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Fatal Fidelity #4
A Love So Dark
After Justine and Campbell’s beachside vacation is interrupted by the FBI, Campbell is arrested for murder and arson. The evidence leaves them in an impossible position: either take the fall for an assassination they didn’t commit or confess to a killing they already got away with.
When an aggressive federal agent starts uncovering Campbell’s secrets, it’s only a matter of time before the other bodies they’ve buried come back to the surface. With Campbell behind bars, Justine can’t prove their innocence, but she can take matters into her own hands.
She just has to commit the perfect crime—before they both lose everything.
A Love So Dark is a F/NB noir romance and the conclusion to the Fatal Fidelity series.
Tags: #ownvoices, artist, assassin, bisexual, contemporary, courtroom drama, established couple, FBI agents, graphic violence, imprisonment, interracial, mafia, nonbinary, queer, revenge, romance/ noir, suspense, 49,900 words
When an aggressive federal agent starts uncovering Campbell’s secrets, it’s only a matter of time before the other bodies they’ve buried come back to the surface. With Campbell behind bars, Justine can’t prove their innocence, but she can take matters into her own hands.
She just has to commit the perfect crime—before they both lose everything.
A Love So Dark is a F/NB noir romance and the conclusion to the Fatal Fidelity series.
Tags: #ownvoices, artist, assassin, bisexual, contemporary, courtroom drama, established couple, FBI agents, graphic violence, imprisonment, interracial, mafia, nonbinary, queer, revenge, romance/ noir, suspense, 49,900 words
197 pages, ebook
First published June 6, 2023
1 person is currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Rien Gray
25 books152 followersRien is a queer, nonbinary author of LGBTQ+ romance, erotica, and horror. They love writing charged sex scenes, consent-informed kink, and hot criminal love interests who revel in the above.
When not writing, Rien spends their time at the gym, making tea, or angling for yet another platinum trophy in a video game.
Newsletter: Free Novella Here!
Website: riengray.com
BSky: @RienGray
When not writing, Rien spends their time at the gym, making tea, or angling for yet another platinum trophy in a video game.
Newsletter: Free Novella Here!
Website: riengray.com
BSky: @RienGray
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 6, 2024
Enjoyable read!
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July 19, 2023
A Love So Dark, the fourth and last book in the Fatal Fidelity series, starts with the perfect twist and proceeds to close on the best possible ending.
I don’t often root for criminals, I’m not usually interested in amoral characters, I don’t look for stories that make me uncomfortable or offend my own moral compass. I’m not a fan of violence and gore either. Despite all that, however, once in a while, I’ll root for characters I should despise. Campbell is one of those. I picked up the first book in the series because the idea of a wife and husband both hiring the same assassin to kill the other intrigued me. Campbell’s also one of the first non-binary characters I encountered and I guess you take representation where you find it, same as I did when I realized I was queer.
That first book, Love Kills Twice, got me hooked. Campbell’s fascinating but I mostly stayed for the writing and for Justine. She’s the heart of the series, her journey the reason I had to keep reading.
At the beginning of A Love So Dark, Campbell and Justine are on a black sand beach in Chile, savouring what seems to be the start of their new life together, free from betrayals, rivalry, and murder. Until the Feds rush in and arrest Campbell for a murder they didn’t commit. Oh, the irony…
Rien Gray ends their series on a high note. The writing is precise and efficient, the emotions raw, the characters decisively relatable. Since I read hundreds of books between this one and the one before, I could have used a few words of context when secondary characters from previous books were reintroduced, but it all worked out. Now that this series is over, I’m looking forward to what the author will come up with next.
I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
Read all my reviews on my blog (and please buy from the affiliation links!): Jude in the Stars
June 7, 2023
arc copy provided to me by the author (who I am friends with!) in exchange for an honest review. all thoughts and opinions are my own
What an absolute gem of a series. This was honestly the most perfect ending I could have hoped for. It wrapped up everything it needed to and made some things come true that I have been secretly hoping for since book two!
I was so glad to be back with Campbell and Justine. I love being inside both of their heads but even more so in this final book due to all of the extreme circumstances. Campbell has been a favourite character since we met them in book 1 but Justine has climbed the ranks to join them after this. Oh my goddddd, her character development was stunning. In all the best messy ways. And Sofia? She's so funny and badass, I would read an entire series just following her next.
If you haven't met this hot assassin and this badass lady and fallen for them as they fell for each other, you're missing out! Pick up the first book now!!!!
What an absolute gem of a series. This was honestly the most perfect ending I could have hoped for. It wrapped up everything it needed to and made some things come true that I have been secretly hoping for since book two!
I was so glad to be back with Campbell and Justine. I love being inside both of their heads but even more so in this final book due to all of the extreme circumstances. Campbell has been a favourite character since we met them in book 1 but Justine has climbed the ranks to join them after this. Oh my goddddd, her character development was stunning. In all the best messy ways. And Sofia? She's so funny and badass, I would read an entire series just following her next.
If you haven't met this hot assassin and this badass lady and fallen for them as they fell for each other, you're missing out! Pick up the first book now!!!!
May 18, 2025
I ended this book thinking of it as a 3, but now that I'm writing my review and I can't really think of much to say about it, I have to admit it's more like a 2.5. Which feels really low! Because I really do think Gray is an excellent writer, just on a basic sentence level, and also when it comes to character writing. Campbell and Justine have come a long way, and I'm glad for them. But I just don't feel anything about this book, and I don't care about the series like I did when I first started. I read this book because I was determined to complete the series, and for no other reason.
The plot of this one is interesting: Campbell's been framed and arrested. Justine, on the outside, is distraught without them. They both have to figure out who's responsible, and why, and in so doing , take their relationship and commitment to each other to new highs. The plot intersects neatly with that of the previous book, so I'm glad I didn't wait long to read this. But it just didn't grip me. The nature of the plot means that the couple was separated for most of the book, which I wasn't into. I didn't care about the mystery, and the solution (and the way we got there) was 'meh'. I kept nitpicking at little things. (Justine is playing at being an oblivious widow who is barely acquainted with Campbell; why would she go stay at an expensive penthouse suite right after she gets out of custody?
And so many more little things. I know when I start nitpicking to that degree, it's because I'm not having a particularly good time. And it's a shame, because there's nothing really about this story that I would critique heavily? I just didn't care, and the enjoyment wasn't there. All the elements that I usually love about a dark romance like this (obsessiveness and possessiveness, etc) just didn't hit as hard.
Oh well! I'm glad I finished the series, and I'll always have the first two books to remember fondly.
Content warnings:
The plot of this one is interesting: Campbell's been framed and arrested. Justine, on the outside, is distraught without them. They both have to figure out who's responsible, and why, and in so doing , take their relationship and commitment to each other to new highs. The plot intersects neatly with that of the previous book, so I'm glad I didn't wait long to read this. But it just didn't grip me. The nature of the plot means that the couple was separated for most of the book, which I wasn't into. I didn't care about the mystery, and the solution (and the way we got there) was 'meh'. I kept nitpicking at little things. (Justine is playing at being an oblivious widow who is barely acquainted with Campbell; why would she go stay at an expensive penthouse suite right after she gets out of custody?
And so many more little things. I know when I start nitpicking to that degree, it's because I'm not having a particularly good time. And it's a shame, because there's nothing really about this story that I would critique heavily? I just didn't care, and the enjoyment wasn't there. All the elements that I usually love about a dark romance like this (obsessiveness and possessiveness, etc) just didn't hit as hard.
Oh well! I'm glad I finished the series, and I'll always have the first two books to remember fondly.
Content warnings:
May 23, 2023
A fantastic and emotional end to a series I've enjoyed very much. I've been rooting for Justine to get her fatale of femme fatale on since book two and the way it came about, the prep, the tenseness of pre and post activity was gorgeously anxious, compounded with the dread and worry you feel like the people who love Campbell and Campbell themselves for whom the addiction has been forced into a cold turkey situation and surrounded by "fresh meat" and a Sword of Damocles of further imprisonment so to speak, in jail as the Tantalus of murder.
Justine and Campbell and Sofia's dynamic is a+ as usual with a twist about a different character recontextualizing a relationship I'd had a lot of affection for to become a little more ambiguous? In an interesting but depressing way though.
Justine though, absolute MVP of the book. You can see how much these two, for two very horny people who would prefer not to think so much, are prepared for everything that can happen. Justine has been constantly underestimated by almost everyone who meets her the first time, even to the point of infantilization in the case of her shitty husband and his colleagues as implied in the first book, both as a "wife" (and I'm presuming as a Chinese woman). This book, that ignorant damsel widow status that has kept her aboveboard the original crime is what allows her to use it as a springboard to dive fully into the world to keep Campbell safe from a vendetta that would never end, legal corruption running through every vein of revenge.
She plans everything, plays the doe eyed ignorant until she is all but dismissed and then comes out the secret ace of the deck. Absolute icon, i wish her and Campbell all the best in [REDACTED]. Go off in that sunset babes.
Justine and Campbell and Sofia's dynamic is a+ as usual with a twist about a different character recontextualizing a relationship I'd had a lot of affection for to become a little more ambiguous? In an interesting but depressing way though.
Justine though, absolute MVP of the book. You can see how much these two, for two very horny people who would prefer not to think so much, are prepared for everything that can happen. Justine has been constantly underestimated by almost everyone who meets her the first time, even to the point of infantilization in the case of her shitty husband and his colleagues as implied in the first book, both as a "wife" (and I'm presuming as a Chinese woman). This book, that ignorant damsel widow status that has kept her aboveboard the original crime is what allows her to use it as a springboard to dive fully into the world to keep Campbell safe from a vendetta that would never end, legal corruption running through every vein of revenge.
She plans everything, plays the doe eyed ignorant until she is all but dismissed and then comes out the secret ace of the deck. Absolute icon, i wish her and Campbell all the best in [REDACTED]. Go off in that sunset babes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2023
4.5
sapphic - dark - f/enby - assassin - final book in 4book series
RTC
sapphic - dark - f/enby - assassin - final book in 4book series
RTC
June 14, 2023
I am going to miss Campbell, Justine and Sophia, the characters in the series. Well written finale. Kudos to Gray!
July 11, 2023
I love love looooove this series! Every viral straight dark romance with an unlikably toxic alpha hole male love interest can bite me!! The Fatal Fidelity series is queer and emotionally charged and sexy and full of suspense, and Campbell is genuinely one of the most interesting- and scary- characters I've ever read. I have no idea how this series hasn't gone viral when every single installment has been SUPERB! It's got an assassin love interest and lawyers and love and homoerotic painting and gender nonconformity and the mafia- literally what else could you possibly ask for?? I'm so sad this series is over, but I'm definitely going to read anything else Gray puts out in the future! Highly, highly recommend for queer readers looking for something darker and sexier and scarier, but just as emotionally cutting
January 28, 2024
This was an interesting read. It was relatively fast paced and very enjoyable. Despite it being a short story, it was deeply engaging and I liked the development of Justine and Campbell’s relationship.
“Where would they be housed?” Sofia presses, “With men or women?”
“The FCI in Albany is mixed.”
Now I don’t know much about the US prison industrial complex but how realistic is it for someone who identifies as non binary to be remanded to a gender mixed prison? Do they even exist?? That sounds extremely dangerous.
Sofia is a fabulously loyal and great friend to Campbell. I really liked her and I would have liked to learn more about her.
“Where would they be housed?” Sofia presses, “With men or women?”
“The FCI in Albany is mixed.”
Now I don’t know much about the US prison industrial complex but how realistic is it for someone who identifies as non binary to be remanded to a gender mixed prison? Do they even exist?? That sounds extremely dangerous.
Sofia is a fabulously loyal and great friend to Campbell. I really liked her and I would have liked to learn more about her.
June 8, 2023
This was the first time I have ever read an ARC. This book was incredibly tender and hot and brutal.
August 14, 2023
explosive end to the series
This concluding book to the series starts with a bang and never let up until the very end. Wonderfully written as always!
This concluding book to the series starts with a bang and never let up until the very end. Wonderfully written as always!
August 15, 2023
Absolutely Loved
I might have been tired while reading this but I did cry a little a handful of times because Campbell and Justine are just so amazing.
I might have been tired while reading this but I did cry a little a handful of times because Campbell and Justine are just so amazing.
Read
October 6, 2023I love these two so much and every book of this series has ended with me yelling AHHHHHHHHHHHHH
November 20, 2024
Yes!! So good! They totally nailed the ending 🖤
March 6, 2025
Solid ending to the series
August 17, 2025
I'd easily read like 10 more books in this series and would never get bored. Rien Gray is a bit of a legend.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews