Genre/SubGenre(s)/Trope(s)/Element(s): Romance. YA/NA Romance. Bully Romance. Hate to Love. Enemies to Love. Sports Romance. Soccer/Football Romance. Athlete/Football/Soccer Player MMC. Yes, she stayed celibate for 11 years, but those who have been sexually assaulted react in different ways. Some become hypersexual, form trauma kinks, whilst others become sexually repressed, or have loss of libido. For Nicole when it gets down to business, she relives her trauma. She trusted only 1 person with her body and that was Daniel. For her to be violated by someone when she already can't stand other guys' touch? Her staying celibate was completely believable. Why?” Her question is a haunted whisper as she closes her hand into a fist and hits me with it across the chest.

Finally Rina made a conscious effort to not only describe the tension-filled and gloomy events but also cause a sensation of living through them with her characters in a reader. Daniel shutting the door in her face. Astrid assuming that she was having consensual sex with Christopher and not coming to her rescue. The subsequent family drama that ensued shortly afterwards.

Daniel thought that Nicole cheated on him in the past so naturally he didn't live like a monk. Though he did refuse to kiss any woman that wasn't Nicole. For almost 2 dozen years he had been keeping the snow globe that "bitchy" Nicole gave him when they were children. If that and him calling her his "little bitch" don't count for love, I don't know what does. 👉🏻🥺👈🏻 I loved the mystery and suspense element of the plot as well, it left me guessing right to the very end! In some cases, the complaints about double standards are the result of people's own personal preferences disguised as outrage at "double standards". 🤷🏼‍♀️

Rina managed to convey so heartbreakingly and potently the pain, the despair and the shattering loneliness Nicole had to experience on her own after Christopher (OM) had raped her. Do I recommend this book to anyone? probably not no. I think this will only be enjoyable if you are a RK fan because you really have to be immersed in her universe and characters to truly appreciate every detail. Just like EOS, this book has lots of cameos, and you'd probably be confused if you read this first. However, if you want to know the tea/drama surrounding the book and are intrigued by what's so polarising about Nicole I say go ahead and read this because only you can judge how you feel. My brother watches us like we’re the dullest animals in a zoo. Now I recognize the emptiness in his gaze. It’s complete and utter apathy as if being alive is the most boring thing he’s ever had to do.”With a lot of side characters. And though we don’t see as much of them as we do of Astrid and Levi–and we don’t get their point of view–they all have their own agenda that doesn’t revolve around the main couple, and it was interesting. I wanted to know more about Astrid’s father, about her best friend, about the rest of the football team. They aren’t just here to move the romance forward. Even though some of them were really of the villain-y kind, with little to no nuance. In my opinion, everything that has to do with one's personal choice, independent of other people's expectations and beliefs, and doesn't infringe on anyone's else rights, can't be considered a double standard. Well, the moment of scorching chemistry between me and Rina Kent's work just never happened ( I gave 3 stars to 12 books of hers💫💀) thnx to Hala for waiting an entire 8 hours for me to finish my exams and get home so we could read together hehe, I wouldn't have had as much fun as I did without you! I can't wait to continue our tradition and finish the series in may with aspenkingsley 🤍 Look... I am completely and utterly aware I need therapy. WITH THAT SAID, this book reinforced this. I truly, honestly sat there half the book believing I could change Levi. I thought because I understand what it's like to have a father who has bipolar, I would be able to do it. Maybe I just need more frequent therapy sessions instead.

Junior only whispers to me,” she says with a bright smile that makes me as hard as the Statue of Liberty. I had to switch languages Whoring around" or staying celibate, as long as it's a woman's choice made in accordance with her own preferences and life circumstances, is perfectly normal. I’m disoriented by the time his thumb wipes beneath my eye. Then he rubs them, his thumb and my tears, against his forefinger. But it’s not the gesture that makes me pause. It’s the fascination in his gaze, the way he looks like a researcher who just made a discovery.I will say though whilst Nicole may have been celibate for 11 years, Daniel never kissed another woman on the lips since Nicole 🥺 He has weird hair that’s neither dark nor light, as if it couldn’t make up its mind on which color to be, so it settled on a mixture of both. Like the color of the earth under the sun and the tone of premium wood. The 2nd scene resulted in the most heartbreaking moment of the book for me. It's the pain, the breaking of Nicole's voice, and feeling unwanted because you're never chosen first for me >>> Daniel you deserve to rot for making my queen feel this way. What were my thoughts when it came to Levi King? In the book, he is an ultimate jerk to Astrid, which is expected since he’s a bully. I liked his character, even if he was the bully of the story. He had his own issues that he was dealing with and acted out in ways due to what he had been put through. He lived with his Uncle, who tried to control his life, and his cousin. He and Astrid had similarities to what they were dealing with regarding family issues. Neither one was respected or even shown love, and both lost either one or both parents. Daniel's erroneous assumptions (both in the past and in the present) turned his each and every interaction with Nicole into such an intense and emotional battle of wills between the almighty queen and the dirt on her shoes that my eyes were literally obsessed with watching them both come up with toxic insults for each other.