Unmasking Obsession

by Ashley Reyes

Aster Osbourne
I planned to attend a fun yearly Halloween party with my boyfriend and best friend.
I wore the costume that he asked me to wear.
And when I ran into my boyfriend in the bathroom, he fucked me into oblivion.
Only, it wasn’t him.
It was my stalker.
A man from my past determined to make me pay.

Killian Carter
I spent years tracking Aster Osbourne down.
Then, I found her. I stalked her.
Attending college and pretending she wasn’t a murderer.
I followed her closely, intent on killing her once and for all.
Except, when we’re face-to-masked-face, I fuck her instead.
She’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt.
I’d kill for her, but only after I’ve gotten revenge.

Trigger Warning
This book is a DARK romance suitable for readers 18+. This book may contain content that is triggering to some individuals, such knife play, murder, gore, violence, breath play, blood play, force, stalking, and more.
You've been warned.

Genres: Dark Romance, Halloween, Novella, Dark, Stalker, BDSM, Romance

96 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 23, 2023

About the author

Ashley Reyes is a dark romance author living just outside of Nashville, TN, with her family and one too many chihuahuas. She works in a library while studying Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University. Known for her Halloween novellas, she has six published works. She knew she wanted to be a writer in the first grade—after turning in a fake book idea for a report and getting called out by the teacher, but praised for her creativity.

In her free time, she enjoys photographing concerts, losing at video games, reading stories that pull her away from reality, and writing the kind of men you’d run from in real life but swoon over in books.

Reviews

[Jess After Dark]

It’s 92 pages…you have enough time to read this 🤷🏻‍♀️

[♥Milica♥]

The prologue reminded me of a book from the Rosewood High series, Savage. If you know me then you know I really hate that series, but luckily the rest of the book wasn't like that. It was darker and more disturbing, but it sadly didn't work for me.

My main problem was the writing style, which was really annoying at the start, but eventually got better as the book went on. Then there's the plot, where the book itself wasn't really sure what it wanted to be.

Because it starts off as a smutty novella, but then begins throwing in serial killer elements which didn't really match up with the character as we've seen her up until that point. It kind of came out of the blue, as if the author was like hmm what else can I add to make this darker? OH I KNOW!!

Like you are expecting me to believe that the character who kills off men who hurt girls stayed with a guy who hit her and was expecting him to change??? And she even killed the first guy who was abusing her when she was younger. But she's staying with this one because...?

If it was meant to show that anyone could be stuck in an abusive relationship then it wasn't really done that well, maybe it would've been more believable without the serial killer thing.

Then we have the dialogue which was cringy in a lot of parts, I was sitting there going "and I'm supposed to find this hot?" NOPE.

If you're looking for smut though you'll find plenty of that here, and I do mean plenty. From the second these two end up in the bathroom together it's 90% smut, 10% plot.

Also this one did a lot more knife play and blood play than some other Halloween novellas I've read so be prepared for that.

1.5

[｡.•*¨*•♬✧maeve ✧♬•*¨*•.｡]

⭐️3.5/5 this was a well-written, halloween themed, dark romance novella! i’m not huge on the taboo step-sibling trope, but it worked! i do think that this definitely could have been developed into a better and more amusing story…..but it was still a pretty good, quick read!!!

🕸️๋࣭ ⭑

there are MULTIPLE versions of this book!!!!! this one is 119 pages and considered to be the darkest.

🕸️๋࣭ ⭑

🌶️5/5 definitely review the trigger warnings- this is NOT for everyone!

🕸️๋࣭ ⭑

horror dark romance novella
taboo (non-biological step siblings….but not for too long)
gore/death/etc.
marking
bloodplay
primal play
stalker romance
domestic/sexual abuse (relationship/family, not by mmc)
cnc
morally gray fmc and mmc
masked man
sexually explicit content (18+ read!!!)
etc.

🕸️๋࣭ ⭑

i would recommend this to anyone who needs a quick, dark, and taboo halloween read!!!! message me if you want to chat🖤

[RachelReadsandSings]

There’s a lot going on in this novella and it was all really well done IMO! A great dark romance novella to read during this time of year.

✅hero are heroine are stepsiblings
✅the heroine is a vigilante serial killer
✅the hero has been stalking her for years seeking revenge after she killed his father
✅takes place during a Halloween party and hero is dressed as ghost face from Scream
✅praise/degradation kink
✅lots of CWs including murder and bloodplay

[Lucía]

I hope you're hungry... for NOTHING!

[Michael]

This was a fun smut story. It was cheesy in parts. We have a masked character that is in love with the main character Aster.

[Jess]

This is one of those “plot is unhinged smut” kind of novellas. It’s hot. There’s a masked MMC into knife/blood/primal play. He also enjoys biting. It’s wild. But fun.

