*Huge content warning for this book* This is definitely an interesting take on dark romance and taboo sex. The beginning of the book starts off a little slow, but very in depth, and the first sex scene between the spicy "love" interests is slightly immature in its language.
But let. me. tell. you. The last spicy scene of the book? FREAKIN DELICIOUS. ( )

3.5 stars

I have had this book on my TBR for a while but finally, read it in The Scotch King Boxset where it was a bonus at the end. The blurb of this drew me in and it had the potential to be so much more than it was. There were so rough scenes but more showing the violence of how far Pearl was going to go in order to not be a victim. I admired that. However, there were many similarities that I found to Crewe and London in this book. I had a hard time finding it plausible that Pearl would act this way if her life and literal bones were on the line.

I did enjoy meeting Crow and liked the idea of the buttons premise. However, I started to see the trajectory of how this was going to go even this early in the book and am not sure I want to invest my time into another series that will likely frustrate me the same way that the Scotish King trilogy did. I am glad I read this as part of this book before I made the huge commintment financially to buy the series because these books are on the spendier side compared to the typical 3-4 dollars an ebook. ( )

Totally dark and absolutely loved it! This story definitely touches on some really dark areas but in the end Pearl is strong and Crow is just the guys for her. Pearl had horrible things happen to her and is still able to be a strong female who can put Crow in his place. I am not always a fan when the captive falls for the capturer but this one didn't disappoint. ( )

Back to dark again. Absolutely worth my time. The heroine is what I want in all my characters. Her tough persona is the one thing i love in every female character instead of your usual doormat lady. No fun. But i suggest you to pick this up if you are willing to go for a female character who actually has a backbone and can definitely hold her own throughout. ( )

I have sincerely mixed feelings about this book, but perhaps I should start by saying that I WILL be ordering the sequel, which I know says something in itself.

The trick is, this review has to be a tale of two books. The second half of this book is fantastic. It is everything you could ask for in a steamy dark romance, and the characters felt real. Maybe there were some moments where it felt a bit rushed or slightly too easy, but it was heads and tails above other dark romances I've read lately, and I really enjoyed it--I didn't want to put the book down. It was steamy, entrancing, and well worth the read.

But, getting to this point wasn't easy.

For whatever reason, Sky rushed through the first half of the book. Obviously, she felt the beginning part was important enough to write it, but after the first few chapters (which were solid), there was a good 100 pages that felt incredibly rushed. During those pages, I wanted to believe in the characters and feel the heroine's struggles and pain... but it was almost impossible. Details were just too fleeting. So, though we were told there was trauma, mental and physical, it didn't feel real or connect to me on any level. In fact, if I didn't find it so hard to put down books, I might well have put down the book.

I'm not sure why the writer rushed, unless perhaps she didn't want to get so dark, or was afraid more detail in this section of the book would scare readers away. Or maybe she rushed because she knew it would be a lengthy book regardless, and didn't want it to run 'too' long, whatever that would mean. I'm honestly not sure... but I can say that the book would be outstanding if she'd taken her time during those earlier, traumatic chapters. As it was, the character's thoughts and memories and reactions to the trauma that took place during those chapters, as related later in the book... well, they were hard to believe in and connect to. Truly, the reader might have been better off if all of that exposition had been summed up and the book had started midway through; at least, in that case, we wouldn't have felt like we Should understand, but couldn't.

So, I'm left with mixed feelings. Had I stopped at the mid-t0-halfway point, this probably would have been a one star book for me. Had the first half been more like the second half in terms of detail, it probably would have been a five star read for me.

As is, I'm left with a three star experience, I suppose, but I do plan on giving the second book in the series a try. Readers who delve into this for the dark romance aspect, know it only gets good at about the halfway point, though the very first few chapters of set-up are pretty good also. The lag is hard to get through, but I'm glad enough that I did.

We'll see what happens with the next book... ( )