her characters have a very colorful vocabulary. ( )

Book 2 & 3 in this series are a tie in my opinion. Knight's story was a complete emotional gut punch but Vaughn's backstory clears up why he's been such a shit. Also, Len is my goth twin soooooo . . . ( )

3.5 to 4ish .... I mean does the next generation even come to their fathers' personalities? No. ( )

4.5 stars

Like so many people, this book was one of my most anticipated books since it was first announced. I needed to know know what was at the root of what made Vaughn tick. From the first introduction in this spinoff series I knew there was something different in him, I just had no idea what or why. Never, and I mean NEVER in my wildest dreams did I think it was going to be what it turned out to be. NEVER.

I thought the angst and the connection between Lenora and Vaughn was out of this world. I was 100% engrossed in the story trying to decipher where this animosity was coming from. Even with this hate-fueled banter between them, I still felt their connection. It was reminiscent of Vicious and Emila but only it felt even more raw and visceral. I adored Lenora and her ability to banter with the comebacks that she did. She truly was the perfect match for Vaughn. Their chemistry was off the charts.

I liked that the author tackled some pretty heavy topics here and handled it with such care. This book was darker in some aspects, (not in the typical kidnap or dubcon type of way that most think of when they here dark) but rather in the setting of the story. It needed to be in order to cover the reasons for the story itself. The title couldn't be more appropriate for a book than this one. There was a particular scene where it was explained that left me in awe with this author's ability to craft a story like a present making the title like the bow on top. Also, there is a certain letter that might also be one of the best things that I have ever read that made this book extra special.

All of that being said, was this my favorite book by this author? No. There were a few areas that I wanted further explained such as MG and also how everything clicked at the end during the pinnacle of the story. Even though it wasn't my favorite, it still was well worth the wait. It is bittersweet to see this spinoff series end.

I look forward to where this author goes next. Anything that she writes is an automatic one-click for me. ( )

I can see aspects of this book that would be really interesting. The characters have a lot of potential.
I was recommended this book because I adore etl and morally grey characters, but I don't think I was the target audience for it. I don't expect it from the author, but there was an entire chapter that I had to skip that desperately needed a TW or a tl;dr instead of graphic depiction. Author did a good job wrapping up loose ends though. ( )