Soul to Possess: A Psychological Dark Twisted Romance

by E. M. Adams

A dark, deviant love wasn’t part of the plan… until fate delivered her to a monster.

Genevieve had nothing left to lose—no family, no future, and no one waiting for her but a man she’d never met. A stranger with a ranch and a promise of forever.

But the snowstorm had other plans.

When she stumbles into the wrong cabin in the middle of nowhere, she’s captured by a reclusive genius with a body count—and a taste for control. Atticus doesn’t let people in. He silences them. Yet something about the wide-eyed girl with the soft voice and pretty blue eyes makes him hesitate.

She calls him Master. He calls her Bluebell.
And in the darkness, something twisted and tender blooms.

He offers her a stay in the shadows with him—or keep chasing a life that was never hers to begin with. But Gennie’s heart is no longer her own… and when she leaves, she realizes monsters don’t just haunt—they claim.

In this scorching, psychological dark romance trilogy, obsession meets devotion, control meets surrender, and love wears the face of the unthinkable.
Will she choose the man who waited for her… or the one who would burn the world to keep her?

Please be aware the first 2 books in this trilogy both end on a cliffhanger, but the completed trilogy will end with a HEA.

If you crave unhinged antiheroes, dangerous obsession, and slow-burning tension wrapped in high spice and psychological warfare, Soul to Possess will take you there—and then deeper. Perfect for fans of Sparrow by L.J. Shen, Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton, and Still Beating by Jennifer Hartmann, this dark romance blends innocence with depravity, emotional ruin with irresistible kink. Featuring kidnapping, close proximity, forbidden attraction, and a morally black antihero with a God complex, this is not a love story. It’s a descent—beautiful, brutal, and utterly addictive.

Genres: Dark Romance, Dark, Forced Proximity, Amazon, Enemies To Lovers

156 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 13, 2025

Reviews

[Carol (bookish_notes)]

DNF

I knew this wasn’t going to go well when an author starts off with calling a serial killer a ~serial unaliver~ like…this isn’t TikTok. That’s just so childish.

But I decided to look through the Kindle sample since I was already here and it’s just too many letters back and forth the ENTIRE sample. The premise doesn’t work right off the bat anyways, because this FMC is DUMB. No lick of sense or self preservation at all. I can’t believe she even replied to that ad and that man didn’t even have to lure her in by his charm and good looks or anything.

[Maddy Martinelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can read my review of Soul to Possess on my blog, here: https://thepaperworlds.blogspot.com/2....

This reviews contains very minor spoilers - no major plot points are revealed.

A Stuff Your Kindle Day hates to see me coming, and this dark romance was one of many more recent downloads. Considering the first two installments of this trilogy were available for free, I knew I had to at least explore what this author had in store for their readers. When Gennie sees an ad in the newspaper of a man who is looking for a wife, she decides she has nothing to lose and sends him a letter. She did not expect to receive one in return, and thus Gennie and Marvin's letter conversation is born as they reveal more about one another. With Marvin sending her means to come to him, Gennie embarks on a journey to meet the man she may very well marry, but fate has other plans as she ends up hundreds of miles away from Marvin and in the hands of a murderous stranger who is intrigued by her innocence.

Atticus is no stranger to commanding control and getting what he wants - when Gennie stumbles upon his door in the middle of horrendous weather after being dropped off at the wrong stop, he knows exactly what he needs to do to keep her there forever. He basically spoon feeds her little bits of information screaming that he is dangerous, yet Gennie does not take the bait. Sure, she is definitely on edge and is not viewing him as trustworthy right from the start, but she certainly does not have the best survival instincts. That being said, if I was trapped in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with a hot guy sending off major red flags, I would probably do anything I could to make sure I make it out of there alive. The man is a murderer for crying out loud and he certainly is not trying hard at all to hide it.

While this first installment is short, the author really gets straight to the point and does not waste time once Atticus and Gennie's paths cross. We are able to see the "relationship" between Marvin and Gennie grow and expand as they converse through their letters, then see the drastic change in tone once Gennie passes through into Atticus' door. I enjoyed the change in writing style choice as well - showing readers the letters between Marvin and Gennie definitely gives a much more impactful experience to the reader as they are able to get to know Marvin without ever meeting him or seeing his internal dialogue like what we get with Gennie.

I will admit that this book has me intrigued and I will at minimum continue on to the second installment, which is already downloaded on my Kindle and calling to me. The plot definitely has my attention and I am interested to see how the author takes this story and in what capacity - the initial build up took a little too much page space for me so hopefully that will not be a problem in the second book. If you are on the hunt for a short and more psychological approach on a dark romance, this may be your next read.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads (maddymartinelli), Instagram (@thepaperworlds), Twitter (@thepaperworlds), and following this blog in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

[Marcie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atticus is whole different breed of man and I need more!

You know when you start a book and the MMC is nothing but a bucket full of red flags but the darker side of your soul wants to dive deeper? This…this is it.

Gennie is a woman who is so desperate to escape the loudness of the silence that surrounds her that she answers an ad in a newspaper for companionship. Little did she know she was a little rabbit walking into a wolf’s den.

Atticus is a serial unaliver with an appetite for making art out his victims. When Gennie arrives on his doorstep, he realizes she is more than his next art project.

This talented author had me aim a chokehold from beginning to the cliffhanger ending. It’s suspenseful, spicy and had me saying “WTF?!” more than once but i couldn’t stop reading. I could feel the desperate loneliness coming off of Gennie in waves and want to know her backstory as much as I want to know what made Atticus choose his medium for his art. I can’t wait to dive into the next book to see where Adams takes this couple.

[Athena, the goddess of books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genevieve, a lonely barista, answers a mysterious, old-fashioned personals ad from a widowed rancher, Marvin, in South Dakota. What begins as a series of tender, intimate letters between two broken souls soon reveals itself as something far more sinister.

Except Marvin isn’t real. The man behind the ad is Atticus, a sadistic serial killer with a penchant for manipulation, bondage, and psychological torture. The letters are his newest form of grooming, and Genevieve is just another name in a file drawer full of broken women he’s stalked, cataloged, and consumed—literally and figuratively.

[Eclipsa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to DNF. The blurb made it sound much more dark romance based than it actually is. My fault, I suppose, for thinking the trigger warnings were not all going to be things the MMC subjects the FMC to. I believed the FMC would be suffering at the hands of the second male lead that the book blurb hints at. But in my defense, I did not expect an “antihero” MMC to be murdering woman with no rhyme or reason (or encasing their lips in resin as a trophy). Or to, what’s is essentially, psychologically torture the FMC.

[❁ lilyreadsromance ❁ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot was intriguing. I for sure thought that Marvin would be our main lead but boy oh boy. I was wrong. The smut was excellently written. My issue with this whole story lies on our girl. She's very unlikable to me, and that is so weird to admit since our male lead is a freaking serial killer. I got nothing from her and that frustrated me to no end.

Well, at least the book is short.

[Sammy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF on page 56. (so like 33%)
I love dark romance, but I need something to root for! Like I love a serial killer romance (HIIII Brynne Weaver), but there has to be a *REASON* behind it. "because I'm bored" is not a good reason. nah. Like if I wanted to read about psycho males torturing women for no reason, I could read true crime or just turn on the news. Bring me an avenging vigilante, preferably a female one.

[Adreana Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF'd at 28%. I just couldn't get into it. with shorter stories I usually am looking for a quick and spicy read but it was just to much build up and I couldn't follow along.

[Gana · Rating 3 out of 5]

WTF.