“A rose is a rose, even by another name,” he whispered. “But we choose whether we will offer beauty to the world, or if we will use our thorns to sting.”

RTC but just know. I adored this, I adore this duology, and I am completely broken.

Update on 03/15/2022: I'm still processing and still very much struggling to put just how much I loved this into words - but I'm gonna do my best because GOD DAMN this was a sucker-punch to the gut in the BEST possible way??? And I'll be thinking of this story FOREVER. Truly, truly a stunner, and I'm so so happy to have finally gotten to experience it 😭

This second installment feels like TVD ramped up to... infinity, and I ADORED it. Everything becomes that much more high-stakes, that much more bloody, that much more intense, terrifying and mysterious, and the atmosphere that Chloe creates is so good. Even from the first book to this one, you can tell how much she's grown as a writer - the prose just flows, and it takes you right along with it (as you can tell by the fact that I devoured this as fast as I could)!!

Roma and Juliette's relationship is just... so well crafted, too. The tension, the pining, the I-Want-To-Murder-You-But-I-Can’t-Because-I’m-In-Love-With-You???? It was so immaculate. We got a taste of it in the first book, of course, but this time around we got so much more of it when the situation was reversed and when it became Juliette who was doing (most of) the pining. Everything amplifies, everything is just so much more tangible and palpable and you can feel it through the pages!!

I would be remiss not to also mention Marshall and Benedikt, who I was damn near close to physically getting up and CHEERING for when they finally got it together enough to realize how they felt about each other 👏🏻 They're incredible, and if we ever got a book completely centered on them, I'd be the very first person to say "thank you for the meal"!!!

Last but not least, I have to talk about that beautiful, heartbreaking ending. It's perfect in my eyes. Juliette has always held her love close to her chest, willing to stand up to anything and anyone for it, but her love doesn’t just include Roma. She loves him more than anything, but she also loves her city, as broken and fractured and bleeding as it is. Most of all, she knows that Roma understands this fundamental piece that makes up the puzzle of her character - she says herself that he wouldn’t be able to let her leave Shanghai in such a horrible state, because Roma knows her well enough to realize that she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she did. To be loved is to be known. Deeply, to one’s core, and that’s what these two are to each other.

If you ask me, they lived happily ever after. But it's the ambiguity of their survival that makes this all the more heart-wrenching. Better to have hope, to hold on to that blaze of warmth that keeps you alive, than know for sure and end up being disappointed. Very glad that Chloe at least allowed us this ONE tiny smidgen of mercy after all that she’s put these two through 😭

I loved it, I love every single character, I could talk about this series for hours, and it will always stay with me. Who knew that Romeo and Juliette as gangsters in 1920's Shanghai could do that to me - but I wouldn't have it any other way!!