This was an emotional ride from beginning to end that sucked me into Adrian & Valentina's heartbreaking story: hopelessness, anger, rage, hate, suffering & a faint spark of a 2nd chance for the possibility of love, however dark, to bloom.
I think the reader would be well served to read the prequel: 'Stolen Innocence' as it gives the reader a better foundation for the original youthful relationship between Adrian & Valentina, although it isn't specifically required.
This book starts 10 years after Adrian & Valentina were forcibly separated by Adrian's Columbian drug lord father, Vincente~~~ Adrian is sent to California to create a drug cartel, while Valentina was kept in Columbia & given to Vincente's loathsome & cruel strong arm man Hugo to marry.
For years Valentina had lived with a desperate hope that her hero Adrian would come & rescue her, but after 10 years of hearing nothing from him, she lives as a beaten & broken toy for a cruel & heinously abusive husband.
And Adrian has lived with a fiery hatred & rage for the woman he loved after finding out she married & presumably loved his father's vicious 2nd in command who beat Adrian as a young boy & teen.
But now, in Columbia for his father's wedding, Adrian realizes he has an opportunity to punish both Hugo & Valentina & with his loyal 2nd in command Mateo, Adrian kidnaps Valentina.
The decade away from Valentina has only intensified Adrian's dark sadistic sexual urges & now that he hates Valentina, there is no longer any love to shield her from his darkness & punishments . . . .
There is raw & intense emotion that bleeds from both Adrian & Valentina, both were separated at a young age in a violent & abrupt manner, both too young to understand the manipulations the evil adults in their lives were perpetrating. The reader aches for the torment & physical pain Valentina endured silently, alone, as well as for an anguished Adrian who never got over the perceived betrayal by the only woman he's ever loved.
Once they are together, the reader is given their alternating POV's in every other chapter, allowing the reader to understand just how cruelly both Adrian & Valentina were abused mentally & physically by Vincente & Hugo & how confused & tormented their feelings for each other are.
While Adrian has grown into a hardened brilliant cartel drug lord, only his Valentina is able to curb his dark side, to allow a sadistic but safe release to calm his vicious beast.
And Valentina, now a beautiful & graceful woman, is confused by the man her youthful hero has grown into: huge, muscled, strong, brutal & yet in his eyes & expressions she sometimes sees her young but sadistic hero again.
There is action,tension & suspense as Adrian, Valentina & Mateo flee from Columbia to California, dodging & fighting Vincente & Hugo's brutal allies along the way who are determined to return Valentina to Hugo. And as far as Valentina knows, she's escaped one cruel captor for another.
While I did not find this book to be as dark as some I've read, there are reader's for whom it may be. There are potential triggers of non-con, violence, abuse, some rough & intense BDSM.
An excellent & exciting story with action, suspense, tension, danger, steam & romance I thoroughly enjoyed. I look forward to Mateo & Sophia's story!
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Reviews with images
Love Julia Sykes' Books!!!
This story of a Drug Lord and his first love is one that will grab you and keep you to the end of it thoroughly intoxicated with it. The love/hate relationship between Valentina and Adrian will keep you so drawn into this book that you will have trouble putting it down. I really enjoy Julia Sykes' books.
Top reviews from other countries
Margaret
Adrian drug Lord to be
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2023
