What I Would Do For You (This Love Hurts, #1-3) by Willow Winters Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of Do You Want Me? on my blog, now! What I Would Do For You consists of the novella, Do You Want Me?, This Love Hurts, But I Need You, and And I Love You the Most.

It has been nearly two years since I read the prequel novella, so my memory was a little hazy when it came to the exact plot point this series compilation encompassed - however, memory was quickly restored after diving right back in. With Delilah and Cody's relationship seemingly at a rocky standing, Delilah's personal life seems to be in a downward spiral as she battles between her own life, her mother and her sister, and juggling Cody -- and Marcus -- in order to make it through the day. There is a much better balance of Delilah and Cody's perspectives overall throughout the series compared to Do You Want Me?, and honestly I enjoyed the increased frequency of Marcus perspective chapters.

Sure, Marcus is a serial killer. But I truly felt he had more chemistry with Delilah than Cody did - Cody's overall character development just was not doing it for me, and I wish you could feel the tension come off the page like you could with Marcus and Delilah. That being said, there was obviously some good chemistry with Cody, but it just was not doing it for me the same way. The suspense and thriller aspect of the series was definitely bumped up a ton, which made the plot actually interesting and have real stakes for the characters. There is always a chance with romantic thrillers that the "thriller" side gets abandoned for smut, and thankfully that was not the case here. However, the smut was a little lacking and made the series feel more like a crime thriller than a true romantic thriller.

Delilah's stressors in her life are just as present as they were in the prequel, and I would even go as far as to say they increase tenfold. She seems to never be able to catch a break, and even when she does, it is short-lived and stripped away from her. Considering this love triangle of lawyer, detective, and serial killer, I could tell from a mile away that her life would not be easy, but boy did this girl get put through more than I could imagine. She is constantly conflicted about her feelings, justifiably so, and that just makes her life even harder as she grabbles with being pulled in different directions by men who stand on opposing sides.

As this is a compilation of the entire series, I would definitely recommend reading it as a set rather than going one-by-one, mostly due to the fact that reading them individually is super quick in theory, but causes abrupt stops in the flow of the plot. I really wanted to see a big improvement from the prequel novella to the rest of the series, and unfortunately only a small job in quality was noted. If you are looking for a quick read that will hold your attention for a couple of hours, this series could be the perfect thing to tide you over.

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Rook & Rebel (The Mavericks, #1) by Kate Crew ARC Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Rook & Rebel will be published by Avon and Harper Voyager on January 13, 2026.

I would first like to thank NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review. I had seen rumbling about this book for a little while, and it appears that it has found a new home with Avon and Harper Voyager - I was thrilled to see it available for request on NetGalley. I have not dived too deep into the world of motorcycle dark romance before, but this one caught my attention.

This was a lot tamer for something falling under the erotica category, but I will say the plot was actually developing, unlike other books where the plot is thrown out the window after four chapters to make room for more smut. The plot was certainly intriguing and I do love a wronged-man falls for the "sunshine" girl, but for some reason, this book was just not doing it for me. I thought this book was going to be a lot more insane and freakier than it actually was, and unfortunately, I was really hoping it was going to go in that direction. I felt as though there was so much build up with the way that Rook and Regan met, and yet their chemistry was subtle at best in my eyes. Yes, the tension was there and they were clearly drawn to one another, but I did not think their relationship was well-developed.

Rook's perspective chapters mainly focused on dealing with his little motorcycle gang family and their personal issues as a group, or stalking around watching Regan. I love a stalker romance, but my word this man cannot even call himself a stalker because he makes it blatantly obvious that he is watching her every move, which is ironic considering her father runs a security system empire. The little text message conversations between Rook and Regan were amusable at first, but they lost their novelty very quickly and I found myself wishing they just spoke on the phone or literally in person. I would have loved to see Regan have more a relationship or more interactions with Rook's gang family because they felt very far removed from Regan's life and felt out of place when we would get her perspective chapters.

Regan's relationship with her father is clearly strained and while she is an adult, he still has this large hold over her as she attempts to get his attention and try to make him understand that she wants to be involved in the company. He is clearly a misogynist at heart, but also just simply does not seem to care about her at all for some reason? Their dynamic was honestly confusing and felt like it was being pulled in different directions. I honestly did not even care that her and her dad were basically at odds with one another even though it became somewhat of a main plot point as the story went on.

