A review by bookbonds
Embrace the Darkness by Ashley N. Rostek

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“I’m not afraid to die. Are you?” I pushed the barrel harder into the back of his head. “Because I’m thinking about taking you with me. It’d be quick. We might not even feel it. The next thing we’d know is our two souls being dragged down to hell to pay for our sins.”

woah where do i begin? fuck idek. this book had me hooked from chapter one onwards. Maura as a character and woman >>>> 
like wonderful. i love how the author dealt with her trauma and the way it affects ALL of her relationships with men, not just in a romantic sense. i really connected with her in that regard. 
her brutality is also something i really enjoy. she’s blunt, but she’s not completely gone when it comes to being empathetic. the way her mind works is just chefs kiss. but then yk she has her impulsive moments where u wish she kept her mouth shut.

and i fawking love that she killed her ex and her friend LMFAOOOO like hello yeah i would’ve done the same… if it was legal of course.

I didn’t need jewelry. I needed two words. But I knew I’d never get them. Along with three other words I’d give my left arm just to hear once.

Maura’s relationship with Stefan has left me gutted at every twist and turn and it certainly isn’t helping that i too have daddy issues. there’s something about dads that apologize with actions instead of words that just fucks with u mentally yk yk. actions speak louder than words but sometimes it would be nice to have a verbal confirmation of what you already know.. the little snippets of affection you force yourself to hang onto fr does something to ur brain.

Could we get past this? Did I want to? If he wanted a submissive woman then we wouldn’t work. I couldn’t suppress who I was to save his ego. No matter what I felt for him, I just couldn’t.

now the men! whew what a ride. now, one thing i really wanna high five the author for,

usually in literally any rh/poly/why choose (whatever term you wanna use) books, the girl gets the stoic, “mean” guy last, we always get ‘em last!!! and in this one we get him first!!! how refreshing! just a nice surprise

jamie is an interesting one. i like that him and maura actually talk out their issues and we don’t get any shitty miscommunication tropes. 
a lot of the other men in this book are interesting, i like that maura has other men that she can lean on that aren’t love interests(?) 
but i will say, i would like her to have a female bestie at some point ☠️ so much testosterone