Hideaway (Devil's Night, #2) by Penelope Douglas Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Please read trigger warnings - reader discretion advised. You can read my review of Corrupt on my blog, here.

I kicked myself in the shin the second I requested this on Libby - considering how much I wanted to pull my hair out while reading Corrupt, I do not even know why I did this to myself again. I had much lower expectations going into this second installment, and yet somehow it disappointed me even more than Corrupt. The "twist" was so obvious I could see it coming from the beginning, and the constant going back and forth between six years ago and present day felt redundant - there was only so much we could learn from the past before there was no more content. I will say the last 15% of this book finally had me locked in - it finally felt as though some major plot moves were happening and it was not riddled with constant recalls to the past.

Rika this, Rika that... enough is enough!! I literally do not care about that girl a single bit. Yet she seems to be the apple of everyone's eye - I thought we were completely over her after the first book. Yet she continues to be the driving force of the narrative, even when she is no longer the female lead. That being said, Banks as a lead was interesting only for her relationship to Damon - she was certainly an improvement compared to Rika, but she still just did not have that factor that i was looking for in a dark romance. And of course, where there is Rika, there is Michael. While his appearances were few and scattered, I still rolled my eyes every single time he manifested on page and ran around saying how Rika will always come before his "best friends," even though up until how many months ago was he actively ruining her life???

Kai as the male lead in this installment was an improvement to Michael, but only marginally so. I still felt some distrust towards him considering the way he acted in Corrupt, but he definitely improved now that he was not chasing down Rika and trying to ruin her life at every chance he got. That being said... we get it, he went to jail. Yes, he beat up someone, but it was an abusive cop, so I say we let it go and move on. It felt like every single chapter in Kai's perspective, he was either moping about the fact that him going to jail was the biggest shame his family experienced, or him trying to stalk around town following Banks. Honestly, I was starting to wish that Kai acted more unhinged at some points because at least the plot would have felt like it was moving or had some excitement.

Banks felt like her whole characterization was meant to make readers start to feel sympathetic towards Damon... obviously I hate what he went through as a child, but good grief the man is running around actively trying to kill his "friends" and go way too far with Rika. Banks providing all of this lore on him as he grew up and honestly how he was in the present could have been much more played up if Banks had an actual personality other than being held hostage and crying that she loves Damon. She had more guts than Rika, I will give her that. The fact that she actually was actively aware of her surroundings was an improvement beyond comprehension compared to... whatever Rika was doing in Corrupt.

This needed to be juicier, crazier, and frankly, freakier. I needed the wildness that Corrupt gave us with Michael and Rika but cranked up hundred times, and instead we got a few little smutty chapters that cut much shorter than they should have. If Douglas did not spend so much time having the characters not use their braincells, then things would have wrapped up much quicker and maybe we would have been treated to some debauchery instead of lackluster problem-solving.

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The Sinner (L.O.R.D.S., #2) by Shantel Tessier Review

This review contains spoilers for The Sinner. A list of trigger warnings is available at the beginning of the book. You can read my review of The Ritual on my blog, here.

I won't even lie, reading the list of trigger warnings in the beginning of the book made me even more excited to read it -- I loved the ritual and when I found out The Sinner was set in the same world, I knew I had to read it. We get to see glimpses of Ryat mentioned throughout the book, since The Sinner takes place at the same time as The Ritual. You can read these as stand alones or consider them a series, whichever you prefer.

It always makes me laugh realizing that Sin -- and Ryat -- are literally seniors in college during their books -- imagine a twenty-one-year-old guy just casually being a part of a secret society where they murder people over twice their age because some rules were broken. Sin is definitely high up on the wild scale -- even before he gets to his senior year, he is doing unthinkable things to Elli while she has no idea who the man behind the mask is.

I used to think that Ryat was literally off the walls wild, but not even one third into The Sinner had showed me that Sin is on another level. He definitely crosses the very blurry line between what is okay and what is not way earlier with Elli compared to how Ryat was with Blakely, but Sin takes it to a whole new level. I really liked that this book took place at the same time as The Ritual, because if you read it already, it provided these extra little details from someone else's perspective without spoiling the book for you. And if you did not read The Ritual, then you get a little taste of Ryat before diving into his story with Blakely.

Sin is literally going feral over Elli at every chance he gets, and my god does this boy have some pent up rage that he needs to release. He is the moodiest twenty-something I have ever seen, and when it comes to Elli and her stubbornness, it really pushes him over the edge. For crying out loud, he threw the girl overboard and then told her there were sharks in the water, and she retaliated by fake drowning only to head butt him as soon as he got her out of the water. There is not enough holy water on this planet to cleanse my mind from what I have read in this book, and as an avid dark and taboo romance reader, that says a lot. If I even tried to step into a church now, I would burst into flames.

