Vipers and Virtuosos

Aiden is literal perfection which combines insanity and his love into a jagged messed scarline.The start is a little slow but it soon picks up pace and steam and doesn't slow down till the last word of epilogue.Riley is the perfect companion for his madness and calm and this book couldn't have been more hot, Aiden and his words (dirty dirty words) were music to the passion filled ears.

This was the best book out of the series. I LOVED IT! I couldn't put it down. I was hoping for more of the same in the next book, but didn't get it.

Dang. When I first figured out where the story was going, I wasn't sure as to whether I should continue. It was unique from anything I'd read before and I wasn't sure if I wanted to change that. But then I quickly grew to love Aiden as a character - flawed parts and all. Suddenly the unacceptable became acceptable and I am happy I got to enjoy the ride.

** Contains Spoilers **Vipers & Virtuosos is the second book in the Monsters & Muses series and features characters mentioned in the Kings Trace Antiheroes Series and in the previous book. This book features some serious trigger warnings and some graphic scenes that may be hard for some people. It is always advised to check and read all trigger warnings found on the authors site and inside the book prior to reading.This book follows the story of Riley Kelly and Aiden James who meet once when she is 18 and he is 22 and the night they meet is one neither of them or the world will be able to forget in a hurry, resulting in one of the biggest scandals in Aiden’s career and Riley disappearing into thin air like a ghost.The book starts off dark amid the most traumatic event in Riley Kelly’s life, when she is around 16 years old. An event she shouldn’t have survived but she did and has the scars and fear to show for it but not the memory. Instantly, I am drawn to Riley and when we meet her 2 years later, at 18 and she’s trying to move on and live her life a little more independently on a class trip in NYC. Her brother is chaperoning her but she manages to convince him to leave her alone for one night with the promise of multiple check ins.Riley reluctantly goes with her class roommates to a live auction at a charity gala and Mellie & Aurora ditch her so she sits by the bar and locks eyes across the room with Aiden James – the singer she was obsessed with before her attack and someone who also has his own demons that are hidden from the world beneath his tattoos. Trying to keep to herself, Riley is accosted by a sleazy man and before he can push anymore boundaries, they are interrupted by Aiden who has bid on Riley’s time. They decide to leave the gala and explore NYC.They stop at a dry cleaners that also makes the best bagels in NYC and Riley manages to get a change of clothes out of her dress and heels and due to there being no top, wears Aiden’s hoodie. They have a fun night getting to know each other as well as they can without Riley disclosing her name so he instead calls her “Angel”. Their adventure takes them to a tattoo shop where Aiden goes first and gets a tattoo to remind him of the night – a halo and Riley goes next, however she panics and can’t let the tattoo artist complete the art but Aiden steps in to finish it. It leads to them having their first intimate moment and then Riley feeling self-conscious and anxious flees, labelling the night as a mistake. Aiden also goes home, neither of them ready for the life-changing scandal about to hit the headlines.The scandal is plastered everywhere, a sexual assault allegation against Aiden on the young girl he was seen with after the gala. As Aiden protests his innocence, Riley is on her way back to King’s Trace, wondering why people are gawking more than usual. It’s not until she is safe at home that her brother asks her about the assault, and she is adamant it never happened, and she didn’t go to the police or tabloids. She cannot come out and clear Aiden’s name due to fear of her original attacker’s associates finding her, tracking her down and finishing the job. There’s only one solution: Riley Kelly has to die & a few weeks later and a couple blackmail plots later, Riley Kelly is dead.We are then transported three years into the future, a 21 year old Riley is now living in some little tourist town called Lunar Cove and she has dyed her hair pink and she has a few friends in town. Caleb, Dahlia & Jade who know her as Angel. The new name she picked for herself as a reminder of that one night. Her relationship with her brother is strained at best and in the middle of winter in the small town she works as a freelance web designer, the jobs given to her by her brother, another layer of protection so no one can find out who and where she really is.Except, one person HAS found out where she is and has been waiting three whole years for this. Aiden James had managed to locate Riley’s real ID and was convinced she wasn’t dead. He just wanted to know why she lied about him and the effect it has had on his life and career – he has been ostracised and was even suspected to have played a part in the death of the girl who accused him. Aiden has one mission: Get Riley to confess the truth anyway he can in order to clear his name so he can go on with his life and career and he will use any means necessary in order to gain this information.However, things don’t go according to plan, Aiden has been stalking Riley and lurking in the shadows around the town and in her house and one night while she’s in bed he is so busy gazing at her body while she sleeps that he doesn’t realise when she wakes up. They have a quick conversation, Aiden clamping his hand over her mouth when she denies the rumours