More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
February 24 - March 21, 2023
“My little angel.” She has now switched to her most complaisant tone. “You know I care about you more than anything in this world, right? But don’t you think your relationship with this man is evolving a bit too fast?”
Y E S ! They barely know each other and the relationship is purely physical. It’s gross.
“I went to visit a friend… She is gifted… She sees things—visions. She predicted I’d have only one child, a daughter, and she also predicted my divorce… This relationship is going to destroy you, my dear. She predicted your…” Her eyes watering, Mom tilts her head back and sniffles. “My what?” I ask, rolling my eyes. Such drama! “Your death, Petra.” “Unbelievable, the lies you tell! You’re the one who is mentally ill, Mom.” “I swear it’s true. She said your relationship with that man will only bring misfortune.”
I don’t even know where to begin……but okay girl. 💁🏼♀️
“The Van Dierens never invite outsiders for Christmas. That’s one of their rules. And by now you should know how much they love rules, contracts, and so on, no?”
Oop 🫢
But Mom doesn’t give up. “Petra, I’ve spent these last fifteen years helping women escape abusive relationships and marriages. You’ve got to get out now. It’ll get worse if you wait until later.”
Another hint…..
“You’re not happy. You are brainwashed. Drunk. Delusional. Manipulated,” she yells. “This isn’t love. At eighteen, no healthy girl thinks about marrying a forty-year-old heartbreaker!” She takes a deep breath, the room settling into frigid silence. “You won’t marry him, and you won’t be part of that family. End of discussion,” she insists. “One day you’ll understand, and you’ll thank me. Mark my words.”
Man…..this is getting harder and harder to continue but I’ve made it this far so…..upward and onward I guess.
Why can’t she stand to see me in a relationship with him? And why did she attack his family?
Could it be that her mother simply knows more than her naive teenage daughter about the man that’s been absent from her life for a decade and who has only been back in it for a handful of months???
I decide to do a quick Google search on the Van Dieren family. Yet, I don’t find anything disturbing or shocking.
If he made her sign an NDA what makes her think that there’s any dirt online?
Dad exhales a heavy breath, his expression just as tormented.
So basically everyone in the book knows Alex is trash but this teenage girl…
Damn, she’s so blunt!
This girl literally rushed into a “relationship” with this Dutch nobleman 23 years her senior….what was she expecting his mother to want to discuss in private?
“Wow. Your maturity impresses me.
It’s a mask…this girl acts like she’s still in primary school most of the time.
And just like a kid, I stand up, tension vanishing, ready to enjoy my reward.
She IS a kid…..
Wow, Mom was right.
Gee, ya think?!
What? Her husband is a hunter? No one else seems bothered by her announcement. As a vegetarian, I can’t help but feel sick picturing the poor animals being killed by those men. Fuck, it’s so barbaric! I start to wonder if Alex is also a hunter. Oh God… I shudder at the thought.
So, she really doesn’t know anything about this man…..
Damn, I can’t believe this woman married a man who kills animals for pleasure. She looks so lovely and caring. “Sure, sounds great.”
That outlook is both immature and judgy, but okay.
Suddenly, I hear him unfastening his belt and unzipping his pants. “What are you doing?” I snap while trying to turn around. But he holds me tight against him, grabs the back of my neck, and bends me over his desk, my face resting flat on it. “I need to fuck you now,” he growls hurriedly while lifting my dress up. Oh geez! And before I can even blink, he rams so deep into me that it takes my breath away.
Okay but like….he didn’t even ask her if she was in the mood or if he COULD fuck her…..that is not okay. Consent is important.
I continue moaning as I endure every single thrust with morbid pleasure. He neither kisses me nor holds my hands. He’s just entirely satisfying himself. The more confused I am, the harder I feel him inside—and the wilder he seems to be.
POV: Me wondering if the author has a thing for rape fantasies. 👀
I can hear his zipper and belt fastening. Why did he do that? Why was he so rough with me? I’m still paralyzed, barely breathing.
Nothing about that was okay. I am failing to find the "romance" that is supposed to be in this book. So far, it's a badly written story about a teenaged girl who is used and abused by a bunch of random men and one man that her father trusted to look out for her. It's disgusting.
Frightened by his glare, I keep quiet and swallow my anger.
Um...what about this isn’t fucked up and abusive????
I’m so disappointed, confused, and enraged by his attitude that my mind is totally blank, unable to form a proper sentence. The more I think about it, the more questions I have… Geez! And Alex keeps looking at me, waiting for an answer… To my surprise, though, I stare downward and mutter the word he’s expecting, a word I find shameful and humiliating for the very first time. “Yes.”
So.....what exactly is this book ? Because this is so concerning.....like, a girl fresh out of high school agreeing to allow this older man to bypass the need for consent, and just use her like a fuck toy whenever he feels like it, is just plain disturbing. Anyone who reads this and gets hot and bothered needs to seek therapy immediately.
