Crossed by Emily McIntire is an intoxicating romance

Emily McIntire is one of those authors who can make you hate a character and love them two pages later. That’s why I was so excited to go into Crossed.

Crossed is the fifth book in her Never After series. Each of the books follows a dark reimagining of a classic fairytale. This time, she gave us her take on the Hunchback of Notre Dame and honestly, I was not ready for it.

If you’ve read the rest of the series, I’m sure you’ll know what you’re in store for yet if you haven’t, I feel like this is a great place to start in the series. Then again, you might end up stumbling upon this review before you even read one of her books.

Regardless, there is a lot to talk about with Crossed so I’d like to thank Bloom Books for giving me a digital ARC to read and review because it was a delight.

Crossed by Emily McIntire is an intoxicatingly dark romance.

Emily McIntire is dealing with a lot, but she did not come to play with Crossed. This is a dark Hunchback of Notre Dame which features Amaya who is a down-on-her-luck dancer who goes by Esmeralda on stage and Father Cade, the latest priest to come to the town she lives in.

While Father Cade is trying to stay away from her, he really can’t as everything about her draws me in. It only gets worse as we find out about Cade’s dark secrets and how they are connected to Amaya and her job. Honestly, this book goes in so many different directions yet it ended up being a thrilling and exciting romp.

Along with following this forbidden attraction between the two, Amaya is taking care of her brother, Quinten who is autistic and possibly having to marry someone she hates. Cade is also struggling with his urges. In typical Emily McIntire fashion though, everything falls together but not in the ways you might expect.

Frankly, I don’t want to give too much away about the plot because I feel like Crossed is better to go into without knowing much. With how captivating her writing is, you’ll quickly be up to speed and be rooting for Amaya and Cade to get together. Her writing continues to get stronger with each book and I feel like it gets me even more excited for the next book in the series.

If there’s one thing I didn’t love, I will say that the last 25% felt a little action-packed in comparison to the rest of the book. It did feel a bit jarring but I can see why she made that choice within the story. Either way, it did feel like I couldn’t put the book down which was probably what she intended.

If you’re a fan of Emily McIntire or even if you’re looking for a dark Hunchback of Notre Dame reimagining, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Considering everything Emily McIntire is going through, I applaud her for writing this book. She’s truly an inspiration and I only have the best wishes and hopes for her.

Crossed by Emily McIntire is out now so go grab it and support Emily McIntire!