Reviews

Born, Darkly by Trisha Wolfe

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lilcurious's review against another edition

adventurous dark

1.5

The rationalizations made by the characters didn't ring true. Because Grayson was described as so smart, I think he would understand his situation better and his explanations would have more rigor than just a compulsion to kill put to better use. Or at least he could've been more deviant! Then his desires being so strong could explain his lack of will to look too deeply. But the book wanted to have its cake and eat it too, to have a dangerous love interest who was still smart (and controlled), so in the end I believed neither.

And I think this is a big pitfall to have in dark romance. Part of the genre's appeal is to experience danger in a controlled space, but I didn't believe he was dangerous because he lacked desire (like the famous vampire trope where they need the blood but they are afraid they wouldn't be able to control their compulsions! iconic!) But if not for that, then reading the genre to believe even people who did something awful can still deserve love, but by not understanding their motivations, I don't understand them as characters, and there is no pull to believe it. like idk maybe he could've had the death penalty and i wouldn't care so much. I think describing him as a sadistic psychopath

and her as a narcissist

at the same time London was very adamantly saying she didn't believe in rehabilitation gives it a sour taste. (A detail about this is that she doesn't sound at all as smart and competent as the book wants us to believe she is. I know Grayson is supposed to be a good manipulator, but she really had no idea what was going on with him.)

The sex was pretty disappointing too. The guy described it as violent and brutal, but he was just going hard. I really don't believe a killer's idea of violent and brutal sex to be just going hard.

(I liked that he was a bit of a dick to her too, though. I definetly love the trope of the killer who is sweet to their lover only, but it was nice having a bit of a change lol. Opinion with a minor spoiler:

I don't like that she stops feeling the pain. If there wasn't a clear explanation, I could've gone with it, but they specify which two vertebrae (L5 and L3) she needed surgery on. It was not psychosomatic

tutorb's review

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

2.0

christyreads615's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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

aelsaj711's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

busyreadingbooks's review against another edition

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4.25

The story: HOLY SHIT WTF, I love Grayson and London 🤐

The audiobook narration: 0 stars!
I think i should've read this book on my own instead of listening to the audiobook narrated by Kate Genevieve and Joe Arden, because their narration really ruined this story for me ☠️ I bought the audiobook because it was on sale, and ohmygod, i will not be buying any audiobooks narrated by these two ever again. Joe Arden aka James Cronin's narration for The Bridge Kingdom was better, but god, in this one was he awful. Istg when i read this on my own for the first 20%, Grayson Sullivan (the MMC) sounded so hot in my head, but Arden made him sound not hot? Idkidk but i definitely DO NOT recommend the audiobook, frfr. His accent made him swallow his vowels, and as a non-native english speaker, istg i had to put extra effort to understand his pronounciation. And no, it's not because he narrated the story with an Irish accent. I LOVED Tim Gerard Reynolds' Irish accent narration in the Red Rising saga, but i don't like Arden's here. I think i just don't like his voice, his speech cadence and his words pronounciation, because they feel forced. As for Genevieve, she actually sounds fine, but she took so much breath in between cuts, her breath pulled me out of the story. So i'd say the production of this book's audiobook is just whack, and i'm so upset because the story's pretty good.

Ugh i really should've just read this book on my own. Biggest audiobook regret ever.

555quin's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

It’s a good thriller! I’ve never read anything from this author before and I’m really impressed! She writes so that you feel the connection between the two characters. She did a great job at making you think! It does get really dark and I would definitely make sure you check those trigger warnings. But it’s about a serial killer so I would hope you would expect the dark.