I was a bit intimidated by the low rating on Storygraph, but looking at the reviews, most of them are from people who apparently weren't aware (like it's not clear from the blurb?) that it's a dark romance book. Oh, there's dubcon and "romanticizing prostitution"? Cool, do you go on horror books to complain about gore?

That being said, despite the dubcon, it's surprisingly romantic. The power dynamics are fucked, but Finn still treats Lily gently and attentively, and Lily genuinely wants their encounters (although she doesn't really have the option to say no, hence the dubcon). The sex scenes and Finn also mostly focus on the woman's pleasure, which was nice.

I have two issues, one of them is the lowkey racist vibe that frames the story. Two white men walk into a brothel in Hongkong, and they're both immediately concerned when they find a young white woman there, because she must be there against her will. But all these Asian women must be there for fun, right? So that double standard was a bit weird. I can suspend morality to accept male characters in fiction who are okay with prostitution, but this came off badly.

The other thing is that I would have appreciated just a biiit less sex and more plot. The whole story ends on a cliffhanger, but we don't really get to know that much about the kidnapping and such, because they're too busy having sex. Which is yes, the point of the book, but the endless sex scenes got a bit boring for me by the end.