A review by pagepixie
MILO by E. L. Lewis

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

I would like to thank the author for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

This is a dark romance, however while I does deal with themes such as a death of parents and family of page, violence, etc, there is very little that explicitly happens on the page. I’m not very well versed in fake romance, but I found this to be a romance with dark themes rather than the romance itself being dark. 

I loved the romance between Milo and Kiara. There was a lot of tension, buildup, and banter as they both fought their attraction to each other. I definitely think that Milo fell first and harder. He practically worshiped Kiara. 

Another one of my favorite aspects of this book is the Kiara is a highly intelligent character. She speaks multiple languages, is able to learn skills quickly, is knowledgeable about human behavior and literature, etc. Because of this, the author works a lot of facts, phrases and history into the book which I loved. 

My only two qualms with this book were that the war with the Russians took place mostly off page, including the finale. I would have loved to get into this plot line a bit more. Secondly, I found Kiara to have a sharp pivot towards the end where she not only accepted the violence and death of the mafia life, but was suddenly physically involving herself in the violence. I found this to be rather jarring. 

Overall though, this was a sexy romance with dark themes. I flew through it and thoroughly enjoyed!