This review is more about my personal feelings for the story as a whole, rather than an objective, level-headed review, and may contain spoilers. 
 The good stuff first: it's very well written, very well paced, the sex is hot, and the author takes the characters into brave territories. If you like the characters and plot in general, you'll like this book. Sadly, I didn't really like the characters and plot that much in the first (I thought the first book was so "meh" that I didn't bother to review it at all), but I did pick up this second because of the good reviews and because I was curious to see how it would read now that all the Fifty Shades stuff has died down a bit... 
 I seem to be in the minority with this series. I just can't get behind Eva and Gideon. Eva, just about; Gideon - not at all. No matter how good he is in bed! I'm just not reading the "love" that these two have for each other. Lust, yes; addiction, yes; obsession, yes... but the word "love" is thrown around a lot, and I just don't feel it when I read it. What I read is two damaged people thinking they're in love. In itself, I don't mind that, but I don't know if I'm supposed to be feeling they love each other... 
 The ending shut me down. Sylvia Day is going to have to do a 360 degree turn on Gideon for me to root for him now, as a hero, in any way shape or form. BIG SPOILER ALERT for the ending: 
 (view spoiler)[It wasn't just what Gideon did (the murder), it was the WAY that he did it: with a knife. He did it with his hands. He didn't pull a trigger of a gun that would have distanced himself from it a little (in my mind anyway). That knife makes it not just premeditated and cold - it makes it personal and heated. 
 People thought Christian Grey was a psychopath... er no. No, no, no - Gideon Cross is a psychopath. 
 Eva, scream "Crossfire!" and RUN girl, run for the hills! 
 Also, it's been only - what - 3 or 4 weeks since the murder and the police are ready to tear up the paperwork? Eh??? (hide spoiler)] 
 Now, I did like Brett. Oh yes - sexy rocker who wrote a song for a girl he's never quite stopped thinking about. Him I can get behind. This is how I want book three to go: Eva and Gideon don't work out, but they both heal through each other. Ms Day finds some way to end Gideon and Eva, and Eva (who no longer runs away from relationships and is working on her jealousy) ends up with Brett. (Psssst.... Brett, if she won't have you and chooses to stay with the psychopath, I am here, baby; right here... and I have raven hair, just so you know...) 
 In short, like I said, I am in the minority. But there you go. I will probably still pick up book three to see what happens, and to see if I can find any way to connect with Gideon or Eva... (view spoiler)[I also want to see how the author redeems Gideon, because he DOES need redeeming, as far as I'm concerned. There's a new taint on his soul that will never wash now... (hide spoiler)]