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Saturday, June 22, 2024

ARC Review: Love Betrayal (Angels & Devils MC #2)

Love Betrayal (Angels & Devils MC #2)

Chantal Fernando

Blurb:

In a world of monsters, falling in love requires sacrifice.

River

I'm VP of Devils MC, and every decision I make is to protect the Club. I’m the one they call when things go south. That means getting my hands dirty—a lot. Outsiders think I’m a monster. I agreed. Until Bella. She was able to look past the violence and see…me. I never thought love was in the cards, but now she’s mine. I’ll protect her. No matter the cost.

Bella

It was supposed to be a fling—a way for us both to scratch an itch. But River wasn’t what I expected. I’ve seen monsters, and River isn’t one. Our relationship isn’t all rainbows and butterflies—but it’s real. I’d never betray him, even when my ex-boyfriend threatens to destroy me if I don’t. I’m not a damsel in distress. I can solve this problem without sacrificing the man I love.

Even if it costs me everything.

Themes:  Contemporary

Rating:  4.25 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

 I love when an author decides to take something like the old fairy tales we all grew up and completely reimagine them in a modern way and with a dirty and imaginative twist. Chantal Fernando has done exactly that with her new series and the second installment takes us on a departure from the tale of Beauty and the Beast that will leave you hot and bothered and wondering if you really missed out as a kid with the original. While book one was definitely a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, I loved how we got a different story to enjoy, even with the time overlap and the fact that we jumped into River and Bella’s relationship a full year into it, after the timeline of the first book. While technically each of these books can be read alone, I highly recommend you read the full series, because otherwise you will be left out of a lot of the subplots, subterfuge, and you’ll feel a little bit confused.  This story is filled with drama, emotional turmoil, love, lose, danger, and pain, but in the end is a story of two people having to come to terms with their own natures and the nature of the one they have fallen in love with to decide if they can make a life together.  I am dying for the next book in the series and I have high suspicions about who that one will star, even if we haven’t been told for sure.

Bella Callisto never realized that when she followed her cousin Juliana into a bar one night that she’d not only be met with their sworn enemies, but with her future in the form of the sexiest beast shed ever seen.  River is the second in command to his cousin who is running two MCs in concert with his new wife now that they have combined and the results have been rocky.  He takes on a lot of the dirty work in order to keep his club safe and clean and he never wants Bella to see him as that monster, but in hiding that side of himself he is keeping Bella in the dark in a love of ways and she feels that deeply.  The more real their relationship gets, the more Bella demands from him and the more he has to decide how deep he wants her to get in his life, but when a darkness from their past threatens the rocky peace they are all working toward, Bella and River both have to get a little dirty in order to protect one another and those they both love.  Bella has to prove that she isn’t as pure as her best thinks she is and that she will always take River just has he comes if they have any chance at not only defeating their enemies, but at having their HEA.

I truly enjoyed their story, though there were a few moments that I were afraid were going to get bogged down in the emotional drama of a couple that was close to breaking.  Bella knows that she wants River, but she isn’t sure she actually knows him, and being a strong woman, she begins to push him for the full truth.  But soon she starts to question if she can really handle the truth, which just made me frustrated with her a bit—thankfully she got over that pretty quickly when outside danger threatened those she considered under her protection.  I could definitely see that she is MD to the core and despite being light to River’s dark, she is a dangerous woman to get on the ropes.  River has always lived on the opposite side of the light, protecting his family and club at the expense of his own happiness and soul, but when he takes Bella for himself he knows that he won’t be letting her go.  His strength, calm, danger, and darkness never worried me because it was tempered with sweetness, love, caring, and calm so I knew that he wasn’t a psycho that would be a danger to those around him.  I loved seeing him finally come to the conclusions that the others knew that he was a good man, despite the “bad” things he’d down in the past to protect his people.  I loved seeing him kicking ass and showing Bella that she could give him her heart and trust and he would never let her down. They were obviously meant to be together from the beginning, even if it took them a little bit to realize it.

This story definitely needed to be told, even if it wasn’t the one I was expecting.  I truly expected we’d be reading Bela and River’s story from the beginning and all the way through their courtship, instead we jump right into a full developed relationship where two people in love are trying to figure out how to deepen their relationship and last in a world that wants to pull them apart.  I loved watching the grow, both individually and as a couple because there really is no truer challenge of a love story than two people, in love, and faced with the hard challenges of day-to-day life and the drama of continuous attacks to their future.  Bella’s reservations and fears as she tried to get River to truly open himself to her, the fact that she finally came to understand her own lack of openness, and the drama she brought to their relationship was fascinating and watching her find her way through that maze into the woman she needed to be to win those fights was amazing.  River has his own qualms about their future, but he never doubts she is his woman, not from the first moment, and he will fight everyone to keep her—even Bella herself.  The passion between these two can be somewhat dark at times as their jealousy and fear lead them around, but it never waned and I don’t imagine it ever will.  I am really looking forward to the third story in this series and cannot imagine all the excitement that the couple in that one will lead us on in the adventure of their love story to come.  Chantal Fernando has a way with her biker romance, but this new bent on old fairy tales with a dark upgrade is beyond awesome!

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.

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