The Closer (The Hustlers Trilogy) by Rowan Rossler – Review by Shea Gilkerson 4/9/24
The Closer: An enemies to lovers dark romance by Rowan Rossler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Closer touches on a lot of emotion between June and Dallas. Lust and attraction bring tension when mixed with the frustration and anger of past experiences with one another. There’s the feelings of wonder and magnetism while fear of heartache and disappointment in past choices war with one another on top of the stress June is already dealing with life events that leads her back to Dallas – who has been beating himself up for 10 years since June left him last.
Out of desperation, June approaches the insanely Dallas to ask him to invest in her to help. He is known for being aggressive in his work and she knows the way things could turn out, but she has no other choice. Dallas has been beating himself up for a decade over how things ended last time, but he had earned his reputation and can’t bring himself to help. Bolstered by drinks and desperation, June makes a last ditch effort to Dallas that she can’t afford to lose by a “best of 3” bet after a few drinks. It turns out June should not have been as confident in her skills as she thought and finds herself accompanying Dallas on a trip to Argentina. Before she knows it, she finds herself wondering if this trip with her ex was worth it. Along the way, we are introduced to Navarro to throw a wrench in their reconciliation.
There were multiple branches to this story, but it is interesting and well put together. There’s enough strife to have you rooting for the past couple but it isn’t so strong that you really feel they are enemies – more like they hurt one each others feelings and they get overreacting for an entire decade, but the prose is engaging and I was constantly interested in finding out what happens next. A fast read that kept me following for way more pages than I should have in one sitting at start to finish. Can be read as a standalone.
