Stroke of Midnight
Prince Charming
The Glass SLipper
by K. Webster
 |  |  |
Money can buy anything. And anyone. As the head of the Constantine family, I’m used to people bowing to my will. Cruel, rigid, unyielding—I’m all those things. When I discover the one woman who doesn’t wither under my gaze, but instead smiles right back at me, I’m intrigued. Ash Elliott needs cash, and I make her trade in crudeness and degradation for it. I crave her tears, her moans, her submission. I pay for each one. And every time, she comes back for more. When she challenges me with an offer of her own, I have to decide if I’m willing to give her far more than cold hard cash. But love can have deadly consequences when it comes from a Constantine. At the stroke of midnight, that choice may be lost for both of us. | I crave him so badly I think I might be losing my mind. He's right in front of me, but he’s just as remote as my dreams of getting away from my stepbrothers. I keep playing his twisted games, and I want to stay just as distant as he is. But I can’t. I never could. I’ve fallen for him. Hopelessly. Irrevocably. But Winston isn’t a lover, he’s a business venture. A way for me to pay for college. A ticket out. He’s never pretended to be anything other than that. I can’t blame him for making me fall in love. There can be no happily ever after between a maid and a prince, no matter what the stories say. | Betraying the most powerful man in New York wasn’t something I ever envisioned when I first started playing games with Winston Constantine. But he’s engaged in far more dangerous games than ours, and his enemies are out for blood. Winston has my heart, the Morellis have incriminating photos, and I’m left with nothing except three stepbrothers who want to hurt me and a future in doubt. I knew Winston wouldn’t be my prince charming, but that didn’t stop me from falling for him. After all, the slippers fit, and I let myself believe I’d be dancing with Winston forever. Until too much truth comes to light. Until I realize instead of ruling the board, I was just a pawn. In the end, I have only one question. When his game with me is over, will I be able to pretend as if the glass slipper wasn’t a perfect fit? |
Spice Level: 4.5/6 | Story Score (avg): 8/10 | Rating (avg): 4/5 |
Why this series? I think the covers are attractive, I needed fairytales for my monthly theme, and the first one was free on Amazon! This was a true ‘billionaire’ story, so it’s going to take that spot on my trope list.
I feel like I had read a couple of reviews talking about this book being dark…or something, I still was not prepared for what I read. Check your triggers! (degradation/humiliation/pain) This is very much sadism/masochism - and there isn’t always prior discussion or aftercare.
I’m going to review all three of these books as one for a few reasons. #1) This is one story broken into three books (and honestly the second two were kind of expensive for kindle books at $5.99 each). You cannot get the whole story from one book so be aware of that going in. #2) I devoured all of these books in less than 36 hours because once I started, I needed to finish. While I’m aware where each book ended, I’m not sure of the events in each book so I’m just going to review the whole story.
Honestly, as far as stories go: this one wasn’t bad. It had foreshadowing and clever twists and obvious hooks and was quite complete in general. (I really enjoyed the beginning of it.) Overall, I was left with a few questions -most that I feel like are probably supposed to be stretching across a few different stories- but still there was very little confusion about the main characters of these books. My main one is: why did she end up at NYU instead of Columbia? My other complaint: you had multiple plotlines going, which is ideal. You have the romantic relationship, you have the business story, you have the family story…plus like three others. There was a lot of really well-planned plot. Did it really HAVE to take SO LONG for him to pull his head out of his butt about his feelings? Lol. I wish I could’ve enjoyed them knowing where they stand more and then having them take on the rest. I hate when the male main character only figures out his feelings when the tragedy strikes.
The main characters of the story were believable to me. Winston was a spoiled, bored billionaire that had WAY more money than humanity. Ash was a pretty normal 18-year-old who was trying to deal with a waterfall of bad situations. Outside of them though, the only other likable characters were Perry, Keaton, and Tinsley. I always seem to find that frustrating. It’s hard disliking so many people at once, lol.
