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straybutterfly's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Pregnancy
edietz22's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Pregnancy
rjordan19's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖📖 (This is one I was very eager to get back to – I haven’t been this into a book in a while)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞 (Some things weren’t romantic to me, they were too gory or over the top – but the things I did love and find romantic were super swoony to me. I love the over the top possessiveness of these heroes)
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥+
Humor: Just a touch
Perspective: first person from all 3 characters, but only briefly from each hero. This is mostly from the heroine’s POV
More character focused or plot focused? character, the plot/mystery is quite light
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: first interaction through text is 11%, but physically on page is about 24%
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, 2 years later
Format: read e-book through kindle unlimited subscription
There is a figure in the opposite doorway, leaning against the frame. The figure is dressed completely in tight black clothes all the way from their feet to the hood that’s raised over their head, even black gloves cover their hands. With a tilt of their head, the filtered light hits their face and all I can see is the detailed skull mask that covers from the nose down.
Should I read in order?
This is book 1 in Rose’s The Darling Games series.
Basic plot:
Alexandra is searching for serial murderers when they involve her in a game she can’t refuse
Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary romance
- M/F/M pairing (no M/M)
- heroine is an FBI forensic profiler
- you don’t mind the plot being very light – this is mostly about the relationship
- Dexter vibes – vigilante serial killers
- secret identity (heroes)
- over the top possessive and jealous mains
- pierced heroes
- truth or dare texts
- very ravishment fantasy
- higher steam – 10 scenes or so
- kinks include masked identity, praise kink, pain play, knife play, blood play, throat grabbing, bondage, DP – heroes also do caretaking on the heroine afterwards
Ages:
- The heroine is around 28, because she was 8 when she lost a family necklace and it’s been missing ‘for twenty years’, and the heroes a bit older than her I would guess, though ages aren’t stated in the book
First line:
The dimly lit room envelops me as I stand in silence, surrounded by the haunting echoes of my thoughts.
My thoughts:
Yay for a book playlist!
So I looooooved so much about this novel. This had so much that I was craving and had no idea that I wanted it so badly. Yes to masked men. Yes to primal play. Yes to the dubious consent and stalking and over the top heroes. Yes yes yes. Yes to kinky throat grabbing and forceful acts and also the aftercare and gentleness afterwards. YES. I want to read more like this book for sure. I was sooo anxious to get back to this book when I wasn’t reading it. My parents had to come over during my read and help with a house issue and all I wanted to do was hide and read about Alex getting railed by two masked men.
The book has a few issues but I am here for how books make me feel and this book made me feel THINGS. I loved it. I’d read more from this author for sure, but hoping to find something like this with less….blood?? Not my favorite thing.
Things that didn’t work for me:
- detailed murder acts as dirty talk/foreplay. I’m here for all the other dirty talk but not that.
- the plot was a farce for the most part – I didn’t mind because I am here for the characters and the fucking and don’t actually care about a good mystery lol but the repeated scenes like ‘we need to keep digging’ ‘there’s something we’re missing’ were rather unsatisfying
- the fucking while murdering people on page and flopping around in their blood and using it as lube? It’s too far for me. Luckily there were only a few scenes of that...
Endearments
The heroes call the heroine ‘Little Darling’
Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts: Any mistakes/typos are my own
showcasing the toxic jealousy….I generally like it but some of this went a bit too far for me.
She would learn soon enough not to get close to other men. Not to talk to them so intimately. Not to smile at them likeshe did. She really shouldn’t even be breathing the same air as anyone but us. Her pretty perfect skin should never be touched by anyone but us. She belongs to us.
---
“We will kill anyone who touches you, Little Darling. If they even breathe on you too closely I will slit their throat and fuck you in their blood while it’s still hot. You are ours. Do you understand?” my voice is harsh as I grit out my question.
//
“This pussy belongs to us, if anyone else even thinks of touching it, I’ll cut off their hands and make them eat them one finger at a time.”
Ugggggh the partial mask lift just gets me
Leaning down I lift my mask enough to kiss her parted lips, my voice is a gravelly rasp as I breath against her skin. “You will never leave me again, Little Darling.”
---
“I think there is something else more important going on here than how hot you think I look.”
