Violent Triumphs by Jessica Hawkins

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

4 out of 5 stars

You are the White Monarch. 
Don’t you see that? 
Your’e the weapon, the survivor, the killer. You can do this. 

It’s time to conclude this exhilarating series with my thoughts. After I finished this last book in the series weeks ago, I had a major book hangover, not really wanting to leave Natalia and Cristiano behind. Even though the ending quite frankly bummed me out, I still believe that this is one of the best contemporary romance book series out there.

“Violent Ends” ends in a cliffhanger and this book takes off right where we left. If you haven’t read books 1 &2 yet, I advise you to stop reading my review NOW ! It doesn’t contain spoilers per se but you’ll link everything very quickly together. So do yourself a favor and read the first two installments first and then come back to my review

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The Plot

Picking up right where we left,- Violent Ends left us with a heart stopping cliffhanger, Natalia and Cristiano are facing threats from every angle while trying to continue running his empire,- Cristiano is in a deadly game. Now, that enemies know that his wife is his weakness, they will not stop until they have both of them crushed. But the Mafia King is set on proving his innocence and has put himself, his team, and Natalia in danger’s way. Will he be able to prove his innocence ? And can he protect Natalia against other Cartels ?

My thoughts

If you remember my review from the last installment you remember me saying, that Natalia’s naiveness really disappointed me. Well, in this book, she was a powerful Queen! One of my favorite parts is seeing this character development of Natalia throughout the whole series. In Book 1, she was this puppy in love, not wanting to face any danger or stand up for herself. Being married to our ruthless Cristiano in the next book, taught her to cope with this dangerous situation, she had to grow and defend herself. In this final installment, you can clearly see how she peeled off every layer from Cristiano and herself, growing into this powerful woman, resembling a lioness. I loved that !

Cristiano didn’t have much of a development, which isn’t bad in this case ! He was still protective, extremely controlled and strong. I loved and appreciated how he made sure Natalia took training lessons to fight and defend herself in any dangerous situation. It was definitely a very wise and good move on his part to ensure her fighting ability, as you will see later 😉 It also shows that our Cartel Leader isn’t this macho man, who likes a helpless woman, whom he can aid.

Their relationship was honestly a rollercoaster ride. It was rocky in the beginning with a lot of animosity, but soon it turned passionate. Natalia’s feelings for Cristiano bloomed with time and in this particular sequel you can see how she really fell in love with him. I grinned from ear to ear, when she finally confessed to Cristiano. Even he,-the strong wall of emotionless stone- had to fight a cardiac arrest after the confession. His heart beat so fast. It was beautiful to see their relationship transform.

“Cristiano—”
“I wouldn’t be allowed in Heaven, but I swear on all that’s holy—I’d rattle the gates until they let me have you.”

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There were of course plot twists in this book, but I have to admit that they were very predictable this time. Maybe because of how the first two books were set or because of the events that unfolded one event after the other. I just predicted every single plot twist and that was a little disappointing. The ending is the one thing that really really bummed me out. I have to be honest and say that it broke my heart, but not in a good way. First of all, I can’t believe they did that to the mansion. The happily ever after was also one that I wasn’t hoping for in this particular way . I mean, I’m glad that the ending wasn’t that dark. But I thought the whole point of this series was to make Cristiano and Natalia the king and queen of the underworld cartel ?! A lot of other readers loved the ending though, so maybe that’s a personal issue.

To conclude, this series is beautifully bitter, violently dark and intensely gripping. It’s a story full of dreadful events and danger, dark romance and unpredictable characters.  The author created an extremely developed story, assuring that your emotions are leading you during the reading. Every book has kept me on the edge of my seat and the wait between books almost killed me with the cliffhangers. But the anticipation was so worth it. I have to admit that this sequel wasn’t my favorite, but it was very much needed to conclude the story and I enjoyed most of it. I cannot say this enough: Read this series ! This mafia romance will shatter you !

Violent Delights (Book 1 ): 5 stars

Violent Ends (Book 2 ): 4.5 stars

Violent Triumphs (Books 3 ): 4 stars

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I cannot believe that this series ended ! Did you like Cristiano & Natalia or do you have yet to read the books ? Tell me in the comments. 💕

Disclaimer: First image taken from Goodreads, last two from Pinterest. Credits to the respective owner.