A review by erinlaura
There Is No Devil by Sophie Lark

fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

3.25⭐️ 
I think the novelty wore off in this one unfortunately. By the middle I really wanted to look away from the train wreck but I’m not a quitter, and I don’t feel right reviewing books that I haven’t finished. So I finished it, and it lived up to my fairly low expectations. 

The first one was interesting in its unpredictability. The second one.. not so much. This went down pretty much as expected. More murder, dealing with “unfinished business” all over the place, and everyone continuing to treat the FMC Mara badly (except for the MMC Cole and his staff of course). 

We learn more about the exceedingly terrible childhoods of both of the main characters. None of it is particularly surprising, but we get to hear lots about Mara’s trauma and see her put it to use in her art, that of course is suddenly wildly successful because of course it is. 

Like in book 1, the couple has frequent interludes where they spout off eye-rollingly cheesy thoughts and dialogue. They seem to love to wax poetic about themselves and one another in a way that seems completely at odds with their usual behaviour.

The beginning started out spicy but didn’t really escalate much or stay central to the story. Of course there were little snippets, and comments made, but I really expected them to get even more unhinged as they started murdering together because sex and violence really seem to go hand in hand with these two. 

All in all, Cole still creeps me out, Mara’s clearly still very damaged from her childhood
despite some late-book catharsis
and this reads more like a cautionary tale than a romance. 
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