Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖 (I was pretty into this one!)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔 (I felt like I had a bit more background on the hero)
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋 (I like my scenes just a bit longer and more developed but what I got I really loved, especially the first scene)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (please note the scenes are on the shorter side though, so it might not feel quite this steamy to some)
Humor: Not much
Perspective: first person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: Immediately
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, a few years in the future
Format: voluntarily read an e-book from NetGalley
Why I chose this book: I was intrigued by the cover
Mains: This is a M/F relationship between a cishet hero and heroine

Should I read in order?
I think this is a stand alone?

Basic plot:
Cassandra has had enough of Drago’s secrets – she flees to Paris, but he can never let her go.

Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary romance
- marriage in jeopardy
- Romanian hero
- American heroine
- tattooed hero
- close proximity in the mountaines
- artist heroine
- billionaire hero
- amnesia (hero)
- there’s some elements of darkness here – more in background and flashbacks of the hero’s life but the hero is also a stalker
- medium steam – 4ish full scenes, though they are a bit short

Ages:
- there’s a little bit of an age gap? I think she’s early 20s and he’s in his 30s? (She was 20 when they’ve met, he was in his 30s, and they’ve been married for 4 years)

First line:
I’m the mad wife in the attic.

My thoughts:
I really liked this one! And it was not quite what I was expecting in a lot of good ways. I don’t even usually love these tropes...marriage in trouble….second chance vibes – those are usually my least favorite things. But the way it was done here I really liked it. I was able to get the beginning of their story which I really love because it helps me care about the mains and their break up! I loved how obsessed this hero was. I can be picky about amnesia but I really liked the use of it in this book – how they both got to know him while secluded in the mountains.

This book had so many elements I really loved. A touch of darkness with the tortured hero, the fact that he kind of stalked the heroine and was obsessed and over the top...the bit of throat play and dominating sex with got was fantastic.

For pure perfection I would have loved the sex just a bit longer and more developed because I really loved that element of it and the emotional pull of the hero’s obsession.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: This is my first by this author
Average rating from me: 5 stars
Favorite book: This one!

Quotes any typos are my own! I am bad with typos, I apologize

I move my hands up because I want to take his tie off; I want to take his clothes off. He reaches up and grips my wrist, pulls it away, his hold iron.
“No,” he says, pushing his forefinger up against my mouth. “You are not in charge.”
The dominance in his voice makes my internal muscles clench. Yet another thing I feel I should be angry about, but I’m just aroused.
Then I find myself being pushed back on the couch, and he looms over me, his hand coming up to my throat, where he squeezes tight, and my breath exits my body. For one moment, I wonder if I’ve made a grave mistake. But then he lowers his head slowly and starts to kiss me.

Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.

- very controlling hero – mentions of him not allowing her to invite people to the house, denying her a trip home when he can’t supervise
- parental murder remembered
- plenty of childhood torture and trauma gone through
Author content warnings? Nothing listed

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex aspects, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:

 
Safe sex: 

  condoms used the first time, not in the second scene which is 4 years into their marriage 

 
How’s the consent? 

  It’s...okay? She’s into it but I feel like she’s not really ready for penetration the first time they have sex…. 

 
Pregnancy/children in story? 

  I think there's the mention of having babies in the future...there's epilogue babies 

 
6%/pg 13/chapter 1 – 🔥 I think we’re in flashback mode….kiss, missionary (v loss for her)
22%/pg 45/chapter 3 – 🔥 kisses, desk sex
61%/pg 127/chapter 9 – 🔥 kisses, her on top
97%/chapter 15 – 🔥 kisses, and sex but it’s pretty light

total chapters: 15 and an epilogue