(3.5)

There can be no slow build, no quiet lust, intimacy frosted over days, weeks, months. Not for them. So she longs for the mornings, but she settles for the nights, and if it cannot be love, well, then at least it is not lonely.

I liked this quote before i even finished the book but found that it was a sum up of how i felt about Addie and the book by the time i got to the end. Its about making the most of situations even if its not what you want.

Straight out the gate, I enjoyed it. Some bits more than others but overall, I did enjoy Addie more than i expected since most of my friends thought i would hate it! lol
I enjoyed the links to history, the art inspiration and of course, Luc, but we'll get to him later. I enjoyed the scenes in the past more than the present ones, mostly because they were just more interesting. I loved learning about the limitations of the curse on Addie and how she would navigate her life in order to survive. I found it clever and inventive and a genuine joy to see how the author made things make sense. The writing was just the right side of flowery for me but i could have done without the endless descriptions of how raindrops look against glass or whatever. I'm much more for character and drama so these parts slowed it down for me in a big way.

Why I didnt give this a four was that there were some parts where it started to drag for me, especially when she met Henry. Once it was revealed why he could remember her, his relevance to the story was lost for me. I found him really boring to be quite honest and while i was happy that Addie had found someone, it felt flat in relation to the more exciting encounters she had with Luc. I didnt really care too much about Henry's home life or issues, mainly because i don't think it came across what his actual issues were. Don't get me wrong, i realised he felt suicidal by the end

Spoiler

because of a heart defect i think?

but i didn't understand well enough why he would want to die because people didn't like him? I may have gotten that all wrong but i admit it was unclear so it was hard to have sympathy for him.

The end further reiterated how inconsequential Henry really was because he wasnt needed for Addie to have made the choice she did. Despite the illusion that she did it for Henry

Spoiler

I felt that Addie used him to give herself the excuse to be with Luc without it feeling like she'd given in/lost their battle of wills.

Addie still came out seeming rather selfish and hypocritical to me. She'd denied her feelings for so long only to essentially lead this man on before moving on

Spoiler

with her immortal lover.

I think overall, i would have rated this a tad higher if the story would have focused on Addie and Luc and been their battle of wills for centuries. The mindgames, the back and forth, the stubborness in both characters would have made for some explosive scenes which i was entirely here for.

Overall, i enjoyed the book enough to be annoyed by it at the end and would definitely recommend to people, to see what they get from it and see what they feel about Luc lol He's a bad boy/toxic masculinity in the best ways, but his treatment of Addie during their 'argument', really set me on edge about him that i couldnt sit firmly in his camp lol