I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the Amatory series, so I had high hopes for this one. Ivan was somewhat of a mysterious character in the first book, and I was looking forward to his story.
While there were some good plot points, I felt that ultimately his story wasn’t fleshed out as well as Sebastian and Annaliese’s from Seductive Sacrifice.
I liked the Russian Mafia angle and thought that the way Daniela was brought into the story worked well. It gave their relationship an interesting angle and allowed them to “find each other” after perceived betrayals.
That’s one of the things that didn’t work for me. The assumptions that each of them made were reasonable based on their history. However, so much conflict could have been avoided if they had just talked to each other. Ivan’s blow-ups and Daniela’s meltdowns seemed contrived and did not help the advancement of the plot. It got frustrating.
A strength of this book is the sexy times. I don’t remember the last time I read a book that had so many hot sex scenes. But therein lies another thing I noticed in this book. The sex became very repetitive. In fact, it seemed as if the plot was more to get from one sex scene to another – sort of like reading a porn movie. I didn’t get the same feeling from the first book.
There is also another point that I must address. It didn’t influence my review but needs mentioning. I recognize that this is an ARC and may not have gone through a final editing process. However, there were several points where transitions were very rough and got confusing.
This is still an interesting series, and I did like how the third book was set up in this one. I look forward to reading it, regardless, but I do hope that the third book comes roaring back to the style of the first one.
