This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Tynga's Reviews! ♥
 | Dolls & Daggers (Serial Killer Book Club #1) by D.L. Darby ★★★★½ (4.5) Read: October 28, 2026 378 pages Source: Personal library |
Finally! A dark rom-com that's genuinely both. I've been duped by a few books with dark rom-com-ish covers but were actually dark romance, so Dolls & Daggers made my heart sing.
Dove is a 5-foot pink-and-lace ray of sunshine in four-inch heels, the star journalist who saved a failing paper by covering a vigilante serial killer who hunts predators. Small detail: she's the killer. Enter Ren, a tall, gorgeous, arrogant new hire who wants her column and is a little too obsessed with the Doll. What follows is a prank war so petty and unhinged I was cackling on my walks to work. Salt. Hair dye. A furry innocent bystander. Snacks you will never look at the same way again.
What I loved most is that the rivalry actually stays a rivalry. So many enemies-to-lovers books give up the fight in the first chapters. These two keep sabotaging each other well after things heat up, and every inch of ground they give feels earned.
Under all that chaos there are two deeply wounded people, and the author handles their trauma with real weight without losing the humor.
Why not 5 stars? One plot thread gets swept under the rug way too easily, and it bugged me. Maybe book 2 will pick it up. (And I am SO ready for that side couple to get their own story.)
🎧 Audiobook notes: Lucy Rivers and Aaron Shedlock did an amazing job. Lucy's bubbly, high-pitched Dove grated on my nerves, but that's exactly the point. It's perfect for the character and nothing like her usual voice. Fair warning: their pacing is very different, so I listened at 1.25x the whole way, instead of my usual 1.7x speed.
Tropes: Rivals to lovers · Workplace romance · Vigilante FMC / she's the villain · Morally grey heroine · Secret identity · Obsessed MMC · Touch her and die · Prank war · Size difference (tiny FMC, tall MMC) · Found family · Trauma healing
⚠️ Check the content warnings: child sexual abuse/grooming (past), graphic murder, torture, gore, violence, and spice.
Dove is a 5-foot pink-and-lace ray of sunshine in four-inch heels, the star journalist who saved a failing paper by covering a vigilante serial killer who hunts predators. Small detail: she's the killer. Enter Ren, a tall, gorgeous, arrogant new hire who wants her column and is a little too obsessed with the Doll. What follows is a prank war so petty and unhinged I was cackling on my walks to work. Salt. Hair dye. A furry innocent bystander. Snacks you will never look at the same way again.
What I loved most is that the rivalry actually stays a rivalry. So many enemies-to-lovers books give up the fight in the first chapters. These two keep sabotaging each other well after things heat up, and every inch of ground they give feels earned.
Under all that chaos there are two deeply wounded people, and the author handles their trauma with real weight without losing the humor.
Why not 5 stars? One plot thread gets swept under the rug way too easily, and it bugged me. Maybe book 2 will pick it up. (And I am SO ready for that side couple to get their own story.)
🎧 Audiobook notes: Lucy Rivers and Aaron Shedlock did an amazing job. Lucy's bubbly, high-pitched Dove grated on my nerves, but that's exactly the point. It's perfect for the character and nothing like her usual voice. Fair warning: their pacing is very different, so I listened at 1.25x the whole way, instead of my usual 1.7x speed.
Tropes: Rivals to lovers · Workplace romance · Vigilante FMC / she's the villain · Morally grey heroine · Secret identity · Obsessed MMC · Touch her and die · Prank war · Size difference (tiny FMC, tall MMC) · Found family · Trauma healing
⚠️ Check the content warnings: child sexual abuse/grooming (past), graphic murder, torture, gore, violence, and spice.
Track your own reading journey ✦
Discover Tynga Publishing Reading Journals
0 Comments:
Post a Comment