Our Violent Ends

These Violent Delights, Book 2

By: Chloe Gong

Narrated by: Cindy Kay

The year is 1927, and Shanghai teeters on the edge of revolution. After sacrificing her relationship with Roma to protect him from the blood feud, Juliette has been a girl on the warpath. One wrong move, and her cousin will step in to usurp her place as the Scarlet Gang's heir. The only way to save the boy she loves from the wrath of the Scarlets is to have him want her dead for murdering his best friend in cold blood. If Juliette were actually guilty of the crime Roma believes she committed, his rejection might sting less.

Roma is still reeling from Marshall's death, and his cousin Benedikt will barely speak to him. Roma knows it's his fault for letting the ruthless Juliette back into his life, and he's determined to set things right - even if that means killing the girl he hates and loves with equal measure.

Then a new monstrous danger emerges in the city, and though secrets keep them apart, Juliette must secure Roma's cooperation if they are to end this threat once and for all. Shanghai is already at a boiling point: The Nationalists are marching in, whispers of civil war brew louder every day, and gangster rule faces complete annihilation. Roma and Juliette must put aside their differences to combat monsters and politics, but they aren't prepared for the biggest threat of all: protecting their hearts from each other.

©2021 Chloe Gong (P)2021 Tantor

I’m let down

Everyone raves about this book, it was a fun retelling of Romeo and Juliet, and I knew they were going to die but the ending just left me feeling bland… I won’t recommend it

hard to hear

great story! my only issue is that the reader sometimes whispers and talks so low that it is inaudible, for example in particular when she reads lines in French.

Enjoyable

I enjoyed this for the most part. the narrator was fine, she just spoke a little too slow for my taste.

This Did Not Need To Be Two Books

And it certainly didn't need to be almost 1,000 pages combined. This book was beautifully written, but ran on the same juice as the first book. There was nothing fresh about it, no plot twist. The multiple POVs slowed the story and truthfully, I didn't feel invested in any character at the half way mark. They're all 19 and immature and it showed. There was no reason for this to be so long and feature the same 'virus' which was the entire plot of the first book, but character development drove this book. We didn't get a lot of answers which irked me. The narrator was just too slow and too quiet. I couldn't differentiate the character's voices. Good effort all around, but not my cup of tea.

One of the most amazing duolgies ever!

Truly one of the most incredibly gripping, heart wrenching, and phenomenal fantasy duologies I’ve ever read. I don’t have the words.

This is absolutely magnificent all around.

Beautiful 😭😭😭

I will have it in my mind for a while, just perfect.I love it!

Much better than the first one! I

I loved the sequel to These violent delights, our violent ends has much more what I love. The romance was better in the second and the action was fast paced. I loved it!

Could Have Been One Book

overall, this was fine. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more as a standalone, but maybe I should just buy the physical book and give it another chance because the narrator nearly ruined it for me. The whispering and lack of distinct voices are bad enough, but it seems the mic also picked up on her stomach growling a lot and I found that really distracting.

Beginning of the next book

I personally didn't care for the narration on this book. Roma was so hard to hear and not really what I imagined at all in my mind. I had to keep turning my volume up just to hear his part.
As far as the book is concerned, I feel like this book was really a bridge book for Foul Lady Fortune. We followed the main characters throughout the entire story, but I felt like a hamster on a wheel a few times, just because some of the scenes didn't really seem necessary. (whereas in the first book, almost everything had a purpose and a reason) The last few chapters of Our Violent Ends set the stage for the next books, so I feel like the book was more of a bridge between the These Violent Delights and Foul Lady Fortune that and book to be ready for its own story. We see more of the Lang sisters and their loyalties throughout the story as well, which is more of a set up for the next book.
Overall I still really enjoyed this book and I would definitely read it again and recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, romance, and political intrigue.

Repetitive story, slow reader

Performance: maybe Cindy Kay’s narration style is good for some people, but I found it kind of grating. On top of how slowly she reads, she also whispers half the time, ESPECIALLY when she’s doing accents.

Story: this just didn’t need to be 2 books, period. The monster started coming back from the first book, and I was so bored of it I DNFd at chapter 12 and looked up the summary online (which I found more entertaining). It’s a shame, because I decently enjoyed the first book (didn’t listen to the audiobook, just read a physical copy) enough to give it a solid 3/5. Coulda been better, coulda been worse. This one was just… worse.