Title: The Vanity of Roses
Author: Lily White
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: March 25, 2020
Callan Rose.
That hadn’t always been his name.
When we were children, he was nothing more than a servant boy in my family.
He was an amusement to me.
A nobody.
A weak soul who refused to fight back.
It was so easy to take advantage.
But then my father died, and I was stolen. The family moved on without me. Until I was penniless with no place to go.
I returned to the Rose Estate not knowing Callan was the head of it.
He’d honed his body and temper in the underground fighting ring. The scars only made him more beautiful.
Now I’m trapped by a seductively dark man who has nothing but vengeance running through his veins.
I’d always wanted him to fight back, but you know what they say:
Be careful what you wish for.
“Me,” she laughed, “jealous of you?”
Her gaze dragged down me with disgust I hadn’t seen since we were kids. “You don’t have to worry about that, Callan, you don’t have a single thing that I want. You’re nothing more than a pathetic excuse for a man, a Rose in name and nothing-“
I was across the room and on her before she could finish the thought, a surprised shriek muffled behind the hand I clapped over her mouth while my boots ground the broken glass into the floor.
Lifting her with just my palm against her chin, I grinned when her bare feet kicked, her heels thudding against the wall.
Mouth to her ear, my words came out on a dark hiss.
“Keep talking, brat. I haven’t seen you like this since we were kids. What were you going to say to me? That I’m worthless? That you’re somehow better than me?”
The scruff of my jaw scratched her skin, my free hand sliding up the inside of her thigh.
“Please say those things,” I crooned, my voice so deep I knew it vibrated against her bones. “I’ve always wanted to take this pretty little body while you’re abusing me with your words.”
Releasing her chin, I caught her and spun her toward the wall, my body trapping hers, my hand flipping her skirt above her waist.
My mouth was to her ear again, my heart thumping in time with the angry beat of her breath.
“And what’s messed up is you like this. I should have done it a long time ago.”
Lily White is a romance writer who likes to dabble on the taboo side of eroticism. She is most known for her Masters Series, Target This, Wishing Well, and Asylum. In addition to dark romance Lily writes contemporary romance, taboo romance, and psychological thrillers. Lily enjoys stretching her writing muscles by continuing to challenge herself with each book she publishes.
Trust lily to take a simple story, and add twists to it like thorns are to Roses. She makes this love story hurt and cut with her intentional cruel scenes and ruthless turn of fates of the main characters. It's like a Russian roulette of pride. She creates a worker and his princess, very clearly defined roles in the first chapter, then turns the tables and this becomes a vindictive tale of revenge. The mission- To usurp wealth as a means of power.
"A boy made a slave.
A slave treated as a beaten dog.
A man that had risen above the flames of a painful life"
It's the War of the Roses, the vanities sharp as swords, cutting and drawing blood.
Lisbeth Rebel Rose is a petulant brat who always got what she wanted. Using her personal manservant, Callan as her stepping stool and kicking puppy, she's manhandled, abused, ridiculed him for years. He bears all, because he is infatuated with her. Hoping his goodness might one day be noticed or appreciated.
"I existed to serve her. To appease her. To take her abuse, whatever she deemed necessary, so that she didn’t have to wait too long for her demands to be met."
The whys and wherefores are not revealed at this stage.
The story progresses at breakneck speed till Lisbeth is now the hunted and Callan the hunter.
They lock horns and are now engaged in a battle of wills, who will drop to their knees and fold first was a matter of time now.
"Our genetic makeup made Lisbeth and I the perfect opponents, and our past only served to fan those flames. I wondered how much it would take to make her cower. I hoped I would have a front row seat when she finally tipped and spilled out from her ivory tower."
Callan uses all his pent up rage and his fists in breaking down his opponents in the pit, yet his heart has trouble using the same methods in exacting his pound of flesh from his personal nemesis
I like how lily's devious intentions pour through on her pages. They make the story oh-so-delicious and tempting to my dark reader heart. Her heroes have always gone extra length in displaying evil methods to procure what they wanted and damned the world with their Devil-May-Care attitudes.
Her heroines are made of stainless steel too, tensile yet strong. They are Phoenix embodied, rising gracefully and holding on to their own at all times.
"I was a Rose. Not a weed."
She's bold and unapologetic in her treatment of plot and etches characters with shady graphite, balancing on the thin line between black and whites.
Intense narration, heartless emotions (oxymoron!)and iron-fisted treatment makes this a treasure trove for her loyal fans.
4 stars for Pit and Pedestal
"A boy made a slave.
A slave treated as a beaten dog.
A man that had risen above the flames of a painful life"
It's the War of the Roses, the vanities sharp as swords, cutting and drawing blood.
Lisbeth Rebel Rose is a petulant brat who always got what she wanted. Using her personal manservant, Callan as her stepping stool and kicking puppy, she's manhandled, abused, ridiculed him for years. He bears all, because he is infatuated with her. Hoping his goodness might one day be noticed or appreciated.
"I existed to serve her. To appease her. To take her abuse, whatever she deemed necessary, so that she didn’t have to wait too long for her demands to be met."
The whys and wherefores are not revealed at this stage.
The story progresses at breakneck speed till Lisbeth is now the hunted and Callan the hunter.
They lock horns and are now engaged in a battle of wills, who will drop to their knees and fold first was a matter of time now.
"Our genetic makeup made Lisbeth and I the perfect opponents, and our past only served to fan those flames. I wondered how much it would take to make her cower. I hoped I would have a front row seat when she finally tipped and spilled out from her ivory tower."
Callan uses all his pent up rage and his fists in breaking down his opponents in the pit, yet his heart has trouble using the same methods in exacting his pound of flesh from his personal nemesis
I like how lily's devious intentions pour through on her pages. They make the story oh-so-delicious and tempting to my dark reader heart. Her heroes have always gone extra length in displaying evil methods to procure what they wanted and damned the world with their Devil-May-Care attitudes.
Her heroines are made of stainless steel too, tensile yet strong. They are Phoenix embodied, rising gracefully and holding on to their own at all times.
"I was a Rose. Not a weed."
She's bold and unapologetic in her treatment of plot and etches characters with shady graphite, balancing on the thin line between black and whites.
Intense narration, heartless emotions (oxymoron!)and iron-fisted treatment makes this a treasure trove for her loyal fans.
4 stars for Pit and Pedestal
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