REVIEW: These Violent Delights & The Shadow Between Us
These Violent Delights:
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong is a Romeo and Juliet inspired tale set in Shanghai in the 1920’s. It is the autumn of 1926 and Shanghai is full of foreign powers trying to carve out a piece of the city for themselves and what remains has been divided between the two feuding gangs, the Chinese scarlet gang and the Russian White flowers. Enter one of our main protagonists, Juliette Cai. Juliette has recently returned home from New York City and has gained a reputation for being ruthless and cunning. Juliette is now ready to step into her role as being heir to the Scarlet Gang. Many years ago, Roma, the heir to the White Flowers caused the deaths of many Scarletts and now Juliette is determined to seek revenge for those souls that were lost. But when a contagion that is lethal takes over the city targeting both whites and scarlets, Juliette and Roma must help one another and seek out and investigate who is doing this to the ones that they love and put an end to it all.
Gong’s writing is simply stunning and utterly gorgeous. She weaves a historical tale with exciting plot twists and turns. Even though it is inspired by Romeo and Juliet, I was not expecting a lot from the plot but I simply fell in love with the plot and the characters combined. This book is filled with such intensity that grips you to the pages and makes you not want to look away. I personally love the title for the book also. These Violent Delights have Violent ends and knowing that the sequel is called Our Violent Ends just makes my heart pound even faster knowing what may come. This was a read that was highly anticipated for me and I’m so glad that I got to read it before release through netgalley. In conclusion, I simply fell in love with this book and I want the next one now!
4 out of 5 stars.
The Shadow Between Us:
The Shadow between us follows Alessandra who is the second daughter of a nobleman. Often overlooked for her more beautiful older sister, she has ambitions way above her station which include ruling the kingdom for herself. So, she devises a plan for taking the kingdom. 1. Woo the shadow king. 2. Marry him. 3. Kill him and take his kingdom. But what she doesn’t count on is falling in love with him and of course that is what happens. No one really knows what the shadow kings power is but either way nobody not even the king will get in her way from what she wants. Unfortunately for her, a lot of other people are trying to kill him too. Whilst becoming close to him, she finds that she stops attacks on him and gains his trust even more than just wooing her way to his heart. She just wants the crown and not the man but she may end up with both.
Alessandra is very cunning and brutal. She does some things throughout the novel like murdering one of her exes that comes across as calculating in order to get where she needs to be. Her ambition will hurt people but she will never apologise to people for doing so. She is a master manipulator who heavily relies on sexual favours and is very open about what she is. She knows what exactly she wants, and will never allow people to get in her way. Alessandra, just took my breath away at how conniving she is and Tricia Levenseller created such a beautiful character who knows exactly what she wants.
This book is a truly dark romance filled with twists and turns. I’ve seen this story described as a love story for slytherins and I can honestly say that is true. Tricia Levenseller has a way with words that can leave you breathless as she weaves her tale. Her book is filled with morally grey characters that throughout the book we come to know and love. I need the next book now.
4 out of 5 stars.