He leans closer to me and I still my movements. “Let me make something clear, Little Darling, nothing is ever more important than you.”
---
My hands are moving before I even think about it, shoving at his chest. But instead of moving backward he moves into me, picking me up and continuing until my back hits the wall behind me.
Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.
- murders discussed on page (work place)
- murder on page and done by the main characters – including sexual activities while murdering and in blood of the victim…
- stalking of the heroine by the heroes
- injections done on the heroine, gas emitted into her house to make her pass out…
- knife play, cutting, marking
- blood play, licking, cutting, fucking in a dead person’s blood…
- somnophilia – sex with a sleeping person
- this is a m/f/m relationship with no sword crossing. The male mains are brothers
- parental death and drug use
- child abuse/neglect alluded to in the mains past
- brief mention of murder, child endangerment, and trafficking by villains
- pedophilia mentioned of a villain
- heroine experiences repressed memories from the past, a form of protective amnesia due to her trauma
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Safe sex: No
Hows the consent? [ If you need consent, I would not read this. While the heroine is willing for most acts, there are definite elements of dubious consent, stalking, and feeling of threats of violence to give in to the sex. I went into this with a ravishment fantasy vibe (hide spoiler)]
9% - 🔥 heroine self pleasure (on the short side)
I could visualize Derek’s strong physique, his muscular shoulders and arms, his blue eyes filled with intensity.
14% - 🔥 shower self pleasure for heroine (it’s pretty short)
It conjures another body pressed to my back, one of their gloved hands wrapping around my throat from behind and squeezing hard as their other gloved hand moves between my legs.
26% - some light touches
31% - 🔥 heroine awakens to oral while blindfolded, then hands are bound behind her back and bj for both men
I whimper and gasp again as something brushes the side of my face, a modulated voice then speaking close to my ear. “Awake now, Little Darling? How do you like this for interaction?”
40% - 🔥 knife play while the heroine is at the sink, watching the reflection of one of the heroes. Hero grabs her throat and marks her with the knife, fucks her with the knife handle, then sex bent over the sink then the other hero takes over, binding her hands and fucking her against a wall
“I really need better locks,” I snark.
He chuckle and the closeness of his body behind me has me feeling it against my skin. The way his voice is modulated gives the sound a sinister edge. “Pretty Little Darling. Do you think a lock would stop us.”
56% - 🔥 somnophilia scene – hero puts a sedative in the air to keep the heroine asleep and gives her oral and begins to fuck her
I slowly drag myself out then push back in again. Her moan this time is louder. I can tell the sedative is starting to wear off, I can see the flutter of her pulse in her neck, stretched before me, is starting to flutter faster against her skin.
61% - 🔥 primal play in the forest that leads to sex against a tree, then to the ground with her on top and the other hero does her ass (DP)
A chuckle echoes around me. “We feel like it’s time for some role playing, Little Darling. Instead of you hunting us, we are going to hunt you. Through this forest. In the dark.”
//
“I’m going to fuck you so hard, Little Darling.” His voice is a low, modulated groan.
76% - 🔥 the heroine and heroes murder someone on page and one of the heroes starts fingering the heroine during it, bj for one, then he goes to his knees so the other can fuck her from behind
“Do you want to know what I thought when I saw your lips like this?” he asks, his black eyes focused completely on my lips.
“What?” I question him in response. He is affecting me more than normal this time, and I have to put it down to all the emotions I’ve been feeling lately starting to get to me.
He hums again, “That I can’t wait to see how that color looks smeared on my cock.”
79% - 🔥 her on top, missionary
His breath is hot against my ear as he breathes, “Cum for me, and scream my name.”
82% - 🔥 wall sex, then desk sex
My lips part and his tongue sweeps into my mouth to tangle with mine. I wrap my legs around his waist, and he uses the leverage to reach down to open his pants.
95% - 🔥 another murder sex scene – the heroine murders someone then fingering o for the heroine, then oral for her while she sits on T’s face and give a bj to D, then doggy, then her on top and anal with the other (DP)
“I’m getting impatient too, Little Darling. End it or I’ll fuck you while he’s still watching and bleeding out.”
