I want two things in life: to be the leading ballerina in my academy—
And Max Butcher…

A massive, tattooed boxer, and renowned thug.
And my very first crush…

I may be a silly little girl to him, but he’s intent on protecting, possessing, and claiming me in every way—his little piece of purity.

But there is more to Max Butcher than the cold, cruel façade he wears like armour. I know; I saw the broken boy inside him one day when we were only children.

So, even as I stand in the shadows with him, as people get hurt… as people die… I refuse to let him believe he’s nothing more than a piece in his Family’s corrupt empire.

There is good inside Max Butcher, and I refuse to let him live in the dark forever.

TikTok recommended this book to me, and I wish it hadn’t. There was so much in this book that I disliked. This book has scored my lowest rating of 2022 thus far. This is the first in a series of books I won’t be continuing.

First of all, setting is important. Knowing where a book is set plays an intrical part in how you imagine it in your mind. I didn’t learn the location of this book till the 7^th/9^th chapter (I forget which). This irritated me because I couldn’t ground what I was reading, and I felt confused trying to work out where this was set.

The main female of this book is called Cassidy Slater and I haven’t met such an irritating character in a long while. These gangster-esque books need a strong female lead and not the wet leaf needy character of Cassidy. She’s a ballet dancer. Trained her whole life. Her life is dance and she’s described as an asexual pigeon.

The main male character, Max Butcher has a more defined and mysterious development, but he loses some of his charm when he’s paired with Cassidy.

Her character was so 2-dimensional. There was no substance to her. She went from an asexual pigeon to a needy, clingy, whiny woman, almost addicted to sex and it just made her more unlikable. I enjoy smutty books but even I struggled through the sex with her as a participant.

Towards the end of the book, I’d say there is a pretty heavy Trigger Warning. And honestly, the way she is written through it aggravated me to no end and her actions after just didn’t fit with the character she was supposed to be. I ended up reading the last couple of lines of this book completely loathing her character.

Max isn’t much better. While he has more character development and a backstory, some of his actions were too out of character from what he’d been set up to be.

I would not recommend this book.

I give this book: ✨✨