Okaaaaaaaaay, so maybe I didn’t LIKE Winston. In my defense, he made it difficult. Lol. The ‘older (36), controlling billionaire who is so disconnected from the regular world that he can’t fathom it and so bored that he’s checked out of everything meets the young (18), hopeful, and naive teenager. He teaches her filthy sex and she teaches him to be a person again’ storyline isn’t my favorite. On top of that, I -me, personally, and in no way kink-shaming someone else- do not like the kinks in this book. It physically and emotionally HURTS me to read degradation and humiliation. Book 1 in this series nearly broke me. (I’ll go more into detail in the spoilers.) It's supposed to be considered consensual. My argument is that she's 18, with little experience, and in desperate need for money so the power exchange didn't work for me. I understand 18 is legal, but it still felt a lot like grooming to me. So even if I get past his sexual preferences, I had a hard time with the age gap. 18 and 36 is a lot. I’ve read large age gaps with less issues and I think it was always because the girl already had the hard stuff and man was her safe place and taught her she deserved better. Winston definitely saved Ash a lot and she felt safe with him, but I didn’t. Also, while I didn’t have a hard time figuring out why Winston liked the kinks he did, I’m not sure if it was because it was obvious or because I’ve read a lot of studies about sexual preferences and I have a minor in psychology. I felt like it could’ve made it a bit more clear. Ash, well, there are suggestions. Honestly, women have a really wide set of explanations for why they like what they like - but like I said: this just felt too much like grooming. I think if she had had more than one previous partner, or was a little more experienced in the world, I wouldn’t have had that issue. Like, couldn’t she have been 21?
21! Which reminds me: so much underage drinking in this book, the alcohol being given to her by adults. That bothers me. People under 21 drink. They do. I get it. But for it to have been given to her constantly by the 35+ year old characters in the book was annoying. I felt like they were trying to pretend or convince themselves she was older than she was and if you have to do that, you’re in the wrong.
I realize that’s a lot of complaining, lol. However, as you can see by my score, I really didn’t dislike this book overall. It wasn’t my type of story, but if you like these kinks, and you like billionaire storylines, this one was well done, I think. Book 1 is graphic, book 2 & 3 are less detailed. They still tell you it’s happening, but it isn’t as graphic.
-SPOILERS-
This poor girl. Fucking geez. Her dad marries a conniving step-mother and she gets three step-brothers. Her stepbrothers are her major villains in this story and they gave me anxiety. How many times can you almost be sexually assaulted by someone before you get your shit together and STOP GOING AROUND THEM? I realize that it is never a victim’s fault for being assaulted. She was not CAUSING them to attack her. BUT, there is NO WAY in hell that I would’ve continued being in their presence. Some of the times, they were sprung on her and she couldn’t control it, which was awful for her and I understand. Other times, she just kept going back. After the first time they threatened her bird, she didn’t take him back there and it annoyed me that she didn’t give herself the same courtesy.
It also pissed me off that Winston kept thinking that he’d “taken care of it”. He was a tenacious person himself and the fact that he couldn’t figure out that they weren’t going to relent was frustrating. I loved that he was so protective of her, but the fact that he couldn’t protect her successfully was tiresome.
The Morelli text message mess: Ash was wrong not to tell him. But she genuinely didn’t give up any information. We never get to see Winston finding that out and seeing what he thought about it. So often Winston is lying to himself that we never really get to know what he’s thinking. That drove me crazy. I don’t mind a character playing the cards close to their chest, but this was too much for me. I just wanted to know how he felt, not his inner denial.
Ohhhhhh these sex scenes. I enjoyed him paying her to humiliate her when he was not penetrating her body. I found it a clever concept because I hadn’t read that one before. But once the sex started, I was not there for it. And then the second that he shoved his dick into her ass without any of the things that needed to happen before that, I nearly vomited. Then there was no aftercare. Any of the time. I mean, praise…kinda? It was “fake” so does that count? But not CARE, ever. Honestly, I’m not sure that some of the crap they did wouldn’t have required going to the hospital. Maybe that’s just me. I was fucking concerned more often than I was turned on. I wanted to be her sister so I could lose my mind on her. Not for liking it, but for putting up with the rest of the shit that came with it.
And why on God’s green earth did everything have to be recorded? Again, probably just me being overly practical.
Maybe I don’t have as many spoilers as I thought. There’s a lot to say, but mostly Winston was an unrealistic and entitled prick.
In opposition to one of my previous reviews though: I liked this epilogue. I don’t usually enjoy the “years later with kids” glimpse, but I did this one.
3 Book Series | 938 Pages | Trope Challenge: Billionaire |
“You’re going to break me, Ash. It’s going to destroy the man I’ve fought so hard to become.” He pulls away to study me. “And, beautiful, I can’t find it in me to give a damn.”
- Winston, Stroke of Midnight by K. Webster
Find it on:
Comments