Reflected in You

ver their lives today and nothing is ever going to be easy for them. Eva is still wearing her heart on her sleeve, spilling her secrets to Gideon, telling him she loves him. Gideon is still holding everything back and just demanding that he trust her but she’s not sure she can and his reticence is causing her to lash out and inflict pain in retaliation.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” I asked, feeling so emotionally raw after the long night we’d had. He caught my wrist and pulled my hand down to press flat over his heart. “Here.”

There were times when I wanted to bang their heads together, to scream at them to stop what they were doing and just talk to each other but then again, I really do love the characters in the books I read to suffer and Eva and Gideon truly do suffer. There’s so much raw pain and angst here – their love for one another is all-consuming but also extremely destructive. They’re jealous, obsessive, possessive and very alike and it makes for an explosive relationship both in the bedroom and out. They can’t live with each other yet neither one can survive without the other.

Eva and Gideon ride an emotional roller coaster throughout this instalment leading them both to the depths of despair and Gideon could have made things easier with just a few words but he chooses not to but it does lend wonderfully to the air of angst pervading the story but they really are put through the wringer and it makes this book so very hard, nigh on impossible, to put down. Their pain is, quite literally, palpable.

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At first, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about Reflected in You by Sylvia Day. Honestly, the beginning of this novel drove me crazy. It reminded me of the Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James. In addition, Eva was a whinny pushover and Gideon was a silent, selfish bastard. Their relationship was basically at a standstill for the first half of this novel. They avoided all of their problems and used sex as a replacement for talking, a way to avoid the real issues, and a way to deal with arguments. I felt like the characters and their relationship were going nowhere. I just wanted to scream at the characters, especially Gideon. Eva said it best when she said, "I get two answers from him: Trust me and wait."

At about 70% or so things really picked up. It was like BAM! Eva picked herself up off of the floor, grew a pair, and showed everyone that she wasn't a weak, whinny plaything after all. I really admired her attitude and, quite frankly, her audacity. Gideon, unfortunately, remained silent. The story line also became a lot more intense and exciting. And, I absolutely loved the way this book ended. The big speech at the end, given by someone who is not a main character, was hands down the best part of this book. The wheels were turning in my mind the whole time they were talking and everything clicked into place. It wrapped up this book nicely.

Gideon and Eva made some progress in this novel. Granted, it didn't happen until the last 30% or so of this book, but I'm glad there was some improvement, individually and together. There is still a whole lot for them to work through and I'm very curious to see how this series concludes.


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Even Cary has a hard time in this book and he’s making some strange decisions which affect nearly everyone around him – I really need him to sort his shit out but he is always there for Eva when she needs him, as she has to be for him in this one.