Readability: 📖📖📖📖📖 (This is one I was very eager to get back to – I haven’t been this into a book in a while)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞 (Some things weren’t romantic to me, they were too gory or over the top – but the things I did love and find romantic were super swoony to me. I love the over the top possessiveness of these heroes)
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥+
Humor: Just a touch
Perspective: first person from all 3 characters, but only briefly from each hero. This is mostly from the heroine’s POV
More character focused or plot focused? character, the plot/mystery is quite light
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: first interaction through text is 11%, but physically on page is about 24%
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, 2 years later
Format: read e-book through kindle unlimited subscription
There is a figure in the opposite doorway, leaning against the frame. The figure is dressed completely in tight black clothes all the way from their feet to the hood that’s raised over their head, even black gloves cover their hands. With a tilt of their head, the filtered light hits their face and all I can see is the detailed skull mask that covers from the nose down.
Should I read in order?
This is book 1 in Rose’s The Darling Games series.
Basic plot:
Alexandra is searching for serial murderers when they involve her in a game she can’t refuse
Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary romance
- M/F/M pairing (no M/M)
- heroine is an FBI forensic profiler
- you don’t mind the plot being very light – this is mostly about the relationship
- Dexter vibes – vigilante serial killers
- secret identity (heroes)
- over the top possessive and jealous mains
- pierced heroes
- truth or dare texts
- very ravishment fantasy
- higher steam – 10 scenes or so
- kinks include masked identity, praise kink, pain play, knife play, blood play, throat grabbing, bondage, DP – heroes also do caretaking on the heroine afterwards
Ages:
- The heroine is around 28, because she was 8 when she lost a family necklace and it’s been missing ‘for twenty years’, and the heroes a bit older than her I would guess, though ages aren’t stated in the book
First line:
The dimly lit room envelops me as I stand in silence, surrounded by the haunting echoes of my thoughts.
My thoughts:
Yay for a book playlist!
So I looooooved so much about this novel. This had so much that I was craving and had no idea that I wanted it so badly. Yes to masked men. Yes to primal play. Yes to the dubious consent and stalking and over the top heroes. Yes yes yes. Yes to kinky throat grabbing and forceful acts and also the aftercare and gentleness afterwards. YES. I want to read more like this book for sure. I was sooo anxious to get back to this book when I wasn’t reading it. My parents had to come over during my read and help with a house issue and all I wanted to do was hide and read about Alex getting railed by two masked men.
The book has a few issues but I am here for how books make me feel and this book made me feel THINGS. I loved it. I’d read more from this author for sure, but hoping to find something like this with less….blood?? Not my favorite thing.
Things that didn’t work for me:
- detailed murder acts as dirty talk/foreplay. I’m here for all the other dirty talk but not that.
- the plot was a farce for the most part – I didn’t mind because I am here for the characters and the fucking and don’t actually care about a good mystery lol but the repeated scenes like ‘we need to keep digging’ ‘there’s something we’re missing’ were rather unsatisfying
- the fucking while murdering people on page and flopping around in their blood and using it as lube? It’s too far for me. Luckily there were only a few scenes of that...
Endearments
Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts: Any mistakes/typos are my own
showcasing the toxic jealousy….I generally like it but some of this went a bit too far for me.
She would learn soon enough not to get close to other men. Not to talk to them so intimately. Not to smile at them likeshe did. She really shouldn’t even be breathing the same air as anyone but us. Her pretty perfect skin should never be touched by anyone but us. She belongs to us.
---
“We will kill anyone who touches you, Little Darling. If they even breathe on you too closely I will slit their throat and fuck you in their blood while it’s still hot. You are ours. Do you understand?” my voice is harsh as I grit out my question.
//
“This pussy belongs to us, if anyone else even thinks of touching it, I’ll cut off their hands and make them eat them one finger at a time.”
Ugggggh the partial mask lift just gets me
Leaning down I lift my mask enough to kiss her parted lips, my voice is a gravelly rasp as I breath against her skin. “You will never leave me again, Little Darling.”
---
“I think there is something else more important going on here than how hot you think I look.”
He leans closer to me and I still my movements. “Let me make something clear, Little Darling, nothing is ever more important than you.”
