And just like that, Suzanne’s anxiety is gone, replaced with a bright smile. She has the most beautiful lips – plush and naturally darker around the edges and softly pink within, like natural lip liner. “Oh, thank you! I’m so happy you enjoy my work.” On the exterior, I can scarcely see the unpolished young man who hired me six years ago, so recently widowed and paralysed with grief that my first task was managing anyone who approached with queries or condolences. In time, he harnessed his pain into fiery ambition. That—and his singular intelligence—revived the pharmaceutical company his father had made insolvent through embezzlement. It’s not complicated.” She glances at the television, but the reporter has moved on to another story, and she’s left unaware of the previous segment. “It’s a relief. You’re safe.” At times I thought it was familiar, but it didn’t take long for Sylvia Day to have me meandering down a convoluted path of betrayal and danger, intrigue and surprise. I love a story I cannot figure out and she kept me guessing. Majority of this (70%) felt very slow, I couldn’t get into it. I didn’t like any of the characters and I lost interest around the mystery of Lily because it dragged and the focus was more on the drama. I didn’t like the reveal because it went from a (mostly) drama/romance to gangsters and then an assassination?! It wasn’t well fleshed out and came out all of a sudden. I wish there was more of a build up or some hints throughout.

His dark hair falls artfully across his brow. His lean face resembles mine, but the pale blue of his eyes comes from his father: such a strong trait, those eyes. Ramin and Rosana have them, too. Darius isn’t faithless like Paul, my first husband. I’d suspected Kane’s father was having an affair but couldn’t prove it. I chose to believe I was too essential for him ever to end our marriage, not just as the mother of his child but to the company I’d helped him build. Baharan Pharmaceuticals was everything to him, our shared life’s work, and he adored Kane – or so I’d thought, right up to the moment I learned he’d pulled every cent he could out of the company and run off to South America. The tape pulls away from my lips, and the tube shifts, scratching far down in my airway. Pain blankets my body. A scream of agony writhes in my mind and chest.He says that because he doesn’t know much about the past. He was a high school senior and at school when the Greenwich police came by our home in Saddle River asking about my eldest son, whom I hadn’t seen or conversed with in years.

Her hand lifts self-consciously to her hair, which falls in dark waves that would touch her bra band if she wore a bra. She isn’t and doesn’t need to; she’s small-breasted, like me. And like Kane’s wife, who had him by the balls and never let go. Don’t forget the morals clause in our ECRA+ agreement with Cross Industries. If we’re embroiled in a scandal – and a faked death in the family is obviously scandalous – it’ll be ruinous. We can’t afford to lose what we’ve invested, let alone whatever restitution Gideon Cross might demand.” I could sit here and continue to gush, but let me say that if you have missed the Crossfire vibe, this book is fire! Day captures the reader completely with her impassioned writing that spins you right into the obsessive compulsion of this family tree!

Customer reviews

From the author of the Crossfire saga comes the beginning of a twisty tale of obsession and fury, as a trinity of women protect what they covet at any cost.

The server, handsome but overwhelmed, gets a genuine smile from me when he brings my drink. I swallow deeply, closing my eyes a minute to savor the cool bite of bourbon stirred with sweet vermouth. The resultant warm buzz from the alcohol takes the edge off my bitchiness, and suddenly, my eyes are stinging from the salt of tears.I don't think the author responds to all tweets so don't be disheartened not to hear from her. Its the same on her Facebook, people ask questions and often it is other readers who answer. She says she is writing at the moment and Gideon is talking to her . . . . . so that may be why she is responding to a few people giving hints about the characters featuring in the next four books she is contracted to write. Despite the criticisms from some over the ending of One With You, the books about Gideon and Eva do sell, but she is right not to keep them as the forefront of future novels. Their main storyline of getting together and particularly bringing Gideon out of his closed in situation with his family (and other things) was completed and they were very much together at the end of that book. It will be good to read about a different couple, but knowing that at some point in the storyline we'll get to catch up and find out some of those things that were not finalised in the Crossfire series. Every opportunity I’ve afforded her to reveal something – anything – about herself has been passed over. She never discusses her past, even fleetingly. During the years when she was believed to be deceased, her acquaintances spoke of her as a woman deeply interested in others. Now that I’ve become acquainted with her, I know she encourages people to talk about themselves, so there’s little room for her to do likewise. His grief knows no bounds. A love he cannot let go. He is obsessed with his wife. Madly in love with his wife. Married to his wife…even in death. He has a charisma that draws women to him like a moth to a flame…and they will get burned. Family drama. Kane’s mother Aliyah and his sister in law Amy - fight to take control of the company.

But. By the end of the first episode you are not one bit closer to uncovering any mysteries or any anything basically. You're just as confused as you were going in. And the same will happen with every single episode. You're not guessing anything. You're not understanding a thing. You're confused. And you will be until the last second of the last episode. And maybe even longer - because there will be a second book. So I imagine any Netflix show will have a cliffhanging season finale too. Aliyah, Kane's mother, sees a threat. Lily has dangerous control over Kane and there can be only one queen on this throne.From the #1 USA Today bestselling author of the Crossfire saga comes the beginning of a twisty tale of obsession and rage. In SO CLOSE [Rōnin House, March 28, 2023] , author Sylvia Day takes her fans on a darker and more suspenseful journey than ever before.