*This review was first posted to Goodreads in January 2023*

TL;DR: Was this particularly new in any way? No. Did I have a fun time reading it anyway? Absolutely, yes. I haven’t read a marriage-of-convenience book in a while and while this billionaire romance isn’t normally one that I gravitate to often, I’ve been enjoying my fair share of them in the last few months! I enjoyed the dynamic between Vivian and Dante and found their romance pretty entertaining. This was also not as petty and drama-filled as I thought it would be but it had just the right amount of angst to keep me interested.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this book. This is only my third book by Huang but I forgot how she amps up the angst and sexual tension, and that she does it really well! I also remember the previous books being slightly overdramatic and the characters being petty and immature, so again, I was pleased to find that this wasn’t overdramatic and the characters were surprisingly mature (though Dante definitely had his moments)! It also wasn’t as smut driven as I thought it would be but don’t worry—if you’re here for the smut there are a number of intense and steamy scenes that will probably tick the box for you.

Nothing about this brought anything new to the marriage of convenience trope, but if that’s a trope you enjoy then I don’t doubt you’ll have fun with this one! They’re enemies at the start with a very caustic and standoffish relationship but as the story progresses, they form a peaceful truce in order to pass their time together less miserably. They slowly start to open up to each other and shortly realise that their judgements about the other were utterly wrong, and you know the drill for what follows suit. I completely loved it! This was by no means perfect but I still really enjoyed their interactions and seeing them together. That said, I really wished that Huang did less time-jumping and more relationship development; we do get to see them spend some time as a (fake and real) couple but I would’ve appreciated seeing them get to know each other more because they do have undeniable chemistry and sexually, they were off-the-charts compatible! If you enjoy your MMCs who love to talk dirty then you’ll enjoy meeting Dante!

As for the characters, I found Vivian to be so relatable. The “filial piety” and being a “good Asian daughter” elements of her story were very realistic. Even if doing so means sacrificing your happiness or peace of mind or desires, the struggle of balancing being yourself and doing things to make your parents happy is something that I think many (Asian?) readers will be able to relate to, especially if family means a lot to you and you were raised in a certain way. I hated seeing how she let her parents walk all over her but I loved that when it came to Dante she was an absolute firecracker. She was sharp, witty, and didn’t take any sh*t from him and I loved how confident and strong she was! Dante obviously appreciated that too and against his will, he grew to really respect and like her. I thought Dante was pretty well fleshed out as well and his story was a little sad although not the “worst” I’ve heard from these billionaire-type stories. His arc played into the slightly typical rich ‘untouchable’ Italian that’s almost mafia but not quite, and while he’s off on business trips a lot throughout the story, I would’ve liked to get a bit from the other relationships in his life as well; especially with his brother because I felt that connection was lacking! When it came to the third-act conflict, even though I knew what it was going to be, I’m still not a big fan of lying and I didn’t like how Dante handled it; although I did appreciate the grovelling he did to win her back! He was sensitive and patient, all things that are not typically Dante, which I think made it all the more satisfying to see.

Overall, this romance does the job and delivers what you expect it will and I’m definitely curious to read the next book in the series.

Have you read King of Wrath or is it on your TBR?

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