Tag: dark romance

ARC Book Review: What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 357 pages
Author: Tricia Levenseller
Publisher: Feiwel
Release Date: September 23rd, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

#1 New York Times-bestselling author Tricia Levenseller makes her adult debut in What Fury Brings, a sexy, empowering romantasy featuring a warrior general who must kidnap and train a husband in order to take her rightful place as queen.

Let’s get something clear, Prince. I have claimed you. That means you belong to me now.

There’s a shortage of men in the kingdom of Amarra. After a failed rebellion against the matriarchy, most noblemen in the country are dead. Now the women of Amarra must obtain their husbands (should they want one) by kidnapping them from other kingdoms.

Olerra, a warrior princess vying for the throne, is determined to prove her worth by kidnapping a husband. And not just any husband. To outmaneuver her treacherous cousin, she needs the best. Fortunately, the second-born prince of their greatest enemy is widely known for both his looks and his sweet, docile temperament. He’s the perfect choice to secure her claim to the throne.

Sanos, heir to the Kingdom of Brutus, has nothing but contempt for the idea of a society run by women. Trained from birth to fight, lead, and follow in his father’s overbearing footsteps, his path has always been set. Until he takes his younger brother’s place in a drunken prank and finds himself kidnapped, carted off to the Amarran Palace, and informed that he is to become the husband of Queen Potential Olerra. Sanos needs to escape before anyone learns his real identity, but the more he gets to know his captor, the less sure he is of what he truly wants.

Thank you to Feiwel for the gifted ARC.

OH WHERE DO I BEGIN.

I am a HUGE fan of Tricia Levenseller’s young adult romance. They are all gems and I highly recommend going to go pick those up first.

But if YA isn’t you’re thing, here are some of my thoughts on why this book was a miss for me.

I understood where TL was trying to take this story and what the book was trying to do. It really alllllll boiled down to execution. What the Fury Brings is only 350 pages and that was not enough time to feel satisfied by the end.

I feel like both of these societies had too many unredeemable qualities. There were luckily a few good characters that felt differently which kept this from becoming a hate read (one of those being the FMC, Olerra).

The romance had a Stockholm syndrome vibe that might have worked better spread out over more books. It seemingly grew too fast and was headed by physicality rather than emotion. Don’t even get me started on the spice and innuendo, it was not for me on any level.

While there were some thought provoking moments and the ending brought together some idea of peace and resolution I wish this had more going for it.

I would be very curious to see another adult romance from TL before deciding if those just aren’t for me anymore.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 3+ open door; innuendo throughout
  • Violence: high
  • Content warnings: mentions of sexual assault, physical/emotional abuse, dubious consent, kidnapping & bondage, mentions of grooming, animal deaths, war themes

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ALC Book Review: Enigma by RuNyx

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Dark Academia Romance
Length: 463 pages
Author: RuNyx
Publisher: Bramble
Release Date: April 29th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A new breathtaking tale of unforgettable romance, set in a dark academia world of secret societies, lush suspense and sizzling sensuality, from RuNyx, the New York Times bestselling author of Gothikana.

Salem Salazar comes to Mortimer University to get to the bottom of her sister’s mysterious death. There, obsessed with forensics, she discovers there have been a lot more unexplained deaths on the campus. Her search leads her down a dark and dangerous path to a secret society and to Caz.

Cazimir van der Waal is in her way and another mystery to unravel. Is he just an art student, a man living a double life, or a murderer? While also at the university seeking answers for another death, Caz has a lot more to him than meets the eye.

Secret forces are at play in Mortimer and no one is safe. As Salem tries to go under radar and Caz tries to block her path, somehow, they both end up in the crossfire of a powerful, secret society. They are forced to work together to discover the truth or risk losing their lives.

In this magnificent, steamy dark academia romance from RuNyx, sparks will fly, rivals will become lovers, and terrible secrets will be unleashed.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for the gifted audiobook.

WELL THAT WAS INTERESTING.

I read dark fantasy fairly often, I like dark fantasy, I liked dark academia, but I’ve neve read a dark romance. And this email caught me in a mood and that mood wanted to try this author out. Will I read another one?? I don’t think so, even though I did like this book.

What I loved circled around all of the mystery and atmosphere. This is quintessential dark academia and I loved the vibes. It felt haunting and the suspense elements alongside the secret societies are what I expect and what I like when I pick up a dark academia book (though this is being tagged as fantasy and there’s no fantasy elements FYI).

And I will say there were pieces of the romance I did like. I am who I am and I love a good jealousy moment so those worked for me. The spice though? Yeah, that’s not for me. And there were more scenes than I had anticipated needing to skip which took me out of the book often too.

