“can you grasp the vastness of nothingness within my soul if you’re not near? everything is gray and empty. you are my lifeline, tiger cub, because there is no life for me if you’re not in it.”

i'm only not giving this 5 stars because the pacing seemed a bit off, there was a second there between the 30% mark up until around 50-60% where the story seemed to drag and then abruptly rush, and in my opinion those time jumps could have either been avoided to rather focus on what caused them, or more developed instead of the first half of the book being set in the past. even still, i enjoyed it. the plot, the setting, but most of all, the characters. this author writes some of the more captivating side characters, and in almost every book, they demand as much attention as the leads. this time was no different, massimo massimo and zahara stole the show. but kai was everything, his story was devastating. finally going back and learning what happened to both him and nera, after getting glimpses of them separately in different books was a full circle moment. 

* i was sent an arc by the author in exchange for a honest review