Tempting Venom (Vipers, #3) by Rina Kent Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews of Beautiful Venom and Sweet Venom on my blog, now! Contents warnings include: Depictions of mental illness such as bipolar disorder and manic episodes, as well as mentions and on-page descriptions of child sexual abuse. The story also features graphic violence, homophobia (both external and internalized), the death of a parent by suicide, and suicidal ideation. Kink elements involving consensual masochistic tendencies are present.

While not necessary to understand Marcus and Preston's story in Tempting Venom, I would recommend reading Kiss the Villain before embarking on this journey. This is simply due to the fact that events from Kiss the Villain take place prior to the events in this series and while there are no spoilers, some plot aspects mention relationships or events that readers should be aware of in order to make the most of this book.

There seems to be a phenomenon with Rina Kent in which her MM books are significantly better than her MF books - the characters are more fleshed out, relationship development seems to take place on a deeper level, and the obstacles/traumas that we see in these books go into more depth and are explored without being rushed. The tension between these characters are leagues above their MF counterparts, and it astounds me that after going through thousands of pages of secret society, mafia, and hockey romance, we only get to see a glimpse of what Kent is capable of with a handful of couples.

Preston is going through The Horrors in this book, both past and present, meanwhile Marcus is running around town chasing him down like his life depends on it. There is always somewhat of an imbalance between the leading characters in Kent's books - someone is always suffering more while one is always doing more of the chasing. At least with this installment, we were spared any initiations (which I cannot say for Beautiful Venom) - but rest assured, we did get a chase scene, as it would not be a Rina Kent book without someone either running for their life or being the predator. Marcus has this very intimidating energy surrounding him, and while readers only got glimpses of his personality in the previous two books, I appreciated the mystery surrounding him. On the completely opposite side of the scale, Preston appears to be unable to keep his mouth shut and is always on the move, whether it is terrorizing people or causing commotion, he speaks his mind and is refreshingly open about some of his struggles.

Marcus basically spends this entire book fussing over the fact that Preston does not remember something from their youth and takes out that frustration by what I would consider straight-up stalking the boy. Preston frankly does not seem to mind and at this rate, I would go far as to say that he makes his location known so it is easier for Marcus to find him. Preston has a number of moments in this book where you can see the toll of his own mental afflictions start to weigh on him - readers see him start to retreat into himself and as he dives deeper into this spiral, it affects not only his relationship with Marcus, but the relationships he has with his friends and his father.

Preston's backstory was absolutely heartbreaking and was making me nauseous by the time he recounted everything that happened to him from childhood until present moments. With the internal struggles he was facing, this is probably Rina Kent's more complex characters from any of her series, and while this is only my third series from her, I can without a doubt say it is one of her stronger books. As seen in the other two Vipers books, Preston loves to tease Dahlia by never referring to her by her correct name, and his friendship with Violet still comes through in this installment. Considering these books all overlap at some point, it was nice to see the other side of conversations and the fallout from actions that we did not get to see before.

Yes, this is a dark hockey romance book - no, you do not have to follow hockey in order for this series to make sense. I would dare say that the hockey does not even truly come into play in a serious manner in this series, with the exception of Jude, Preston, and Kane having their own little tussles on the ice or shining winning moments. The hockey aspect feels more like a plot driving force in order for the leading men of this series to have an outlet for their aggression, other than the fact that they literally kill people on the regular. These guys are so much like the Devil's Night series by Penelope Douglas, where the college basketball players in that town run around committing crimes left and right.

This trilogy ended on a high note, and with this third installment, I can safely say that it was before than its predecessors. Raw emotion, internal and external conflict, and some pretty solid spicy scenes allowed this book to pick up the slack from Dahlia and Kane's and Jude and Violet's relationships. With what feels like one hundred more Rina Kent books to get through, I can say that while I do not always fall in love with some of the relationships, she certainly will keep you entertained.

Looking for more Rina Kent? You can read my reviews of God of Malice, God of Pain, God of Wrath, God of Ruin, God of Fury, God of War, and Kiss the Villain on my blog, now!

You can add Tempting Venom 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!

Sweet Venom (Vipers, #2) by Rina Kent Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of Beautiful Venom on my blog, now! Content warnings include references to mental illness, depression, suicidal ideation, and emotional abuse, including parental neglect and child abuse. It includes graphic violence, murder, torture, stalking, attempted child sexual abuse, the death of a family member, and mentions of multiple abortions and drug use/overdose involving non-main characters. Specific kinks in this book include consensual non-consent (CNC) and somnophilia.

I was a little weary going into this second installment, as I did not love Beautiful Venom and was worried that a recounting of the same timeline from different perspectives would be a drag, however I was pleasantly surprised that the author somewhat flew through the events of the first book fairly quickly and then dived into a "new" events. This was definitely a better direction than what I was expecting and I found myself enjoying Violet and Jude's story more than Dahlia and Kane's journey - there was just something about them that I could not click with.

Comparing Jude to Kane, I would dare say that I liked him more - there was just something about the way that he was written and the way that he interacted with others in this book that made his character more alluring. The same goes for Violet - compared to Dahlia, she was a breath of fresh air and actually had some common sense. While she definitely had her moments of me wanting to put my hands through the pages and shake some sense into her, the majority of the time she was pretty level-headed. Jude felt more unhinged than Kane and I honestly embraced it more than I expected. He was much less focused on this whacky secret society compared to Kane, and while Jude did have his little kill list, at least he had an actual reason to be on this crusade.

