Hello friends! Welcome to yet another book review. I know it has been a while but the reading slump and work have gotten the best of me recently, I was too busy with work that I had no energy or power to even socialise at the end of the day, so I am here with the first book I finished for the past two months and I am proud to say that it is one of my favourite dark romance books! As always, I must let you know that if you are not 18 years old or older and if you have triggers about dark romance aspects, violence, BDSM, torture, m*rder, human trafficking etc. Please just walk away. I know this book is not easy to read, especially with the current plot of the book and the touchy subjects it has. There is no point in hurting or triggering yourself for the sake of a book, there are thousands of books out there just as good and interesting without possibly ruining your sanity for the period you are reading it haha. I babble too much in the beginning, so without further explanation about the triggers, let’s get into the review!
Our book has several factors that are slightly different from a regular dark romance book, and the plot is slightly heavier than what I’m usually reading. We have two main characters with not many side characters besides the female character’s best friend. Our book revolves around Zade Meadows and Adeline Reilly, who are complete opposites and somehow are connected at the end of the book. Of course, this connection did not happen very smoothly when it comes to their relationship. Let me walk you through what is going on with this book.
Adeline is a successful author who lives in a “haunted mansion” that is left by her family. She has mommy issues and basically grew up with the mental abuse of her mother. She is a strong and independent woman who is aware of how beautiful she is, which she ends up speaking about several times in the book, whether it is her boobs or her ass. She enjoys appreciating herself, which I also appreciate because women these days are incredibly insecure about their bodies. Although her mother and her only best friend, Daya, want her to move out of that house because apparently there are ghosts and “something wrong with that house”, she is adamant that there is a connection between her past grandmother and doesn’t want to turn her back on this beautiful home. She has the money to renovate it, and basically, the entire mood of the book is set within the first few chapters. The setting is about how thrilling haunted houses are, how thrilling darkness is, or how thrilling it is to be in a situation where you are scared.
Our girl gets quite excited when she’s scared. And I know that this is a whole psychological thing which a couple of people I know also have, but her reaction was something new that I have never come across in books. I did come across the idea of waiting for something that you don’t know, but this terrorizing fear she feels is getting her on, lol. It was definitely something new. Our male main character, Zade again, is a very cryptic man. He is not an open man; he is just a goddamn weirdo and a literal stalker. Like I’m not making this up, he is a stalker. His biggest hobby is to get into her house and terrorize her for long periods of time. Although I was fairly sceptical about the possibility of this behaviour being the true love that he delusionally persuaded himself with, I am beyond past expecting something realistic from dark romance books. I accepted him as he was. He is a stalker who does something really good, actually, on one hand, he is terrorizing this young woman who thinks that he is in love with her, and on the other hand, he is saving girls and women from human traffickers. From his backstory, we do not get much besides a memory from his father and a memory from his high school. He is a complete black box, but what I know is that he was portrayed very well in the book. He is aware that he is weird. He is aware that he is doing something unacceptable. He is aware that the things that are happening around him and her are because of him. He is jealous and tends to move towards violence, which he has proven several times in the book. But overall, he has a greater reason to be the person that he is. Which is something that I appreciate in books. I don’t like men who are portrayed as just cocky and cringey weirdos who have the power and the money and basically act like the owner of the women in the books, no matter how in love they are. Zade was an opposite portrayal of that. He had a greater reason to live, and although we don’t know why this urge to save these women comes because not all of the people who are as rich as him or have the power do stuff like that, and I’m not going to question it. I am glad that, although he was the epitome of toxic masculinity, he still had a greater reason, and it was fun to read. I also liked how he was vulnerable and aware of his surroundings. I don’t know how to explain this, but he seemed like a man who was aware of what was going to happen and what was going on in the book, and he knew the dangers of his job and the things he had done to Adeline. But also, he was cocky enough, and I don’t know whether this was something that he did to hide his true emotions or this was something that he feels normally. Like he is this cocky bastard who knows what is going on.
Adeline sadly ends up finding herself with a few enemies that reach her through him. And the book ends in a very annoying climax. I really hated how the work finished. Maybe this is why I ended up cutting off half a point from it, mainly because it was unnecessary. I understand that this plot needed another book to wrap up the story and bring them together at the end; however, the moment the author decided to finish the book actually didn’t push you to start the second book as much. For example, I do have the second book physically with me; however, I am not going to read it because I am not curious enough. And this rarely happens to me when it comes to good series. Once I finish a book, I immediately start the second one or the third one, so this itself shows that the end of the book and how it reacted within the plot wasn’t doing well for me, and I don’t think I’m going to put too much time in between these books mainly because I tend to forget details that are slightly important when I give even a month between each book. However, I will surely read a couple more books before I start the second one.
In terms of the steamy aspect of the book, it is incredibly hot. The author has a great pen when it comes to these kinds of scenes, and I enjoyed every one of them, especially the mirror room. It is amazing and low-key scared the sh*t out of me because I enjoyed reading that terrorizing moment, lol. However, I’m past saving so it was great. I will just say that. But again, I have to say this, please do not read this book if you feel triggered by the thought of forcing something onto someone. It is best that you just don’t read this and move on with your life happier with the slightly less dark romance books that you have.
Overall, this was a 4.5-star read for me. I enjoyed it very much, and like I said above, I will most likely read the second book sometime next month, but until then, take care, and I will see you in my next blog post. 💕
Luster of Books 