Review: A Kiss of Iron (Shadows of the Tenebris Court, #1) by Clare Sager

A Kiss of Iron (Shadows of the Tenebris Court, #1) by Clare Sager ★★★★★ Read: June 6, 2025 608 pages

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This book absolutely wrecked me, in the best way. It’s a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy laced with espionage, court intrigue, fae politics, and the kind of yearning that claws straight through your chest. Lady Katerine is the kind of heroine I ache for: desperate but proud, backed into corners but never broken, and forced to walk a razor’s edge between survival and sacrifice. And Bastien? Bastien is pure trouble, sharp, unreadable, dirty mouthed and dangerously patient. He’s the kind of morally gray love interest who plays the long game while hiding a firestorm beneath the surface. Also, did I mention he is a shadow daddy?

The tension is exquisite. Forced proximity, secret agendas, unspoken devotion… all the hallmarks of a perfect slow unraveling. But it’s not just about heat and flirtation. There’s real pain here, trauma, betrayal, and impossible choices that make your heart race and ache at the same time. I was hooked not just by the romance, but by the mystery, the stakes, the way trust is tested and shattered and pieced back together with bloody hands.

And the ending? Gut punch. It delivers on everything the book built toward: twists, consequences, and a desperate bid for love that doesn’t feel easy or clean… just earned.

If you love slow burns with dangerous men, fierce women who refuse to surrender, and morally tangled stories full of secrets and sacrifice... A Kiss of Iron is a ride you’ll want to take. Just be ready to bleed a little on the way down.

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by Tynga at Thursday, September 03, 2026

 Clare Sager, fae, forced proximity, Magic, morally grey, Plus Size FMC, Review, secret identity, shadow daddy, Shadows of the Tenebris Court  Leave your mark

✎

Review: Don't Say Mafia (The Wrong Made Men #1) by C.R. Jane

Don't Say Mafia (The Wrong Made Men #1) by C.R. Jane ★★★☆☆ Read: August 13, 2026 521 pages

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Thank you Podium audio for the ALC.

I went into this one blind, which is how I always do it. Dark mafia romance, obsessive MMC, a woman trapped in a life that's slowly suffocating her — on paper, this should have been right up my alley. And in some ways, the bones are there. C.R. Jane knows how to build an MMC who decides and doesn't hesitate. Jagger is intense, possessive, and unwavering in his pursuit of Eden from the moment he sees her in his casino. If you love morally black heroes who fall first and would burn the world to possess the woman they want, this will absolutely deliver for you.

It just wasn't the right shade for me.

What I needed — and never really got — was a heroine who was given a real choice. Eden is a survivor. She's resilient and resourceful, but the story is structured in a way that her agency gets quietly stripped away, piece by piece, until the love story feels less like a surrender and more like an inevitability she was never allowed to escape. I don't need my dark MMCs to be good men. I need the woman choose this bad man with open eyes though. That reckoning never fully came, and without it, the romance didn't land for me.

The found family dynamic between Jagger and his crew was honestly my favorite part of the book. Their banter, their loyalty, the way they move as a unit — that felt the most alive and the most real. Jagger's brother also stole every scene he appeared in. Honestly, I think he might have been my favorite character, with Cruz as close second. He's clearly a cameo from another series.

A note on structure: the early chapters use overlapping timelines between the two main POVs, where each character's chapters cover the same events from their perspective, sometimes starting at different points on the timeline. On audio, this was genuinely disorienting. I wasn't sure which character was which in a key early scene. I genuinely thought there had been a production error. It smooths out after the setup, but it made the first few chapters harder to settle into than they needed to be.

The duet narration by Sean Masters and Alexis Paige is excellent — they bring real presence and chemistry to the performances, and Sean's accent work is a standout.

Content notes: this book contains dubcon/non-con elements, drugging, graphic on-page torture, stalking, and violence. These are not the reason for my rating — I read dark romance regularly and I don't shy away from heavy content. The story simply wasn't for me.