I really, truly wanted to love this book - all of the preview snippets I had seen had really drawn me to the story, but unfortunately it seems that those were the only highlights worth mentioning about this first installment. If you are looking for a more crime and plot-heavy book with a romance sub-plot, then this may be the book for you.

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Ruthless Arrangement (Gallo Famiglia Series, #1) by Brooke Summers Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Please read trigger warnings - reader discretion is advised.

My past discretions from a Stuff Your Kindle day downloading haze have come back to bite me. I genuinely felt like I was being put through the wringer while reading this book - every single turn of the page ended up with Teagan being smacked around or abused, or someone literally not taking the time of day to understand that this girl is traumatized!! The author describes a number of abuses she endures in graphic detail, and considering she made it out alive is an achievement in itself. I wish it did not take until being two thirds into the book to really see how she was dealing with everything that she had to go through when she was living with the Dirty Demons. 

Elio as the male lead made me want to scream externally into the sky - there was not a single thing he did that made me want to root for him except for the fact that he had Teagan go to therapy. That is the only nice thing he ever did for her that actually warranted a good reaction out of me. The entirety of their relationship is based on the fact that her father wrong him and his family, and he seeks revenge by taking Teagan and forcing her to be his bride. The girl has never left the house in over eighteen years and somehow Elio thinks this is the perfect torture for her - she literally has only ever known torture and abuse, so this ends up being just another Tuesday for her, trapped with a mob family and revenge-obsessed Elio.

I did not love the glamorization of Elio and Teagan's relationship at all. It felt as though he was keeping her as a sex slave - which he basically was - and using her as a toy. Sure, his plan all along was to basically torture this girl for the rest of her days, so why would he treat her with any form of respect? Even his entire family was like dude what are you getting out of doing this to a girl who does not even know the extent of what her father did outside of what he allowed people to do to her? The brothers were much more enjoyable to read about when they appeared on page, and even the two friends Teagan had made before being "taken" by Elio were better entertainment than the man himself.

The most intriguing plot line of this entire book was when Teagan was being sought out by another mob family - it provided actual stakes to the game and showed the dangers that waited for her outside of Elio's home, even though Elio's home was basically a danger in its own right. Those scenes of Teagan being pulled between two rival families were the only times that I was actually locked into the book - I frankly did not care about her and Elio's relationship because I simply could not stand Elio at all. Even when he was "turning a corner" and realized what he was putting Teagan through was wrong, it still left a sour taste in my mouth. Maybe it is because the book is not marketed as taboo and instead just a dark mafia romance - if it was something they were both into from the start, then my opinion may have ended differently. The set up for the next book has me intrigued - I may find myself back into this series if the timing presents itself.

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The Devil's Bargain (Deal with the Devil, #1) by Carin Hart Review

This is a spoiler-free review! A list of content warnings is available at the beginning of the book.

Man... I do not even know what this book was. As soon as I started reading it, I realized I had seen little blurbs of this book all over TikTok a long time ago, and since this was a Stuff Your Kindle download, I can only imagine it had its moment with BookTok. That being said, the blurbs and summaries of this book definitely will draw the reader in, but unfortunately they will be drawn into a trap that they cannot escape. I felt very disoriented while reading this book, mostly because there is a preface explaining that the male lead has been obsessed with the female lead for fifteen years, and then we are just thrown right into the story. A touch of background information would have been greatly appreciated, but with how quickly this book moves, it feels like a drop in the bucket when it comes to the issues I had with this book.

Every single time that Ava would think about her and Link's past when they were teenagers/early twenties, I felt as though my eyes were going to roll to the back of my head and out of my ears. Girl, what were you thinking!! Not a single brain cell graced her head when she was younger, and unfortunately it seems she never gained any new ones as an adult. Ava was so quick to accept the fact that Link basically demanded that she become his bride and simply did not question it. Please remember that they have not seen each other in years - I needed her to get a grip. On Link's end... boy, you have got to let a girl go, especially with thirteen years of not speaking to her. But sure, stalk and keep track of her, I am sure that will get her on your side.

