Crossed

Never After, Book 5

By: Emily McIntire

Narrated by: Ellory Lane, Elliot Fitzpatrick

Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

He is righteousness. She is sin.

Father Cade Frederic is a holy man. Brought up in the streets of Paris, he has dedicated his life to the church. But there's a monster that lingers just beneath the surface. A sickness. One that bleeds darkness and feeds on the damned. When he's tasked to become the priest in Festivale, Vermont, a town both beautiful in architecture and riddled with despair, his sickness sings, demanding he rid the place of evil.

Amaya Paquette is Festivale's beautiful mystery. She spends her days caring for her younger brother and her nights transforming into Esmeralda, dancing for greedy eyes and shameless lips. Although she longs for love, she shies away from companionship, afraid of being abandoned again.

When Father Cade lays eyes on Amaya, he finds himself ensnared, convinced she's using witchcraft to lure him to her. He can't eat. Can't breathe. Can't think unless it's of her.

And temptation is a devastating mistress.

She's his weakness, so he decides he'll be her demise . . . even if it means killing the only woman he might ever love.

Contains mature themes.

©2023 Emily McIntire (P)2023 Tantor

Nasty and Delicious

Ladies and gentlemen, Emily has done it again! I think Scarred is still my favorite from this series but WOW this was so good. Depraved, sexy, and captivating! Also, as someone who has religious trauma from my upbringing, this was damn near cathartic for me. The narrators were great too! I was a little put off by the MMC’s accent at first but got used to it quickly! The female narrator’s French accent is a little weak when she’s speaking for Cade but great performance overall!

Loved it

Really loved the way the book ended. She gave all the characters closer and was able to maintain and intricate story.

Favorite book from the series

I loved this series so much but out of all of the books this one was hands down my favorite!

An interesting turn of events at the end and Easter egg for the next installment to the series

Loved this retelling of the Hunchback of Notre Dame with its taboo love interest and all

Soo good!

I have been loving these retailing my Emily. This one was super cute and I loved how the MC was a villain! Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of my favorite Disney movies, so I had high hopes for this book and she did not disappoint. I was trying not to get my hopes up and I am glad I did. I was a little scared there that Amaya would end up with Parker… I am so glad Cade finally was like nope you are mine!

Such a great story

I love this book!! One of my top books!! Did enjoy the dark story & also I feel in love with Quintin too!

I ve thoroughly enjoyed this series. Wondering if there will be more

I ve thoroughly enjoyed this series. Wondering if there will be more. Something about this story ending left a bad taste. It feels almost darker than the others have left off. I enjoyed the story for what it was but I don’t want to spoil the story either. Let’s just say the epilogue is where I don’t feel so easy. It feels like this story ends with people killing nonchalantly whenever they feel like it and then tie in “oh God forgives “ that doesn’t sit well. There’s murder throughout all the stories, and I’m not condoning murder but there’s usually purpose behind them that plays out a story line and there’s usually an end to the killing. The end makes it feel like these characters have a need to kill whenever they feel like it and it’s ok. In the real world it’s not. I guess it bothers my own moral conflicts too much.

Not the story you remember as a kid

This book was a slow, burning love story with excruciating tension, awaiting for the love story to finally blossom that you know is going to happen. I’ll tell you that every chance I got I listen to this book because I just could not get enough of it. 

ending was perfect

the performance captured the essence of the characters perfectly.
overall great story, writing graped my attention and kept me flowing through the emotions

A graceful tale of religious trauma and healing

Emily truly creates a unique perspective of these fairytales and they’re so cathartic, sensitive, sexy at times and such a fresh take. I loved reading this take on “beauty and the beast”