I struggled with this book sadly. I’ve read others by her that I’ve loved but this one was a miss. It was so slow going, lots of dialogue about business and money that I found dull. I usually enjoy multiple povs but I just couldn’t connect with any of them…they just weren’t nice people! And Lily’s script was really jarring.

Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder. So a 1 star rating for me might be a 5 star for somebody else. But this book was not for me, and here's why. The book is based on a rich & powerful family who own a large corporation (think HBO's Succession, almost a perfect mirror, except with a scary Mother as opposed to a scary Father, but the same competing siblings). Pages are given over to describing their wealth & good looks, to furniture, shoes, hair....not just some initial pages in the book, but more or less every few pages of plot, more pages are given over to how perfect people and things are, with regular dropping of exclusive brand types. Then there's the sex.....every now and again, there's not just a brief mention of sex taking place, but you get a good couple of pages at a time of hardcore sex and accompanying terminology. The plot is thin IMO compared to the dedication given by the author to describing beautiful people, beautiful things, and detailing sex scenes. So I was able to flick through several pages at a time without missing the plot, hence total read time was less than two hours. So not for me, but maybe others like this kind of thing.

I was over the moon to get an ARC of this book as I’ve recently read the Crossfire series for the first time and I can honestly say I was OBSESSED!! and that’s an understatement.

This new series is just as powerful and I’m equally as obsessed!. Why can’t the rest of the series be available immediately?.

The spice is also off the chain!

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I enjoyed this book. Good crossover of previous characters and a few great steamy scenes

I really wanted to love this book, I’ve enjoyed every other Sylvia Day, however I really couldn’t get into it. The characters didn’t resonate with me and I felt the story was slow. I did stick with it in the hope it would improve, but I’m afraid it just wasn’t for me

Absolutely can not wait for the next one in the series. Felt like this was a great introduction into Lily’s world which is already familiar from the Crossfire books, which was a nice touch. I wasn’t expecting so many twists and turns when it started and was constantly delighted by each chapter.

After a long hiatus, I was really looking forward to this new series, and although Sylvia Day’s writing is as descriptive as ever and the characters are easy to picture, the plot was sadly lacking. Linking into the Crossfire series, it was at least nice to see those characters making guest appearances.

My main issue with the book is that every character is self centred and I disliked them all, right to the end. The story is written from the point of view of several characters so we see an insight into their actions b it they’re all so horrible that I didn’t root for anyone! Now I know this is going to be a series, but until about 85% in, nothing had happened. By the end, only 1 issue is resolved and it is done so in only a couple of short chapters.

So to summarise, very little happens, the characters are unlikeable and almost nothing is resolved. Hopefully the next in the series will make wading through this worthwhile.

Provided to me for free by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This wasn’t for me, very slow.. didn’t really get going. Unlikeable characters, confusing story… not sure what was going on! So many different POVs… I nearly DNF’d but hoped there would be light at the end of the tunnel.

2 stars… I always think 1 is harsh!

Set in New York this is a story of a very dysfunctional business family. As the script remarks, “the whole family is delusional “. Kane, one of the sons of a domineering mother, apparently loses his wife Lily to an accident in her yacht at sea. Then years later he spots her in the middle of a car accident. But is that Lily or a lookalike? The story keeps the reader guessing. There are multiple sex scenes in the book all with detail. Some are between married couples, others across their various contacts. According to the book, love is “hateturned inside out.” As the story evolves, Lily is revealed as having a past relevant to other members of this family and their parents. The story is not gripping but the reader does want a resolution to the various questions. The end is somewhat inconclusive.

2 absolutely gutted stars for me.

I was luckily in the 'first 100' Netgalley readers and grabbed this book immediately. I would normally read a blurb, maybe a review, think about it etc, but no...I just went for it as fast as I could click! I mean, it's Sylvia Day FFS!!!

Ughhh big mistake.

You see every bone in me wanted the visceral feelings of Bared To You, the entire Crossfire series to be fair, sadly and I mean SADLY 😢😢😢 though, it's so far from that I don't think I'll read her books again.

I don't know what happened to SD's writing in the seven years (or more!) we all waited, but this book is as slow as the wait we had for it.
It felt disjointed, every chapter took me out of the story of a character and into another one. There's way too many POVs for one book. It made it tedious. The sex felt passionless and let me tell you, this author writes beautifully passionate scenes - so I just don't know why everything was so predictable in this one? I do think it was partly due to me not particularly liking any of the characters. It constantly felt like something was...missing?

I finished the book, but I know if I'd paid for it, I'd have dnf'd or returned. By the point at which we found out the main premise of the story (no spoilers) I didn't really care anymore, just wanted it done.

I'm absolutely gutted. I wanted this to be EPIC, but it feels like SD wrote it out of obligation rather than passion ...and it showed.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for gifting me an ARC. I hope from us 'first 100' you get 99 terrific reviews and mine is the one-off.

Everyone in this book is awful. None of them are in any way decent people, and I felt like this book really didn't know what it was trying to be - graphic sex scenes which managed not to feel at all sexy, and which didn't really serve the story at all, but no sense of the people having lives worth envying, or relationships to aspire to. So not a romance, not particularly erotic, just a group of horrible people, being horrible to each other. Also disappointing as a thriller, since there wasn't even really a payoff at the end.

3*
Kane has been beside himself since his wife Lily's drowning 6 years ago, he's buried himself in the family business hoping to save it after his father's neglect.
The story for myself left so many unanswered questions and had me confused on numerous occasions.

This is a very sexy dark novel from the queen of dark sexy fiction and does not disappoint. It’s an intriguing tale of obsessive love but I like
The fact the author always puts strong women in her books not women who just end up falling for bad boys.

A really enjoyable read that had me hooked. I loved the gothic infused atmosphere of the book and it kept me guessing. I loved it

I have to say that I didn’t really enjoy this book, not sure in to which category it wanted to place itself, thriller, romance, erotica, none of it quite right in my opinion I’m sorry to say.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

I've read this author before and really enjoyed their books so was thrilled to be able to read this

Really enjoyed this and will be searching out more of their books to enjoy