“There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil.

A lot of people (if you hadn’t noticed by now I quite often take into account the opinions of other readers) didn’t like this book because it’s essentially a filler book before Gianna and Matteo’s novel, which is the story everyone wanted to read. I didn’t go into this with those biases, and I tried to enjoy this story. I really did. And I might have succeeded if it wasn’t exactly the filler book that everyone said it was! And by that I mean it was SO BORING. I won’t go as far as to say it was unnecessary because had it been written better I would have liked that it was included in this series, but the reality is that it was eh enough for me to say I would have been just as fine never having heard Valentina’s story.

So what exactly was the issue aside from the complete lack of plot? DANTE. He was so boring and so annoying. I’m already wary of the ex-wife who passed away trope because it rarely ends well, and I was right because it seemed like Dante’s SOLE PERSONALITY TRAIT were the issues he had concerning his ex-wife’s death. And I’m in no way saying that that was what made him a bad character. No, it was the fact that although he obviously had unresolved issues concerning her, he lacked the communication skills to explain anything. ANYTHING. He just got angry whenever someone mentioned her and refrained from giving anyone any context. And it got old really fast.

“I’ll try to be the best husband I can possibly be, which probably is still much less than you deserve.”

^LIKE PLEASE BE QUIET I GET IT

Okay I need to say something positive so let’s talk about Valentina because she sort of made up for Dante being the horrible character that he was. She was an excellent character and I honestly hate that her story wasn’t a better one than this because she could have served in a marriage of convenience trope that was better written Oh well.

“You can tell me. I have a phone and am capable of operating it.”

Also, her friendship with Bibiana sort of let me forget how much I wanted to punch Dante every three seconds because it was so wholesome. It was one of my favourite friendships written by Cora Reilly so far and when Tommaso was poisoned died? TOP TIER SCENE.

This was the second man I’d condemned to death. This time, however, I felt no guilt.

On the other hand, as much as I liked Valentina, she and Dante were not a great couple. Honestly, I never felt like Dante actually cared about Val, and the way he acted around her barely changed by the end of the book. I guess I was expecting more… (Sorry to all the DanteVal stans.)

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