Selin's review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Spoiler-free! Four stars.

WARNING: The content of this book is really dark. Haunting Adeline level dark. If you've read the first four books in the Dark Verse series, those are like nursery rhymes compared to this one. I would post a content warning from the book itself, but even that is incredibly explicit. Just know that there are more than thirty triggers.

Tropes: fated mates vibes (he's been obsessed with her for six years), damsel in distress, who did this to you?

I finished this book in one day, despite having other responsibilities.

This book gave off major Haunting Adeline vibes. Like, the MMC (male main character) was really similar to Zade. From the way that his eyes were mismatched (one lighter, one darker) to the fact that he asked Lyla if he should cut or burn her rapist's hand off. And also the FMC's (female main character's) experiences in the first half (being a worker, being raped)? That can't be a coincidence.

Plot/characters (without spoilers): The MMC is the Shadowman, a character illustrated in the first four books of the series. He uses a fake name, Mr. Blackthorne (I don't know if his fake first name was mentioned), however, his real first name is Dainn (we didn't get to find out his real last name). The FMC is Lyla, a ginger-haired girl who has had a very rough childhood and was used as a sex toy and raped in her teens, trapped by the Syndicate. The Shadowman finds her at some time during her adolescence and plays with her, like a "toy", as he had referred to her at the end of the previous book. He does this by letting men bid on Lyla, and then when they lay a hand on her, he brutally kills them without being seen (e.g. by using a gun). This part really gave off Phantom (by Greer Rivers) vibes, because the Shadowman was always watching Lyla. Anyways, Lyla is obviously depressed because she feels alone and she's forced to work and live in a sex club (if it can even be compared to something as tame as that). She tries to kill herself multiple times, but the Shadowman warns her not to because he has information about her identity and family that he'll tell her only if she doesn't kill herself. After one failed attempt at trying to suicide with poison, the Shadowman kills one of the important people at the sex club, and the staff feels it's the final straw, so they transport her to another location, but the Shadowman takes her from there into his home located inside a mountain. They get to know each other and a lot of the book just takes place there. The book ends on a happy-for-now / cliffhanger of the Shadowman and Lyla as a couple, but someone is out to kill them.

The plotline of this book was slightly different to that of the others in the series. Almost the entire thing revolved around their relationship. Usually, the first half of the novel was about the couple finding love, and the second half was thriller/whodunnit/mystery kinda vibes, which I wish was also done in this book. We're left on a cliffhanger, but other than that, the entire book was basically about Dainn and Lyla and Lyla's character development.

The reason this isn't a five-star for me is because it just didn't feel that original. It was very similar to other dark romances I've read (listed below), and I've barely touched the surface of dark romances.

If you enjoyed Phantom by Greer Rivers or the Cat and Mouse duet by H. D. Carlton, I'd recommend this book (but it is NOT a standalone, you should definitely read the books prior to this one to get a much better experience).

But there was one quote in this book that I could add to my top ten book quotes ever.
 

“The world could tilt on its axis, flamma, and I’d still be the most certain thing in your life.” A soft kiss. “You’re the oxygen that feeds my flames—without you, my existence is questionable.”

PS. (spoiler from first couple chapters) I found a note I had written while reading the first couple chapters:
So, I already anticipated that the red-haired girl we knew as Lyla was Luna Caine, Tristan’s sister. It was a 50/50 chance (from the information we found out in the last book) that Lyla was Luna, and I don’t think RuNyx would’ve made the main character of the last couple's novel a random girl. Also, “they took my toy”? And the Shadowman’s abundant information about how to locate Luna? And then him being obsessed with Lyla? Yeah, deducing that was easy.