An emotional roller coaster.
5 books in 5 days.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ deserves all this glow!
This is my summary of this amazing, well-written, deliciously painful dark romance series. In this post, I’ll do a complete review of the series because I cannot really talk about each book one by one since everything is intertwined in a way that it is impossible to talk about one and go the next. I will do my best for this post to be as spoiler free as possible but I cannot guarantee that you won’t read something new, and since this is a complete review, I need to talk about every book at once, so there you go.
It has been years since I wrote a post for a book review, and I am kind of rusty at this point. Bear with me as I learn my way back again. I am always writing reviews on goodreads, however goodreads is more like a rant place for me, I just speak whatever is on my mind at that point and get over with everything. Before I start the official review here, if you want to read my book reviews for the series, here are the goodreads links for you:
The Risk, Sidetracked, Scarlet Angel, All the Lies and lastly, Paint It All Red.
I am all over the place and my mind has hard time to focus but let me start with the review now.
“Love is not supposed to be beautiful. It’s supposed to be a raw, gritty struggle that forces you to face the most vulnerable parts of yourself, so that when the good times come, you can savor and enjoy them, fully appreciate what they’re worth. Otherwise, you take it all for granted.”
Lana Myers
I’m a dark romance reader for years now. I am almost 30 and I have no shame to tell that this is how my brain works. I like my books better when they take me on the edge, freak me out, show me something I was always scared of, change something in me whether it is in a good way or bad way. This series gave me everything I needed.
It wasn’t an easy read, and the trigger warnings about these books must be followed. There are a lot of things that may hurt you, especially if you have the tendency to put yourself in your characters’ place. There are numerous mentions of rape, death, suicide, castration etc. I do not even remember what else was there but I can guarantee you that this book made me nauseous a lot of times, I cannot handle gore scenes very well (neither in movies or books) and boy don’t they have a lot of these?
I kindly remind you that if you want to read this series, please be cautious. Make sure that you can handle it, make sure that you do not get hurt more than you need to, because this whipped my ass over and over and over and over again.
The story follows two main characters with incredibly well written side characters. Our girl, Lana Myers is haunted by her past. She’s been through a lot and now she is seeking for revenge, not only for herself but also for the people she cared the most. People who’ve taken away from her with false accusations and pain. People who is now dead due to a group her people and a cult like town. Our male lead is an FBI agent, Logan Bennett. He is the light face of justice, the seeker of the truth, symbol of honesty and pride. Everything about these two make them a crazy match, but love doesn’t really listen the mind does it?
A victim turned into a vigilante and a symbol of justice fall in love, ignoring everything but each other. Though he doesn’t know anything about what’s going on around him regarding the woman she loves, seeing a clever male character pumped me up through the series. Logan is a well thought character, he almost reminded me of Will Graham from Hannibal. The way he sees everything regarding the files, and considering that this man deals with serial killer on a daily basis puts you on the edge. Though this is labeled as a dark romance book, the balance between the plot (a plot that includes an original killer from 10 years ago, things that happened to our Lana and her family and a freak called as Boogeyman) was quite nice. I didn’t feel like I was reading a murder-mystery plot only, the sizzle was there, the steam was there.
Though they are on the both ends of justice, the relationship our main characters acquired was refreshing. It gave me hope. It showed me no matter how different you are, if you want to make something work, you actually can do it with enough respect and will to seek the truth. Though it was a complete roller coaster and byt the third book, I actually thought that there would be no good ending for these two, I still rooted for them.
Main thing that got me this hooked uo to this series was the image of the corrupted world around us. The last book started saying something like that:
To those who couldn’t have a voice when they needed it.
I know innocent get hurt on a daily basis and not every one of them is lucky enough to get on their feet again, avenge their past and loved ones, and gods know the idea freaks me out.
It got me right in the guts and I read a lot of pages with teary eyes. I choked my tears as I read the last two books, completely focused on the fact that the idea of justice now is something different.
“I’m the girl you broke,” I say quietly, taking a step toward him as his body seizes in delicious fear. “I’m the girl you took too much from.” Another step from me, and a pained sound from him as he tries to stand, but falls back down in his haste. “I’m the girl you thought you killed.“
Lana Myers
Lana is destroyed, and this is one of the worst things that can happen to a person and this series showed it in a better way, (though I’m still thinking that the ways she chose is kinda extreme for me) being able to trust yourself and your mind and your abilities actually give you the hope that you need in order to survive and in order to protect yourself from your own mind. The line has to blur at some point, and though during the series it hasn’t doesn’t change the fact that it actually blurred her out, the need to destroy the bad in order to stay sane. I am so proud of Logan for being with her, to seeking the turth, not letting anyone to back him down. I am so proud of him because he kept himself and Lana sane when the line got the most blurry, even I was filled with rage and despair, screaming that this was all unfair to innocent people.
Though I may be analysing too deep because it is a habit now (work hazard) but I am glad that I’ve read this series. Something in me broke with these books, making me question my idea of justice and justice inside the biggest institues around us. It surely gave me another way of seeing things and I am so glad for it. I am so sad that this talented author left this world early, but I hope that she is fine up there, enjoying how much we love her books. I wish my kindest to her family.
Though I still can write about this series a lot, this is already a long review. I will finish it up here saying that you need to read these books. If you have the stomach to handle a genuine masssacre and the triggers I’ve mentioned above (because I was disgusted all through the series gods know), give it a try. Give it a try seeing these as something more than dark romance books. Read these as if they are the voice of innocent. It deserves every star it gets and the entire series gets five stars from me as well. the only sad thing I can say is about the covers. Series like this deserve better ones for the gods’ sake.
until my next post, take care 💖
Luster of Books 