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.

You can add Hideaway on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter (X), and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

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.

You can add The Sinner on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

The Dare by Harley LaRoux Review

This novella review contains mild spoilers for The Dare by Harley LaRoux. The actions depicted in this novella do not represent accurate or safe BDSM encounters — reader discretion is advised.

I honestly don’t even think I have the words to describe this novella to the extent that I need to — TikTok was definitely not lying when everyone said it was something else. I have read my fair share of steamy and taboo books (shoutout to Credence by Penelope Douglas), but this certainly was an experience I was not expecting to go through, especially with how the story progressed. Jessica and Manson have a past, however fleeting it may be, but that certainly does not stop either one of them from engaging in one of the most public and ill-acknowledged erotic relationships that I have seen. For some reason, while everyone at the party was super invested into their Drink or Dare competition, the interest immediately died down just when it was getting interesting.

We’ve got knives, we’ve got humiliation, we’ve got… clowns? I actually laughed out loud when I saw clowns listed in the warnings before the beginning of the story — I was going in blind and this threw me for a loop before I even got to page one. It is very fast-paced once we get to the initial plot point that puts Jessica into the situation that she is in — and doesn't seem to want to get out of. She is getting humiliated in front of dozens of party-goers, and yet she is also the most confident person in the room — besides Manson.

Now when we finally got to the clowns, I literally had to mentally prepare myself for whatever the author had in store for us. Yes, this takes place during a Halloween party with young adults, but I could not help but picture a children's birthday party clown costume when the boys were finally mentioned in the store. Totally not scary and definitely what I did not want to be picturing while reading this novella. Luckily, we move on pretty quickly from the clowns and Jessica's involvement with them, and go straight into...you guessed it — knife play! No worries, there is nothing gory mentioned.

We somehow manage to be going back and forth between Jessica literally being used in a dozen different ways by the hands of Manson to catapulting into Manson's backstory. It adds maybe a little shock to the plot, but if you are reading too fast and skim over the two sentences it takes to reveal that the house that the party is at is actually Manson's house, you won't be missing much.

If you need a quick and steamy read, The Dare is for you. I would definitely recommend this novella to fans of more taboo story-telling, but it's overall pretty mild and any newcomer to the genre would not have an issue with anything mentioned or depicted in the story.

You can add The Dare on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Praise (Salacious Players Club, #1) by Sara Cate Review

This review contains spoilers for Praise (Salacious Players Club, #1) by Sara Cate. Please read with caution if you have not already read the book.

We are immediately thrown into Emerson's world with the first sentence of the book -- which makes it all the more intriguing, as I went into this read with very little known details about the plot. I was looking for a fun, quick read as I make my way through my TBR pile, and was instantly intrigued by Praise. Emerson, our resident 40-year-old father who definitely does not seem old enough to have an adult son, has particular interests in what he wants in a woman and in the bedroom. Charlie, the now ex-girlfriend of Emerson's son, certainly stumbles into his world hoping to get her security deposit back without a hassle, and ends up in a precarious situation.

I love the immediate connection that Emerson and Charlie have -- not the first time they meet, but rather, when Charlie is hired as his secretary and they visit the club together. They are already forming their own dialogue with each other, and we are thrust right into their blooming dynamic as Emerson continues to show his interest in Charlie and his fascination with the way that she conducts herself in new situations. She has little to no knowledge of what she is getting herself into, even with her rabbit-hole searches she conducted after finding out what Emerson does for a living.

Charlie is over here living the dream with Emerson telling her that she does not have to wear shoes when she comes into the office/his house -- what I would give to be open to take my shoes off at my desk while I"m at work!

Their dynamic is so great to read - it moves quickly, and you're not stuck reading through endless pages waiting for something small to happen. Go big or go home was definitely in the author's mindset, because when Emerson and Charlie start being involved, even with the basics, we are put right into their building relationship. I absolutely loved seeing the dual POVs as they begin to figure out what they want and the opposing sides of Emerson being so experienced and Charlie being so incredibly new to the club and to Emerson's life.

I love the relationship that Garrett has with Charlie -- it's nice to see her interacting with people that are not Emerson or her sister, but it's also good to see her enjoying her life. They give off this big brother-little sister dynamic, full of teasing and joking, and definitely getting on Emerson's nerves.

The way Beau keeps showing up into Charlie's life -- whether he's actually seeking her out or if he is there to see his father -- had me throwing the book across the room. He did not appreciate her in the beginning, and his phone call to her was no better. From the short scenes that he is in, we get this picture of him being this man-child who didn't know what he had and doesn't know how to keep it. The distaste he has for his father's sexual endeavors is now getting placed on Charlie, and yet he continues to want to be in her life but not his father's -- but he'll take his money. He definitely won me over -- maybe just a little bit -- by the end of the book, especially when he finally decides to own up to the mistakes that he has made and they way that he treated his father and Charlie.

I would definitely recommend this to fans of Fifty Shades of Grey -- while the age gap is a little more jarring in Praise, both have similar circumstances in a general sense. I definitely enjoyed this read -- it's quick, it's fun, and it's finally nice to see a main character that knows her worth and what she wants.

You can add Praise on Goodreads now, as well as the rest of the series, and follow the author to stay up to date on publications and releases.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!