King of Wrath 💍🌃💸
DANTE RUSSO!!! The man that you are! This was my first read of Anna Huang, and once again, I let a good book sit on my shelf for far too long. The way that she can write a man is inspiring on a character development level. It wasn’t just watching Dante change who he was and become a more fluid and transitional individual; it was also seeing his brother, who was more of a background character (while being the cause of this arranged marriage), show his own growth in the small windows that he was seen. That I think was quite impressive, showing such growth in a side character in just a small window of opportunity. VIVIAN LAU!! That is a woman that I feel too many of us end up becoming when it comes to our parents and their expectations. Granted, for her, she could’ve been matched with much worse than Dante Russo, but being a person who loves love and having to enter an arranged marriage with someone whose frigid demeanor you have to break can cause you to lose some of your hopeless romanticness. Which may not be the worst thing for some of us. To experience actual varieties in what love is. From the love her parents showed, the love her ex showed even after not speaking for years, the love her friends showed her, and the love Dante showed her. Building love from the ground up with someone who isn’t fond of you isn’t an experience most would sign up for, but Vivian is a “anything for my parents’ love” girl, and with Dante by her side, she found her voice, which was beautiful to see. That’s the love I think everyone is searching for: a love that empowers and encourages you to be your true self, not just in front of society but even more so in the place where you should be your truest self, with your parents. This was more than just a love story between two polar opposites; it was a love story of what that looks like within your family and how far you are willing to go for said family. Both Vivian and Dante entered this arrangement out of love for their families and ended up finding love within each other.
