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A review by lilcurious
Born, Darkly by Trisha Wolfe
adventurous
dark
1.5
The rationalizations made by the characters didn't ring true. Because Grayson was described as so smart, I think he would understand his situation better and his explanations would have more rigor than just a compulsion to kill put to better use. Or at least he could've been more deviant! Then his desires being so strong could explain his lack of will to look too deeply. But the book wanted to have its cake and eat it too, to have a dangerous love interest who was still smart (and controlled), so in the end I believed neither.
And I think this is a big pitfall to have in dark romance. Part of the genre's appeal is to experience danger in a controlled space, but I didn't believe he was dangerous because he lacked desire (like the famous vampire trope where they need the blood but they are afraid they wouldn't be able to control their compulsions! iconic!) But if not for that, then reading the genre to believe even people who did something awful can still deserve love, but by not understanding their motivations, I don't understand them as characters, and there is no pull to believe it. like idk maybe he could've had the death penalty and i wouldn't care so much. I think describing him as a sadistic psychopath and her as a narcissist at the same time London was very adamantly saying she didn't believe in rehabilitation gives it a sour taste. (A detail about this is that she doesn't sound at all as smart and competent as the book wants us to believe she is. I know Grayson is supposed to be a good manipulator, but she really had no idea what was going on with him.)
The sex was pretty disappointing too. The guy described it as violent and brutal, but he was just going hard. I really don't believe a killer's idea of violent and brutal sex to be just going hard.
(I liked that he was a bit of a dick to her too, though. I definetly love the trope of the killer who is sweet to their lover only, but it was nice having a bit of a change lol. Opinion with a minor spoiler: