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dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love a good psycho and Rina Kent delivers. I devoured this book, while at work all I could think about was getting home to read more.
Killian is not the kind of man you want to love. And you certainly don’t want him to put you in his sights. But that’s exactly what happens to Glyndon. Their relationship was an intense give and take, with much less give on Kill’s part. He is unhinged and completely morally black. And I loved it.
There’s no unaliving, which I know some prefer their psychos to have that. But there’s a point to it, I think it was intentional on Kent’s behalf.
The spice is SPICY. If you don’t like DNC/CNC or anything rough, this is not the book for you. There are a host of triggers, please check the warnings.
Over all this was a great book, I absolutely recommend it to my dark lovers, there’s great banter, violence and a tiny smidge of emotion.
Killian is not the kind of man you want to love. And you certainly don’t want him to put you in his sights. But that’s exactly what happens to Glyndon. Their relationship was an intense give and take, with much less give on Kill’s part. He is unhinged and completely morally black. And I loved it.
There’s no unaliving, which I know some prefer their psychos to have that. But there’s a point to it, I think it was intentional on Kent’s behalf.
The spice is SPICY. If you don’t like DNC/CNC or anything rough, this is not the book for you. There are a host of triggers, please check the warnings.
Over all this was a great book, I absolutely recommend it to my dark lovers, there’s great banter, violence and a tiny smidge of emotion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Stalking
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Non-con and dub/con!! Pretty dark like he’s a psychopath
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Violence
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
DISCLAIMER: I'm not against dubcon or noncon stories, however I am VERY against romanticising abuse and rape in any way. That's not dark romance, that's kink erotica, and I don't endorse miscategorising a book to try and make more money.
This book is SO badly written it actually hurts my eyes. I can't believe this was sold as dark academia yet not a single academic plotline was written. Small treasures like "your lips look great with my c*** wrapped around them" (yeah, read that again) or "I didn't have any homemade meals since leaving home" while actually eating a homemade meal... all I'm gonna say is I now understand why it takes Rina Kent a month to write a book: because they're actually trash.
I'm gonna get this out of the way and say I'm pretty sure this woman is neither 33 years old nor british; first, every single word in the book is written in american spelling and slang, plus there's a HUGE american presence for absolutely no reason, but the most important thing here is I'm CONVINCED this was written by a teenager.
First of all, she has NO idea how a university works, and she speaks of it in terms painfully similar to a high school (skipping grades, not knowing how a campus is structured or what it's realistic for a university to offer, etc). Second, I refuse to believe someone could intentionally base a MAFIA DARK ROMANCE NOVEL on 19 YEAR OLD CHARACTERS, unless that someone was like 15 and saw 19 year olds as full on adults. Which I think is what's happening here.
On one hand we have the FMC, Glyndon (names are ATROCIOUS in this book) who is an artsy wattpad cliché girl, just as every girl in this story (they're all also virgins - again, teenager behaviour). Obviously Glyndon has no personality, but alas.
And then there's Killian, who is our psycopath for today. I want to stress a few things about him: it's constantly stated that he's a genius and "skipped grades", which again, is not a thing, and he is the most arrogant, insufferable, narcissistic man I've ever had to read, ever. Just thinking about this being a 19 year old makes me cringe at his every word and I just want to slap him across the face. He's literally a rich kid in need of someone just kicking him on the mouth. Plus, I don't know how someone can be THIS bad in bed AND boast so much about it.
This book starts with full on oral rape. I know both the author and some reviewers insist this is "dubious consent", but if you've EVER read dubcon and noncon fanfiction you know EXACTLY in which category this falls, and that's not dubcon. I didn't appreciate how Killian keeps being annoying and stating he doesn't care what Glyndon wants and he's gonna keep raping her if he wants to, yet we're told this is a romance and she falls for him. I also didn't appreciate how halfway through the book the author tried to excuse every man's behaviour in this series by basically giving every single girl in the book a secret rape fantasy, even after we saw Glyndon say she did NOT want it, and constantly appealing to the "oh but she is wet so she must want it" argument - just disgusting behaviour and a complete disrespect toward very real rape victims. Could you imagine if a man wrote those words continuously in his book? Yeah, no.
Finally we have the rest of the characters, which again, horribly written. Most of them are NPCs, there's a russian one who loves Tchaikovsky and whose family is in the Bratva (you get where I'm going with this) and there's this weird "school god" (every single man in this book is a school god, btw) who women are supposed to be fawning over but he is supposed to talk about himself in THE THIRD PERSON and call himself MY LORDSHIP (let's be FOR REAL FOR A MINUTE). Anyway Rina does not seem to know what the third person is since she didn't use it a single time in any of this guy's dialogues. Perhaps they haven't covered third person yet in her class.
Plot wise, there really isn't one.
I'll finish this review by stating that I didn't think there could be a worse book than Haunting Adeline on God's green Earth and I am now very unhappy to have been proven wrong.
This book is SO badly written it actually hurts my eyes. I can't believe this was sold as dark academia yet not a single academic plotline was written. Small treasures like "your lips look great with my c*** wrapped around them" (yeah, read that again) or "I didn't have any homemade meals since leaving home" while actually eating a homemade meal... all I'm gonna say is I now understand why it takes Rina Kent a month to write a book: because they're actually trash.
I'm gonna get this out of the way and say I'm pretty sure this woman is neither 33 years old nor british; first, every single word in the book is written in american spelling and slang, plus there's a HUGE american presence for absolutely no reason, but the most important thing here is I'm CONVINCED this was written by a teenager.
First of all, she has NO idea how a university works, and she speaks of it in terms painfully similar to a high school (skipping grades, not knowing how a campus is structured or what it's realistic for a university to offer, etc). Second, I refuse to believe someone could intentionally base a MAFIA DARK ROMANCE NOVEL on 19 YEAR OLD CHARACTERS, unless that someone was like 15 and saw 19 year olds as full on adults. Which I think is what's happening here.
On one hand we have the FMC, Glyndon (names are ATROCIOUS in this book) who is an artsy wattpad cliché girl, just as every girl in this story (they're all also virgins - again, teenager behaviour). Obviously Glyndon has no personality, but alas.
And then there's Killian, who is our psycopath for today. I want to stress a few things about him: it's constantly stated that he's a genius and "skipped grades", which again, is not a thing, and he is the most arrogant, insufferable, narcissistic man I've ever had to read, ever. Just thinking about this being a 19 year old makes me cringe at his every word and I just want to slap him across the face. He's literally a rich kid in need of someone just kicking him on the mouth. Plus, I don't know how someone can be THIS bad in bed AND boast so much about it.
This book starts with full on oral rape. I know both the author and some reviewers insist this is "dubious consent", but if you've EVER read dubcon and noncon fanfiction you know EXACTLY in which category this falls, and that's not dubcon. I didn't appreciate how Killian keeps being annoying and stating he doesn't care what Glyndon wants and he's gonna keep raping her if he wants to, yet we're told this is a romance and she falls for him. I also didn't appreciate how halfway through the book the author tried to excuse every man's behaviour in this series by basically giving every single girl in the book a secret rape fantasy, even after we saw Glyndon say she did NOT want it, and constantly appealing to the "oh but she is wet so she must want it" argument - just disgusting behaviour and a complete disrespect toward very real rape victims. Could you imagine if a man wrote those words continuously in his book? Yeah, no.
Finally we have the rest of the characters, which again, horribly written. Most of them are NPCs, there's a russian one who loves Tchaikovsky and whose family is in the Bratva (you get where I'm going with this) and there's this weird "school god" (every single man in this book is a school god, btw) who women are supposed to be fawning over but he is supposed to talk about himself in THE THIRD PERSON and call himself MY LORDSHIP (let's be FOR REAL FOR A MINUTE). Anyway Rina does not seem to know what the third person is since she didn't use it a single time in any of this guy's dialogues. Perhaps they haven't covered third person yet in her class.
Plot wise, there really isn't one.
I'll finish this review by stating that I didn't think there could be a worse book than Haunting Adeline on God's green Earth and I am now very unhappy to have been proven wrong.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual harassment
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was my first dark romance. I usually read fantasy and dark fantasy.
I really liked this book. It had so much of what I was looking for like an unhinged, burn the world down, obsessed mmc. Killian is everything I look for in an mmc. I was here for it.
Part of me missed the fantasy elements that I am used to. Although the books was fast paced, sexy, and mysterious I find myself drawn more to fantasy dark romance where something else is also driving the plot.
The relationship was done very well, but the end of the book felt rushed for the relationship. However I understand this is a standalone and everything needs to be wrapped up in one book.
Three things that knocked down my rating the FMC keeps saying she wont give herself to the mmc completly and then just does near the end. Yes stuff happened to move this along but it did not feel like their was enough internal monologue to understand her change in behavior. The mystery and person not being dead felt so rushed and we don’t even get a scene of Lan and Killian taking revenge for Glyndon. It felt like the book needed like 50 more pages to wrap both the love story and the revenge plot up. Finally why the Devlin guy faked his own death was only briefly explained and did not really make sense. The reasons he gave could have been accomplished by him not faking his own death. Again just a few more pages could have helped. Anyway, despite some criticisms, I really enjoyed it. And although I prefer fantasy dark romance I will continue with the next standalone.
Overall: 4.25/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Spice: 4/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
I really liked this book. It had so much of what I was looking for like an unhinged, burn the world down, obsessed mmc. Killian is everything I look for in an mmc. I was here for it.
Part of me missed the fantasy elements that I am used to. Although the books was fast paced, sexy, and mysterious I find myself drawn more to fantasy dark romance where something else is also driving the plot.
The relationship was done very well, but the end of the book felt rushed for the relationship. However I understand this is a standalone and everything needs to be wrapped up in one book.
Three things that knocked down my rating
Overall: 4.25/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Spice: 4/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking
Moderate: Death, Gaslighting
Minor: Animal death, Torture, Kidnapping, Alcohol, War
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Spicy Dark romance not for everyone but enjoyed reading it nonetheless
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Death, Car accident, Alcohol
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶.75
This is the first book in the Legacy of God's series, and I can honestly say that I am hooked! I've heard a lot of people talk about this series, but I never really paid it that much attention. I came across this book on Audible for sale and thought I'd give it a try. It did not disappoint, and I've already bought the test of this series.
Talk about crazy psychopaths in mask doing spicy things to the girl or guy their obsessed with, all while trying to solve major problems in their lives. This book kept me interested from chapter 1. All out takes is the wrong run-in from these guys to have that fine line between love and hate. They will exploit their obsessions weaknesses to gain what they truly want. To bad it throws them for a loop to by the end. This book is Killian and Glyndon's.
Tropes:
🖤 Psychopath x Good Girl
🎨 Dark College
🖤 Enemies to Lovers
🎨 Rival Colleges
🖤 Secret Society
🎨 Mental Health
🖤 Obsessed/Possessive MMC
🎨 Touch Her & Die
🖤 Dub Con/Non Con
🎨 Breeding Kink
🖤 Hates the World but Her
🎨 Somnophilia
🖤 Mentally Black
🎨 Vrgn FMC
🖤 Unhinged
🎨 Thoughts of Suicide
Killian suffers from antisocial tendencies, which makes him a true psychopath. This series has quite a few of them, which brought on a different kind of dark romance that I enjoyed. Some books may throw it out there that a character is like this, but this series actually talks about this mental health issue. You deal with it from their minds and their parents' minds.
Yes, this book, like every book in this series, has a few chapters told in the main characters' parents' POV. Side note, all these characters' parents have books as well. The last chapter will make their parents' books if you want to go back and read them. Which I definitely am.
Killian is part of The Heathens. Which is a club ran by Killian, his brother Gareth, cousin Nikolai, and best friend Jeremy. They all have ties to the Russian mafia. Killian and his brother are more along the lines related to Niko, who will be second in charge to the mafia one day.
These 4 go to College on Brighton Island, which is south of London. There are 2 Colleges on this islands. Kings U, which the Americans and these 4 attend, and Royal Elite U, which the British people attend. They don't usually cross paths unless they have to.
Which Killian crosses Glyndon's path one night in a very dark way. Glyn often thinks about suicide. She is depressed and thinks she is often not good enough. She comes from a family where pressure lies on her shoulders. Even though they really don't, she thinks they do. Glyndon loses her best friend to suicide and is visiting the cliff where he died. This is where she meets Killian, and her life is put in his hands.
The kinks in this series are amazing, really spicy, and kind of out there. Glyndon gets off on force and pain. Yes, she is a vrgn and doesn't really know the depth of her kink, but Killian recognizes it, and it's something he enjoys doing. He kind of takes the force part literal in his crazy mind but ultimately finds Glyndon fascinating and pursues her whether she wants him to or not.
Glyndon can recognize the psychopath in Killiam because her oldest twin brother, Landon, is just like him. I didn't like how Glyndon fears her brother, yet she had compassion towards his mental health issues and tried to say he was different than Killian because she thought Landon loved his family and Killian didn't love anything. Yet she knows love is an emotion they don't have or show. It's a learned behavior. She kept comparing Killian to Landon and saying they were different. They weren't.
Glyndon learns some things about her friends death that she didn't know about him. Things that didn't add up in her head. She quickly decides that she wants to use Killian and get info from his brother. By the time she thinks she has it all figured out, Killian is head over heels for her. What Glyndon thinks she knows and tries to use against Killian to push him away ends up being a mistake in her part. Things are not what they seem.
This whole series takes place at the same time or very close to around this time as Killian and Glyndon's do, expect book 6. Every couple has their own set of issues going on, and that's why they don't notice their friends getting involved with other members or other friends. This book can be read as a standalone, but it is book 1 in the series.
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Audiobook
The audiobook version was amazing. Sebastian York narrated Killian's part, and Josie Minor did Glyndon's. This wasn't a duet, but they both did well narrating the other persons voice and accent when it came that time.
Glyndon's voice is British, so Josie has a British accent. When she read a line as Killian, she did very well doing an American accent. Visa Versa with Sebastian. He dive an amazing job when it came time doing a British accent as Glyndon's voice.
This was my first book by Josie, but I think she is in more of this series, and I can't wait to hear what else she can bring. I've listened to Sebastian York's work before in quite a few books, and he always does an amazing job.
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶.75
This is the first book in the Legacy of God's series, and I can honestly say that I am hooked! I've heard a lot of people talk about this series, but I never really paid it that much attention. I came across this book on Audible for sale and thought I'd give it a try. It did not disappoint, and I've already bought the test of this series.
Talk about crazy psychopaths in mask doing spicy things to the girl or guy their obsessed with, all while trying to solve major problems in their lives. This book kept me interested from chapter 1. All out takes is the wrong run-in from these guys to have that fine line between love and hate. They will exploit their obsessions weaknesses to gain what they truly want. To bad it throws them for a loop to by the end. This book is Killian and Glyndon's.
Tropes:
🖤 Psychopath x Good Girl
🎨 Dark College
🖤 Enemies to Lovers
🎨 Rival Colleges
🖤 Secret Society
🎨 Mental Health
🖤 Obsessed/Possessive MMC
🎨 Touch Her & Die
🖤 Dub Con/Non Con
🎨 Breeding Kink
🖤 Hates the World but Her
🎨 Somnophilia
🖤 Mentally Black
🎨 Vrgn FMC
🖤 Unhinged
🎨 Thoughts of Suicide
Killian suffers from antisocial tendencies, which makes him a true psychopath. This series has quite a few of them, which brought on a different kind of dark romance that I enjoyed. Some books may throw it out there that a character is like this, but this series actually talks about this mental health issue. You deal with it from their minds and their parents' minds.
Yes, this book, like every book in this series, has a few chapters told in the main characters' parents' POV. Side note, all these characters' parents have books as well. The last chapter will make their parents' books if you want to go back and read them. Which I definitely am.
Killian is part of The Heathens. Which is a club ran by Killian, his brother Gareth, cousin Nikolai, and best friend Jeremy. They all have ties to the Russian mafia. Killian and his brother are more along the lines related to Niko, who will be second in charge to the mafia one day.
These 4 go to College on Brighton Island, which is south of London. There are 2 Colleges on this islands. Kings U, which the Americans and these 4 attend, and Royal Elite U, which the British people attend. They don't usually cross paths unless they have to.
Which Killian crosses Glyndon's path one night in a very dark way. Glyn often thinks about suicide. She is depressed and thinks she is often not good enough. She comes from a family where pressure lies on her shoulders. Even though they really don't, she thinks they do. Glyndon loses her best friend to suicide and is visiting the cliff where he died. This is where she meets Killian, and her life is put in his hands.
The kinks in this series are amazing, really spicy, and kind of out there. Glyndon gets off on force and pain. Yes, she is a vrgn and doesn't really know the depth of her kink, but Killian recognizes it, and it's something he enjoys doing. He kind of takes the force part literal in his crazy mind but ultimately finds Glyndon fascinating and pursues her whether she wants him to or not.
Glyndon can recognize the psychopath in Killiam because her oldest twin brother, Landon, is just like him. I didn't like how Glyndon fears her brother, yet she had compassion towards his mental health issues and tried to say he was different than Killian because she thought Landon loved his family and Killian didn't love anything. Yet she knows love is an emotion they don't have or show. It's a learned behavior. She kept comparing Killian to Landon and saying they were different. They weren't.
Glyndon learns some things about her friends death that she didn't know about him. Things that didn't add up in her head. She quickly decides that she wants to use Killian and get info from his brother. By the time she thinks she has it all figured out, Killian is head over heels for her. What Glyndon thinks she knows and tries to use against Killian to push him away ends up being a mistake in her part. Things are not what they seem.
This whole series takes place at the same time or very close to around this time as Killian and Glyndon's do, expect book 6. Every couple has their own set of issues going on, and that's why they don't notice their friends getting involved with other members or other friends. This book can be read as a standalone, but it is book 1 in the series.
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Audiobook
The audiobook version was amazing. Sebastian York narrated Killian's part, and Josie Minor did Glyndon's. This wasn't a duet, but they both did well narrating the other persons voice and accent when it came that time.
Glyndon's voice is British, so Josie has a British accent. When she read a line as Killian, she did very well doing an American accent. Visa Versa with Sebastian. He dive an amazing job when it came time doing a British accent as Glyndon's voice.
This was my first book by Josie, but I think she is in more of this series, and I can't wait to hear what else she can bring. I've listened to Sebastian York's work before in quite a few books, and he always does an amazing job.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gaslighting, Alcohol