Violent Ends (White Monarch #2) -Jessica Hawkins

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️\5

“No. No more. He’s an echo—and you, darling, are a symphony.”

This book deserves nothing less in ratings, and I don't want to hear it if you say otherwise.

“Cristiano?” He shifted behind me. “Hmm?” “Did you know, according to Jewish folklore, a pomegranate has exactly six-hundred-and-thirteen seeds?” “What?” he asked. “I—” With his wrist firmly in my grip, I rotated, and this time, while we were tangled, I poked the sheathed blade into his ribcage. “Bang, you’re dead,” I said quietly. His eyes met mine over his shoulder. A moment in our shared history passed between us. I’d just repeated back to him the words he’d said to my nine-year-old self in my parents’ closet before he’d whisked me away down the tunnel. “Who knew pomegranate trivia could save your life?” he asked, and I was grateful for a reprieve from the gravity of the memory.

This beautiful mariposa is now married, and to her enemy, Cristiano. When Natalia had plans to elope to Diego, she meets Cristiano at the alter, the last man she would've ever expected to see standing there.

To get Cristiano to lose control was Natalia's game between the two, the sizzling chemistry and the strong lead that Natalia was left you flying through pages. Lives are at stake, loyalty is tested, and unanswered questions for Natalia keep her pointing fingers towards Cristiano for the death of her mother.

Their chemistry grows to a melting point, Cristiano wanting Natalia to consent and give herself willingly in the married bed they share every night, not because it is her married duty.

The ending was slightly predicted, but it was also unpredictable in other ways. My heart belongs to Cristiano, and the way he's protected her since the beginning and done everything to give her answers to her mothers death, proving his innocence.

But will this quest to find answers put everything in jeopardy? Will he be able to find these answers successfully and win the heart of Natalia to a happy and loving marriage, or will their vows come to play....because after all its till death does you part.

Cristiano's cartel has many enemies coming for him, but now with the news of his newly aligned alliances and wife, does that mean he can still be the top cartel and protect his wife or will history play repeat like Natalia's mother?

Natalia plays a strong character, bowing down to nobody at the first stance and fighting for what's right for her, her happiness and life. She fights Cristiano at his own game, resisting his charm for the duration of the novel because she wants to find answers to what happened, because what she saw left all fingers pointing at Cristiano and she was never told otherwise because he fled and was never seen for many years.

I did find myself annoyed with Natalia's behaviour and always fighting and belief that Cristiano was guilty but thats because in the first book we found out the whole intentions of Diego and the backstory. This could be why many people review this novel, but I PROMISE YOU, if you stay patient, the novel is so rewarding and the chemistry is undeniably present from start to finish.

This novel is so well written and thought out, the plot seems like it was thought out for YEARS, every page is a new move made and reveals a little more through the different POV's when they are switched as we mainly follow Natalia.

This series is a beautiful game of chess, and the series name, the rings and all the small symbolic things from this novel are all just perfect.

“Still wrapped in his own towel, Cristiano stood in front of the mirror and shaved up under his chin. His back was not only tan and smooth but very broad. I wondered if it could fit two of me. I'd never seen anything like it, the way his muscles rippled beneath the surface, the embodiment of his capabilities, his weaponry—his power. "You... you won't look, will you?" I asked, pulling my towel tighter. With his head tilted back, he lowered just his eyes in the reflection. "If I do, I'll have to jerk off again, and the shower's occupied."

I frowned. "In a house this size, surely you can find somewhere else to... do that."

He rinsed the razor-blade.

"Is that an invitation to look?"

"No."

"Why shouldn't I?" he asked. "You belong to me."

"I don't belong to anyone."

"You're Natalia de la Rosa. You bear my name. You've said vows in front of God."

"That doesn't make me your property.”

So what are you waiting for, why haven't you added this to your TBR, or better yet bought it yet?