I literally read 276 pages of this book in an hour - it goes by so fast and you are felt as if this book could have been an email. I quite literally had one chapter left before the book ended and I could not bring myself to read this in a single sitting solely because I could not believe I was putting myself through this. Link and Ava's relationship feels like he is literally holding her hostage and she literally does not care at all. The "spice" in this book - if you could even call it that - was tame at best, but it felt like Link was constantly putting Ava in precarious situations and I did not love that one bit. Every single time he went to do something crazy with her, it would be justified with "she let me do this to her when we were teenagers" - okay, so y'all were dumb then and y'all are dumb now.

All I wanted to do was sit in the sun and read a book after work - this book made me feel like I should have gone to a Barry's bootcamp class instead, as that would have been less painful than reading this book. And to be quite honest, even though I clearly did not enjoy myself while reading this, I will probably read the other books solely to see if any improvement is ever made with this series. I typically find it so incredibly hard to give one star reviews - so much so that I have only given one other book such a distinction - but this rating was unfortunately far too easy to give.

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The Devil's Vice (The Dark Triad, #1) by Mindy Paige Review

This is a spoiler-free review! A list of content warnings can be found here.

I downloaded this book forever ago during a Stuff Your Kindle Day, and considering I have decided that I am now on a romance kick, I knew I had to make way through my electronic TBR and put a dent in books that have been sitting around for while. I have definitely read books with a similar trope to a doctor or nurse saving the head of a gang or mafia leader, so I knew this would be up my alley - it was the execution that needed to deliver, and oh boy it certainly did. I read through this book so fast I could not believe it and I was literally eating this up - I have not read a dark romance in a hot minute, and this was just the hit I needed to remind myself why I love the genre. This book definitely is not for the faint of heart, and I would recommend it to more established dark romance readers.

When Lillith saves the life of one of the most notorious members of the Hellfyre Motorcycle club, she has no idea what effect her presence will have on him - and how her life will be forever changed. Kain's fascination of Lillith quickly turns to obsession and readers bear witness to the quick-festering mild stalking to lady-napping pipeline. With pacing that moves quickly and maintains the attention of its readers, the book seems to fly by and mimics the way that Lillith's life changes in an instant. 

A quick little lady-napping and Lillith is plucked from her everyday life and thrown into an erotic and unexpected relationship with Kain, much to her initial annoyance. I did spend the entire time wondering what all of Lillith's coworkers thought about where she disappeared to and why she had not shown up to work - it would be suspicious to me! I would not be surprised if there was an off-page moment where Kain had an explanation in place for her sudden departure.

The author included a number of flashback scenes that allowed us to see what past trauma impacted both Kain and Lillith, and how their pasts are connected. This made both their journeys more impactful, as well as making their development and bond all the more intriguing. The side characters in this book were nothing short of diabolical, and it seemed that everywhere Lillith turned, she was in danger, either before she truly knew Kain, or constantly after the fact once they were intwined.

I wish the motorcycle club was actually incorporated into this book - we started out strong, but fell flat quickly and the plot was lost in efforts to have Lillith and Kain's relationship develop. However, when it is marketed as an organized crime dark romance book and the organized crime aspect gets thrown out the window, it is disappointing. Additionally, while the flashbacks were helpful, there never was an explanation on why exactly all of these events occurred, and it left me confused on what the motive was in causing these tragedies. I wish that Kain was more forthcoming to Lillith and did not hide so much from her, considering she was constantly in danger. That being said, she literally did not seem to care at all that she was kidnapped? She did not even pretend for a few days that she was upset about it - she immediately was like wait why am I enjoying this? Girl, get it together!

The main villains of this book did not seem to have a clear motive at all as far as I could tell, and it made the climax of this book not as exhilarating - I did not feel as though Kain was up against much. I was honestly here for the vibes and the vibes only - I did not expect the plot to be super solid considering I was reading it for the romance aspect, but I did enjoy reading this a lot. The dark romance... could have been a lot darker - it was dark for about three chapters and then seemingly abandoned in place of the slight crime plot, but it should have stuck true to its genre. It moves quickly, and while there are a few things I would have changed or added to the book, I had a great time reading it.

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