Come For Me (Hunt #1)

Interesting. It seems murder is my love language.

Available at Amazon.com

Come For Me
C.J. Sweet
The Hunt, book one
328 pages, Kindle Edition
Audiobook, ~14 hours
Published October 4, 2024
ISBN 9798990912007

Alaina
He’s waited a long time for me, but I’ve waited longer for the truth. Not even the king himself could keep me from the only ties left to my identity. Then I meet him, and I’m stuck between uncovering who I am and discovering who I’m meant to be.

Dax
After seven years I finally found her, my true mate’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. With the rogue and vampire attacks increasing in vigor, my kingdom needed a strong leader now more than ever. They needed us. Only together, did we have a chance. But she’s fighting her destiny, fighting me. It’s only a matter of time before my enemies plaguing my kingdom would see this and try to take what’s mine.

This book features a menu of over forty of the best (and what some may deem worst) tropes and kinks of dark romance. There's something for everyone, especially those with a healthy sense of adventure or those looking to unlock new kinks.

Everyone knows how mate bonds are severed: either the true mate is killed or a wolf is claimed by another before the fated mate can. Once marked, I would quickly lose my ability to recognize my mate, and he would eventually die of a broken heart.

Would I rather my mate be killed than live somewhere else? Would I choose his agony over my own?

Find your true mate or choose to bond to another.

But if you choose another, your true mate will wither and die.

Alrighty then. Ouch.

Alaina doesn’t want her true mate. Not if it means leaving the Bloodhound pack, the only pack she’s ever known and the only link she has left to a mother she never knew. A mother who had wandered into the pack’s territory, pregnant and alone, seeking refuge. The mother who had died giving birth to her.

When the alpha’s son, Caleb, her best friend and occasional lover, tells her that his father is forcing him to choose a mate at the next traditional mate hunt in order to secure his place as heir, he also informs her that he intends to choose her should he fail to find his true mate.

It’s a solution to both of their predicaments. And, would be a bittersweet full circle that started when they had first become friends with benefits back when Alaina was eighteen only to discover on her twenty-first birthday that Caleb was not her true mate.

The day arrives. The hunt begins. And straight away, Alaina detects a new scent. Her wolf responds Mate while Alana's eerie brain takes the 'Caleb needs to kill him' route.

Meanwhile... Dax had nearly given up on finding his fated. After the first five years of failure, he no longer joins the hunt. His last was three years ago.

As we near the castle grounds, my plans to take advantage of a willing subject are sabotaged by the sweetest smell of black raspberry and vanilla. Her scent infiltrates my plan and overcomes my darkest intentions. This dark lord’s storm is calmed by her aroma as I inhale further. As I drink in this newfound heaven, my [redacted]. Her natural fragrance alone, whoever she is, has caught this demon’s attention, and I won’t be satisfied until I’ve possessed her very soul. Tension and the weight of my duty to the throne rolls off me like sand recedes with the waves—for the first time in eight years. All because of her.

“Mate,” I mindlink to my beta.

Like a meerkat, Sam’s head pops up, wide-eyed and alert. “What?”

He never thought he’d ever hear the word. None of us did.

Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Arden! Anthony Palmini will always be my favorite reader, but Joe. Arden. The inflection. The emphasis. The growls.

Oh, Caleb. You in danger, boy.

And I should have read this before Raven Kennedy's Gleam because compared to Dax, Ravinger's a choir boy.

Alaina has every intention of allowing Caleb to claim her, but with her true mate's scent in her lungs, she finds herself fighting with her wolf. His touch revolts her, burning her, and her wolf snarls and whimpers to get away.

And then Dax arrives. A king that will have his queen.

Let the battle of wills commence.

“All you have to do is stake your claim.” I bare my neck to her, baiting her. “Take what’s always belonged to you, darling. Be my queen.” I growl the honorific.

Her heart skips a beat, lip quivering, and her canines descend unintentionally as she fights her wolf’s instinctual urge.

We know what this would mean. I can be calm in any battle, but she leans in, and it takes everything for my heart to not beat out of my chest. I’ve never wanted anyone more than I’ve wanted her. I fucking worship my mate.

Alaina leans in to mark me. I don’t move, more than ready for her to seal the bond officially.

Then moisture hits my cheek.

Did she just spit on me?

This book had me clutching my pearls and shielding my ears and eyes. I cringed. I laughed. I blushed. It is the be-all and end-all of wolf shifter smut. That's it. I need not one more book in this genre despite the cliffhanger end.

5 out of 5 stars. Dax is positively unhinged. Audiobook or nothing with this one.

Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | audiobook

2025/32

A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOTAR #2)

There you are.
I've been looking for you.

