An all-new dark standalone romance from the USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Shantel Tessier. Also, this was REALLY heavy on the degradation and humiliation kink. I read the TW and didn’t see this listed as a trigger, and I think it should have been because this level of humiliation and degradation isn’t for everyone. While I don’t mind it in small doses, this was just WAAAAAYYYY too much for me.

Like dominoes, everything started falling down around her. Her mother happens to be down with cancer which has kept her bedridden for months. As such, at such a critical time she finds herself all alone with her troubles. She loves and loved to read and could read up to a book a day and hence, books have been a constant feature in her life over the years. The more she read, the more she felt that she needed to touch readers just like she had been touched. The secret society seemed very random to me since they never mention the society as a whole and just a few times they met up to kill people. They even had a scene where Ryat from the Ritual was introduced to the guys and before you even blinked he was gone.. it was so random.Colton and Raylee have a very explosive relationship. They pretty much know how to do one thing flipping well and do it often. They are their own worst enemy at times. The hate lust clouds their eyes. They took me on a wild rollercoaster ride. They are toxic. The line between love and hate is very thin with these two.

It’s certainly unsettling in places- and for some, it may be unsettling in not a good way. For others, it’s unsettling in that captivating taboo way, the boundary pushing entracing kind of way. Shantel has a go big or go home approach to the story telling here as she unflinchingly embraces all that makes these characters (and some fun side characters) just so messed up. It’s certainly the kind of connection that makes you question yourself for being curious about it, and I did love how bold they both were in pursuing what they wanted and were pretty much willing to burn the world (and each other) down to get it. But I’m tired of watching others get a piece of what is mine. So, I did what any rational man would do—I staked my claim, showed the world that she belonged to me, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to make her believe it too. He believes he has done her a favor, even though she feels like she has been given a death sentence. He had refused to get married as he is still in love with her but it does seem that he wants more power and money. TW (Please see author's note at the beginning of the book. If you have no triggers and want to go in blind, please skip to the prologue.)I have nothing against dark romances.I am all for taboo or taking things to an extreme level,but this was simply too dark and messy that it became too much. I had this book on my tbr since so long but i truly wish I would've kept it there for much longer. the book have a lot of toxicity , so less of a storyline and A MAJOR degradation kink which i found a little unbearable. The humiliation was just way too much and honestly there was nothing consensual here ; it just felt like some huge ass manipulative rape to me ; fmc could legit fool herself for all she want. I have read a lot of dark romance and nothing EVER grossed me out like this one did. Another thing, the reason Colt releases the sex tape is because Raylee starts dating a guy named Nate and he doesn’t like it and now decides to make her his “slut” forever. But then still proceeds to have sex with OW 🤔 He was always acting like he had something up his ass,while our fmc has only one personality trait.And i don’t want to judge her,but her point of view always had to be a monologue about how she’s a slut and she doesn’t mind it.