First of all, I have to mention that I started the second book with different expectations: I was curious to find out how the relationship between Caly and Mendax would continue. Will he forgive her? Will she go back to him? Will he go looking for her? Will they find each other? However, once I was a few chapters into the second book, I quickly realized where it was going: Caly has to choose between her old feelings for Eli, her first love, and the dark desire she feels for the Unseelie Prince. I actually didn't mind that Caly was lost between her feelings for the two men. She has always been in love with Eli, he was her first love and her best friend. It was clear that old feelings might come up as she actively spends more time with him again. Personally, I actually liked Eli, even though his mother was more or less a lying criminal, he seemed very caring about Caly, eager and willing to sacrifice his life for her. We learn that he even bonded his soul with hers just to save her when the Unseelie prince had Caly killed at the beginning of the first book. I read some other reviews and saw that many readers didn't like Eli because he was too "sweet" or too "childish" for them. But while they are upset that Mendax wasn't "cruel" enough, even though he killed Caly, he locked her up, had her tortured and completely humiliated her. The way he went from a "morally gray" MC to an obsessive, selfish, disgusting MC was not at all to my liking. I know that villain romance is always to be taken with a grain of salt, but I personally prefer villains who still have dignity and respect for the person they love. They burn the world down for the person they love, but not like him. Selfishness or obsession is not the biggest problem for me, but the way female characters are often degraded simply because they are a "woman" makes me think that even women don’t like women. It may be that many readers like that, but I don't. I liked Mendax in the first book, but in the second I found him obnoxious. He repeats himself constantly and has absolutely no respect for Caly, he treats her like a toy and can't hold a deep conversation for 2 mins. He comes across as a sex-driven ogre with no intelligence whatsoever. But the same goes for Caly: from a young, smart researcher, to a hollow minded obsessed with sex, who puts her sexual feelings above any kind of values. And also, is obsessed with the men around her wanting her, apparently she gets off on the fact that she’s degraded in front of other men. Unfortunately, the scene with Mendax, Caly, Werner (was this the shifters name?) and Eli gave me the rest. It's already clear that the MC doesn't care about anything and lacks any respect for the FMC, but this scene gave me the Ik. The fact that he forces her to satisfy herself and him sexually while her best friend watches. That one person who he knows is family to her and saved her when HE killed her, did the rest for me. If Eli wasn’t there the day Mendax killed Carly, he wouldn’t even be able to have her. He lacks of dignity to me, and the story of reasoning when it comes to the romance part. I DNF the book and I'm super sorry. I feel bad but I'll be honest. I'm not trying to attack anyone and I know how much love and time authors put into their books. Not everyone is going to love what you write and unfortunately I'm one of those people who didn't like it. Can I recommend it? Maybe for the people who also like books like haunting Adeline.