A review by booksabrewin
The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

4.0

Blakely Anderson knew that her life was already mapped out for her. Once she completed her degree at Barrington University she would marry her boyfriend, Matt, and live the life of her mother full of high society functions and a lackluster marriage. But when her best friend offers her a last hurrah attending one of the Lords', a secret society for Barrington, party and potentially becoming one of the Lords' Chosen Ones she has to admit she is curious. What she wasn't expecting was to run into her cheating boyfriend and his newest conquest. This sends her directly into the pathway of Ryat Archer, the man that oozes danger and sex appeal. Before she knows it she is volunteering to be is Chosen and everything that comes along with it. Between Ryat's cruelty, her stalker ex-boyfriend, and the abundance of secrets the Lords seem to have, she doesn't know who to trust anymore. She has to wonder if her choice was one she would live to regret once Ryat casts her aside at the end of the year.

The author did an excellent job of working through the dynamic with Ryat and Blakely. There was no insta-love. There wasn't even insta-like really. Blakely wanted an escape and an adventure before she had to make the choice of her arranged marriage or fleeing and Ryat has a mission to complete and Blakely may be a part of that. Both of them went into the relationship with their eyes wide open and not expecting anything. Blakely didn't aim to change or soften Ryat and Ryat didn't try to dull Blakely's fire (if anything he nurtured it). Tessier did a fabulous job letting the romance build while not sacrificing the hot and spicy scenes that this book would need to incorporate.

Ryat grew on me and Blakely was divine. Ryat I kind of hated at first. He was cocky and just didn't seem to care how badly he broke people when it meant getting what he wanted. Blakely was docile and meek until pushed too far and then she was a spitfire. They were developed well enough that I was able to put myself in either of their positions as the dual narrative took me.

There wasn't much I would change about this book. There were some dark themes though which gave me a bit of pause. Like the fact that in these scenes between Ryat and Blakely a safe word was never mentioned which is paramount in a dominant/submissive dynamic. That part made me a little uncomfortable. They should have had something like that in place otherwise the forceful sex (even if she seemed to be enjoying it) bordered a bit on abuse. That was my only hang up on the book.

I think this is a really good dark romance read that anyone who is into that sort of genre should read.