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Series: My Red Desire, Book 2
Review:
This review was written for Reedsy Discovery
In a continuation of Lucie and Julian's love story, their bond is tested through multiple trials, compounded by living in the public eye
Picking up where
Julian’s Rose ends, Lucie and Julian are still healing and adjusting after the climactic events of the first book in
Julian’s Curse. Their trust is weakened and their secrets threaten to destroy them–if the paparazzi and gossip columns don’t tear them apart first. With their careers and other commitments keeping them separated for extended periods, the rumor mill runs rampant, and their pasts reemerge in the present. Will their bond be solid enough to hold them together, even when someone with a grudge seeks revenge?
Julian’s Curse focuses more on Lucie and Julian’s individual lives than their relationship. As each of them is compelled to grow and make significant changes in their personal lives, they must also mature as a couple, but from a distance. The strain continues to compound, but through their deep understanding of each other, they overcome devastating obstacles. Lucie has become more assertive in this book, marking her growth professionally and interpersonally. Meanwhile, Julian reveals a crippling weakness that both villainizes and humanizes him. This dynamic is realistic and compelling, especially in making Julian–a billionaire–more relatable.
While the My Red Desire series is best enjoyed in reading order, author Lucie Benton has included enough background information to allow new readers to pick up
Julian’s Curse and understand the backstory from
Julian’s Rose sufficiently. As with the first book,
Julian’s Curse has been marketed as a dark contemporary romance, but it better suits the romantic suspense genre. Dark themes do occur in the narrative, but not within their romantic relationship or sexual encounters, so dark romance fans may be misled and therefore disappointed. With mild to moderate explicit scenes, the book is appropriate for most new adult and adult readers, but trigger warnings should be consulted. While this book did not hold my attention as intensely as the first, I have enjoyed the series thus far and look forward to the next installment.
Audience: adult
Trigger warnings: addiction, violence
Recommended for fans of: contemporary romance, billionaire romance, romantic suspense
Publisher's Synopsis:
Loving him is dangerous. Leaving him seems impossible. But every passion has a price.
For Lucie Benton, a young editor from San Diego, her love for billionaire playboy Julian Valmont was supposed to be the fairytale ending to her heartache. After a year of healing and rebuilding trust, their passion burns brighter than ever—or so she believes.
Beneath Julian’s mesmerizing charm lies a darkness capable of tearing everything apart. Lucie never expected him to reopen the hidden wounds of her past, nor could she have imagined that he would become the architect of her greatest sorrow.
As trust is tested and sacrifices mount, she must decide whether to fight for the love that changed her life—or walk away before it destroys her.
And when old loves resurface, the past and present collide in ways she never saw coming.
Emotional, seductive, and impossible to put down, Julian’s Curse is a heart-stopping romance about love’s power to heal, the courage to face the truth, and the strength to follow your heart—even when the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Source:
Reedsy Discovery
©Benton & Hart Media: February 14, 2025
Edition: digital ARC, read on KU
290 pages
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Julian's Rose:
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2.
Julian's Curse:
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