Blurb: My first love ended in tragedy. My second began with his brother. From Wall Street Journal bestseller Parker S. Huntington comes a broken love story laced with angst and forbidden romance. I wasn’t supposed to be on that roof on Valentine’s Day. Neither was Kellan Marchetti, the school’s designated freak. We met on the verge of ending our lives. Somehow, the tattered strings of our tragedies tangled and tightened into an unlikely bond. We decided not to take the plunge and agreed to check on each other every Valentine’s Day until school ended. Same time. One roof. Two restless souls. We kept our promise for three years. On the fourth, Kellan made a decision, and I was left to deal with the consequences. Just when I thought our story ended, another one began. They say all love stories look the same and taste different. Mine was venomous, disgraceful, and written in scarlet scars. My name is Charlotte Richards, but you can call me Venom.
Review:
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and consider it to be one of my favorite books of 2021. It somewhat gives me The Day She Cried by K. Webster vibes. My only issue with it is that it was so long – over 700 pages. However, there was a sneak peek of another one of her books at the end to reduce the number of pages somewhat.
What I like about it: The book was very angsty, brother’s best friend, sexy doctor romance, and age gap of 12 years. However, for a doc with his reputation, I would have thought Tate or Dr. Tatum Marchetti, would have been closer to 40 instead of 34.
The enemies-to-lovers didn’t last long, but they continued to have issues that prevented them from being together. The story is told in three parts–part one is Charlotte’s relationship with Kellan, Tate’s younger brother. It is told in dual POV of Kellan and Charlotte. Part two is where Charlotte meets Dr. Tatum Marchetti and is told in dual Pov with Tate and Charlotte. Part 3 is after Tate reads Kellan’s book.
I liked the opposites attract aspect of it. He was an older sexy doctor and she was a young college graduate in book publishing and she’s described as an anime girl who dresses like Wednesday Adams.
What I disliked: It was too long, maybe if there had been more than just 4 kisses and a gyno exam in the first 10 hours of reading it would have made it better. It took over 13 hours to read.
I would recommend it for anyone wanting a long and emotional read. I’m glad I stuck with it even though it took so long to read and actually read it twice.
Trigger warning: Suicide with mentions throughout.
