Especially with what the dad does to Violet at the end, and how he compares her to her mother. I am not religious, so some of the things in this book, like equating godliness with goodliness, having being a good wife and mother determining whether or not a woman is a "good" person, and the weirdly prudish attitudes about sex before marriage- it was very odd for me. 💔 The religious elements in this book didn't really work for me. When Jesse figures out that emotional manipulation is the key to her heart and he unleashes this pretty gruesome confessional, it hit different. When her stepbrother immediately takes advantage of her when they first meet, immediately rekindling all of her worst doubts and fears, I genuinely felt her outrage and terror. What I mean is that, when Violet finds out about her stepmother's cancer, the shock felt real. ❤️ I felt things while reading this book. The way he gaslights his stepsister and can act like he really is a "good man" while doing what he's doing- that is not normal. I honestly think he's a high-functioning sociopath. Jesse is terrifying, maybe because in his mind (I would assume, since we never see his POV), he thinks he's being perfectly rational. A lot of dark romances claim to have scary heroes but they often just come across as sounding, uh, kind of desperate. I felt bad for her, especially with Jesse manipulating her when she should be devoting all of her cognitive load to self-care for her grief. I noticed in the critical reviews of this book that a lot of people were super hard on Violet, the heroine, but I actually felt like the author did a really good job capturing her stepbrother's betrayal, and her torn feelings over holding him accountable and giving in because giving in was easier. I want a book that really plunges the depths of the characters, exploring the horrors lurking in their psyche. When I read a dark romance, it's not enough that it has smut.
When I finally decided to treat myself to the book, I had really high expectations- and honestly, I ended up enjoying it way more than I thought I would, considering that it contained some elements that I don't normally seek out.
I've been wanting to read this for a while because my readers kept telling me that this book reminded them of something I wrote, and as a writer, I think that's always really exciting because (presumably) you write the sorts of stories you want to be reading yourself.
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