Book Review: Before We Were Yours

"Truly, I am dangerous but it is nothing for you to fear." He said, tossing away the head of the vampire he had just yanked out and was still dripping with blood, while he moved closer to her. "Why?" She asked, trying her best to sound bold. "Because I am yours." *** Maybe if someone had showed Ivy what the future would hold if she decided to go to a nightclub a night before her arranged wedding, throw the word 'mine' to the first greek god she sees and have a one night stand with that stupidly rich greek god, maybe she would have just accepted her fate, stayed home and gone to her arranged wedding in the morning to pay up her father's debt. But no fortune teller had warned her and so she did all the above. Now here comes the consequences. Some are bad, some are spicy and some are just mysteriously unexpected.

After my ex-husband, Lucaro Ricci, has died, he turns into a ghost. Since then, he has stayed by my side as a shadow. Three years later, I walk into the church, hand-in-hand with Carlo Altieri, the oldest son of Lucaro's arch-nemesis. Everyone in the city chews me out for betraying Lucaro. Even Lucaro curses me out for being a scumbag. But I'm the only one who knows the actual reason. I've already made a wish to God in the church that I'll sacrifice my life in exchange for Lucaro's second chance in life.

In my previous life, my husband's female coworker had asked him to drive her to and from work. I wasn't happy about that, but my husband dismissed my concerns, saying, "We live in the same neighborhood, so it's not like I'm going out of my way. Don't be so selfish." Six months later, she became pregnant and tragically miscarried in our car. The doctor was baffled, saying, "How could she have intercourse in the early stages of pregnancy?" Intercourse? I was confused, as her husband was overseas on a business trip. Before I could fully process the situation, both my husband and his female coworker pointed their fingers at me and claimed that I was the driver during the incident. Because of that, when her husband rushed back from abroad, he stabbed me over twenty times in a fit of rage. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day before he first gave her a ride.

When I was seventeen, Cesare Cassano, the youngest son of the Cassano Family, saw me once—and that was it. He was hooked. At nineteen, he fought his way up and became the Don's chosen successor. At twenty-one, in front of the whole city, I said yes to Cesare's over-the-top proposal. Overnight, I became the woman every girl in Naples envied. Everybody knew the Cassano Don would do anything for me—anything—just to see me smile. And then three days later, at the billion-dollar wedding Cesare threw for me, livestreamed to the whole world, I fell off a cliff. Just like that, I was dead. Gone without a trace.

When I caught Christian Helmley cheating on me for the tenth time, he dragged his lover over without any hesitation and let me decide her fate. When I caught him cheating for the 28th time, he cried and groveled and begged for my forgiveness. The man went so far as to curse his bloodline for that. By the ninety-eighth time, nothing he did could touch me anymore. I was numb. All I did was crouch beyond the door of his study while he and his lover were going at it like animals. Then it was the last time I caught him cheating. He came back and kissed me right after sleeping with another woman. One day before I left, he barged in with a crying girl in his arms. Christian berated me, accusing me of killing his son. "I can't believe you! You're not the woman I know!" He pressed the tip of a fountain pen against my belly, and I forced my tears back. "I don't want any other woman carrying my children. I only want Jasmine! God, can you stop being possessive for one second? You're practically a hag now, Natasha. Pull this again, and I'll send you to an asylum!" All that elicited from me was a bitter smile. I had no strength left to argue. "Yes, yes, I envy her. She took my husband from me, but I guess I should say goodbye and bless your relationship on the way out now." Then I jumped into the rolling sea right before his eyes. Only one thought remained in my mind. 'That's the last of the love I had for you, Christian.'

On New Year's Eve, my own brother slapped me three times. He stood there, full of himself, and spat at me in disgust. "This is my house. Who do you think you are, coming in here and telling me what to do? Get out. You're nothing but bad luck. If you dare stay, I'll hit you again." He seemed to have forgotten something. The house he was living in was the one I had bought for Mom. The jewelry his wife wore was all paid for by me. The money in his children's hands was the generous allowance I had just given them. My face still burning, I looked around at the others. My sister-in-law curled her lips into a mocking smile and let out an icy snort. The two children stared at me with open hostility. Mom, who had called me there tonight for my birthday, stood silently in the corner. Just like always, her eyes were red, yet she said nothing. At that moment, something in me snapped.

Following the success of her two novels, Cela receives an offer for the TV adaptation of her stories but a third story has to be written soon to complete a three-story special. She is not in to the project until she rediscovers the paper bearing the address of the meeting place of her supposed first date with Nate. Now that her mother is no longer around to interfere, she becomes inspired to reunite with him after many years and hopefully write the third novel based on their new story. Unfortunately, he is now about to get married in two months. Disappointed with the turn of events, she decides not to meet him again. She visits their old meeting place and finds it a good place to write but unexpectedly meets him there. They agree not to talk to each other if they meet there again but fate leads them to meet again under different circumstances leaving them no choice but to speak to each other. Suddenly, Nate’s fiancée starts acting weird and suggests that he spend the weekend with Cela while she is away. Although it confuses him, he figures that it is her way of helping him get closure. The two spend one Sunday reminiscing the past expecting a closure in the end but the wonderful moment they share this time only makes it harder to achieve that closure so Cela has to put a stop to it saying, “Please don't think even for a second that there is still something left or something new to explore after everything that happened or did not happen. This is not a novel. This is reality. We don't get sequels or spin-offs in real life. We just continue. We move forward and that's how we get to the ending."

“I want you to touch me… right now. I’ll show that scumbag ex I’m good at sex too.” Those were the last words Emily remembered saying before she woke up naked in the hockey captain’s bed — with her brother’s best friend staring back at her. One drunken night. One reckless mistake. One positive pregnancy test that ruined everything. Emily is a talented painter who just caught her boyfriend cheating. Alex is the campus’s arrogant, playboy hockey captain who never does commitment. Now they’re stuck together by an unplanned baby, crushing guilt, and a sizzling attraction that refuses to die. He says he doesn’t do responsibility. She says she won’t abort their child. But as Emily’s paintbrushes capture feelings she’s terrified to name and Alex starts showing up at her dorm with midnight cravings and soft kisses, one thing becomes dangerously clear: This hockey captain might just be hers… accidentally forever.  

She owed him everything. But when the time came to pay, it wasn’t money he wanted… Desperate to save her mother’s life, Isabel “Izzy” Vergara turns to a wealthy stranger—Seth Santiago—for help. She offers her body in exchange for the money, but when she hesitates, Seth refuses her. Yet, the next day, her mother’s surgery is mysteriously paid for, and Seth leaves her with a chilling message: Be ready when I come to collect. Months later, Izzy’s world is turned upside down when she learns Seth is her best friend Carl’s uncle. What begins as a reluctant debt soon turns into a dangerous addiction—one she can’t escape, no matter how much she tries. But just as she starts falling for the enigmatic billionaire, Carl reveals a shocking truth: Seth has a past dark enough to destroy them both. As secrets unravel and a vengeful ex-wife resurfaces, Izzy is forced to decide: Will she fight for a love that has already shattered her heart, or walk away before she loses everything—including her life?

She took her best friend's comatose brother's identity because she needed the money and she was running out of options. Walked straight into a job working for Lorenzo Moretti — the most feared man in New York — told herself it was temporary, told herself she just needed enough to cover her mother's hospital bills and then she would be gone. By day she is Kia, his quiet obedient male assistant who knows his schedule better than he does. By night she is Alessia, the woman he keeps coming back to in the dark without ever asking her name. This man never once figured out that both people he needs the most are the same person standing right in front of him every single day. She told herself she would never catch feelings for him. She lied.