My name... Say it when you break.
Resonance
Ketley Allison
Soulren, book one
ebook, 556 pages
Published April 23, 2026
ASIN B0GLHVV7MP
ISBN 9798246935446
I did two things I can't take I raised my cat from the dead, and I killed the boy who saw me do it.
Necromancy is forbidden. Erased from history. The kind of magic that gets you hunted by the Academy's best, Elite Soulren who've spent decades killing anything that threatens their power.
Falcen Reaves finds me, anyway.
He's cursed, ruthless, and supposed to drag me to the Academy to be broken or destroyed like every other late awakener before me.
Instead, he keeps me alive. Trains me. Watches me with a cruelty that feels like hunger.
Because my power isn't normal. There's something inside me, ancient, violent, and growing stronger every time I consume a soul.
It recognizes him. His curse. The darkness he's drowning in.
And gods help me, I want him despite it all.
Every training session becomes more dangerous. His control is slipping. So is mine. We're bound by a curse neither of us understands, a pull between souls that shouldn't exist, and a hunger that matches violence for violence.
He's my captor. My teacher. The only person who knows what I am.
And the bond between us might kill us both.
Resonance is a dark romantasy drenched in soul-magic, deadly trials, and a love forged in blood and Void. Perfect for fans of morally gray heroes and heroines who refuse to be broken.
TROPES:
Morally Grey MMC
Touch Her and Die (Literally. He will consume your soul).
Captor/Captive
Bad Boy/Good Girl
Black Cat Heroine
Boy Falls First
Close Proximity
Fated Mates
Dark Academia
Grumpy/Sunshine
Guarded Hearts
Loathe to Love
Guardian Ward
Kidnapped
Power Imbalance
Boy Falls First?
Our leading lady is heavily in the thralls of lust from the moment she lays eyes on the MMC, but he falls first? Okay, we'll go with that.
(Spoiler alert: He fell first.)
This is not a book for those that need to consult trigger warning pages when it comes to dominant males or abuse. This is deliciously dark. The MMC is not gentle. He is not soft. He will command her. He will harm her. He will strive to break her, because it is his duty and if he doesn't, the Academy will.
Their first kiss was a bit of mess. It felt like something was edited out. Something vital: the actual kiss. One moment he's pulling her against him and in the next his tongue is darting into her mouth. Immediate reread of the situation and all I could envision was some kind of serpentine creature molesting her face and groin. I'm not certain how that made it past the editor. Not certain how a number of instances (grammatical, factual, etc) made it through the final edit actually.
And I was this close to turning the word 'sternum' into part of a drinking game.
Adored Verity. A leading lady that continuously left me flabbergasted. Where every other chapter is either Girl, what are you doing? or Are you for real right now?!.
Woman is being accused of screwing an Elite for special treatment one minute and we've barely turned a cheek before, in a very public place, she's throwing down the What do I mean to you/Where is whatever this is going conversation.
She is an optomist with empathy to spare.
Falcen, I loved. He is my spirit animal. Morally grey from head to toe.
He calls her Veilbreaker. 💕
But what the hell am I suppose to do with that ending? Our man's soulless corpse got turned into a nether drake!
4 out of 5 stars.
Available in ebook | paperback
2026/25