The Boston Belles Book 2
First, you should know it’s an enemies to lovers trope and there’s some poorly executed comparisons to Greek myths and legends.
Here’s the questions I asked when I started this book. Is it one where the hero is a total jerk and the heroine is a complete doormat who lets him walk all over her? Or is it one where the hero is a total jerk but the heroine doesn’t put up with his behaviour in any way shape or form, steals his heart despite his best efforts to remain closed off, and crushes it before making him grovel back to her? In truth, it’s neither, it’s somewhere in between.
Persephone is in love with Cillian and does openly declare that she wants to breach his impenetrable, cold façade to reach his heart (cue eye roll). But if I’m honest, it didn’t bother me as much as this theme has in some other books. I think it’s because (though she says stuff like that occasionally) most of the time she doesn’t let him get away with walking all over her.
I’m not going to gloss it over; Cillian is a horrible jerk. He has a secret and he’s like a wounded lion, lashing out at Persephone because he’s afraid. And boy, does he lash out: he’s cold, cruel, and takes the concept of their marriage of convenience to the extreme. Cillian insists they live separately, they’ll go to a couple of social gatherings, and make babies using IVF. Of course, Persephone demands more, and so begins a huge tug of war between them, What can i say? It kept me turning the pages.
The tension between them is high from the start and this is manifested in some super-hot sex scenes. Except, the first sex scene between them is horrendous. Not because it’s written badly, but because he’s just so scared of connecting with her in any way, he doesn’t touch, and he barely looks at her. I wanted to cringe, but also laugh, when she started talking about the room decor just to remind him she was taking part.
To round it up I found the whole book a very satisfying read. I liked both Cillian and Persephone, despite (and probably because) of their cruel and sometimes delusional behaviour respectively. As always with this author, there’s plenty of angst, offset with plenty of hot, sexy times. Apart from an unusually placed flashback – and the Hades and Persephone references that were frankly, unnecessary – the plot flowed easily and was well paced. I recommend this if you like heroes who behave like total jerks but learn to open up, with the help of the heroine of course, and reveal they have the capacity to love that equals their capacity to behave like a jerk.
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