Tropes: obsessive MMC · morally black hero · stalker romance · instalust · mafia romance · forced proximity · murder for love · dubcon/non-con · found family

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by Tynga at Tuesday, August 18, 2026

 forced proximity, found family, instalust, mafia, morally grey, Non-con, obsessed MMC, Review, stalker, Wrong Made Men  Leave your mark

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Review: A Little Bit Obsessed (A Little Bit Unhinged #1) by Chrissy Hopewell

A Little Bit Obsessed (A Little Bit Unhinged #1) by Chrissy Hopewell ★★★★★ Read: August 3, 2026 376 pages

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I did not expect to love this book as hard as I did.

I went in thinking dark romcom — vigilante brothers who hunt predators, a mafia princess who wants nothing to do with the life, forced proximity with a man who has absolutely no business being this attractive while committing felonies. And it IS funny. Genuinely, laugh-out-loud, tears-in-your-eyes funny. But underneath the humor is something with real teeth, and Hopewell never once lets the comedy undercut the emotional stakes.

Wes is the kind of MMC I will follow anywhere. He is meticulous, morally grey in the most compelling way, and so quietly devastated by his own feelings that watching him fall is like watching a controlled demolition in slow motion — everything precise and calculated until it's suddenly, catastrophically not. The way he cares for the FMC is unhinged and tender in equal measure. He will do objectively terrible things to keep her safe and then feel genuinely offended that she didn't protect herself better. His love language is surveillance and baked goods, and somehow that tracks.

Callie is the perfect match for him — not because she's fearless, but because she keeps choosing to stay even when her brain is screaming at her to run. She's spent years being invisible to the people who were supposed to see her, and Wes sees her with his entire body. Every tracker, every uninvited pie, every moment of fury when someone else touches her — it's the most intense attention she's ever received, and watching her fight against how much she wants it is agonizing in the best way.

Noah. Oh, Noah. The impulsive brother, the one who runs hot, the one everyone underestimates. He is so much sharper than he lets on, and the moments where his emotional intelligence cuts through the chaos are some of the best scenes in the book. He's getting his own story next and I am not ready.

The pacing is tight. The banter is *chef's kiss*. The spice is earned and woven into the emotional arc, never decorative. And there's a subplot involving competitive baking and an elderly woman that I cannot say more about except that it is one of the most delightful threads I've encountered in dark romance. Trust the pie. The pie matters.

This book made me laugh, made me clutch my chest, and made me genuinely sad when it was over. Five stars and I need book two immediately.

Tropes: stalker romance · vigilante MMC · forced proximity · captor/captive · morally grey · obsessive love · touch-her-and-die · he fell first · mafia adjacent · dark comedy · brothers dynamic

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by Tynga at Sunday, August 09, 2026

 A Little Bit Unhinged, banter, captor/captive, Chrissy Hopewell, Dark Rom Com, forced proximity, found family, kidnapping, morally grey, Review, serial killer, stalker, touch her and die, vigilante  Leave your mark

✎

Review: Soul Eater (Monstrous, #1) by Lily Mayne

Soul Eater (Monstrous, #1) by Lily Mayne ★★★★★ Read: December 26, 2025 329 pages

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I didn’t expect to fall this hard for a monster romance, but Soul Eater swept me right off my feet. What won me over wasn’t the world or the action, though both are gritty and atmospheric. It was the relationship. Danny and Wyn pulled me in with their contrast: a soft-hearted human who somehow stayed gentle in a brutal world, and a stoic, ancient monster who slowly, almost reluctantly, learned how to care. Their bond felt intimate in a way that crept under my skin. It’s a journey built on trust, devotion, and that slow realization that you’ve become someone’s safe place without meaning to.

The tropes here are my kryptonite: grumpy x sunshine in a post-apocalyptic setting, forced proximity on the road, caretaking, protective instincts that border on feral, and a love that grows in the quiet moments between danger. I also loved the thread of found family, especially with Edin, whose presence adds both tension and humor. The dynamic between these three kept me smiling even through the darker stretches of the story.

What surprised me most was how emotional it became. Danny’s inner world is written so well that I felt every insecurity, every moment of longing, every fragile step toward believing he might be wanted for who he is. And Wyn, for all his silence, ends up being one of the most tender characters I’ve read in a while. Their connection isn’t just spicy, though the intimacy is unique and beautifully done. It’s a story about choosing each other again and again, even when the world keeps trying to tear them apart.

This one made me ache in the best way, and I already know I’ll be thinking about these two long after finishing the last page. I can’t wait to see Edin again in the next book, and I’m secretly hoping for more glimpses of Danny and Wyn along the way.