Other Editions Available at Amazon.com

A Court of Mist & Fury
Sarah J. Maas
ACOTAR, book two
656 pages, Paperback
Audiobook, 19+ hours
Night Court Edition published April 29, 2025
ISBN 9781639736706


Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court – but at a steep cost. Though she now possesses the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, the mesmerising High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates his dark web of political games and tantalising promises, a greater evil looms – and she might be key to stopping it.

But only if she can step into her growing power, heal her fractured soul and have the courage to shape her own future – and the future of a world cloven in two...

Everyone deserves a second chance. This was Feyre's.

Three months have passed since what went down in A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Feyre is miserable. And yet... Rhysand come get this damn woman. She's being stupid again!

She's haunted by her kills. She has nightmares. She's vomiting at all hours of the night. She's trapped under guard, in a house, losing weight, turning pale, panic driven at the color red... and she's still f#€^£;#% Tamlin!! I know women like this exist but there is not an iota of my being that can relate to this kind of insanity. Feyre is the only person to go from human to Fae and actually have a glow down instead of up.

Part 2 ::

Being in Velaris, at the restaurant, sitting round the table and sharing their history - how they met and the obstacles they'd overcome - was so very reminiscent of the League. It took me back to Nykyrian and yes, Rhysand very much gave Syn vibes, and I had all the feels as this small team divulged how Rhys had come to have his Inner Circle: his Second, Morrigan; his Third, Amren; the commander of his armies, Cassien; and his spy, Azriel.

Page after page, chapter after chapter, I was trying my best to like Feyre. I was desperate to see her through Rhysand's eyes and kept reminding myself that she does have redeemable qualities. She is a survivor. When faced with a challenge, she will drag herself up to meet it. What she loves, she will destroy herself to protect. But she's being so *difficult*. The way she thinks. The choices she wrestles with. The mantra she clings to only to forsake.

I was a wolf. I was a wolf. I was a wolf. ...I'm not an animal.

What dafuq?!

And then there's her relationship with Tamlin.

“I had done everything—everything for that love. I had ripped myself to shreds, I had killed innocents and debased myself, and he had sat beside Amarantha on that throne. And he couldn’t do anything, hadn’t risked it—hadn’t risked being caught until there was one night left, and all he’d wanted to do wasn’t free me, but fuck me, and—”

And when Amarantha had broken me, when she had snapped my bones and made my blood boil in its veins, he’d just knelt and begged her. He hadn’t tried to kill her, hadn’t crawled for me. Yes, he’d fought for me—but I’d fought harder for him.

And he had the nerve once his powers were back to shove me into a cage. The nerve to say I was no longer useful; I was to be cloistered for his peace of mind. He’d given me everything I needed to become myself, to feel safe, and when he got what he wanted—when he got his power back, his lands back … he stopped trying. He was still good, still Tamlin, but he was just … wrong.

And then I was sobbing through my clenched teeth, the tears washing away that infected wound, and I didn’t care that Cassian was there, or Rhys or Azriel.

How. Many. Times. Will this woman break apart over this pathetic cretin before enough is enough.

But we press on and in true Maas fashion, after about thirty chapters, we find our stride and all is going swimmingly. A visit to the Summer Court. A side quest with Amren.

And then...

I swore as I slammed into the post of the stairwell landing.

You're wrong for that, Maas! I laughed then and I laugh now but you're wrong for that.

Then there came a point, however brief. And I don't know how I got there, but I didn't want this book to end. Maybe it was the spice of 42. Maybe it was the rage of 43. Maybe even the hope found in 44. Maybe it was the culmination of knowing the hell that Rhysand had been suffering for years was reaching its end.

Details got caught up in my consciousness that I would dwell on for hours. The words that he'd said. The questions he'd asked. For Feyre's benefit or his own?

Here was the High Lord of the Night Court with a mate—once in love with the High Lord of Spring—now telling the High Lord of the Summer Court how easy it would be to fall in love with him. Feyre darling, you are lethal to this man's self esteem.

Oh yes, this book was under my skin.

And then finally, finally, it happened: Feyre became the main character I needed her to be. She effortlessly yielded her powers, declared her independence, stood against Lucien (Not Tamlin, but meh), molded her wings and made her choice. Yes, we had faltered a bit when she oh so appallingly told the man who had spent fifty years placating his captor as a whore that all she wanted was fun and a distraction from him... But, fine, push passed, ignore that trigger...We were here.. and then, just.. as.. swiftly...

You bitch.

"...take whatever pieces that you offered"

He was willing to take whatever she offered and all I could hear in my head as my eyes flew over the words on the pages was Stop, Feyre. StopitFeyre. Stop. It. Feyre!

