My tentative goal for October is to read only thrillers/murder mysteries/dark romances/paranormals/etc (unless my mental health kicks up a fight about it). Here's Onley James's "Paladin." It's the first novel in her Jericho's Boys series (a Necessary Evils spin-off series).
["Arseny Lebedev lives a normal life. During the day, he’s a mechanic. At night, he livestreams a fairy tale video game called Paladin. And sometimes—only sometimes—he kills people. But they all deserve it.
Ever doesn’t know his last name. He doesn’t know much of anything. Most of his life has been torture, bought and sold by a woman who calls herself his mother. He’s resigned himself to a life of servitude, until he meets Arsen.
The moment Arsen sees Ever, they’re bonded. Ever is both fragile and feral, willing to defend himself with any tool at his disposal, even teeth. Arsen is color and light, a beacon in Ever’s darkness, as brave as the knight in the game he plays.
Arsen protects Ever fiercely, but just when he feels safe, someone attempts to drag him back to his old life, reminding him that reality isn’t fairy tales or video games. He knows staying puts Arsen in danger. But Arsen insists they’re safer together. Can Ever truly have his happily ever after or is it game over?"]
Ever is so broken and small and perfect (and fiery), that it’s no surprise that Arsen fell for him so quickly (so did I). That’s what I love about dark romances (and Onley’s work), there’s usually one character (or several) who are so fragile that it breaks your heart, and then they immediately mend it again. And Ever is like all of the beautiful but broken Mulvaney husbands combined (and then some).
Arsen is almost the second-in-command to Jericho (Felix is just the heir--alley cat with a diamond collar). He's fierce and protective and completely and utterly gooooone for Ever immediately. Then again, so was I...and everyone in the Jericho Boys and the Mulvaney gang.
The only downside: my stupid fucking kindle wouldn't translate the Russian words/phrases/endearments to English. Blya kindle.
Trigger Warnings: graphic violence, dark humor, murder, past physical and sexual abuse, and more
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