I! LOVED! THIS! ( )

I tried, but there's so much wrong with making the villain of the story the love interest that I'm going to set that sentence right here for whoever is reading this to think about: The villain doing awful things is the love interest.

That means not only do we face a redemption, but that all the awful things he does has to be ignored for "he's her lover" which simply cannot be ignored.

Corra has chronic pain and the book needs to remind us this. Chronically. Not by showing much, but by constantly telling.

Love interest: Simon.

Simon wants to grope Corra, to kill Corra, to hurt Corra, and spends most of his first scenes being a total creep. He's nasty, he's disgusting. He's full of red flags. If I was a kid this would have lead me towards abusive people more than my upbringing already has. It's not sexy. His mind going on and on about killing and torturing her is disgusting.

Continuing on he thinks of Corra as bait, as food, she's not a person, she's prey to him. He constantly inflicts pain and he delights in it. He talks to her like she's nothing, and he feels nothing when he injures her.

I really like the idea of a carnival, of carnival settings. But this is everything I love about carnivals thrown to the side for a creepy non-con relationship where no means maybe. I had my hopes up for this and just, no. No.

I rate this 2 stars because the element and potential is there, so it's not a flop,
but it decides to become five books of abuse and disgust and we're supposed to root for this couple to happen. He'd be fantastic as a villain but as a love interest. No, he's most people's nightmare exes more than a sexy man people should want to have in their lives. Simon does not deserve to be anything but an abuser killed in this book series. ( )