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suchita_r's review against another edition
3.0
This finale to The Forbidden Hearts trilogy wraps up all the questions and loose ends in a sometimes too-convenient manner. This is the weakest of the trilogy but necessary reading if you want to know what really happened that fateful night ten years ago.
isitcake's review against another edition
2.25
Finally can cross this series off my list, didn't really enjoy it all that much. There's some hot scenes definitely not my favorite Alisha Rai books. There's just too many characters and their families are so intertwined it's hard to keep track of who is who. Then Gabe is the MMC in this book, the adopted son of the Kane housekeeper, and his rich tech sister who becomes her own side character. Eve's description in this book isn't how I pictured her, she's described as having huge boobs and being kind of curvy. Gabe is a gentle giant tattoo artist with full sleeves.
The book centers around Livvy and Nicholas' wedding and during the lead up to it there's forced proximity between Eve and Gabe. Eve is only 24 while Gabe is.. 31? more? I thought he was 12 years older. Anyway he was around her when she was a kid. She had a crush on him but he didn't "see" her until now.Gabe's reason for not being able to be with her is that he knows he's the bastard son of Robert Kane. The big secret is that Robert had an affair with a woman a year before marrying.. Tammy? The woman abandoned Gabe and the housekeeper wanted to adopt him. Tammy would have been fine with adopting Gabe but Robert worried about "image." So Gabe was raised alongside Paul, Jackson and Livvy - going to private school and having all advantages - but Robert never recognized him as his son, so no one knows except Tammy and Gabe.
Eve overhears Gabe talking to his sister and she puts together clues about this secret, so he admits everything.
Eve's secret is that she quit the Chandler company and wants to start her own rideshare company. She's been doing "research" as a driver, and specifically stalking Gabe to take all his rides. She pretends to be "Anne" when she's with Gabe. They have an encounter early in the book where she loses a bracelet with him. This comes back in the last fucking chapter when he finally realizes Anne=Eve and its kind of nothing. This is after the climax of the book where:
Brendan Chandler (Nicholas' dad) shows up pre-wedding and demands the wedding not happen or he'll sell all his shares to non-family. The Chandler and Kanes all group together to buy him out, but not before Brendan reveals Gabe's secret about his birth AND FINALLY we get the secret about the car accident.
Brendan's wife was trying to leave him. She had called Tammy for help, but it was bad weather so Robert went instead. She had fake passports and luggage to escape, but they crashed. There was a coverup to prevent that info getting out.
In the epilogue Brendan shows up to see his niece, Livvy and Nicholas' baby - because yea she had a fast wedding bc she was pregnant. He makes some comment about how he loved Tammy, that's part of why his relationship with his wife was bad. Tammy chooses her current family and Brendan leaves.
Gabe proposes to Eve later.
The book centers around Livvy and Nicholas' wedding and during the lead up to it there's forced proximity between Eve and Gabe. Eve is only 24 while Gabe is.. 31? more? I thought he was 12 years older. Anyway he was around her when she was a kid. She had a crush on him but he didn't "see" her until now.
Eve overhears Gabe talking to his sister and she puts together clues about this secret, so he admits everything.
Eve's secret is that she quit the Chandler company and wants to start her own rideshare company. She's been doing "research" as a driver, and specifically stalking Gabe to take all his rides. She pretends to be "Anne" when she's with Gabe. They have an encounter early in the book where she loses a bracelet with him. This comes back in the last fucking chapter when he finally realizes Anne=Eve and its kind of nothing. This is after the climax of the book where:
Brendan Chandler (Nicholas' dad) shows up pre-wedding and demands the wedding not happen or he'll sell all his shares to non-family. The Chandler and Kanes all group together to buy him out, but not before Brendan reveals Gabe's secret about his birth AND FINALLY we get the secret about the car accident.
Brendan's wife was trying to leave him. She had called Tammy for help, but it was bad weather so Robert went instead. She had fake passports and luggage to escape, but they crashed. There was a coverup to prevent that info getting out.
In the epilogue Brendan shows up to see his niece, Livvy and Nicholas' baby - because yea she had a fast wedding bc she was pregnant. He makes some comment about how he loved Tammy, that's part of why his relationship with his wife was bad. Tammy chooses her current family and Brendan leaves.
Gabe proposes to Eve later.
peytonm's review against another edition
5.0
The family dynamics were alive and well in this one, and we even discovered the events that led up to the big family tragedy! I loved Eve, and Gabe was all right too. This still earned 5-stars because Alisha Rai created such a beautiful, character-driven narrative. I couldn't put this book down because I wanted to see how all of the characters, not only Eve and Gabe, made it out. I enjoyed seeing Livvy and Nico planning their wedding and persevering despite "bad omens" aplenty. Eve even stood up to Nico's overbearing, protective rant which made my life. More romance series like this please.
tinamariereads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
deniseneutel's review against another edition
3.5
I didn't love the age gap. But I liked how it tied up the series.
steph01924's review against another edition
4.0
Darn these books keeping me up too late. They're so easy to zoom through. I really liked the ending to this family saga and I will definitely auto-buy whatever Alisha Rai does next. I read some complaints that there wasn't enough focus on Gabe and Eve's story but I felt it was fine. I wasn't completely wowed by them but it was good. I definitely appreciated the wrap-up to all the family drama and all the secrets being exposed.
Overall it's a very feel-good series and I love the fact that there was more to it than JUST the couple and their inner monologues, since it's tough to flesh out a 300-some-odd book without something more than "he's hot, she's got amazing XYZ but we're all wrong for each other oh noes" and not make it super repetitive (one of my ultimate pet peeves).
Overall it's a very feel-good series and I love the fact that there was more to it than JUST the couple and their inner monologues, since it's tough to flesh out a 300-some-odd book without something more than "he's hot, she's got amazing XYZ but we're all wrong for each other oh noes" and not make it super repetitive (one of my ultimate pet peeves).
betseywj's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5