Bloody Heart

Bloody HeartBrutal BirthrightSofie Lark

Mar 27

Written By Ally Talley

Brutal Birthright #4

By Sofie Lark

*Can be read as a standalone*

*Recommend reading after Brutal Prince*

TheStory

Dante and Simone have a whirlwind romance after he steals a car without realizing she’s in the back seat, resulting in an accidental kidnapping. Their families are from two completely different worlds and neither of them approve of the relationship. When a disastrous night tears them apart, Simone makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

TheReview

THIS BOOK! Oh my good gracious. This book was EVERYTHING!

Their whirlwind romance started right at the beginning, taking place about nine years prior to the other books in this series. It lasted about 40% of the book, then jumped ahead nine years, lining it back up with the timeline of the other books. After that time jump, there was so much going on. Everything was different and we got to essentially re-meet our characters at this new time in their life.

During the first part, Dante and Simone were so good together. Dante doesn’t really seem like a mafia man so I don’t think Simone really understood where her parents were coming from in not wanting them to be together. She just loved him as he was. Don’t get me wrong, her parents are awful, but I get where they are coming from especially with their eighteen year old daughter. She is all their hopes and dreams.

The “disastrous night” that caused Simone and Dante to split apart was freaking heartbreaking. It didn’t feel like a manufactured storyline. It felt real. Poor Dante, but even worse… poor Simone.

When the two met again nine years later, it was explosive. But Simone still had her secret and it is a DOOZY of a secret. Frankly, unforgivable in my opinion. I rarely call a betrayal unforgivable in the fiction world because - HELLO! - we need a good storyline. But this one was wild.

Simone was a good woman just trying to make the best out of a crappy situation on top of being utterly terrified out of her mind. She did deeply betray Dante but she had good reasons for it. It was heartbreaking to see her betrayal of Dante because he is a beast of a man but he truly just wanted unconditional love. He thought he would never find it, until Simone. So when she betrays that love, Dante can’t just recover from it.

The storyline was so freaking good that even the few spicy scenes had me screaming, “Back to the good stuff!” Although, I still love a good physical release of emotional turmoil. There weren’t a huge amount of spicy scenes, but when it did happen, it was detailed and dirty.

Most of the books in this series can be read as standalones, but this one in particular, you may want to read the previous books prior to this one. At the very least, Brutal Prince (Callum and Aida) is the catalyst for some of this book, so also read that one first. There is a lot of information and people from the previous books that semi-matters here, so you might just be a little lost as to the reasoning behind everything.

Such a beautiful story, filled with all the best components - love, betrayal, familial disapproval, reconciliation, forgiveness… the list goes on. This was my favorite book in the series so far.