Content warning for both the book & my review as I'll be discussing Ephebophilia, physical assault, and abusive relationships which have been depicted in the novel.
There will be spoilers for the first 45% of the book.
The blurb had me intrigued in Owned By Him but unfortunately the novel itself was a letdown & I ended up DNF-ing it at 45% for A LOT of different reasons.
Lillianna would do anything for her dad. But the bond of family can be a knife that cuts deep. Her father owed a lot of money. In the ultimate betrayal, he bartered Lilliana as his payment.
Traded to her brother's best friend. The man who she once loved, her childhood prince.
Malachi Kingston is now the monster who stole her freedom.
Yet as secrets from the past surface, and the pair battle against their darkest desires.
Right off the bat, I did not like the relationship between Lillianna & Malachi.
The fact that he met her when she was eight and he was eighteen is weird, the fact that there are flash back scenes from when Lillianna is sixteen and Malachi is twenty six where he is obviously attracted to a literal teenager is skeevy as hell.
I'm really over books & authors who try to make out like Ephebophilia (sexual interest in mid-to late adolescents, generally aged 15 to 19) is ok by having the teenager - who is almost always the girl - coming onto the adult as a way of absolving them of there actions & feelings.
An adult man should not be attracted to a literal teenage girl, no matter that she's doing.
Him saying basically any variation of 'this is wrong' and fighting the attraction & not acting on it himself does not make it ok because that attraction should not be there to begin with.
This is their first kiss when she is sixteen and he is twenty six;
"Calloused hands cup my chin, bring me to meet his eyes. I pull in a sharp breath at the softness there, as the rough pad of his thumb wipes my tears away. Something passes between us that makes my stomach quiver, my breathing choppy, and my heart pound so hard I swear he can hear it. I stand on my tiptoes, drawn to him like he’s my gravity. It’s all wrong, forbidden. He’s my brother’s best friend, twenty-six, but I can’t stop the way my body leans toward him, as if pulled by magnetism. The force is undeniable.
The touch of our lips, a ghost of a kiss, sends a stab of something through me. I don’t know what it means, but I know I want more, already crave it. A sound I didn’t even know was possible falls from my lips.
“Fuck!” He jerks back as if I burned him, his eyes wide, like he can’t believe what just happened. He turns, his fist curled as he starts punching the wall until streaks of red appear.
“Stop!” I grab his arm, making him flinch. His eyes widen when he sees I’m in my underwear, as if he hadn’t noticed before. He grabs his hair, pulling at it, looking sick.
...
“It was nothing.”
His brows pull tight. “Nothing?” There’s a bite to his words. Is he angry? Of course, he is. I had just thrown myself at him, stolen a kiss that never belonged to me. I can still feel the tingling sensation.”
And just prior to the kiss there had been multiple mentions in the flashback of him essentially checking her out;
"Malachi stands on the other side. His eyes widen at the sight of me, unblinking. His gaze breaks from mine first but stays on me, taking in every inch, slowly, from my silver heels to my deep raven hair. It’s different from any look he has given me before. It feels like he’s undressing me, right here in my doorway. I have never felt so naked, vulnerable, raw, yet at the same time alive."
I also have to say, him intimidating & threatening her date isn't exactly not acting on his feelings for a teenager because it was clear he did it out of jealousy and not because he was being overprotective big brother stand in because he thought the guy wasn't good enough.
I am twenty six now and the idea of being attracted to a sixteen year old is beyond revolting.
Also the fact that he says this to her;
“He kisses the side of my mouth, before nipping my bottom lip, then licking it. “You’ve always been mine, haven’t you—Lilliana?"
For context that is said during the present day & is immediately followed by a flashback of what he's referring to when they first met. She was eight and declared that she would marry him when she was older because she was a princess and since his nickname was Prince that meant they were meant to be together.
That flashback, and any that took place when she was a child, were painful to read because of the over the top & annoying baby talk tone they'd been written in and were entire chapters of an eight year olds stream of consciousness.
"I know I’m not allowed to disturb the men when they are playing with the cards and pretty-coloured chips. I did that once because I had a bad belly and felt sick.
Jack had screamed in my face and shaken me like a little doll. His spit landed on my cheeks and his face turned very red.
The back room is always smoky, like a dragon’s breath. The men drink beer and shout at each other. They slam their hands on the table with a loud bang, and that always makes me jump. They have pretty women bring them drinks and sit on their laps. I don’t understand why Jack likes to play with all those men but won’t play with me. He never lets me join in."
I know it's categorised as dark romance but there was so little romance or chemistry between them and so little character development that it made absolutely no sense why these two characters seemed to like each other. Even the sex scenes lacked any sort of chemistry and just seemed very to be written in a very "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am" sort of way.
They'd be talking or arguing, with barely any description or indication of how she's feeling and then suddenly they're having sex & there is still no real description of her she feels or any chemistry between them, and then they're done.
He also physically hits in the face, throws her against walls, pulls weapons on her multiple times while threatening to kill her (we also see from his POV that he is seriously considering following through on those threats). He stands by while his staff and cousin treat her like crap and physically assault her and he does nothing to stop them. At one point the cousin and one of the staff (who had seemed to be warming up to Lillianna just prior to this scene so it was a shock to see him do this) beat her so badly she broke a rib and this is just not addressed.
Although Malachi wasn't present at the time it happened he does see the aftermath and just doesn't even really react.