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by Tynga at Wednesday, August 05, 2026

 Demon, forced proximity, found family, grumpy x sunshine, Lily Mayne, military, MM, Monster Romance, Monstrous, Post-Apocalypse, protective MMC, Review  Leave your mark

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Review: Sinners Retreat (Slaycation #1) by Lauren Biel

Sinners Retreat (Slaycation #1) by Lauren Biel ★★★★☆ Read: April 19, 2026 366 pages

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I went into this knowing absolutely nothing except "serial killers on a tropical island" and honestly? That's the only context you need.

Sinner's Retreat is the most unhinged premise executed with complete, deadpan commitment — and that commitment is everything. This isn't a book that winks at the camera. The murder resort activities are treated with the same logistical seriousness as any luxury retreat itinerary, and somehow that makes it funnier and darker simultaneously. Lauren Biel built a world with its own internal logic and never once apologized for it.

Kendra is a protagonist I didn't know I needed — sharp, competent, perpetually exasperated, and carrying a grief she doesn't know is built on a lie. Her dynamic with Cat is worth the price of admission alone. Cat is an absolute disaster of a human being and I would die for her. The way these two women orbit each other — Kendra's eye-rolls audible from space, Cat blissfully unaware — is comedic gold that somehow also builds into something genuinely warm by the end.

Ezra though. Ezra. The Abattoir Adonis who has been obsessing over a serial killer he's never met, who ends up sitting next to her on a plane without knowing it's her, who falls completely apart the moment she enters his orbit — he's exactly the kind of morally grey MMC I will follow into any disaster. And this is a disaster of his own making, sustained over an entire island vacation, held together by stubbornness and oxytocin and increasingly poor decision-making. The dramatic irony is merciless in the best way.

The spice is filthy and earned. The banter is sharp. The tonal balance between dark comedy and genuine romantic tension holds remarkably well throughout. And the ending — I was not expecting to feel things at a pumpkin carving scene but here we are.

If you're looking for a perfectly normal romance novel, keep walking. If you want something that makes you laugh out loud at things you probably shouldn't be laughing at while also being genuinely invested in whether two serial killers will figure their situation out — this is your book.

If you loved the Ruinous Love trilogy by Brynne Weaver, you will love this one!

Tropes: enemies-to-lovers · secret identity (double) · obsessive MMC · he fell first · found family · kinky spice · accidental (and not-so-accidental) cannibalism · forced proximity · touch-her-and-die · morally grey everything · dark comedy

Side note: Audiobook is duet narration with a full cast!

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by Tynga at Sunday, June 21, 2026

 cannibalism, dark comedy, Dark Rom Com, enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, found family, he fell first, kinky spice, Lauren Biel, morally grey, Review, secret identity, serial killer  Leave your mark

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Review: A Deal with the Shadow King (Curse of the Fae, #1) by Anya J. Cosgrove

A Deal with the Shadow King (Curse of the Fae, #1) by Anya J. Cosgrove ★★★★★ Read: May 10, 2026 358 pages

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I did not expect this book to grab me this hard, but here we are. I went in for a fae bargain, a shadow king, a princess promised to a dangerous court, and maybe a little morally grey nonsense. I got all of that. I also got a story that kept unfolding in ways I genuinely did not see coming, even when I was convinced I had figured things out.

Nell is exactly the kind of heroine I love in a dark romantasy—not because she walks in already powerful and untouchable, but because she keeps becoming. She starts as a princess raised in a world where women are meant to be obedient, covered, quiet, useful. And then she gets thrown into Faerie, where the rules are crueler but somehow the cage has more space. Watching her realize she wants strength, knowledge, choice, and freedom was so satisfying. She’s compassionate without being weak, brave without being reckless in that hollow “because plot” way, and when she loves, she loves with her whole chest.

And One. God. He is exactly the kind of complicated, dangerous, lonely MMC that ruins me. He is not soft, not safe, not easy. He makes terrible choices. He withholds too much. He tries to protect by controlling the board, and sometimes I wanted to shake him by the shoulders. But there is such a weight to him, such a sense of exhaustion and duty and hunger underneath the mask, that I couldn’t look away. The romance works because it isn’t clean. It’s tense and tangled and full of secrets, and every time Nell gets closer, the story makes you feel how much is being held back.