and he threatens to make the allegation come true unless she tells the truth.The back and forth between them and the lust and sexual tension builds up between them as the weeks go on. Aiden and Caleb butt heads a lot over Riley and Aiden becomes more and more possessive of her. Riley in turn gets jealous over Aiden talking to other women and there is heavy dubious consent between them when Aiden is trying to get his answers. The mindgames he plays with her make her feel she is going a little crazy and one night in the dead of winter, having getting used to him coming to her house and threateaning/teasing/toturing her with his mouth and hands, she stomps to his place.She has a fall and he brings her inside and lets her heat up and gives her some water and meds to help. He makes her bare her scars to him and he also bares his own to her. It’s this moment in which their relationship starts to turn and they have both been pining over each other for the past three years, neither one of them knowing how to fully trust the other. When they finally sleep together, Aiden decides that his vendetta is not worth it and so they decide to have a relationship of sorts. Riley stays with Aiden while her heat gets fixed, not knowing it was Aiden’s fault it broke.They have a moment in Caleb’s gallery and when they finally get out from being locked in the bathroom Riley comes face to face with another ghost from her past – Mellie. Riley is starting to panic about two people from her past finding her and what it could mean for the men who could still be looking to get her. Mellie sneers at Riley and lets slip of Aiden’s location while he is in Lunar Cove so it gets difficult for him to move around town undetected for much longer, however, he only has a few days left before he needs to leave for a NYE gig.Riley and Aiden spend their time sleeping over at her place and are disturbed on Christmas morning by her brother and his girlfriend Fiona, whom Riley is close to. We see the overprotective brother point a gun at the man who was just in his sisters bed. When Aiden implies he’d take the bullet for Riley, Boyd calms down a little. Aiden leaves and Riley spends the next few days with her brother and his girlfriend. They are trying to convince her to move back home because the men who were after her are no longer an issue, thanks to her brother and his connections.She decides to go back home and so while they plan, Riley runs over to the cabin that Aiden was renting and tells him everything she can remember from her attack which is not much and then she confirms once again she is not the source of the allegations and explains why she couldn’t put out a statement clearing his name. They have a parting exchange and she leaves after gifting him a new pluck for his show and hiding it in his case. She hides outside, watching as he leaves part of her wanting him to take her with him.Aiden confesses his love to Riley on stage while concealing her identity and announcing his retirement from performing. As Riley watches his declaration as her brother and Kal pack up her house, she decides there’s only one thing to do, book a flight and go get her man. As she goes to leave, someone grabs her outside and due to the cameras being dismantled, no one knows she has gone.Aiden hops on a plane back to Lunar Cove, deciding he needs to get to Riley and when he gets close to where their cabins are, he is distracted by a light in the one he rented. Wondering if Riley is waiting for him because of his declaration he heads to find out, quickly keeping to the shadows as he realises she wouldn’t have been expecting him back. He sneaks into the house through a side door, arming himself with an iron and slowly makes his way upstairs. He finds Riley on the floor, bound, gagged and bleeding and as he tries to free her, they come face to face with her kidnapper.Mellie who was kind to Riley back in NYC, turns out to be a deranged fan of Aiden’s and had plotted to make sure he bid on her at the night of the gala but things got muddled and he ended up with Riley and she then tries to attack Riley again with a knife. Aiden jumps in to save Riley and finds himself with a gun on him from Mellie. As he resigns himself to death once again, he confesses his love for Riley once and for all. Quick thinking Riley grabs the knife, attacks Mellie and keeps both her and Aiden alive. We come to find Mellie survives and is locked up indefinitely in a psychiatric facility and Aiden and Riley move on with their lives, living together and loving each other – the first time either of them have truly felt seen, heard and loved.This book deals with a lot of dark themes and whilst we do not find out explicitly what happened to Riley on the night she was attacked at 16, the implications and hints are there between the lines and the way the traumatic experience has been written has been done in a realistic way without being exploitative which is refreshing. I really loved this book and the ending for Riley and Aiden is perfect and while I am not sure if they come up in future instalments, I am glad we met them and they got their happily ever after.

This has to be some of the best charactier development I have ever read...Also the lotion scene has me in a chokehold!!!I absolutely love this series and can't wait to start the third one soon!!!

Another excellent book from Sav R Miller, exactly i have come to expect from her.Definitely not as dark as the King Trace series that it ties into or even compared to Promises and Pomegranate but still plenty dark, heaps of steam and heat, lovable complex and complicated characters who remind you that love comes in all shapes and sizes.Looking forward to future books !