What do you think?
Rate this book
Win a free print copy of this book!
12 days and 00:55:26
15 copies available
U.S. only
Blood & Roses #1-3
Blood & Roses Volume 1
Not yet published
Expected 10 Mar 26Win a free print copy of this book!
12 days and 00:55:26
15 copies available
U.S. only
A TWISTED TALE OF DARK ROMANCE FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE GLOBAL ROMANTASY SENSATION QUICKSILVER.
What happens in the dark never stays in the dark.
As one of Seattle's most dangerous, feared men, Zeth Mayfair always carried out the jobs he's sent on without a second thought. Drugs? Guns? Dirty money? They're all fair game. But girls? Girls are another matter entirely. When Zeth's employer decides buying and selling kidnapped women is a lucrative sideline, Zeth's usually uncomplicated life suddenly becomes very complicated indeed. And his biggest complication goes by the name of Sloane Romera.
Sloane's sister is missing, and she needs to find her, yet all doors leading into the seedy world of human trafficking are firmly closed in Sloane's face. She's a trauma doctor; she needs information. What she really needs is help...and help presents itself in a most unlikely form. Zeth is terrifying, scandalously hot, and comes fully loaded with a terrible attitude and wicked smile. He also looks like he's Sloane's only hope. Can she work with the guy without getting herself killed, losing her job, or falling head over heels in love?
What happens in the dark never stays in the dark.
As one of Seattle's most dangerous, feared men, Zeth Mayfair always carried out the jobs he's sent on without a second thought. Drugs? Guns? Dirty money? They're all fair game. But girls? Girls are another matter entirely. When Zeth's employer decides buying and selling kidnapped women is a lucrative sideline, Zeth's usually uncomplicated life suddenly becomes very complicated indeed. And his biggest complication goes by the name of Sloane Romera.
Sloane's sister is missing, and she needs to find her, yet all doors leading into the seedy world of human trafficking are firmly closed in Sloane's face. She's a trauma doctor; she needs information. What she really needs is help...and help presents itself in a most unlikely form. Zeth is terrifying, scandalously hot, and comes fully loaded with a terrible attitude and wicked smile. He also looks like he's Sloane's only hope. Can she work with the guy without getting herself killed, losing her job, or falling head over heels in love?
409 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication March 10, 2026
9 people are currently reading
10629 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Want to read
October 2, 2025Surprise, surprise!!!
Give me all your morally grey characters!!!! Not one but two books in a short time, yeeeesss please
Publication date: January 20, 2026
Give me all your morally grey characters!!!! Not one but two books in a short time, yeeeesss please
Publication date: January 20, 2026
don-t-want-to-read
October 30, 2025Human trafficking. This is a reprint of her early work from 2014
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I received an eARC of this book from Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley. This is my honest review.
I am bummed to write this review because I absolutely loved Quicksilver, so I thought this would be a good book since Callie wrote it. Clearly her writing has dramatically changed since 2014 (when this book was indie published). This book is one of the worst books I’ve ever read, whereas Quicksilver is my top read. Ten year difference between her writing these two books, I can tell the difference.
CHECK YOUR TRIGGER WARNINGS
I will say it again, check your trigger warnings!!!
If you want a trashy, dark, toxic, romance, with incredibly immature and unintelligent MCs, and triggering spice this is the book for you. When I say the MCs were immature, I mean gear up for some toxic, teenager crap.
Why this book was AWFUL
- the characters. They were terribly written, were functionally teenagers, and there was NOTHING to them.
- the writing was atrocious. So many spelling and grammar errors. And so much information was not factual.
Let’s dive in:
- there was something very seriously wrong with this MFC.
- she was the CLASSIC angry, irritable, emotionally dysfunctional and dysregulated woman. She was angry about everything and anything ALL THE TIME. She was so irritable that she was violent. She hits the MMC and throws things at his head. One minute she is happy and the next she is gaslighting him and hurting him. THEN she has the audacity to accuse him of maybe wanting to hurt her. He may be into control and BDSM, as well as hurts others, but as he calls out, he has never hurt her. But do not worry, she’s hurt him. She WAS AWFUL!
