Crossed

CrossedNever AfterEmily McIntire

Apr 7

Written By Ally Talley

Never After #5

By Emily McIntire

*Can be read as a standalone*

*A Hunchback of Notre Dame fractured fairytale*

TheStory

Father Cade moves to a new parish where he instantly falls into obsession with stripper Amaya. They know they can never be together but toe the line anyways.

Upheaval strikes when a murder is committed and Amaya is the only person of interest. But not even murder and a sham of a marriage can keep the two apart.

TheReview

This book was roooough to get through. It is so heavily focused on the most twisted aspects of religion. The author just really beat the perverted religion thing to death.

On top of that, there are SO many flashbacks. Just flashback after flashback. WE GET IT! Cade was an abused child and he has issues.

Apart from the religious obsession the author has, this is a stalker, slow burn, enemies to lovers romance. Amaya is a low income, struggling woman just trying to raise her neurodivergent brother and Cade is a tortured priest who can’t reconcile his faith with his obsession.

Luckily for us storyline lovers, about halfway, the book develops an actual storyline. Murder. Chaos. More murder. Evil side characters. The whole shebang. And I was actually semi-surprised at some of the events that unfold.

The ending is cute if not a bit unrealistic. But the HEA is HEAing so hard. And given all Amaya went through, she deserves it. The last 1/4 or so had me fairly interested in seeing what would happen next.

By no means was this book anywhere in the stratosphere of books I liked reading. Almost DNFed it. The ending saved me from hating this book but reading it felt like getting hit in the head with a sledge hammer over and over again about how much the author hates religion and explains away psychotic tendencies by way of childhood trauma. Of which some was valid but no need to shove it in my face CONSTANTLY!