[Sydni Donahue]

Unmasking obsession ⭐️
For sure one of the worst books I’ve read in my entire life. Was I very entertained by it tho? Absolutely. The plot and characters were very poorly done and made absolutely no sense. It was a clusterfuck. Smut was very entertaining tho and made me giggle. Their dialogue among the characters made me cringe the whole time but I powered through obviously. Also I read this for Halloween and taboo purposes but it was barely taboo. SAD. One star for the entertaining ride lol

[Neapolitan670 📚🖤]

A real quick Halloween novella. It was a spicy read more than there was any plot, it could be classed as taboo but not for me they were step siblings but hadn’t been around each other long enough for it to be real taboo. A few parts seemed to be thrown in, like a stew you add more ingredients to in the hope the flavours are absorbed. Not dissing the book, as it as an ok read for Halloween smut.

[S h a n i a⛓️]

this was all sorts of crazy and I loved it! The darkest romance I’ve read so far and it was brilliant 🤩

[Erica]

Absolutely terrible.

And didn’t really make any sense.

[Eve]

2.5 Stars

This was silly. It wasn’t great but it had some entertainment value.

[_n3ll1]

2,5 ⭐️ unhinged and straight to the point

[Jade Holdaway]

I loved this from the start. It's only 86 pages but worth everything. Such a good novella and amazing story line. REALLY sad in a place or two but definitely worth it.

[Anna Nenna]

I did the audiobook version because I very much like both narrators! No notes or rating this was a vibe… 🤷🏻‍♀️

[booklovelastsforever K]

I was enjoying the beginning. I thought this is going to be one of those books I recommend to everyone for Halloween. But it didn’t continue that way.
I know it’s a novella, so you don’t get to go into the depth of background for characters etc but others manage to pull off a full rounded novella better, I’m afraid.

The FMC’s personality seemed to change halfway through. I think you either stick with the FMC being scared but curious of her stalker OR from the beginning you know that the FMC is a badass and doesn’t take 💩 from anyone. She’s not afraid to get her hands dirty. It just didn’t flow right and seemed weird for it to take this sudden turn.

That was the standout inconsistency for me. Sorry!

The spice was good though. That was hot!

[Amy]

a perfect short spicy read!

This story delivered on exactly what it promised: a spicy novella with about four different major sequences, three of which were spicy. Please read any and all trigger warnings or proceed with caution! There was a bit of a jump and rapid character explanations, but that is to be expected in a novella where there’s not time to do that. This was actually the best I’ve read in a novella!
I almost never give novellas five stars because they don’t have time to build, but this is an exception. It was short, dark, spicy, and still had fun and engaging dialogue and characters!

[Kristine]

Halloween Masked Man

Book: Unmasking Obsession
Author: Ashley Reyes
Series: Standalone
Pages: 96
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

🎃 Taboo Romance
🎃 Stalking
🎃 Primal Play
🎃 Spicy Halloween Novella

Aster and her mom move in with his new stepdad and step brother but everything is not as good as it seems.

Years later at a college Halloween party, Aster thinks she is hooking up with her boyfriend but it is really her step brother. He has some unfinished business with her.

[ThatBookishWriter]

Another ghost face dark romance. Freaking love reading these!! Killian is so 🥵🥵🥵 Omg I loved it so much. Perfect quick, dark, spicy and masked man read.

I love these two together. They are both twisted, dark and just perfect for one another.

[Jennifer]

As a strictly halloween smut book, it was decent. But judging it overall, it was a bit messy. The writing was very annoying at first but it did get better. The plot, well, that was all over the place. Like killing someone, saying you're going to use this other person to take the fall but then killing said other person? And what happened to the first dead guy? The pacing was also very clunky and sometimes didn't flow together well. But, as I said above, for what it was, it was decent if you aren't going to look too deep.

[★ reshika]

4⭐️/5⭐️

there was more smut than plot but it was a fun ride
The serial killer part was a surprise actually cause she was being a normal girl then boom she kills pedos
Killian was hot, I also liked how obsessive he was lol

[Sarah Louise]

I really enjoyed this novella. We had enough back story to be able to enjoy the rest of the book being mostly spice 🤣. Not complaining about that i just mean that this book is short but packs a whole lotta smut into the pages! Enjoyable characters. Would read more!

[Autumn ⋆˚✿˖°]

Oh this book was SPICYYYY. Very dark romance with serial killer step siblings.

[Family]

Trick or treat!!!!

I'm a girl who loves her some trick and treat. And with Killian, Ashley has made the perfect piece of candy I'd love to sink my teeth into

[anii]

i had fun

[Jade Pietrangelo]

2.5 ⭐️ This was absolutely unhinged

[Hetty❥]

right to the point this one. not a lot of character development given the length of the book but it's hot, steamy, a little questionable and pretty bloody.
a perfect halloween 🎃 read.

[Katie ratherbereadinggg]

2 stars I couldn’t with the writing.

[Tinu Jay]

4.5 ✨

What a quick dark spicy novella! Another ghost face killer that involves romance and stalker vibes! Perfect read since Halloween is around the corner and story takes place at a halloween party 🎃

tropes: step siblings, revenge, stalker, masked man, murder and bloodplay

[Becky]

The perfect stalker masked man pallet cleanser between heavy books it's dark and delicious.