fantasy_fiction_and_fae 's review for:

Ravage by Steph Macca

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A series that's dark, invasive, hot, disturbing, and addictive. If loving this series makes me sick, I don't ever want the cure.

If you don't like dark romance and spice, skip this series. If you do enjoy that genre, the best way to consume this series is via audiobook. The duet style with multiple narrators is amazing. The choice in narrators for this series is a chef's kiss (Marie Hawkins, Joe Arden, Corvin King, Anthony Palmini). Reading along with the book would help highlight and or annotate your favorite parts if you are into that.

SPOILERS BELOW

Avery - I used to think that the worst thing that could happen to someone would be to fall into the darkness, until I met him. He IS the darkness, and I never realized how much I needed him until I was there in his obsidian abyss. They say that the light will save you, but that's not always the case. Sometimes the darkness is where we thrive, where we are reborn after finding ourselves. It hides all your flaws, engulfing you, and when you think you can't breathe, you become intoxicated by the freedom it offers.

Theo - I really want to come face to face with the doctors who thought it was acceptable to put their hands on my girlfriend. I want to see the fear in their eyes. Have them beg for mercy like their victims have done. Maybe then they will have an epiphany. Apologies mean nothing if you don't understand a basic level of empathy. People like that will offer empty promises and apologies, too caught up in their own beliefs to acknowledge the harm they have caused, but if they experience it firsthand, they can change everything.

Grey - My life improved tenfold when Avery came into it. She's the light in my darkness, healing the ugly parts of me that I learned to accept. The only people who ever accepted me just the way I am is Damon.

Avery made me realize that love is more than pink hearts and romance. It's aggressive, violet, a danger. It can be all-consuming, obsessive, making every single personality trait an emotion of dear, good, and bad, and she never made me feel like I was unworthy of love. Avery loves every die of me, never shying away from the darkness that lies within me. Those people want to tame their darkness and not me. I would change for her if I had to, but I don't because she accepts all of me.

Damon - It appears we're all playing dangerous games, but that's the thing about games, for every winner, there has to be a loser.

My control slipped AGAIN. I rarely lost it all the past few years, and now it's happening more frequently, and there's one common denominator in all of it... AVERY. Just hearing her say my name like that is more intoxicating than the expensive bottle of whisky that's now forgotten about on the floor. I don't even remember placing it down. One minute I was fine, then the next it's like my enviable cord snapped. My mouth was on hers, breathing her in like my life depended on it. When I looked up, I notice her watching me closely, forehead wrinkled in tension. I can SEE the worry in her eyes. The panic and fear that I regret what just happened. I don't. It just happened so suddenly.

I'm mad at myself for losing control. Mad at myself for hating how much I place my own value in her. Mad for hating that she makes me believe I'm not that bad of a monster as I think I am. I HATE that she sees good in me when I know there's none, but furious that sometimes I let myself indulge in that thought, believing it briefly. Everything is so different in her eyes. She's too trusting, too quick to search for good. That's what landed her in trouble before. I don't want her to be so complacent. She NEEDS to HATE me. I NEED her to HATE me. It would all be much easier, but at the same time, the thought of her hating me makes me feel like my body is being torn apart from the inside out. I've grown to like how she looks at me. While everyone watches me in fear, she gazes at me like the sun shines out of my fucking asshole, and I know that's how she feels, because that's how she looks at Grey too.

October 31st can't come soon enough to listen to book 4, Exile. The cliffhanger on this book was shocking, and although I feel like I have an idea of how it will all end, the ride to get there will be delicious.

Content Warnings