Review / Release Blitz: Hate Like Honey (Corsican Crime Lord #2) by Charmaine Pauls

The price I paid to claim her cost me too dearly to ever let her go.

Hate Like Honey, a steamy, enemies to lovers, and highly anticipated second book in the dark mafia Corsican Crime Lord Series from USA Today bestselling author Charmaine Pauls, is available now!

A deal sealed with a handshake promised she’d be mine. A broken vow ripped her from my future. I made unspeakable sacrifices to claim what rightfully belongs to me. After all the blood I shed in her name, the bond that ties us is hatred. The war cost us both dearly, but the price we paid won’t be in vain. I’ll never let her go.

If she thinks she can escape her destiny, she hasn’t seen the worst of me yet.
If she thinks she knows the devil in me, she’s about to meet the monster.

Note: Hate Like Honey is the second book in the Corsican Crime Lord series and ends on a cliffhanger. Sabella and Angelo's story continues in Tears Like Acid, Book Three.

Start reading today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3RxoJNs
Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/hatelikehoney
Apple Books: https://apple.co/4620r2x
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3PRdvlJ
Kobo: https://bit.ly/45VtrsR
Nook: https://bit.ly/3PTl9MF
Audiobook: https://bit.ly/3QMxKCa
Paperback: https://mybook.to/HLHDiscreet

Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/456ChTe

*Please note that Hate Like Honey will be available wide for ONE WEEK ONLY after the release date before going into Kindle Unlimited.

Start the series now with Love Like Poison Book 1, Available in KU →
https://mybook.to/LLPKU

Pre-order Tears Like Acid Book 3, releasing November 7th →
https://bit.ly/3EgMgdL

Pre-order Kisses Like Rain Book 4, releasing December 5th →
https://bit.ly/45KL8Ld

For more information about Charmaine Pauls and her books, visit her website:
https://charmainepauls.com/

MY REVIEW

Sabella and Angelo pick up right where they left off at the end of Love Like Poison. The effects of what happened then are devastating to say the least. There's so much hate and anger between them, between their two families, and both theirs and their families' reactions make things worse, so much worse. There is more loss, more bloodshed, more violence, more everything that's negative.

In particular, Sabella suffers, as the mask of her naivete and her rose colored view of her dad are ripped away. Oh, she still loves him as she loves no other, but now she realizes just how sheltered she's always been. But her love for her family is ever present, and she'll do anything to keep them safe, even continually deal with her devil in a beautiful façade, Angelo.

Charmaine's male characters (I hesitate to call them "heroes") are anti-heroes at best, monsters at worst, and I know this going into every story of hers that I read, but I have to admit that Angelo just may be her least likable and least redeemable yet. Though he has some justification for the things he does in Hate Like Honey, the way he goes about his business, the way he treats Sabella really, really makes it hard for me to give him any kind of pass. I'm now wondering how, if, Charmaine can ever redeem him, even a little. Sabella is coming into her own in, in contrast, and I'm liking her more and more. This world Charmaine has created is dark, filled with violence and anger, hate and contempt, but Sabella and Angelo's story is so intensely engaging. I absolutely have to know what's going to happen next for them, if Angelo at all can redeem himself, and if Sabella continues to show the spine she's been growing since the first page. Tears Like Acid cannot come soon enough for me.