- she did the toxic, “I hate him, but I want to sleep with him because he’s hot, and I don’t want him looking at other women, but I hate him, so I’m going to hit him, but I want to have sex with him, and then I regret my choices, but I blame him, and then I’m jealous because he’s closer with his sister. Oh, and I’m going to be angry and more angry and more violent.” followed by, “I’m going to constantly put myself in dangerous situations because I’m mad at the MMC. I’m so illogical I can’t think and I love to make situations worse because I can’t listen due to my self-centered thinking, and then I don’t care and blame the MMC. Oh and did I mention that, when he gives me space, I miss him and then I’m mad at him for leaving me alone for two weeks. Then, when he comes back into my life, I’m angry at him, sleep with him, and then hit him.”
- he did the classic, “I am a bad guy so I can get away with whatever I want. I’m going to manipulate her and get what I want from her. Then, I’m going to leave her alone for two weeks and then blame her. I don’t know why I like her. She’s hot and I just want to have sex with and possess her. I like being violent.”
Ok, more about the MFC:
- There was no way she was a doctor. She was by far one of the most unintelligent people. She yells at patient’s loved ones and does unethical things at work. She needed to be fired, what a terrible doctor. She also followed the MMC to a dangerous place when he told her not to multiple times. She was mad because she wanted to go with to rescue her sister. Why? She doesn’t know how to defend herself and she thinks she can just show up and rescue her sister from sex traffickers? STUPID! Oh, and shocker, she shows up uninvited to the sex traffickers' compound and proceeds to yell at the MMC! Of course she does. She then talks back to the leader of this crime business and then again yells at the MMC. WHAT!!! She then continues to make decisions that could kill her and the MMC, and again, she just gets angry and yells at the MMC. The MMC was trying to find and recover her sister, what does the MFC do? Yell, hit him, call him names… she was an entitled, selfish, unthoughtful, abusive, angry, unstable person.
- want more proof of how unstable she was: the MFC was JEALOUS of the MMC and his relationship with his sister. Yep, you read that right. She references her jealousy multiple times. Why was she jealous? Every time the MMC was physically close to her, they either had sex or she was yelling and hitting him. They had no relationship. Yet, she wanted him close to her and trusting her? She was jealous he was close with his sister? Seriously?!?! What a big bowl of toxicity.
- she fully consented to individual, group, and phone sex, but then after said it was the MMC’s fault she consented. SUPRISE, she was angry at him because she consented. She was so dysregulated by her choices and being mad at him that she threw multiple glass cups at his head to hurt him.
- there is more: The MFC thought about how the MMC was crazy to think the MFC would discharge and hand Carrie (MMC’s friend in the hospital) back over to the MMC. What?? First of all, this patient is an adult, she can do what she wants, including go home with whom she wants, even if a doctor does not like it. Second, the MFC had no idea the history of the patient nor the relationship between the patient and MMC. Since the MFC thought she knew who the MFC was, she made a judgement and wanted to control Carrie. What an entitled perspective to think that she could control this patient whom she did not know. Third, this patient came into the ED, had major surgery, and then was admitted to the ICU. The MFC is a trauma/ED doctor, she wouldn’t be rounding in the hospital. Hospitalists round in the hospital.
- the MFC gives the MMC a key to her home. The MFC is then weirded out and angry when he shows up and wants to come in her home. He even knocked and didn’t use the key. Why is she mad, again? Is she that dense?
The MMC:
- The MMC rescues a VERY traumatized woman, Carrie/Lacey, and this woman becomes fully codependent on him. So much so that, when the MMC was not home in time, she had a severe suicide attempt. He just enabled and enabled this terrible codependency.
- how the book started and the MMC used the MFC. 🤮 This was not consensual.
- The MMC loved to play emotional games with the MFC and got off on that. He had some odd obsession and he would manipulate. It was awful.
- He had the trope of, "I don't know why I am like this around her."
- the MMC had direct communication with the MFC and her emotions and behaviors; yet, he fully avoided his history and emotions. The MMC then threw a tantrum after the MFC kissed him. After his tantrum, he didn’t talk to her for two weeks. After two weeks of the silent treatment, he finds the MFC and then said he did not talk to her because that was what she needed, he did it for her. 🤮 way to gaslight her.