I do think this wrapped up things well for a standalone and that you got the overall answers you needed. I loved that there was a epilogue at the end to get that happy ever after feeling. This book had good writing and story telling, and I’m not upset that I tried it out.

Overall audience notes:

  • Dark academia romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: 5+ open door
  • Violence: moderate – high
  • Content warnings: child exploitation, grooming, death, dubious consent, non-consensual drugging, murder, sexual assault and trauma, suicide

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Book Review: The Ever Queen (The Ever Seas #2) by L.J. Andrews

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 450 pages
Author: L.J. Andrews
Publisher: Indie Published
Release Date: January 22nd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The Songbird:

Captive. Challenger. Queen.

Enemies took her from the man who holds her heart. They might see her as weak, as a pawn in wicked games, but they’re no match for the first Ever Queen.

Let them think they’ve won. Her heart belongs to a beautiful monster, and she will never stop fighting until she’s back in his arms.


The Serpent:

Captor. Villain. King.

His enemies stole the woman who claimed his soul. They betrayed him out of greed and desire for the crown, but they won’t die for that betrayal. No.

They’ll die for touching her.

His heart belongs to a stunning little bird. He will never stop searching for her light across the skies. Not until the blood of his enemies spills at her feet, and his queen wears their bones around her neck.

WHAT A CONCLUSION.

Who knew I’d be obsessed with this dark fantasy? I didn’t and I’m so glad my friends reviews convinced me to pick it up! I loved the way this went. I usually don’t love when a couple is separated for too long in a book, and I think the way the action and intrigue was kept up I was not bothered at all. Everything came together as it should. The slower middle actually worked beautifully because that was the bit of peace the story needed before the action packed, deadly conclusion.

I LOVE Erik and Livia so much. Both on their own and together. There’s incredible growth and I love watching their relationship blossom and thrive. Erik had so many swoony lines that I had to keep highlighting because can you EVEN??? It was the perfect kind of contrast with the darkness of the book. And this whole cast?! I adore them. Side characters can make/break a book and these MADE it.

Fantastic book. I loved it. I am very excited to see that there will be more books in this series (following a different pair!!).

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 4+ open door
  • Violence: very high; high blood/gore
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: torture, sexual assault (brief, on page), war themes

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Book Review: To Bleed a Crystal Bloom (Crystal Bloom #1) by Sarah A. Parker

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Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 486 pages
Author: Sarah A. Parker
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: July 24th, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

What a pretty flower to keep locked in a big, rocky tower.

Nineteen years ago, I was plucked from the heart of a bloody massacre that spared nobody else.

Small. Fragile.
An enigma.

Now ward to a powerful High Master who knows too much and says too little, I lead a simple life, never straying from the confines of an imaginary line I’ve drawn around the castle grounds.
Stay within. Never leave.
Out there, the monsters lurk. Inside, I’m safe … though at a cost far greater than the blood I drip into a goblet daily.
Toxic, unreciprocated love for a man who’s utterly unavailable.

My savior. My protector.
My almost executioner.

I can’t help but be enamored with the arcane man who holds the power to pull my roots from the ground.

When voracious beasts spill across the land and threaten to fray the fabric of my tailored existence, the petals of reality will peel back to reveal an ugly truth. But in a castle puddled with secrets, none are greater than the one I’ve kept from myself.

No tower is tall enough to protect me from the horror that tore my life to shreds.

IT KIND OF WORKED FOR ME?

I have felt super conflicted over my thoughts on this one.

One one hand, I really did like this overall. It is dark, it is a bit twisted, but the author did a good job of conveying that and it was written in a way that didn’t bug me too much. I could see great potential for Orlaith’s character development and the whole Rapunzel theme was perfect.

I did think the “heat” scenes in the middle of the book were way out of left field? And forced the steam rather than a natural development. It was kind of weird, I don’t understand why it was there and could have used a whole lot less of it.

The reader is kept in the dark as much as Orlaith and I liked that plot choice. I was kept enough in the loop to keep me going and that was fine with me. I figured more would be explained throughout the series and was getting a big enough taste to want to read those books.

There’s some plot holes involving Orlaith’s drug addiction and other tidbits that I thought were thrown to the side and needed more closure about, small plot things kept jutting out to me that left a little flustered.

But now after seeing some reviews and speaking with friends who’ve read the second book I’ve decided, at this time, not to pick it up. I have some major thoughts on the romance arc (that I won’t go into here because of spoilers) that I would need answered to give the whole series a go.

Overall audience notes:

  • Dark Fantasy Romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: high innuendo; 1-2 open scenes
  • Violence: high
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: abusive relationship, PTSD, agoraphobia, panic attacks, nightmares/night terrors, self-harm, drug use, drug addiction, blood/gore depiction

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