Our Violent Ends (These Violent Delights Duet Book 2)

Rating: 3 out of 5

"Nothing in this world is complicated, only misunderstood."

"For however long our souls remain, mine will always find yours."

It's 1927 and Shanghai teeters on the edge of revolution. After sacrificing her relationship with Roma to protect him from the blood feud, Juliette has been on a mission. One wrong move, and her cousin will step in to usurp her place as heir. To protect the one she loves, she must have him hate her. Roma is still reeling from the events of book one and blames himself for trusting Juliette. He is determined to set things right--even if that means killing the girl he both hates and loves. But a new monster emerges to threaten the city and the two must work together if they plan to end the threat. Shanghai is already at a boiling point: The Nationalists are marching in, whispers of civil war grow louder every day, and gangster rule faces annihilation. Roma and Juliette must work together to combat both monsters and politics.

I wasn't really sure about this book because the first one was a bit of a let down for me. I can honestly say that every single issue I had with the first book was once again an issue in this one. It took forever to get to the monsters and we got a lot of politics instead. At least this time the summary makes it obvious that is going to be the case. I just wish the monster element had never been part of the story because it isn't utilized to the full potential in my opinion. Starting this one I struggled a bit because only four months had passed, but each character was the polar opposite of who they were before. I liked some of the characters a bit more this time because I think we got more character backgrounds but still so much was missing for me.

Again with this one I felt like the book could have been condensed because all of the action was crammed into like the last ten chapters. However, this one did fill way more like a Romeo and Juliet retelling. I could see more of the romance this time. The book also kept me guessing a few times with some of the manipulation and big reveals that took place, but a few became pretty obvious too. I will say between the two I prefer this one because it was slightly more engaging. But most of the time it felt like nothing was happening in the story. Overall its an interesting story if you can set aside the monster narrative and not go into it wanting that element.