“I am darkness.” He kissed her softly. “I live it, I breathe it, I am it. There is no redemption, no emotion, nothing for me. Nothing but you. You’re the moon to my dark night, flamma. You’re the only thing in this black sky that can thrive when I swallow everything else whole. The stars don’t exist in this space. Just you and I. You need me to glow and I need you to exist. It’s simple as that.”
Hello, friends! 🌸 It has been a good while since I posted something here. Life has been hectic, as expected for the last few months of the year, and I’ve been dealing with dental issues again. Hopefully, they will all end soon. Over the months, I’ve been to Paris, given my study a makeover, started my treatment, and got lost in work—this is also the reason I’ve been reading less and less since September. It’s almost the end of 2024, and I’m happy to say that I’m back with a few new book reviews. Hopefully, 2025 will be a better year in terms of reading. If you let me speak, I won’t stop, so let’s focus on today’s book review. I’m back with yet another RuNyx book, The Annihilator. So far, of the series, this book is my second favourite, and it was significantly darker than the other stories we’ve been introduced to, which I expected, considering the characters and the setting of the book. I may not be able to remain spoiler-free since we are so deep in the series, so read the review with caution.
Each book in the series has been a build up to this one: the research for a lost sister, the yearning for a family, the obsession of a man who had nothing but everything at the same time. We’ve been reading about these characters ever since the first book, so while I had some sense of familiarity with them, they were also incredibly new. In the previous books, we’ve seen them as shadows of what they are, but in this book, we finally bring some light into these shadowy characters who have been affecting the others throughout the series. I must say this was one of the best buildups in the series because you’re expecting these characters, wondering what’s happening with them over the course of five books, and finally, you read about them, and everything starts to make sense. The plot actually comes together, which is why I believe this book is my second favorite in the series. Everything started to make sense, and it made me even more curious about what’s to come.
The book follows Lyla (who we’ve known since the first book as Luna, the infamous lost sister of Tristan Caine, owner of my heart and soul, lol). She is the girl who’s been taken away from her life and raised in this twisted world of the Syndicate—the organization from hell, the one that has hurt each and every character we’ve read about so far. We finally get an actual insight into this horrible setting through the eyes of an innocent girl who was raised there. We see glimpses of her life, the things Lyla has endured, the girls who are lost, and the reality of a life that isn’t in the control of the person living it.
While Lyla is under the control of this horrible organization and literally being trafficked on a daily basis, she has someone we are also familiar with: the nightmare of the Syndicate, the Shadowman. Throughout the entire series, we’ve seen him give little clues about the organization to our characters. While he keeps most of them to himself, he does an immense job of helping them understand the structure of the Syndicate and save lives. Our obsessed fella here is intrigued by Lyla in every possible way, and every time a man bids on her—let’s say, decides to take his chances with her—he’s there watching, and finally… ending it. While she doesn’t save herself from the organization directly during the first quarter of the book, he does everything to keep her safe and ready for her final departure. When that happens… the book actually starts. We finally get deep into this Shadowman, who he really is, what he really does, and what his plan is.
While the relationship between Lyla and him is not the most conventional—mainly because they are both forever altered due to the experiences they’ve had with the organization—it felt like the strongest among the couples we’ve seen before. Dante loves Amara with all his heart, Tristan loves Amara in his own way, Alpha learns to love again through Zephyr, but what the Shadowman does for Lyla is different from all these examples. They are each other’s salvation and pain, truth and lie—they are the moon and the night sky. The connection between them is so raw and real, it actually hurt to read at some points. The only reason I took half a star off the rating was the idiotic scene in the greenhouse. It was completely useless, and while I understand it was needed for her “relief,” I felt like, with the abilities RuNyx has, something much more touching could have been done.
Overall, I feel like it was one of the best books in the series, and the ending was more open than I expected it to be. All four of the books we’ve read so far somehow ended with a conclusion, while this one felt pretty open-ended. I can’t wait to read the last book, which is already published. I’m so sad to say goodbye to the series, but I’m so glad I ended up reading it because, well, it’s a dark romance book, and it’s based on very heavy themes. It actually has a very good plot about how human trafficking works and how deep it’s rooted in the communities we live in. I will forever love this series, and it makes me happy to see that the author brought a romance into it. It serves as a reminder of the reality that many women and children are living in—sadly, in the worst cases, most of the time. It feels like a good reminder to be grateful.
Until I write the next review, please stay safe, and please give the series a try because I truly think that any romance reader would actually enjoy it. Until I see you in the next blog post, take care. 🦋✨
Luster of Books 