This book is focused on Kai and his love interest, Banks. Each of the 4 MMCs in this series are coming to terms with the crimes that sent 3 of them to prison, the imprisonment and the events following their return to normal life. But Kai has another secret that he is trying to protect. Banks is the only one who can help them find the one estranged MMC and the one who knows the secret.

It becomes a cat and mouse game to see who can outsmart who and get the upper hand. All while Banks and Kai are steadily drawn together. He knows she has secrets of her own and she has made it clear her loyalty is to the other MMC.

Penelope Douglas keeps you guessing throughout the book as to what will happen next. The story is also told through flashbacks of memories of from both Kai and Banks to reveal more of the story and motivations for each character.

There is good chemistry between our characters and I love the spice. The seduction leading to the spice raises the heat level 🥵

One of my favorite side characters is Alex. I love a woman, who is not afraid to go for what she wants and make absolutely no apologies for it!

I listened to this book performed by Tatiana Sokolov and Jeremy York. Both performers were able to bring me into the story and provide different voices for the characters. This is so important when listening so you don't get confused as to who is speaking when. My only issue is Jeremy doesn't have a good voice for female characters. (I guess he's too manly 😉)

Content Warnings

nineinchnails's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

for the most part i did prefer this to corrupt (i found the characters a lot more interesting) but for some reason their romance didn’t really click for me. i think it was because there was so much focus on damon (don’t get me wrong i love that too) that developing their relationship kinda took a backseat and made this book feel like a prequel for damon’s book. despite not feeling much for the relationship i did love the MCs in this book and the book in general but i don’t think it holds up as an independent romance as well as its predecessor so it might be a disappointing read for people.

Content Warnings

bookameme's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Kai and Banks Are Crazy Hot

Quote:📖

“We’re only ever good, because there are consequences.”

Thoughts: 💡

This was my second read through and I forgot how much I loved this book. Angsty romance, dark themes, and taboo smut scenes make this series iconic. The schenagains Kai and Banks get up to are crazy hot with an intense push and pull relationship.

Berkley is re-releasing the first three books in the series and I’m incredibly excited to read them again.

Writing Mechanics: ✍️

The writing in this series is designed to be dramatic, and it works. The book is told in first person present tense dual POV, but it hops timelines to show you flashbacks and help you piece through the history to understand the story. The smut scenes are pretty wild and if you don’t like it a bit twisted, taboo, and graphic then this one probably isn’t for you.

I personally love these characters, they’re completely broken with tragic pasts and some really dark ideas, but they pull together to be one another’s life lines. I think the reason I hated Nightfall so much is because I love these characters so deeply. This book and the others in the series paint the characters as extremely morally gray but with a deep ability to forgive, after meeting out a healthy dose of revenge.

Fun Bits:

⚜️ Wild Secrets

⚜️ Painful Pasts

⚜️ Morally Grey Characters

⚜️ Wonderful Side Characters

⚜️ Standalone Romance, Series Long Plot

⚜️ Super Hot Smut In Some Taboo Places

Important Note:✨

This is book 2, this is a standalone romance, but the plot stretches over the whole series.

Full Content Warning:⚠️

Violence, Abuse, Religious Desecration, Death, Mentions of CA & SA & Child SA, Abandoment, Drugs, and Alcohol, Very Dark Themes

Stats:📊

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Characters 💙💙💙💙💙

Romantic Suspense: Hidden Identity, Forced Proximity, Second Chance, Morally Grey, Enemies to Lovers, Found Family

Dual POV

Violence, Abuse, Mentions of CA & SA⚠️

Content Warnings

koistyfishy's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

2 Confession Booth Stars⭐
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

I was so excited to read this after I loved Corrupt but all I got was one hell of a frustrating book that just left me grumpy and confused. I was incredibly tempted to DNF this at 80% since the story at that point seemed to have lost the plot (literally) but since this was a buddy read with the gorgeous Ri 🖤 (and she had already finished it), I decided to grin my damn teeth together and finish whatever the eff this was.

I wanted this book to feel like a car crash I couldn't look away from, and it was a crash all right.

This is book two in the Devil's Night series and needs to be read after the first book, Corrupt, even though it is a new couple... Kai and Banks.

So let's start off with Kai as a character, because he was THE ONLY PERSON IN THIS BOOK that I actually liked. He had depth to him. He had some emotional baggage, but he could work through that. You could see that he had this innate sense of loyalty that he wanted to impress his family, but he also had this tie to his friends. He genuinely cared about the people around him and eventually Banks. It also became very clear, very quickly that he had been infatuated with Banks for years.

Banks ultimately "saw him" for who he truly was, so he was basically enamoured and obsessed with her and could not keep his mind off this enigmatic person. He just couldn't seem to pin down or understand why she was so attached to Damon and why she was so obsessed with him...

Then we have Banks who, quite frankly, has the most split personality I have ever read about. She is more topsy-turvy than that Katy Perry song as she would be saying something and then would say something completely out of the blue in the next sentence. Any time she would get close to having a real conversation with Kai or you were shown some depth to her personality, it would be pushed aside and the two would have sex. Being a person who LOVES to see character development, it annoyed the crap out of me to see this deflected... I wanted her to struggle through her demons ON PAGE WITH ME. ANY TIME it was close, there goes the panties...

I felt like I don't know her at all and that she was almost one dimensional (in her split personality) as she would be meek one minute and then hard ass another and her inner dialogue was the same thought over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. She's constantly indecisive. Constantly. Like in this weird "I hate you, but I love you". "I need to be near you. But I can't stand to be near you". I have no idea who she is. And yes, it might be because she grew up in basically a cage and was fed scraps by everybody around her, but she just did not do it for me....

Then this book was filled with nothing but plot holes, illogical decisions and, aspects that just made no sense. The ending was even more so... Everything was culminating in this big thing that was over in about 2 seconds flat. Nothing was really resolved. Nothing really comes to a close, except she now has 9 dogs and 2 snakes...

and a husband

There's also something about the way Penelope Douglas writes... that ALSO frustrated me. It was present in Corrupt but way more prevalent in this book as I wasn't enjoying this one. And that is she purposefully has characters make decisions off-page because you're not in their POV and when you catch up to them (mostly with the characters whose POV you are in), that decision or action is NEVER explained. You are just meant to accept it and move on with the plot. If I'm just getting the plot thrown at me and nothing's really developing, I end up frustrated.

Everyone in this book needs therapy. They are messed up and some are just stupid. Half the conflict in this could have been solved by talking to people...

Will I pick up the next book?
Yes. Because it's Damon's Story. And what we've seen about it in this book as he is a very prevalent side character in this book, intrigued me that I want to find out what is going on in his fucked up mind. But I'm not sure when because right now, Hide Away has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Content Warnings

lauryneball's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

booklloveer101's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

sshpurple1's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Kai is the most balanced and obvious about his genuine feelings for Nikola Banks. Banks is a loyal, sarcastic, and lost young woman with much love to give. I do not understand her dislike of Rika. This book was not as intriguing as Corrupt, but we get more insight into the group. Even learning more about Damon and understanding why he is the way he is. I know that it states that these books are stand-alone, but I disagree. To fully understand what is happening with the group, you must read Corrupt first.

Content Warnings

beautyandthebookworms's review against another edition

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1.5

1.5 star…?⭐️ 😬🫣 idk— i’m sorry. I wanted to like it, & feel bad when I don’t, but honest review leggo ⤵️

~

💀this book was just not it for me.

💀I felt like it was slow, not exciting, & lacked plot & chemistry. I probably would have DNF’d if I wasn’t buddy reading it.

💀my favorite part about this book is the side character Alex. I loved her in book one & continue to. but she’s in like only a handful of scenes.

💀I also liked the scene with Banks in the shower after being out in the rain

💀I didn’t get Kai’s obsession with The Pope building & 12th floor & it felt anticlimactic. they barely gave us more depth to his character & it was supposed to be his book? a lot of the book is getting Banks backstory & Damon backstory—so not much of Kai, which was disappointing.

💀there was repetitiveness in the writing (in phrasing) and also..there feels like there’s a lot of instances of men being too handsy/harassing/attacking women like throughout this series (including but not limited to the ‘four horsemen’) & it’s not really written where it feels like the women have mixed feelings/are okay with it & it’s just like never addressed & I didn’t like it (I’ve read many dark romances & this scenario can be executed so much better in my opinion)

~

💀I honestly don’t know if I’ll continue the series at this point.

🎧I listened to the audio and it was done pretty well as far as narrators go

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