After he leaves, I take a shower to wash away my pain. Yet my mind is still tormented by what he has just done. I’ve never refused him before—why would he need to be so rough? I think about Mom and her warnings about Alex, and Margaret telling me how all women, after a while, were trained to please him and do whatever he wanted. Is this something he expects from me? The more I think about it, the more questions I have. “I’m all yours. My entire body belongs to you,” I remember telling him in Aspen. Shit. And now I’m scared. Very scared. Not of him, but of losing him if I become too docile and
...more
Now she thinks about the consequences and the weight of what is really going on in front of her????
Fuck, I’m not his pet to be domesticated, for God’s sake! And I have the firm intention of reminding him of that.
I can't even....
I also wonder if she’s still mad at me. C’mon, Petra, just because of some rough sex? Really?
She isn't mad that the sex was rough, she's mad because he practically raped her since he didn't get consent and didn't care if she was comfortable or not. He didn't apologize for being presumptuous in his actions even when he saw she was crying and upset. It's fucked up.
I shake my head, displeased with her childish behavior, but I find myself putting my head down between my arms. Is she crazy or what?
I cannot stress how awful the writing in this book is. Also, it's interesting that he can basically assault her and then be angry when she tries to dominate him back.
“Look, there’ll be times I might just want to whip you without foreplay, without tenderness, without cuddling, without being gentle…” My body shivers instantly at my words repeated back to me. “Do you feel comfortable with that?”
Go off I guess.....
“Well, what I did to you didn’t leave any bruises… And if it was that bad, why didn’t you tell me to stop?” “Would you have stopped?” I ask, surprised. “Yeah, but you didn’t ask me to.” Okay, he’s got a point. I might have gone a bit too far.
This is the most gaslighty bullshit...are you fucking serious right now?
Fuck, how am I supposed to tell him the truth?
Please tell me that she didn't do what I think she did.....
“Leave my daughter alone! Or I’ll destroy you, my ex-husband, and your precious family. You’ve been warned.”
How is it that her mother is written as the only character willing to fight for Petra?
“There was no evidence found against him, but that doesn’t make him innocent.”
Rich people in books are so eugh! 🤢
My daughter won’t marry a murderer, an abuser, and a manipulative man like him!”
Not murderer.....nah. It's a no for me sister.
If Tess was not Petra’s mother, it’d be so easy to take care of the problem.
This just got a whole other level of insane and uncomfortable.
“I’ll take care of Tess,” I tell him. “And I’m going to marry Petra.”
Yep, just murder the mother and her barely legal daughter will be yours for the taking....what the absolute hell?!
“You are not marrying her.”
Finally!
“What the hell are you talking about? We just have to take care of Tess. Problem solved.”
Yes, because murder is the ultimate problem solver.....🙄
“You will leave her mother in peace, and you will stop this relationship.”
Her father should've put a stop to it from the beginning.
“Ridiculous is your obsession for my daughter,” he snarls back. “It’s not an obsession, for God’s sake! I love her!”
Bro....these men have no concept of what love is. What Alex is experiencing is intense lust.
“You’ll be transferred to our Singapore office in March. You have two months to break up.” I feel his words crash into me. “This is a joke, right? I’m not leaving New York, Roy. Forget it!” But Roy keeps his face calm and serene, his gaze pinned on the chessboard. “We’ll start going to Singapore more frequently in the coming weeks. This will give you enough time to prepare a speech for when the time comes.”
Well that escalated....
“There is too much at stake.” His tone remains contained and devoid of any empathy. “I won’t ruin my reputation, my family name, and everything I’ve built because of your relationship. Petra needs protection, my protection.” And he takes his queen away from my knight. “She is still young. She has time to find someone else.”
Wow...it really took his ex wife blackmailing him for him to do right by his only child. That's some bullshigidy shit right there.
“Roy, you’re the one who is putting our relationship at stake now.”
Way to take responsibility for your actions Alex...NOT!
Now that your agoraphobia has been under control, we need to start building up your public image,
Does the author think thay Agoraphobia and social anxiety are the same thing????
I run to the toilet of the en suite and throw up once more.
Oh no....please....no
“I’m fifteen weeks pregnant.”
........
It's a hard no for me girl.
“I messed up, I know. I lied to him and told him I was on the pill.”
Acts like she's super innocent as if she's still in primary school, acts bashful about sex, then does the most treacherous and deceitful thing a woman can possibly do and lies about being on birth control....now she's shocked to find that she's pregnant...
“Petra—you’re only eighteen, for God’s sake!”
Oh now she's only eighteen ........
“Just because I’m pregnant? Just because I lied?”
Not gonna lie, if I was a man and my girlfriend LIED to me about being on birth control to get pregnant on purpose....I would not only break up with her, I'd also sign away my parental rights, because fuck her!
“Look, at seven years old, my daughter screamed out loud in the middle of the dinner table what she felt for you…
I really wish people would stop using this girls seven year old self's crush as a justification for their inappropriate relationship....
