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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
Part 1 was raw and this just rips you right open.
Words are never going to convey the emotions and depth that there is to this story. I am sure those faint of heart will stop after book 1 and honestly, part 2 is not for the weak.
Part 2 is going to break you.
I loved the redemption and it brought peace to my soul. It still hurts just thinking about it. I will be taking a break before reading the next book because this is not something that you can just forget.
Words are never going to convey the emotions and depth that there is to this story. I am sure those faint of heart will stop after book 1 and honestly, part 2 is not for the weak.
Part 2 is going to break you.
I loved the redemption and it brought peace to my soul. It still hurts just thinking about it. I will be taking a break before reading the next book because this is not something that you can just forget.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I hate to say this, but I was frankly underwhelmed by this story. I was set up for such a gruesome, tragic story that by the end I was like "oh. ok". That being said, what happens in this duet is not for the faint of heart. Nothing about this book is happy. There is no comic relief. There are moments of hope and joy that are absolutely crushed and destroyed. I was terrified Mina was going to get pregnant and stay trapped to Shay (like Keenan's mother), and/or that Keenan was going to get killed because Shay discovers their relationship.
Shay is 100% terrifying and disturbing. It's clear he has mental health issues that went untreated and undiagnosed. James' handling of everything that happens in this book is just so awful. And yet, I still really like him. I hate that he puts the responsibility of handling Shay's tantrums on Mina at...13? And I hate that he does absolutely nothing when he watches Shay start to go off the rails, hoping it'll just resolve itself. He has no control over his son, Shay and Mina's relationship, and Shay's treatment of Emily. In a way, he's the catalyst for all the destruction, grief, and violence in Mina's life.
Page acknowledges that Shay, Mina, and Keenan all suffer traumatic childhoods and they also all deal with it differently. Mina's response to trauma is the fawning response, Shay's is the fight response, and I'm actually not 100% sure what Keenan's is. Somewhat fight? At times, it was really hard for me to tolerate how compliant Mina is. I think I had a really hard time picturing her and the rest of the biker gang. I got frustrated by how weak she is, physically. But she also describes these guys as buff as hell. I also think I have a really hard time empathizing and understanding the effects of grooming on a child/person. Mina is gaslit, manipulated, and abused repeatedly.
I don't feel like there is a clear transition from brotherly affection to obsessive possessiveness, and I think Page does that on purpose. It seems like everyone else sees something Mina and Shay don't see, which is that their relationship is dangerous. The age difference and power dynamic leads to a very dysfunctional, troubled, volatile relationship. Shay rapes her and coerces her into doing things she's uncomfortable with. By the last...40%? Mina insists she's used to it and she does actually love him. But I just had a really hard time buying that. She goes from resenting and at times hating him to fully accepting her situation of being his...thing. She forces herself to be ok with her situation to survive. Shay basically makes it clear to her that she has no choice. But, the little voice and her conversations with Keenan and James suggest to me that she's not really ok with it, but she's convinced herself she is because she's trapped.
I do have to say that the death I was the most disturbed by was the homeless guy's death. He was 100% in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, Cody's death, Emily's death, Shay beating the living daylights out of the kid Eli...idk. I felt very detached. Cody was a sleezebag, I also got really frustrated with Emily's naiveté and checking out of caring for Mina. It's clear she's completely beaten down by the time she's killed, but regardless, I still didn't really feel that sad when she dies. I think maybe I was a little too primed for this duet that I just couldn't get emotionally invested? While I can recognize that the events and lives of these characters are tragic, this story just had very little emotional impact on me personally. Not to mention, the epilogue actually kind of ruined it for me? I don't wish Mina and Keenan to be miserable and sad their whole lives, and I'm glad they found each other in the end, but I think what would've made this truly tragic would've been if Mina had been forced to stay with Shay for whatever reason and Keenan had been killed off.
I feel like I've read about tragic characters before that have had bigger emotional impacts on me, such as Dorothy from Kristin Hannah's Fly Away. SPOILER FOR DIFFERENT BOOKS: She's also abused and raped and for some reason, idk if it's writing style or what, but Dorothy's story just hit me harder. Sam from Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow also suffers immensely, and I really felt his pain in a way I just couldn't access in this duet. I think what also contributed to my feeling underwhelmed is the pacing of this duet. I kept waiting for something even more tragic to happen and all the deaths and things that happen to Mina just felt a little anticlimactic. Like, again, the tragic events are handled really well and there was never one time I felt like the relationship between Mina and Shay was romantic or romanticized. But, idk. People talk about how they cried while reading this and I did not. I came close to tearing up once, but that's about it.
Shay is 100% terrifying and disturbing. It's clear he has mental health issues that went untreated and undiagnosed. James' handling of everything that happens in this book is just so awful. And yet, I still really like him. I hate that he puts the responsibility of handling Shay's tantrums on Mina at...13? And I hate that he does absolutely nothing when he watches Shay start to go off the rails, hoping it'll just resolve itself. He has no control over his son, Shay and Mina's relationship, and Shay's treatment of Emily. In a way, he's the catalyst for all the destruction, grief, and violence in Mina's life.
Page acknowledges that Shay, Mina, and Keenan all suffer traumatic childhoods and they also all deal with it differently. Mina's response to trauma is the fawning response, Shay's is the fight response, and I'm actually not 100% sure what Keenan's is. Somewhat fight? At times, it was really hard for me to tolerate how compliant Mina is. I think I had a really hard time picturing her and the rest of the biker gang. I got frustrated by how weak she is, physically. But she also describes these guys as buff as hell. I also think I have a really hard time empathizing and understanding the effects of grooming on a child/person. Mina is gaslit, manipulated, and abused repeatedly.
I don't feel like there is a clear transition from brotherly affection to obsessive possessiveness, and I think Page does that on purpose. It seems like everyone else sees something Mina and Shay don't see, which is that their relationship is dangerous. The age difference and power dynamic leads to a very dysfunctional, troubled, volatile relationship. Shay rapes her and coerces her into doing things she's uncomfortable with. By the last...40%? Mina insists she's used to it and she does actually love him. But I just had a really hard time buying that. She goes from resenting and at times hating him to fully accepting her situation of being his...thing. She forces herself to be ok with her situation to survive. Shay basically makes it clear to her that she has no choice. But, the little voice and her conversations with Keenan and James suggest to me that she's not really ok with it, but she's convinced herself she is because she's trapped.
I do have to say that the death I was the most disturbed by was the homeless guy's death. He was 100% in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, Cody's death, Emily's death, Shay beating the living daylights out of the kid Eli...idk. I felt very detached. Cody was a sleezebag, I also got really frustrated with Emily's naiveté and checking out of caring for Mina. It's clear she's completely beaten down by the time she's killed, but regardless, I still didn't really feel that sad when she dies. I think maybe I was a little too primed for this duet that I just couldn't get emotionally invested? While I can recognize that the events and lives of these characters are tragic, this story just had very little emotional impact on me personally. Not to mention, the epilogue actually kind of ruined it for me? I don't wish Mina and Keenan to be miserable and sad their whole lives, and I'm glad they found each other in the end, but I think what would've made this truly tragic would've been if Mina had been forced to stay with Shay for whatever reason and Keenan had been killed off.
I feel like I've read about tragic characters before that have had bigger emotional impacts on me, such as Dorothy from Kristin Hannah's Fly Away. SPOILER FOR DIFFERENT BOOKS: She's also abused and raped and for some reason, idk if it's writing style or what, but Dorothy's story just hit me harder. Sam from Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow also suffers immensely, and I really felt his pain in a way I just couldn't access in this duet. I think what also contributed to my feeling underwhelmed is the pacing of this duet. I kept waiting for something even more tragic to happen and all the deaths and things that happen to Mina just felt a little anticlimactic. Like, again, the tragic events are handled really well and there was never one time I felt like the relationship between Mina and Shay was romantic or romanticized. But, idk. People talk about how they cried while reading this and I did not. I came close to tearing up once, but that's about it.
Okay wow where to start… this duet was recommended to me countless times and I low key get nervous now when that happens because I don’t wanna make anyone mad
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my first 5 star read of 2025, but god did it gut me. I'm still processing what I just read and may come back to edit this review later, but here are my thoughts for now. I'm struggling with whether or not this qualifies as a romance... even as a dark romance. I'm not someone that needs every story tied up with a bow in a perfect HEA at the ending, but I do feel like a romance needs some sort of satisfying conclusion. Shay's ending (which was perfectly done with his POV) was tragic, but it did give him some degree of redemption. The fact that he made the ultimate sacrifice so that Mina could live on is beautiful in its own tragic way.
But what I can't get past is how fundamentally abusive Shay and Mina's relationship was. I think what it really comes down to is that Mina was completely stripped of her agency by Shay's controlling nature. While I do think she loved him as a brother throughout, I was never convinced that she had truly fallen in love with him because the circumstances he forced her into prevented her from making her own decisions. Perhaps if Shay didn't have so many demons (poor boy just needed some damn therapy) and had allowed her to come to him on his own, that would have been romantic. But the horrific things he did to Mina and those around her prevented her from ever being able to love him in the way he wanted.
I know in dark romance we toe the line with romanticizing abusive behavior, but I think the key is whether or not both parties have enough agency to express themselves genuinely. In this case, with Mina having been groomed by Shay from the time she was a young girl, I don't think she had - or was given - the agency to truly love him.
I think if it were to be a true romance, it would have focused on Mina and Keenan's forbidden love. We got a hint of their HEA in the epilogue that was very satisfying. I'm really hoping we get more peaks into their lives after the events of this duology in future books.
But what I can't get past is how fundamentally abusive Shay and Mina's relationship was. I think what it really comes down to is that Mina was completely stripped of her agency by Shay's controlling nature. While I do think she loved him as a brother throughout, I was never convinced that she had truly fallen in love with him because the circumstances he forced her into prevented her from making her own decisions. Perhaps if Shay didn't have so many demons (poor boy just needed some damn therapy) and had allowed her to come to him on his own, that would have been romantic. But the horrific things he did to Mina and those around her prevented her from ever being able to love him in the way he wanted.
I know in dark romance we toe the line with romanticizing abusive behavior, but I think the key is whether or not both parties have enough agency to express themselves genuinely. In this case, with Mina having been groomed by Shay from the time she was a young girl, I don't think she had - or was given - the agency to truly love him.
I think if it were to be a true romance, it would have focused on Mina and Keenan's forbidden love. We got a hint of their HEA in the epilogue that was very satisfying. I'm really hoping we get more peaks into their lives after the events of this duology in future books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Vomit, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I did not love the first book. My reasons for that are of course, listed in the review for Torment: Part One.
This book though...I started reading and somehow finished in about 4 hours. I did not come up for air until I finished the Author's note. And as much as I enjoyed the book, I really enjoyed the author's note afterwards, too. My favorite quote:
Sometimes there is no happily ever after. And sometimes a happily ever after is something less grand and fantastical than we expected. But that’s okay. It’s just… life.
About the book though, I actually loved Mina's character growth, as heartbreaking as the reasons behind it are. I also really enjoyed the relationship she has with her stepfather. He is no saint but he really does love Mina.
Shay...Its obvious he loves Mina. He's obsessed with her, actually. Their relationship is completely toxic and I actually enjoyed the way the author wrote it.
The ending....I don't want to spoil anything but I will say for some this is a sort of HEA and for some....maybe not.
This book though...I started reading and somehow finished in about 4 hours. I did not come up for air until I finished the Author's note. And as much as I enjoyed the book, I really enjoyed the author's note afterwards, too. My favorite quote:
Sometimes there is no happily ever after. And sometimes a happily ever after is something less grand and fantastical than we expected. But that’s okay. It’s just… life.
About the book though, I actually loved Mina's character growth, as heartbreaking as the reasons behind it are. I also really enjoyed the relationship she has with her stepfather. He is no saint but he really does love Mina.
Shay...Its obvious he loves Mina. He's obsessed with her, actually. Their relationship is completely toxic and I actually enjoyed the way the author wrote it.
The ending....I don't want to spoil anything but I will say for some this is a sort of HEA and for some....maybe not.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Why even end the book like that?!
This ending seriously PMO. Then the author letter afterwards just made it worse. There is way too much hanging in the unknown for me to 5 star this. My brain says to 2 star this, but the entirety of the book, save the last chapter and epilogue, was a 4 star read easily.
Shay deserved better. End of.
This ending seriously PMO. Then the author letter afterwards just made it worse. There is way too much hanging in the unknown for me to 5 star this. My brain says to 2 star this, but the entirety of the book, save the last chapter and epilogue, was a 4 star read easily.
Shay deserved better. End of.
dark
emotional