Buckle up, this is going to be a long one. I am including spoilers in this because I have a lot of issues with the book.

A summary of start: Zane and Celeste are from families that are both involved in the hotel business and they were also rivals throughout their childhoods. Her grandfather is kind of a dick but has named her his successor. They are directly in competition with the Windsors, so once again Zane and Celeste are rivals. But he is secretly in love with her and asks for forgiveness for his actions when they were younger (he was a bit of a bully). She agrees on the condition that he gives her bestie Lily a job because her grandfather refused to hire her. 

Then Celeste and Zane start dating, get serious are together for about a year and a half when Lily calls Celeste and tells her to meet her at a bridge. Lily tells Celeste that she has been seeing Zane since they started working together and that he pushed Lily away for Celeste. Then Lily jumps and is gone. 

Thing is none of this was true, Lily had BPD and was having delusions of all this. Zane gave Celeste access to literally everything to prove he didn’t cheat but she didn’t believe him. Stayed with him for a few months longer to learn company secrets, tried to destroy his business, got him arrested for corporate espionage (ironic but nothing happened from it), and in return he started destroying her family company and made her leave town.

Back to the present day, 5 years later. Their grandparents have decided to make them marry, because why the fuck not? The both hate each other but have no choice.

Although the book is really just them saying the hate each other, then them fucking. It happens way too much.

Now my many issues with this book.

If you don’t want to read all of this, my thoughts can pretty much be summed up by this quote from Zane:

“We didn’t find our way back to each other, Celeste,” he says, his tone harsh. “We were forced together. The truth is, had I been given a choice, I’d never have chosen you. You say you forgive me? You can’t forgive me for something I didn’t do.” He lets go of me, his arms falling to his side. “I’m tired, Celeste. Tired of the blame, the broken trust. I’m tired of loving you more than you ever loved me.”

Their grandparents:

These two HATE each other. Like hate to the point of trying banning their grandchildren from seeing each other. But we never got an explanation for why or why they chose to make them get married after 5 years.

The lack of a slow burn and ridiculous amount of badly timed sex scenes:

While I had a lot of issues with this book. this was the biggest for me. He hates her, said he would destroy her if he saw her again, bans her from his space. Yet he seems to get over it <i> very</i> quickly. She thinks he cheated on her with her bestie and was at least in part the reason her best friend is dead. He destroyed her family company. But as soon as they are in a room together she is making out with him and more? None of this makes any sense. It needed to be a slow burn. I love smut, I love spice but this was too much too fast and it ruined the book. 

The BPD rep:

This wasn’t huge for me. I don’t know anyone who is diagnosed with BPD. But it felt like bad representation. Lily was aware of her BPD. She was seeing a psychiatrist, her father knew what was happening, but no one helped her. She was the villain of the book whether intended or not. Celeste, her best friend for over a decade, did not know. Lily never told her and she doesn’t fin out until the end of the book. 

Celeste, just in general:

This girl thinks he cheated, with her best friend, despite seeing every possible bit of proof against it.

"I did everything I possibly could to prove my innocence to you, but you weren’t even remotely willing to listen. You destroyed everything we fought so hard to build, and you did it with your own two hands." 

 She thinks her best friend is dead because of him. Got him arrested for fake corporate espionage (when she actually committed it). She has had 5 years to think on this. I know grief clouds your judgement but this is ridiculous. She is for some reason the victim of everything in her mind. 

But she kept everything he ever gave her. When she is trying to win him over she shows him that she dried every bouquet he gave her and kept every piece of clothing she stole. This is when I was completely done with trying to justify her actions. If she really believed the cheating thing, enough to do everything that she did, how could she keep all of this? She was incapable of being loyal to either Lily or Zane, because it couldn’t be both. Either he cheated or she lied.

The HEA:

Zane gets the chance to leave the marriage with everything. Celeste is willing to give up her inheritance, as she should honestly. But he goes “no, she can make me happy”. WHY? All their relationship is is her accusing him of cheating and him going “seriously? this again?” It makes no sense for them to stay together because as he said “Love isn’t enough”.

Numerous times he has to promise her that he has never and will never cheat but she never believes him. 

“Don’t do this,” he tells me as he runs a hand through his hair. “Don’t punish me for something I didn’t do, Celeste.” 

And of course the Epilogue:

In the epilogue we find out they are still married 10 years later. In fact they get remarried every year. Every. Year.

“You marry the same woman every single year, and you’re still acting like she might not show up. It’s been ten years.”

I am still going to read Lex’s book because hopefully no one can fuck that one up. This book introduces it, same as all the previous books.

It takes all of me to keep from laughing at my grandmother’s expression. She clearly expected Lex to be reluctant, and nothing about this situation is as she thought it would be. She should’ve known, though. Lex has always been our troublemaker.

Lex is marrying a girl from a tech family who is a student for engineering. He knew before it was announced because he hacked his grandma, found her name, met her without letting her know who he was and then applied for a job at her university. He’s an icon.