i don’t think i’ll ever have the right words to describe this masterpiece. i loved every second of it and all i can truly, confidently say is that this story has my entire heart.

the first part of the book was so sweet. it focused on dante and amara as teenagers. it showed their friendship begin, the innocence of all of it. as more time passed, their life together, and apart, became so much more heartbreakingly beautiful. i loved how their romance didn’t flourish immediately, it grew with them in time and blossomed into something incredibly remarkable.

dante and amara’s love is pure, sweet, hot, and beautiful. they were both made for each other. one has to read their journey to truly understand them and how they came to be. the horrors they lived, demons they battled, and time they had to wait was truly devastating. with their love and patience, dante and amara healed each other. they were destined to rule this twisted kingdom. together, as king and queen. their love may have been forbidden, but it also created something so precious for both of them: tempest and her lost sister.

i loved seeing tristan and morana again, them meeting and embracing xander into their lives ( who is this little boy and how did the shadowman let him know to trust the “man with the blue eyes”? ). you cannot change my mind that tristan was born to be a father, especially with the huge heart that man has. he has so much love to give and morana and xander are so blessed. xander and morana coding together also creates the most adorable picture. i can truly see it.

i may be the only one who thinks this but i cannot even begin to say how much i worry for vin now that he’s gone underground. BUT! for some reason a part of me is also still suspicious of him... especially with that mysterious call he made. could it have been a coincidence? wrong timing? i don’t know... it’s a bad feeling i have that won’t go away. especially since my gut was right about a certain someone and who they were connected to. i just hope i’m wrong about vin and he’s truly a good guy, especially with how much he means to amara and dante.

the other recurring characters in this was so heartwarming to see, like amara’s mom and lulu. they are the best and should be protected all costs.

i also met alessandro “alpha” villanova. he’s hot. i cannot wait to learn his dark, twisted story. the little details he told dante intrigued me a lot.

this literally felt like a movie, with a perfect balance of action, mystery, thriller, and romance all wrapped up together. the overarching dark verse plot is incredible, and no matter how many questions and mysteries are solved, it still leaves you with so many enticing questions unanswered. here are some questions that kept repeating in my mind while i was reading:

1. is luna still alive?
2. how big is the syndicate? how far is their reach? who runs it? who are key players?
3. who is the shadowman? is he actually “airport guy/asshole”? is he actually a good guy? is he the guy in the extended epilogue?

it amazes me how runyx created this dark, convoluted world and i cannot wait to unravel more of it.