Hello everyone!
And oh MAN is it a GOOD one!
So a while back in 2025, I joined this cute little ARC team - for Ms Lea Rose.
This was after I read Where We Burn, which introduced me to Hot Daddy Cowboy Christian Crawford and convinced me that I need to switch religions so I can worship at that altar.
I'm only partially joking.
But I've had the honour and privilege to read several more of Ms Rose's books, and pretty much all of them have been absolute bangers, so I wasn't even all that worried going into this one.
Did I not quite feel 100% about the beginning part of this duet? Yes.
But the ending one? Oh it's absolute magic.
Let's stop talking about the trappings and go straight into Poison Petals.
Poison Petals picks up exactly where Velvet Thorns left off - if you remember, Shannen went to her high school reunion to get back at this guy, Phoenix, who used to be everything to her but things went south in high school and their paths separated.
He turned the tables on her, however, revealing he's basically been stalking her ever since, and will be doing everything he can to get back into her good graces - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
She's having none of it, and hops on her flight home, only for HIM to park his behind right beside her while he's at it, annoying her to no end.
Shannen now knows he has cameras in her apartment and at work and whatnot, so she does everything humanly possible to avoid him, while Phoenix does everything humanly possible to ensure she can't.
Shannen's best friend Lianna, by the way, points out that the reason she's fighting this so hard is because deep down, she's never let him go.
He'll just always be THAT boy to her, HER boy, so why is she still fighting, again?
Because, Shannen says, it's wrong. This is all wrong.
So why does it feel so right?
Things get a little more tangled as she lands a job she's REALLY wanted for a long while, redesigning a whole ass image for an old hotel empire, but the guy spearheading that empire? Yeah, he wants more than her redesigns.
And Phoenix warns her about him, because obviously, he'll be keeping tabs. Shannen is definitely reading all the red flags her client is throwing off, but she goes against Phoenix's warnings anyway to meet him for lunch.
Phoenix is there, naturally. Where the hell else would he be?
And oh, Shannen's eventual acceptance of the fact that they're just inevitable is beautiful, and it isn't the easy slide, either. Phoenix WORKS for it, really works, so by the time they fall in bed together and he's ready to lose his virginity to her - because of course he's been saving himself for her, the man might be a burning red flag but he's so damn loyal it's hard to point that out - it's romance and fireworks put together.
They're basically inseparable from that moment on, but she's got that gala for the redesign she has to attend, and you KNOW shit's about to go down if you know any of your romances.
This one's darker, too, so I mean, you HAVE to know something's happening.
It does. The sleazy CEO oversteps. Phoenix breaks his arm, possibly more of his appendages, and gets hauled away into a cell.
This is where we're properly introduced to his best friends and brothers, not by blood, but by choice, Cain and Lucien, who both warn him not to touch the egomaniac, but afterwards just sigh and get the job done of hauling his ass out of jail.
Mostly because they've compiled an extensive file on the asshole's extracurricular activities and threatened to unleash hell on him, but hey, whatever works, works.
Now I'm over here wondering which woman Cain says is his, and what Lucien's going to do about Lianna, but more importantly than that, Shannen and Phoenix are back together - and Cain put Phoenix's dad underground for all the torment he gave Phoenix and his mom over the years.
So our heroes are free to get married, and exact retribution on the last of Shannen's high school tormentors.
The second epilogue you get is fifty years in the future where you can pretty much guess she's dying, and Phoenix is terrified of it, and you just KNOW he's going to follow right after her.
Because they're inevitable, in this life and the next.
And if that isn't the most beautiful message from even the most obsessed stalker romance I've ever read, then I don't know what else to tell you.
Five out of five f*ing stars.
This book NEEDS to be read right after Velvet Thorns. That is the only way.
I'm so incredibly lucky to have been able to read an ARC of this masterpiece - thank you, thank you, thank you Lea Rose!
Everything that doesn't make sense in book 1 - makes sense now.
Everything that leaves you confused and potentially mildly questioning your sanity - is crystal clear.
Shannen and Phoenix are ENDGAME and seeing them walk the hard road filled with thorns and literal rocks is so intensely rewarding when the rest of the world fades away and it's just them left.
Lea Rose does not disappoint. She brings her A game and then some to this book and I AM HERE FOR IT.
... also here for more Lianna, and more Cain and Lucien, please, and thank you.
1000/10 recommend. Happy reading!
This book NEEDS to be read right after Velvet Thorns. That is the only way.
I'm so incredibly lucky to have been able to read an ARC of this masterpiece - thank you, thank you, thank you Lea Rose!
Everything that doesn't make sense in book 1 - makes sense now.
Everything that leaves you confused and potentially mildly questioning your sanity - is crystal clear.
Shannen and Phoenix are ENDGAME and seeing them walk the hard road filled with thorns and literal rocks is so intensely rewarding when the rest of the world fades away and it's just them left.
Lea Rose does not disappoint. She brings her A game and then some to this book and I AM HERE FOR IT.
... also here for more Lianna, and more Cain and Lucien, please, and thank you.
1000/10 recommend. Happy reading!
xx
*image not mine
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