Rating: ★★★
Audience: Historical Fantasy Romance
Length: 554 pages
Author: Marilyn Marks
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: March 14th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The year was 1926. Glamour, riches and greed filled the air, but under the facade of glitter and gold lay truths much darker, more sinister, and entirely less human . . .

Adeline Colton was cursed. Everyone in Georgia knew the devil walked her farm, and maybe they were right, because each month she had . . . dreams. Visions of a dark prince and a shadowed forest. A creature so wrong, temptation lurked beneath her skin.

So after escaping to New York City, it’s no surprise when her bad fortune follows. Only this time, it’s in the form of Jack Warren: millionaire bootlegger, infamous gangster, and criminal who makes Addie his fervent obsession.

Jack is everything Addie should avoid, but the more she resists his pull, the deeper she’s drawn into his extravagant world. Lured by a life of freedom and desire, Adeline must make a choice: heed her family’s warnings or follow Jack into the dark. But when fate binds them together, Jack is revealed to be something else—not man, not beast, not even the devil, but a creature much, much worse.

DID I MISS SOMETHING?

I’m sitting here looking at all of these wonderful reviews for this book wondering if I have somehow picked up the wrong because this ain’t it. And I gave it 300 pages before I really hit a wall and skimmed my way to the end. It was trying to be a lot of books I’ve already read + the addition of 200 pages that weren’t necessary.

There was a lot of time spent doing nothing. Addie would be a stick in the mud about every little thing & Jack would sometimes try to help the situation. Too much time spent on the nuances of trying to get Addie to figure out her magic and plenty of running around trying to find all of the artifacts needed to turn Addie immortal.

The mate trope here also rubbed be the wrong way. It started off AWKARD. And then took a long time before I finally started coming around to them. I did like Jack and the his merry group of banished fae. They were all dandy. I think there was plenty here that would work for many people, I am just not that person.

Overall audience notes:

• Historical fantasy romance
• Language: some strong
• Romance: open door + innuendo
• Violence: high
• Trigger/Content Warnings: physical and magical altercations, loss of a parent, near death experiences, alcohol use

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph