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kelly_diaryofabooklover 's review for:

Beautiful Venom by Rina Kent
3.5
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

"๐“ข๐“ฑ๐“ฎโ€™๐“ผ ๐“ถ๐”‚ ๐”€๐“ธ๐“ป๐“ต๐“ญ. ๐“๐“ท๐“ญ ๐“˜โ€™๐“ต๐“ต ๐“ซ๐“พ๐“ป๐“ท ๐“ช๐“ท๐”‚๐“ธ๐“ท๐“ฎ ๐”€๐“ฑ๐“ธ ๐“ฌ๐“ธ๐“ถ๐“ฎ๐“ผ ๐“ฌ๐“ต๐“ธ๐“ผ๐“ฎ ๐“ฝ๐“ธ ๐“ฒ๐“ฝ."

๐Œ๐ฒ ๐“๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฌ ๐Ÿ’ญ

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and Iโ€™m sad to say it left me a bit underwhelmed. Maybe my expectations were too high, but it just didnโ€™t grab me the way Iโ€™d hoped. It wasnโ€™t a bad book by any meansโ€”I just didnโ€™t connect with it or the characters as much as I wanted to.

Kane should have been everything I love in a dark romance MMCโ€”broody, mysterious, possessive, and a little unhinged. And while I did like him, he didnโ€™t quite hit the way I wanted him to. Dahlia felt contradictory. At times, she was feisty and strong; at others, she seemed like a shell of herself. I didnโ€™t dislike her, but again, I struggled to really connect with her character.

The plot itself felt repetitive and drawn out. By the halfway point, it felt like not much had actually happened. The second half definitely picked up, but then we were hit with multiple breakups, and it just felt a bit too much. It was also very insta-lust (not a fave of mine) that quickly turned into obsession then love, and that shift didnโ€™t quite work for me. It didn't feel authentic. That said, there were some really good parts, and the setup for the other books in the series was done so well. Iโ€™m definitely intrigued by Marcus and Prestonโ€”they have me in a chokehold, and we only got crumbs! Marcus is giving Niko vibes, and I am here for it. I also really liked Jude and am genuinely excited for his story.

Overall, this one was OK, but I wasn't wowed. I donโ€™t think Iโ€™d bother re-reading it. However, I have to shout out the narrators of the audiobookโ€”they were amazing and definitely kept me interested. So if youโ€™re thinking of giving this a try, Iโ€™d absolutely recommend going the audio route.