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A review by klindtvedt
After the Fall by Giana Darling
5.0
This One Will Rip Out Your Heart and Crack Open Your Soul...
There is something about this series I simply cannot ignore, a heaviness I both relate to and appreciate even when it cleaves my heart in two and weighs down my soul until I lose my breath. I have read many MC romance books, have even loved a few, but this series is one of only two that have seared itself into my very DNA for all of eternity. And this book, the forth of Giana Darling’s, The Fallen Men Series, and second full length book devoted to King and Cressida, is beyond anything I have ever read before. I cannot even fully put into words the emotions “After the Fall” will foist upon you as you navigate a story so fraught with peril it will leave you irrevocably altered.
Here Darling begins close in line with the end of book three, a short time after King decides to prospect for the club, delving a bit further into his reasons for it. It begins benign enough with the first third of it laying down some of the finer relationship and day-to-day living details of him and Cress, as well as, their individual and collective relationship to the club. However, while the love portrayed between them will make you swoon you will quickly become aware of a darkness hovering above, evil looming, waiting to pounce. As despite the nonthreatening nature of the scenes before you, other bits woven into the fabric around them will make your senses prickle with unease from the end of the very first chapter. The initial unease quickly shifting to an understanding that all the seemingly mundane details have sharp and dangerous points of purpose, all driving toward a set of events so surreal, so absolutely mind-bending you will scramble to understand how all could have gone so terribly astray.
I was stunned at the events in this installment, so much so I cannot even provide my normal story synopsis as it would simply give too much away. So instantly perilous, so powerfully all consuming is this story, it will lock you in a literary death grip until the very last page, refusing to let you go even when you begin to beg for mercy. And. You. Will. Beg...
Never have I read a book that so quickly and easily made me so afraid to turn the page. Never have I read prose so steeped in unapologetic, heart piercing decisions that it made me terrified to read the next paragraph, the next sentence, or at times even the next word.
I would like to say this one will continue the intense but dreamy feeling deep in your belly that began in the earlier installments. However, this one will stoke a much different sort of feeling. Rage. Rage at the corruption. Rage over the targeted, abusive methods employed. Rage at the lengths some are forced to go to in order to keep those they love safe. And even more rage at the decisions themselves, as they alter the course of the lives and relationships of everyone involved forever. This installment made me seethe with unbridled, gut churning rage that simmered long and low and left me torn and emotionally spent. All while simultaneously basking in the beauty that is the unbreakable love and loyalty of the chosen Fallen family.
The emotional rollercoaster that is this book is almost beyond comprehension. So heavy will the events portrayed within lay on your heart, you will cease to be able to breathe, to think, to momentarily exist as you process the words before you. The feelings thrust upon you so intense you will shatter, splintering into a million tiny fragments as understanding takes root within you. Yet despite the emotional exhaustion you will feel as the last words cross your mind’s eye, and despite the absolute agony this story will put you through, it is worth every, last, bit of torture. And you will jump immediately into book five in order to continue the literary high.
There is something about this series I simply cannot ignore, a heaviness I both relate to and appreciate even when it cleaves my heart in two and weighs down my soul until I lose my breath. I have read many MC romance books, have even loved a few, but this series is one of only two that have seared itself into my very DNA for all of eternity. And this book, the forth of Giana Darling’s, The Fallen Men Series, and second full length book devoted to King and Cressida, is beyond anything I have ever read before. I cannot even fully put into words the emotions “After the Fall” will foist upon you as you navigate a story so fraught with peril it will leave you irrevocably altered.
Here Darling begins close in line with the end of book three, a short time after King decides to prospect for the club, delving a bit further into his reasons for it. It begins benign enough with the first third of it laying down some of the finer relationship and day-to-day living details of him and Cress, as well as, their individual and collective relationship to the club. However, while the love portrayed between them will make you swoon you will quickly become aware of a darkness hovering above, evil looming, waiting to pounce. As despite the nonthreatening nature of the scenes before you, other bits woven into the fabric around them will make your senses prickle with unease from the end of the very first chapter. The initial unease quickly shifting to an understanding that all the seemingly mundane details have sharp and dangerous points of purpose, all driving toward a set of events so surreal, so absolutely mind-bending you will scramble to understand how all could have gone so terribly astray.
I was stunned at the events in this installment, so much so I cannot even provide my normal story synopsis as it would simply give too much away. So instantly perilous, so powerfully all consuming is this story, it will lock you in a literary death grip until the very last page, refusing to let you go even when you begin to beg for mercy. And. You. Will. Beg...
Never have I read a book that so quickly and easily made me so afraid to turn the page. Never have I read prose so steeped in unapologetic, heart piercing decisions that it made me terrified to read the next paragraph, the next sentence, or at times even the next word.
I would like to say this one will continue the intense but dreamy feeling deep in your belly that began in the earlier installments. However, this one will stoke a much different sort of feeling. Rage. Rage at the corruption. Rage over the targeted, abusive methods employed. Rage at the lengths some are forced to go to in order to keep those they love safe. And even more rage at the decisions themselves, as they alter the course of the lives and relationships of everyone involved forever. This installment made me seethe with unbridled, gut churning rage that simmered long and low and left me torn and emotionally spent. All while simultaneously basking in the beauty that is the unbreakable love and loyalty of the chosen Fallen family.
The emotional rollercoaster that is this book is almost beyond comprehension. So heavy will the events portrayed within lay on your heart, you will cease to be able to breathe, to think, to momentarily exist as you process the words before you. The feelings thrust upon you so intense you will shatter, splintering into a million tiny fragments as understanding takes root within you. Yet despite the emotional exhaustion you will feel as the last words cross your mind’s eye, and despite the absolute agony this story will put you through, it is worth every, last, bit of torture. And you will jump immediately into book five in order to continue the literary high.