This review contains out of context quotes that could be considered spoilers for some

'He’s hard and venomous, but he feels like love, like safety, like protection, like a real home, like I can bury myself inside of him and never come out.'

I LOVED THIS.
First, because it was my very Yakuza romance debut (which is wild considering my unhealthy obsession with the mafia) and I really felt like Audrey did a great job at diving into the culture while also respecting culture and traditions.
I mean, I'm not as well-versed with the Yakuza as I am with the Italians and remain an outsider at the end of the day, but being the neuro-spicy cliché I am, I obviously spent hours after on the internet, reading about them. It was great to see that not only does Audrey seem to have done her research but she also had sensitivity readers. It showed.

My second big reason for how much I enjoyed this book was, without a doubt, Kenzo. From the very first second I was obsessed with him and, in turn, his own obsessiveness. He's the perfect mixture of calm, confident, skilled and unhinged, problematic, brutal in my opinion.
And I very much enjoyed his POVs, seeing the world and the FMC through his eyes.
I had suspicions she was up to something too, but I dismissed it because⁠— Because— Well, because she fucking distracted me.

Plus, I am so SO glad about he handled things. He showed the maturity I'd expect of a character with his story while also delivered the toxicity to match it. Not to mention the moments of other wholesomeness that man delivered and have impacted my own standard.

“You should’ve run,” I say. “You shouldn’t have indulged me or your uncle in this marriage, and you shouldn’t have let me take you to our resort so you can have your own room.”

I haven't read the first version of this book and the only other work of Audrey's I've read so far is Skins. So there isn't really any comparing her works, but one thing I definitely noticed was that the writing here felt a little more... accommodating. As in some things were repeated quite a bit, almost to an extend that I personally found unnecessary but surely might be what others seek.

Either way, I am once again impressed by how Audrey's brain works, by how nonchalantly she delivers the darkest sides of humanity and thus creates a story that very much allows me to delulu myself into thinking this could happen to me.

"My little danger queen, running straight toward the fire."

I will absolutely read the next book in the series and hopefully many more of Audrey Rush's work.



Tropes:
* arranged wedding
* FMC with a secret
* mafia anti-hero
* found family

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.