The world-building surprised me in the best way. There are dreams, nightmares, fantasies, mirror travel, shadow magic, fae courts, blood bargains, and enough layered mystery to keep me feral. I loved that the magic felt strange and dangerous rather than overly explained from the start. The book lets you be disoriented with Nell, and for me, that worked. I was theorizing constantly, and the best part is that some things clicked early while others still managed to slap me across the face later. That balance is so satisfying.

The spice and tension are also woven into the plot instead of feeling tacked on. Desire matters here. Power matters. Consent matters. Secrets matter. The intimacy is charged because it is never just physical—there is always something emotional, magical, or dangerous moving underneath it.

I listened to the audiobook thanks to Podium Audio, and I really enjoyed the narration. It is dual narration, though I admit I would have loved duet for this one because the dynamic practically begs for it. Lilly Drake brought Nell’s vulnerability and growing steel beautifully (and her male voice is truly good!), and Anthoni Palmini was such a good fit for the darker, controlled intensity of the male POV.

This was messy, addictive, twisty, romantic, and far more emotionally satisfying than I expected. I love when a book lets me be right about some things and still manages to surprise me where it counts.

I need the next book immediately.

Tropes: fae bargain · shadow king · promised bride · masked MMC · morally grey love interest · court intrigue · touch-her-and-die vibes · hidden identity · forced proximity · training scenes · dream/nightmare magic · protective sister bond · dark romantasy · “he’s dangerous but exhausted and I’m obsessed”

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by Tynga at Wednesday, June 17, 2026

 Anya J. Cosgrove, dark romantasy, fae, forced proximity, masked MMC, morally grey love interest, Review, Romantasy, shadow daddy, touch her and die  Leave your mark

✎

Review: Famine (The Four Horsemen, #3) by Laura Thalassa

Famine (The Four Horsemen, #3) by Laura Thalassa ★★★★☆ Read: May 15, 2026 512 pages

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Of the three Horsemen I’ve met so far, Famine might be the cruelest — and somehow one of the most affecting.

Where Pestilence stumbled into love almost against his will, Famine resists it with his entire being. He doesn’t just kill; he believes in it. His indifference to humanity feels ancient, absolute, and immovable, which makes watching that certainty slowly crack the entire engine of the book.

Ana is exactly the kind of heroine this story needed. She arrives with justified rage, a knife, and scars that run deeper than the visible ones, but she never becomes one-note. She’s sharp-tongued, stubborn, funny, and empathetic in a way that feels almost inconvenient. Not soft because life has been kind to her, but compassionate despite the fact that it hasn’t. That distinction is what makes her so compelling.

The slow burn here is thornier than the previous books. Famine doesn’t soften easily. He resists, deflects, misunderstands, and makes horrifying choices even when he’s trying to adjust. But that’s also why the intimacy, when it finally comes, feels earned. This isn’t a clean redemption arc. It’s messy, brutal, and emotionally complicated — which is exactly why it works.

Thalassa does a great job balancing apocalypse, banter, horror, and tenderness without letting the romance erase the violence of the world around them. The Brazilian setting gave this installment its own texture, and Ana’s backstory added real emotional weight without pulling focus from the central dynamic.

The ending definitely makes the next book feel bigger and more inevitable. I’m not rushing into Death yet, because these books are heavy slow burns and apparently I value my emotional stability a little, but I am very curious to see how everything ends.

One production note for GraphicAudio listeners: the performances were good, but the sound design was too heavy-handed for me. Music and ambient effects often overpowered the narration, especially during emotional, intimate, or travel-heavy scenes. If intrusive production bothers you, the standard audiobook may be the better choice.

Pestilence still holds the top spot for me, but Famine pushed War firmly into third.

Tropes: apocalyptic romance · enemies-to-lovers · forced proximity · captor/captive · morally grey MMC · Sex worker FMC · divine being/human romance · slow burn · revenge · reluctant protector · touch-her-and-die energy · emotional caretaking

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by Tynga at Friday, May 15, 2026

 captor/captive, forced proximity, four horsemen, Laura Thalassa, morally grey love interest, Post-Apocalypse, Review, Romantasy, slow burn, touch her and die  Leave your mark

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