That scene also happens just before she goes to talk with the police when they show up at the mansion, which makes it utterly ridiculous thing to have done because the reason the cousin is beating her is to make sure she knows not to tell the police that she's being held against her will. Why, if you need someone to convince the police that they're safe and not being held against their will, would you beat them so they're in huge amounts of pain & incredibly distressed?
As if a police officer seeing the woman they suspect is being held against her will coming into the room moving stiffly - obviously in pain - and upset isn't going to be a massive red flag.
This was not dark romance, this was just an abusive relationship where both people seemed to utterly despise one-another. By 45% of the way into the book there was no progression beyond this dynamic either and there really didn't seem to be any indication that it was going to change. This for me, combined with the poor writing, meant there was nothing to keep invested in the characters or the story to make me want to keep reading.
There were a lot of continuity errors, for example one minute Malachi is crouched beside Lillianna on the floor holding her hair, she stands up - no mention of her walking away from him, just that she stands up - and the next he "walks - no, he prowls towards me".
If she just stood up and hasn't moved any further, exactly how far is he walking/prowling towards her? Because he was within arms reach of her before she stood up, so surely when he stands up he is still within arms reach which doesn't exactly give you enough space to walk towards someone. Step towards or step closer maybe, but not enough to describe it as walking.
The writing & plot also seemed very choppy & disconnected which made it difficult to follow. Time seemed to shift but there was no really description or anything to indicate that it had & you're reading and think it's later that day or the next day but suddenly you realise its a few days or weeks afterwards. This sometimes seemed to happen in reverse too, where you think it's a day or few days later but really it's only been a short amount of time that's passed.
The book as a whole felt - or more accurately up to 45% since I can't say what it was like after that point since I stopped reading - felt more like a bunch of random/loosely connected scenes thrown together. There was no real sense of a cohesion to any of it.
This became worse during Lillianna's mourning montage where the author is clearly trying to convey that Lillianna is in shock & is trying to recreate the sort of montage you'd expect to see in a movie (think Bella sitting in the chair as the seasons pass in New Moon) and this technique is not executed well at all.
“Something has taken over, almost like it is protecting me.
The sun hits me. I’m outside? When did I get outside? I blink.
I am back at the house. When did that happen?
“Would you like some tea?” Do I want tea? I nod. Yes?
I look up to see Clara trying to take the cup from my hand. “Sorry, it's cold. I’ll make you a fresh one.”
I look down at the mug in my hand, the tea stone cold. “Thank you.” I smile—I think."
Then a couple pages later;
"When did it start raining?
It’s stopped, and white tiles surround me. Is this a bathroom? I’m wrapped in a towel. Why is Malachi—Prince wet too? Did we just shower?
I’m surrounded by heat, the softness of the sheets. I’m in bed again. The red light of the digital clock flashes, showing me 3:49. I blink: 3:50. I blink again: 8:23. Blink: 8:24; blink: 13:56; blink: 13:58; blink: 18:10; blink: 20:40.
“Lilliana, you need to eat.” I look up when I hear the rough voice, seeing Prince holding a sandwich. I turn back to the clock: 23:17. Blink: 1:30; blink: 3:42. "
It ends up being a very confusing few pages (its about just over six pages) and then suddenly she seems to have snapped out of it and is walking down a hallway. There's no real recovery or showing her 'waking up' from the shock at all, its just a few pages of her coming in and out or awareness then suddenly walking down a hallway seemingly over it only for her to snap and start smashing things.
This quote is the start of the chapter after this montage where it seems like she suddenly recovered but has no indication of how much time as passed;
“As I walk down the stairs, I feel a change in my body. Everything that had been asleep has now woken. The numbness has left and been replaced with fury. I feel my lips curl into a sneer at the fancy, decorated hall. All its poised beauty… it makes my stomach turn.”
The book is written largely from Lillianna's point of view, however there are random chapters from Malachi's perspective that are literally only a couple of lines or at most slightly over a paragraph of his incredibly melodramatic musings that don't add anything to the book except to leave you puzzled over what the point of it was.
Each of these quotes bellow are chapters from his POV, as in each quote is the entire chapter;
Chapter 12:
"Hate me, love me… it doesn’t matter, Beauty. You are mine."
Chapter 16:
"Who knew tears of sorrow tasted so sweet?"
Chapter 18:
"Beauty, you’re lost in the darkness, but you are not alone. I’m coming for you. I will always find you. I see your unshed tears, hear your silent screams. Grief has you held prisoner, but he doesn’t know you’re mine."
Honestly it makes it really difficult to take Malachi seriously as this dangerous crime lord when his point of view reads like an angsty teenage boys poetry & adds absolutely nothing to the plot.
Lillianna's own point of view was melodramatic at times as well, as if the author was trying too hard to tell the readers how she was feeling rather than showing us and it just ends up sounding ridiculous.
By almost halfway the only things that had happened were some excessively long flashback scenes, Lillianna being taken and then spending the majority of her time afterwards being threatened, lashing out at Malachi, being physically assaulted and treated worse than crap by pretty much anyone she has contact with, zoning out to emotionally protect herself, having sex with Malachi twice (I think it was twice, it may have only been once), and her father dying which is what triggers the six page mourning montage.
So all in all Owned By Him was not an enjoyable book, and unfortunately I really couldn't find anything I liked about it - not even a little. I would recommend saving your time and money on this one.
Want To Connect With Me?
I can be found fangirling about books in the following places:
Commentaires