I could go along with the first book in this series decently, they had an arrangement they both benefited from in varying ways, it was worth it to them. Fine. In this book I expected them to hit a new chapter of some sort, him beginning to realize that he actually did care about her, the dynamic adjusting when they met again on more equal footing. But instead he acts pretty much the exact same as ever, only this time they *don't* have that arrangement. When she'd sold herself to him for a month previously and then he acted entitled to her body and like he didn't need further consent from her, it didn't charm me, but it also seemed somewhat fair given their agreement. But he keeps on pulling that now months later when she's free, and it was off-putting to me. Both because I'm not crazy about overly entitled men in general, and because that made him a huge hypocrite! His hatred of her family all started over her brother feeling entitled to a woman's body and not feeling like he needed her consent! The hero can't start pulling that same shit now! She has no human autonomy in his mind beyond his own desires for her. Also the argument of why he needed to use her to get to her brother no longer holds up either, so he's kind of all out of excuses for his shitty behavior. The circumstances have vastly changed, but his game doesn't for like 3/4 of this book. His attachment to her also seems at least 80% just possessiveness and physical attraction/response, so it doesn't really feel particularly romantic. Especially when his care for her wishes extends only as far as they align with his own for nearly the entire book.

The heroine is not as reckless as she was in the first book, but she's pretty just wishy-washy. I kept wanting her to either just decide to cave to his desires going forward, or genuinely stick to her guns in resisting him. Wavering back and forth in every interaction just made her seem weak-willed, and gave off mixed messages. Also a lot of the beginning of the book is taken up rehashing all the previous events, down to unnecessary exact quotes and insignificant details. There were some good parts later, but on the whole this one was a miss for me. ( )