I enjoyed this and I’m thankful for the recommendation but I will admit this book left me a bit conflicted. I don’t believe it's a “dark romance”, it just has dark themes. I loved the plotline and was keen to read but in my opinion the characters were a bit messy. Honestly if the plot wasn’t as good, I would’ve DNF’d. 

The FMC (Aspen) was incredibly indecisive to the point where I wanted to stop reading at times because I was getting whiplash from her. 

The love interest is her brother’s best friend (Isaac) and he is 🔥 but is a bit immature and definitely is a cause to MC’s struggle to communicate healthily. 

Aspen’s brother (Austin) was complete hypocrites for most of the book as well as immature and honestly a bit overdramatic.

For me the plot and spice is the only thing that carried the book. While saying that I also want to point out that the plot was actually great, the timing between drama and complications was good and I did have quite a couple giggle and gasp moments. 

Overall I had higher hope and am I little disappointed but would still recommend.

TROPES:

🖤 Brother’s Best Friend

🖤 Age Gap

🖤 Taboo Romance

🖤 Sex Club

🖤 Unrequited Love

🖤 Forced Proximity 

PSA: Please be aware that this book contains mature themes, triggers and is recommended for readers 18+

This book started out pretty decent but by 3/4 through I was sick of the writing sloppiness and the lack of “show don’t tell” which made all the relationship progress totally unbelievable. Also it was hard to root for anybody because the characters were all insufferable, and the writing didn’t bring me around to them. As a reader my buy-in isn’t a foregone conclusion just because the smut is good! (Which it was)