"I don't want to hear this."

That's what she'd said to him as he poured his heart out. Before she demanded he, poisoned, bloodied, and weak from torture, use whatever power he had left to winnow her home where she left him on his elbows and knees in the mud.

And I just sat there as the chapter closed—raging, tearful, devastated—with a book in my hands too pretty to throw.

Part 3 ::

I don't have the words for Chapter 54 but Feyre is Cauldron blessed that she managed to sort herself out before nightfall. Even if it did take five days for her to face Rhys again. Five days! Just go paint your little pictures, Feyre, it’s not like we’re preparing for a war or anything.

Hasn't that man suffered enough from a volatile female? Feyre... Maas... What are you doing? Why is the lead female continuously lashing out against a far more traumatized leading male? Out to single-handedly exemplify that hurt people hurt people? Using his vulnerabilities against him. It’s gross.

And from that point I was just ready to be done. No more rollercoaster. No more struggling to love a character hell bent on jumping from victim to villain and back again.

I love this world. I like Lucien and Rhysand and Mor and Azriel and Cassien and Amren. It's Tamlin and these damned humans that keep ruining things. I don’t know if I’ll venture again into the Maasverse. Certainly not anytime soon.

5 out of 5 stars. I can give it no less. This book emotionally wrecked me.

Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | audiobook


Previously in the series:

One good thing about coming into a series ten years late is that the fanart is abundant and on point!

2025/11

A Court of Thorns & Roses (ACOTAR #1)

What do I care?

Available at Amazon.com

A Court of Thorns & Roses
Sarah J. Maas
ACOTAR, book one
Paperback, 419 pages
Published June 2, 2020
ISBN 9781635575569

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

I don’t know how I’ve never heard of this series but I managed to be convinced to read book two, A Court of Mist and Fury, and I can’t very well in good conscience skip over book one so, without even reading the blurb, here we are.

Smh. I should have just skipped to book two.

The first chapter was sad. And the main character is a bigot. Not off to the best start.

But Tamlin made me smile (once, and never again) and Lucien’s hostility was intriguing enough so on I continued as the two Fae worked on eradicating Feyre’s prejudices.

The plot - Feyre is a young woman of nineteen tasked with providing for herself, her father, and her two older sisters. Her mother is long deceased and any riches the family once possessed have dwindled to a tiny cottage. This doesn’t shy the woman from looking down on everyone though. Resentful and oh so judgmental.

On a hunt to sustain the family, Feyre crosses paths with what appears to be a wolf targeting the same deer in the woods. Wolf kills deer. Feyre kills wolf. Feyre skins wolf. Feyre leaves wolf’s corpse to rot in the winter woods.

But that wolf was a Fae. And that Fae had friends.

And so, Tamlin, High Lord of the Spring Court, invokes the rights to a life for a life as dictated by the treaty between their two peoples and collects Feyre to join him in Prythian as not his prisoner or slave, but as his guest.

There you have it. Beauty and the Beast. At the most diabolical level.

Spoilers and a profane rant below.

Beauty and the Beast meets... Saw? Because wtf else did I just read??

She's his pet.

About halfway through this book, I had a question that was nagging to be answered because apparently I’m developing a habit of questioning the role of the love interest… Am I suppose to like Tamlin? I knew he wasn't endgame thanks to Booktok and what little I'd pieced together about book two, but was I suppose to even like him? Despise him? Was I suppose to despise everyone? Because aside from Lucien, that was the path I was on.

And then Rhysand shows up and what a breath of fresh air... Yes, you beautiful, dark creature! Avenge me for the pain they’ve put me through! Torture them all!

If only I had skipped the first seventy percent of this book... Feyre is awful. Tamrin… fucking hell. The entire plot is based on a lie and a curse. Fuck him. Fuck his whole court.

Pages 290 through half of 415 was all I needed. Didn't even finish the last bit because Rhysand was gone and to hell if I was going to suffer through Tammy again.

The bond between us went taut.

Are we really not going to talk about that? ^^

Am I going to still give it a go with book two? A grumbled yes.

Why? Because Rhysand is the devil and I hope to see all these characters, aside from Lucien, burning in hell.

And because I’ve already purchased it.

“Well, good-bye for now,” he said, rolling his neck as if we hadn’t been talking about anything important at all. He bowed at the waist, those wings vanishing entirely, and had begun to fade into the nearest shadow when he went rigid.

His eyes locked on mine, wide and wild, and his nostrils flared. Shock—pure shock flashed across his features at whatever he saw on my face, and he stumbled back a step. Actually stumbled.”

2 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | audiobook

2025/08

Onyx Storm (The Empyrean #3)

I live by you.

Available at Amazon.com

Onyx Storm
Rebecca Yarros
The Empyrean, book three
Hardcover, Deluxe, 544 pages
First published January 21, 2025
ISBN 9781649377159

After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty.

Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.

Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.

They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth.

But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.

There are details in these Empyrean books that irk me in a way that truly isn’t worth the effort of putting onto digital paper but just know that my mental image of Violet is with her head on a constant swivel.

Be that as it may...

There are books a reader can’t bring themselves to put down. And there are books a reader must close and so very intently step away from in order to breathe again. To do so in order to think clearly enough to process the clusterfuck of emotions that drive the entire ordeal into a love-hate relationship. 

I am there with Onyx Storm.

The more I read, the longer the book became. 

And wtf was with Chapter 62? Why are we suddenly jumping into another character’s POV, and Rhiannon no less?! Don’t get me wrong, I like the gal, but being in her head was the last place I needed to be in that moment. Why not Ridoc? Why not Bodhi?? Why not anyone but Rhi???

"I am the second-largest dragon on the Continent and a revered warrior. My tales are legendary. My mate unparalleled. My feats unmatched-"

 

The unmitigated ego of Tairn... I love him so. Xaden. Andarna. Ridoc. Even Aaric and Bodhi were shining brightly in this installment. The way Ridoc tore into Violet and gave Xaden the what's what. The way Aaric showed Dain again and again how utterly worthless his presence was on their mission to find the irid. The boy was there to play fetch and I enthusiastically applaud it. Violet... She gets the most improved award.

"You don't owe me your friend's secrets."

Hallelujah, girl. Enough with arguing about secrets and the whole I-know-you-can't-tell-me-everything-but-you're-not-telling-me-everything whining. Ugh. These damn Iron Flame flashbacks.

Is it a cliffhanger ending? Yes.

Is it a damn good ending regardless of that fact? Hell. Yes. And if Yarros had stopped it at chapter sixty-five, I don't think we'd have that WTF response going viral through Tiktok. That last chapter... is much.

4.5 out of 5 stars. This series is exhausting. 

Available in ebook | hardcover | graphic audiobook

Previously in the series:

2025/05

Lights Out (Into Darkness #1)

User the.faceless.man has started following you.

Available at Amazon.com

Lights Out
Navessa Allen
Audiobook, 13+ hours
First published February 14, 2024
ISBN 9781638932239

The viral TikTok stalker dark romance, burning with high heat, hilarious banter, and a love story like you’ve never seen before. Can you handle the ride?

I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.

Trauma nurse Alyssa Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

I want things most people don’t, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love.

Joshua Hammond has an infamous father—the kind of man that true-crime podcasts love talking about. Josh has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans to drool over, but one follower has caught his Aly. After reading a comment begging him to break into her house wearing a mask, he decides to take her up on her offer.

Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone else. Someone with far more sinister intentions than a little light stalking. As Josh turns from predator to protector and the stakes heighten, he must ask himself how far he’s willing to go for the woman he’s obsessed with.

Lights Out is a fast-paced dark romance with a morally gray male lead. Some themes and scenes may be disturbing to readers. Please check the TWs at the beginning of the book.

I laughed. I blushed. I questioned the mental health of the author. And yeah, I cringed on a few occasions. 

But the one thing I could not do is predict this book. He wouldn't. Oh he would! He's not. Damn it, he is! Could not keep my jaw off the floor.

Dark, contemporary romance may not be my thing but if you're going to experience this book, do it through the audiobook because Josh is amazing and the casting for his part... Chef's kiss.

3 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook | audiobook (highly recommend!) | paperback

2025/03

Iron Flame (Empyrean #2)

My house. My chair. My woman.

Available at Amazon.com

Iron Flame
Rebecca Yarros
Empyrean, book two
623 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2023
ISBN 9781649375858

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.

4 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | graphic audio 

Previously in the series:

2025/02

Fourth Wing (Empyrean #1)

A dragon without its rider is a tragedy.
A rider without their dragon is dead.

Available at Amazon.com

Fourth Wing
Rebecca Yarros
Empyrean, book one
517 pages, Hardcover
Published May 2, 2023 by Entangled: Red Tower Books
ISBN 9781649374042

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

"I know exactly who and what you are, Violet Sorrengail."

What is she? 

I have questions. So many questions.

3.5 out of 5 stars. And those stars earned are strictly for Xaden Riorson, Tairn, Andarna, and Ridoc, because Violet... I'm not there with her yet.

Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | graphic audiobook 

2025/01