Considering Kane and Jude share the same friends, I echo my sentiment from my Beautiful Venom review and have to say the comedic relief that they provide certainly keep the reader entertained. Preston grew on me exponentially throughout this book, and considering he is taking the lead in the third installment, I can only imagine what nonsense the boy will get into with his story at the forefront. The story itself in this book was more intriguing than the first installment - there was more nuance to what Violet and Jude had to go through and discover, and it made the story feel like there were actual risks and consequences, unlike in Beautiful Venom where it felt like Dahlia and Kane were just running in circles around each other.

I wish Kent would abandon the text chain conversations in her books - the dialogue does not seem to flow with the overall writing style and often times the conversations make the characters seem five years younger and extremely immature. To be honest, the majority of her male leads or side characters are immature, so I should not have been too surprised that it continues in the majority of her books. She could truly improve upon her work if she abandons the notion that the male characters are these "silly goofy" boys when at the same time, they are killing people or terrorizing towns and college campuses. It honestly just makes them look really ridiculous and takes the reader out of the bubble that they are supposed to be running everything around them.

This was juicier than I expected, but with Rina Kent, I truly can never tell if I am going to eat up her books or feel slightly unsatisfied. Her MM books are definitely her strong suit, and if she one day decides to create more depth for her other characters, I can see it really taking off. For now, I continue to manage my expectations before diving into her works, but fans of dark romance will certainly be reaching for her on the shelf.

You can add Sweet Venom 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!

Beautiful Venom (Vipers, #1) by Rina Kent Review

This is a spoiler-free review! Beautiful Venom contains themes of consensual non-con, dub-con, and primal play. It also includes on-page depictions of road accident-related trauma and violence.

You can read my reviews of the entire Legacy of Gods series on my blog, now: God of Malice, God of Pain, God of Wrath, God of Ruin, God of Fury, and God of War. You can also read my review of Kiss the Villain on my blog!

I do not even know what I was thinking... a dark hockey romance... it is hockey, for crying out loud. It is an idea almost as ridiculous as the basketball players the town are supposed to fear in the Devil's Night series. Nevertheless, I was intrigued and needed to see how this book played out - honestly, anything hockey-related is fine to get me through the Heated Rivalry drought. I will take what I can get at this point. Unfortunately, all hockey romance is ruined for me as nothing will ever live up to Shane and Ilya, so I must accept future disappoint from other books. And it appears that this was the very case with this book.

Boy, does Rina Kent LOVE an initiation.... thought I was finally free from reading about them and yet here we go again. This one was definitely somehow more uncomfortable to read unlike the ones in Legacy of Gods - there was just something about it that made it feel more humiliating for Dahlia on a scale that took me out of the "fantasy" of the book and launched me back into reality. I was screaming that this girl needed to file a police report by the end of those chapters. Kane is basically a Shein version of Jeremy Volkov from Legacy of Gods and it was physically painful to read him calling Dahlia "wildflower" as a term of endearment when it honestly read like more of an insult.

The whole secret society aspect of this book would have been intriguing if it actually lead anywhere interesting. Instead, it leaves readers with glimpses into some corrupt dealings with these leading members of the town that conveniently are composed as the star hockey players that basically terrorize people for fun. While I am a lover of dark romance and fully understand that genre is Kent's cup of tea, it just seems as though she begins the concepts strong in the summaries but often times it results in the ideas not coming to fruition in the end, leaving readers wanting more. That being said, God of Fury and Kiss the Villain are definitely her best works - of the ones that I have read so far - so when I heard you needed to read Kiss the Villain before reading Beautiful Venom, I thought some of that storyline would come into play here.

Dahlia is probably one of the most insufferable and weak-minded female leads that I have ever come across, and that is saying something. She's championed by the author as being this badass lead that is set on seeking out revenge on the person who hurt her foster sister, but she basically abandons that crusade at numerous points during the book in favor of being ravaged by Kane and being at his mercy. I wanted to like her and admire her determination in getting justice for Violet, but her character read as insincere and naive. 

Kane is honestly no better than Killian Carson from God of Malice - I wanted to strangle him at numerous points and honestly hated his attitude for the majority of the book. It is more so the way that he is written rather than his actions - considering the L.O.R.D.S series has characters doing the unimaginable and I still root for them, that says a lot. Do I feel bad for all of the horrors that he went through since he was younger? Sure, absolutely. Do I think that he should have used that as a constant justification for all of the crazy and illegal things he does? No way. He definitely got justice for some of the things that were done to him, and I agree with the way he went about it, but ultimately Dahlia had to suffer in order for it to happen.

The only remotely interesting side plot line that was present in this book was Kane's friend group being little menaces all the time. They somehow were able to provide some mild comedic relief and while they were no angels in any means, they definitely seemed to have some backbone - maybe not Preston - but at least the others. Frankly, this book put me into a slump and I had to force myself to sit down and try to power through, which is a shame considering I was able to consume some of her other works fairly quickly. I can only hope the remaining books in this series improves upon the story readers had to endure with this installment.

You can add Beautiful Venom 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!