Wicked Little Darling

Here's "Wicked Little Darling" by Lyla Dane. Not a TBR, but from a bookstagram list of...I don't remember now, but they were all dark and filthy.

["“I never knew love could be so destructive.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m overly impulsive and a bit too reckless, but it’s hard to care about consequences after I lose my whole family.

When I get transferred in my final year of college after getting into a fight, Ashbrook seems like the fresh start I desperately need—though it feels more like a dead end when I meet my new roommate, Dakota Voss.

The dean’s son and a social pariah, he’s a miserable mystery that drives me up the wall with his rude and unpredictable ways. He’s atrociously ill-mannered, annoyingly blunt—and apparently allergic to wearing shirts. Everything about him is utterly infuriating; he’s like a human tornado, and I can’t help but get swept up in his chaos.

With a face I’ve been teased about since I was young, my entire life has revolved around hiding—until Dakota starts dragging me out of the shadows into the light. When he helps me through something, I’m forced to let down my walls so he can shine that light on all my secrets—and no matter how much it hurts to give them to him, he surprisingly keeps them safe.

But the closer we get, the worse I feel. He deserves someone who won’t lie to him—because there’s one secret of mine he can never have; an awful truth that would topple these shaky foundations we’ve managed to build.

It’s a poison I’ll gladly let destroy me before it can hurt him—because if he ever finds out, I’ll lose him…

…and the only truth that matters now is that without Dakota, I’m nothing."]

These two...talk about trauma matching trauma. You have to be a certain level of...not okay to truly understand someone who is also truly not okay. You see that person and their action (and reactions) and their needs/wants more than anyone else could. It's horrible how broken these two are, but it's beautiful how they came together.

And you'd think it was poetic that Reese didn't have a family anymore, but Dakota has a horrrrrible one. Neither situation is enviable. Neither would want to switch places. At least they have each other (and Val)..even if there were people out there that wished only to tear them apart (and fuuuuck me, did I cry).

Trigger Warnings: violence, dubcon, allergic reaction with EpiPen usage, self-harm, panic attack, severe facial scarring, mc spent time in a behavioral health facility, sc with painkiller addiction/abuse, blackmail, bullying, death of parents/sibling, car accidents, neglectful parents, grief, unsafe alcohol usage, and more.

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