Clean romances are so refreshing. Removing all the lust and spice from the book, their relationship budded really painstakingly slow, awkward, cute, and angsty. The entire book is a buildup of their romance as they slowly start to enjoy each other’s company. Oh the pining <3
Adam wanted so desperately to make Persephone happy so she wouldn’t leave him.

In romance books, I rarely like the “professions of love” scenes since they come out so cheesy, but the way Adam did it was so shy and sweet and not at all over the top.

Not without its flaws but for a romance novel, it did its job of making me feel kilig.

Excerpts:

“Father had spent Adam’s early years catering to Mother, trying to give her everything she wanted. In the end he’d been left lonely, and, Adam realized with some pain, Father had been broken, undone by her defection and his own inability to please his wife. Now Adam was attempting to do the same thing. He meant to keep Persephone at Falstone through bribes, entertainments, visitors, whatever he thought she wanted. “It will never work,” he told himself. “It didn’t before, it won’t now.””



“He’d told her several weeks earlier that her presence in his room helped him sleep. That was becoming less true all the time. When she wasn’t entertaining him with stories from her day, he was watching her sleep or thinking about her or wondering what else he needed to do to make her happy at Falstone.”



“Have you come to take me home?”
“When you’re ready,” he answered after a moment. “But I . . .” He let out a breath. “I wanted to see Shropshire,” he said. “To see where you grew up.”
“You did?”
“And get to know your family.” “And, I . . .” He shook his head, letting the thought dangle.
Adam moved closer to her, a sudden intensity in his look. “Hades always went after Persephone.”

Adam pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Why did Hades go after her?” he asked in a low voice, his lips still brushing her face. “He must have loved her,” she whispered.
Adam’s response emerged breathless. “He must have.”

Adam pulled her to him, his arms wrapped firmly and protectively around her. “Am I too late?” he whispered against her hair. “Is there nothing I can . . . nothing to . . .”Persephone cut across his stumbling attempts at expression. Any speech even slightly tinged with emotion would be difficult for Adam. Persephone understood that. And she didn’t need flowery speeches. The fact that he had come for her, that he was holding her so tenderly and trying so desperately to express himself, was enough.