The way that Elli was so casual about realizing that Sin was the masked man and the one who killed her stepfather James actually had me laughing out loud because this girl really does not give anything a second thought. James was an awful person and the things that he did to Elli when she was so young made me wish that Sin did more to him than a single gun shot -- he definitely deserved a worse fate that what he was dealt.

Sin is so much worse that Ryat was -- and when I was reading The Ritual, I did not even think Ryat was that bad, definitely a little bit off his rocker, but really cared about Blakely from the beginning. Meanwhile, Sin is committing every crime under the sun and lying to Elli every chance he gets, while also doing and saying some pretty awful stuff to her in the process. Yes, he did a majority of it to protect her and try to keep her safe, but I would say that the tattoo on her back was something I did not love him doing to her.

The smut scenes were significantly crazier compared to The Ritual, and definitely rival scenes in Haunting Adeline. Not even a quarter of the way into the book, I thought I was going to have to wash my eyes out with holy water and by the time I was just over three fourths of the way through, I considered going back to church. Tessier knows her stuff and does not hold back when it comes to pushing the boundaries of dark romance.

You can really see Elli go through it during this book, especially with her dealing with her drug habits and coping with the grooming and years of abuse she went through with so many authority figures in her life. She does not know where else to turn to or understand why she feels and thinks the things that she does, which ultimately leads to her being put in the most insane situations I have ever read. She really cannot catch a break -- it felt like every fifty pages we were finding out that she was assaulted by yet another Lord, and for some reason Sin seemed to think this was somehow partially on her? His logic was all over the place and honestly made me so annoyed with after a couple hundred pages, I wanted him out of Elli's life.

However, the last one hundred and fifty pages or so definitely had my mind changed about him, especially seeing the lengths that he went to in order to try to keep Elli safe and well, alive. He was killing people left and right and striking up deals with anyone who had a pulse at one point, so props to him for the determination on his end. I do wish we got to see just a little bit more of Sin and Elli in the end actually talking about what they both had been through and get on the same page, because it always seemed that Elli was the one drawing the short end of the stick when trouble came about.

If you are looking for a lengthy taboo dark romance, The Sinner is for you -- filled with some of the wildest scenes I have come across, the reader does not know what is in store for them.

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The Ritual (L.O.R.D.S., #1) by Shantel Tessier Review

This review contains spoilers for The Ritual. A list of trigger warnings can be found here.

TikTok made me do it. I thought that I would hold out a little longer before reading this, but nearly every other video on my page was a blurb from this book. Since reading Haunting Adeline, my definition of dark romance has certainly taken a turn, and obviously I do not condone the vast majority of anything that happens in this book, but boy does this book hook you in. Ryat and Zade need to start a little club for people who stalk the girls that they are into and also murder people.

For a society filled with secrets and straight up murder, they sure do love to throw a party and have people talk about them on campus. The Lords feel like a bunch of college students roleplaying that they are in the mafia or in some type of cult, which is not entirely incorrect. Ryat walks around talking in cryptic messages and basically gives off the vibe of a sexually frustrated twenty-something. Definitely on brand for him since being in the Lords means they cannot have sex for three years, but he is making it everyone's problem.

Blakely is just trying to actually hook up with her boyfriend of many years but he's not having it because -- surprise, surprise -- he is also in the Lords, but for some reason won't just tell her that they can't have sex. Matt continues to literally annoy me every time he pops up on my page, and I simply pretend that he does not exist as such an immense pain in my side and acting like such a little freak all of the time. It is beyond me on why he is so mad that she broke up with him after putting up with his BS for so long. He's also a kink-shamer, which was the most surprising thing about him considering he is in an organization that literally claims women as property. But I digress.

This vow can't be legally binding... I'm actually laughing at the way that everyone treats the Ritual vow ceremony and how Ryat is always running around saying he owns Blakely but this boy is so blindsided by the fact that he can finally screw someone that he sets his own sort of rules up for him and Blakely, apart from the rules the Lords have for their chosen. I am genuinely surprised that with the amount of sedatives Blakely was given that she was not just knocked out for the entirety of the book. She's got to have some lasting effects after getting roofied every other chapter.

I am not even going to lie when I say that Ryat offering $500,00 to marry Blakely had me giggling and kicking my feet in the air. Honestly, anything to get her away from Matt and whatever the heck he had planned to do to her once they were married. Do I think Ryat is downright insane? Absolutely. Do I cheer every time he pops up on the page? Sure thing. There were probably at least ten moments while reading this book that I straight up thought that Ryat was going to kill Blakely just because he could, because boy oh boy was that man on a mission.

Probably about 98% of this book is not for the faint of heart. Blakely and Ryat literally have sex in front of the corpse of a girl that Ryat strangled in a basement for crying out loud. There is so much murder and so so much sex that pushes the limits of what society deems as acceptable. I mean, people are torturing and kidnapping and drugging people left and right and the most of the characters will react as if it is just another Tuesday as a college student. The smut is top tier and basically dominates the book over plot, but is balanced enough that it does not feel like the same scene over and over again.

