Dark Love Series: Sweet Atonement #1 on November 18, 2024
Genres: Romance, Mafia Romance
Pages: 600
Format: Kindle
Buy on Amazon
He killed to protect me before learning my name.
Everyone keeps telling me that Vex is a scary man. A man that I should stay from.
But when I’m with him all my fears disappear… and I have a lot of fears that have built up inside of me over the years.
Never in my life have I felt safer than when I’m in his arms.Dahlia lives in a different world from me. One with white picket fences and children playing in the yard.
Mine is filled with death and destruction. And I’m a master of both.
With a single look, wise people run from me, but not her.
Trouble follows her every step when she enters my world, and I know should push her way for her own good. But I can’t.
Dahlia needs to say no… she needs to run the other way, because that’s the only way I’ll ever let her go.Dark Love is a no spice dark suspenseful romance, featuring steamy kisses with a decided lack of cursing and violence.
Vex.
That’s why I’m writintg this review. I still think about Vex to this day. Vex has probably become one of my most favorite complicated, damaged, fantasy males – cause let’s face it – he should be in prison, that has crossed my path. He is equal parts ridiculous and alpha male sexiness. You want to both hug him and throttle him.
His love interest Dahlia didn’t stick to me the way he did and sometimes I liked him more than Dahlia. Dahlia to be fair is basically a representation of trauma and how it can sometimes hinder your emotional growth. Her mother grated me and that character wasn’t redeemed until the very end, which was difficult for me to handle as dealing with adult parents who violate boundaries is a definite turn off for me.
The other thing is Dahlia’s character tackles issues like sexually based trauma, emotional repression, lack of social awareness, lack of social skills, body shaming and the crap women with figures outside the norm deal with today. I think we as a society think of our trauma heroines as always being likable and she isn’t always likable, which makes it hard for me as a reader. Like I know why she’s being idiotic at times, because I work in mental health. It just doesn’t make it easier to read. That’s more of a me thing, than a writing thing. If you’re not use to trauma based characters acting immature and naive for their age that may put you off. Rora Noir did a good job of handling that and I don’t think I would have been brave enough to write a character like Dahlia.
Vex however, steps in and fills in all the gaps for Dahlia. He protects her and meets her where she’s at, which is why I love that character so much. He doesn’t pressure, doesn’t presume. It’s always what Dahlia needs and his patience with her, even when he claims he’s not is phenomenal.
The plot involving the scientific/DNA twists and NCIS side storyline were also a fun addition.
The story for that couple shocked me by ending in a single novel. Obviously, the side story continues in the next book. If you have read other Aurora Darklight (another pen name for her and her sister) novels it’s pretty customary for the FMC to have a series that lasts 2-3 books. I expected their relationship to still be worked upon, but no Rora Noir is like, “Girl, we moving on.” And I may have weeped, but the side story has this high engagement factor, because I don’t know where it’s going and it does remind me of an NCIS episode minus well the NCIS team. It’s like a criminal version of NCIS with all the banter and interesting cases.
I think you can enjoy this if you go in knowing that Dahlia’s behaviors are rooted in trauma and sometimes she acts odd for her age. However with her family and background it makes sense. If you can accept that you can enjoy the book. If you don’t accept that, you will hate the book.
But seriously, come for Vex and the other Alpha males. They are worth the read.