---
My hands are moving before I even think about it, shoving at his chest. But instead of moving backward he moves into me, picking me up and continuing until my back hits the wall behind me.
Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.
- murders discussed on page (work place)
- murder on page and done by the main characters – including sexual activities while murdering and in blood of the victim…
- stalking of the heroine by the heroes
- injections done on the heroine, gas emitted into her house to make her pass out…
- knife play, cutting, marking
- blood play, licking, cutting, fucking in a dead person’s blood…
- somnophilia – sex with a sleeping person
- this is a m/f/m relationship with no sword crossing. The male mains are brothers
- parental death and drug use
- child abuse/neglect alluded to in the mains past
- brief mention of murder, child endangerment, and trafficking by villains
- pedophilia mentioned of a villain
- heroine experiences repressed memories from the past, a form of protective amnesia due to her trauma
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Safe sex:
Hows the consent? [ If you need consent, I would not read this. While the heroine is willing for most acts, there are definite elements of dubious consent, stalking, and feeling of threats of violence to give in to the sex. I went into this with a ravishment fantasy vibe (hide spoiler)]
9% - 🔥 heroine self pleasure (on the short side)
I could visualize Derek’s strong physique, his muscular shoulders and arms, his blue eyes filled with intensity.
14% - 🔥 shower self pleasure for heroine (it’s pretty short)
It conjures another body pressed to my back, one of their gloved hands wrapping around my throat from behind and squeezing hard as their other gloved hand moves between my legs.
26% - some light touches
31% - 🔥 heroine awakens to oral while blindfolded, then hands are bound behind her back and bj for both men
I whimper and gasp again as something brushes the side of my face, a modulated voice then speaking close to my ear. “Awake now, Little Darling? How do you like this for interaction?”
40% - 🔥 knife play while the heroine is at the sink, watching the reflection of one of the heroes. Hero grabs her throat and marks her with the knife, fucks her with the knife handle, then sex bent over the sink then the other hero takes over, binding her hands and fucking her against a wall
“I really need better locks,” I snark.
He chuckle and the closeness of his body behind me has me feeling it against my skin. The way his voice is modulated gives the sound a sinister edge. “Pretty Little Darling. Do you think a lock would stop us.”
56% - 🔥 somnophilia scene – hero puts a sedative in the air to keep the heroine asleep and gives her oral and begins to fuck her
I slowly drag myself out then push back in again. Her moan this time is louder. I can tell the sedative is starting to wear off, I can see the flutter of her pulse in her neck, stretched before me, is starting to flutter faster against her skin.
61% - 🔥 primal play in the forest that leads to sex against a tree, then to the ground with her on top and the other hero does her ass (DP)
A chuckle echoes around me. “We feel like it’s time for some role playing, Little Darling. Instead of you hunting us, we are going to hunt you. Through this forest. In the dark.”
//
“I’m going to fuck you so hard, Little Darling.” His voice is a low, modulated groan.
76% - 🔥 the heroine and heroes murder someone on page and one of the heroes starts fingering the heroine during it, bj for one, then he goes to his knees so the other can fuck her from behind
“Do you want to know what I thought when I saw your lips like this?” he asks, his black eyes focused completely on my lips.
“What?” I question him in response. He is affecting me more than normal this time, and I have to put it down to all the emotions I’ve been feeling lately starting to get to me.
He hums again, “That I can’t wait to see how that color looks smeared on my cock.”
79% - 🔥 her on top, missionary
His breath is hot against my ear as he breathes, “Cum for me, and scream my name.”
82% - 🔥 wall sex, then desk sex
My lips part and his tongue sweeps into my mouth to tangle with mine. I wrap my legs around his waist, and he uses the leverage to reach down to open his pants.
95% - 🔥 another murder sex scene – the heroine murders someone then fingering o for the heroine, then oral for her while she sits on T’s face and give a bj to D, then doggy, then her on top and anal with the other (DP)
“I’m getting impatient too, Little Darling. End it or I’ll fuck you while he’s still watching and bleeding out.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder
sambam13's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Spicy scenes were good. Plot was alright, but alot of the scenes between the spice were repetitive. They same things were said or thought and they did the same things.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder
mjksn's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Gun violence
Moderate: Stalking