Sarah and Gunner are basically there so that Blakely has other people to talk to when Ryat is not around, and it was nice to see that she has something resembling a support system while she went through everything. We really did not get to see many other faces besides some Lords and Ryat and Blakely's parents throughout the book, but I did not mind that since I was so focused on their relationship. I have so much distaste for Valerie, especially because she definitely knew what Matt would have done to her if they ended up getting married. So glad they both kicked the can by the end of the book.

You know what... I had such a blast reading this entire book because just when I thought it could not get crazier, it did. I was thoroughly entertained every page, and I actually really enjoyed the dynamic between Blakely and Ryat -- it was so extremely complicated yet had great development as they both discovered what they wanted, and it was not for a lack of effort or mishaps along the way. Fans of Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton and The Dare by Harley LaRoux will certainly enjoy this standalone taboo romance.

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Watch Me (Phoenix, #1) by Stacey Kennedy Review

This is a spoiler-free review for Watch Me. A list of trigger warnings can be found here.

After going through a traumatic experience, we see Zoey, one year later, at Phoenix on a mission with a plan to finally put the past behind her and show the boys that changed her life that she was not broken. Rhys, the owner of Phoenix, finds out pretty quickly that Zoey was not at the club just for pleasure, but for something more.

I really enjoyed the dynamic that Zoey and her roommates had with Rhys and his friends -- it provided a solid foundation for plot while not overtaking the smut that people came to read. There was an equal balance of actual story progress with smut that added to both of their character development, in a way. Zoey's backstory and her continuous work to make herself whole again is exemplified by her relationship with Rhys and what he introduces her to at Phoenix.

Even though I think that the relationship between Zoey and Rhys was moving at a speed that is not typical for romances to happen, circumstances in the book definitely made it possible. We see they experience lots of grief, obstacles, and entering new territory -- especially Zoey -- when it comes to loving someone. There definitely could have been an additional fifty pages detailing more about their relationship and even a time jump at one point to make their relationship feel a touch more realistic.

Zoey's friends, Hazel and Elise, are some of the most supportive book friends that I have come across, and they are really there for Zoey whenever she is struggling or needs to talk to someone. Much like them, Rhys's friends, Archer, Hunt, and Kieran, provide him with a strong friend group while being involved in some of his business affairs.

I do wish that there were more scenes at Phoenix -- I was expecting to see more smut than plot, and it ended up being the other way around. Now don't get me wrong, both the plot and the smut was pretty good, but it felt like it fell a little short on the erotica side of this being an erotica book. However, I will say that even though the ending came a tad fast in my opinion, the author did a great job throughout the book showing us both sides to Zoey and Rhys, with their own personal struggles and with their combined development as a couple.

Much like the Salacious Players Club series, you can read these books individually or in order -- but if you plan on reading all of them, do it in order so you don't get some minor spoilers about other characters. A quick read that has both substance and smut, this book is for fans of Eyes on Me by Sara Cate and those looking for something to fill a Fifty Shades of Grey-hole in their heart.

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Serving the Billionaire (The Silver Cross Club, #1) by Bec Linder Review

This review does not contain spoilers for Serving the Billionaire.

Regan has no money, no job, and what appears to be no prospects -- she's just like Charlotte Lucas from Pride and Prejudice. She had to drop out of college and after quitting her job due to being harassed at work, she is on the hunt for employment, and comes across a cocktail waitress flyer in her local bodega and attends the audition at The Silver Cross Club.

She quickly becomes good at her job, slowly working her way up to a heavier workload, when she is told a regular client wants her to serve at his private party. We are thrown into Regan's encounter with him and his guests, along with the requests Carter Sutton asks of her during his party and for future parties.

Carter is our classic tall and mysterious man who just cannot take his eyes off of Regan. He has a very particular taste, and that definitely comes out later in the story. During their encounters at the club, Carter is very clear to Regan about what he wants and introduces her to a world that she never thought that she would be a part of. There are a few moments where the connections he has with high profile people seem unlikely, but his character is put together and respected by those who know him.

This novella reads pretty well -- it is not littered with clichés and progresses at a decent rate that does not leave you questioning how you got from point A to point B. We are able to see Regan's thought process throughout the story and as she continues to encounter Carter on a more daily basis, and see how they begin to affect one another. They of course have their moments where communication is not very clear between them or that one does not seem to understand the other, but they did only just meet days, if not a couple weeks, prior to their relationship actually starting to become something more.

Serving the Billionaire definitely gives off a very similar tone to the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy -- we are introduced to a twenty-something virgin who just so happens to come across and grab the attention of a billionaire, who has an instant attraction to her. There is a balance of smut, angst, and character/relationship building that allows this to be a quick read that readers can enjoy without cringing as they turn the page.

This novella is available for FREE on iBooks and other ebook platforms.

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