The relationship:
- there wasn’t one. They had sex and that was it. Oh sorry, he would manipulate her and she would yell and hit him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright, now the details of this book and why is sucked. I am a clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma and works in a medical residency training physicians, so OF COURSE this book triggered me to be frustrated. Why?
- The MFC’s best friend was a clinical psychologist working in a forensic private practice. I was really disheartened to see this psychologist friend manipulate the MFC. Specifically, the friend begged the MFC to not see the MMC again and said “do this for me?” The friend made it all about her and tried to manipulate the MFC by making the MFC feel guilty so it would change the MFC’s behavior to be what the friend wanted. Classic manipulation. This friend continued to bully her friend. The friend then engaged is super unethical practices, such as threatening the MMC and putting a patients care contingent on the MMC not seeing the MFC. She also used this manipulation at her advantage to earn more money. DISGUSTING
- You can tell this was not written by someone who has any training in advanced psychology. The "psychologist" friend was also incredibly emotionally unstable and should not have been practicing psychology.
- OK, something super nitpicky, but it stated that the psychologist friend was board certified by the Board of Psychiatric Medicine…. Nope, not true. Psychiatrists are certified by a board of psychiatry. Psychologists cannot get board certified by that group. Psychologist are board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology.
- Comments about other medical mistakes written: This book took place In the United States, yet started off describing something that was incredibly unrealistic in regards to a controlled substance. The MFC stated that she was a 5th year resident and could get a prescription for a controlled substance, such as a benzodiazepine, which is what Valium is and what she got prescribed, She stated that she could get anyone at her hospital to write the prescription and put it under a false name. HAHA YEA RIGHT! 1) There’s a whole controlled substance monitoring system that must get checked each time a prescription is written. 2) When a controlled substance is picked up from the pharmacy, you have to provide a government issued ID to assure the name on the bottle matches the person picking up the medicine.
- on that same page, the MFC states she’s a 5th year resident at a large hospital, then two paragraphs later, she says she’s a medical student. Being a medical student means you’re not a physician yet, you’re in school to be a physician and rotate through hospitals. Being a medical resident means that you graduated medical school and are now a physician, completing your residency in the area in which you are specializing in, such as family medicine, hospitalist, surgeon, emergency medicine, pediatrician, etc.. the MFC saying she was a resident and then soon after a medical student made absolutely no sense.
- emergency medicine residencies are 3-4 years. Why was she a resident in her 5th year of residency and then still in her residency 2 years later when the book jumped forward 2 years? Was she a surgical resident? If so, most are five years. So factually off about all of this.
- OK, more complaining. We had information given to use about the MMC in prison talking to a psychologist. The psychologist says he’s “sorry” for what the MMC experienced and the MMC feels the sympathy from the psychologist. Psychologists are trained to NOT say sorry to patients like that. Saying sorry for someone having trauma is minimizing and gives pity to patients, which they DONT WANT. There are so much better tools to help someone feel heard, such as reflection, validation, and empathetic statements.
I am bummed to write this review because I absolutely loved Quicksilver, so I thought this would be a good book since Callie wrote it. Clearly her writing has dramatically changed since 2014 (when this book was indie published). This book is one of the worst books I’ve ever read, whereas Quicksilver is my top read. Ten year difference between her writing these two books, I can tell the difference.
CHECK YOUR TRIGGER WARNINGS
I will say it again, check your trigger warnings!!!
If you want a trashy, dark, toxic, romance, with incredibly immature and unintelligent MCs, and triggering spice this is the book for you. When I say the MCs were immature, I mean gear up for some toxic, teenager crap.
Why this book was AWFUL
- the characters. They were terribly written, were functionally teenagers, and there was NOTHING to them.
- the writing was atrocious. So many spelling and grammar errors. And so much information was not factual.
Let’s dive in:
- there was something very seriously wrong with this MFC.
- she was the CLASSIC angry, irritable, emotionally dysfunctional and dysregulated woman. She was angry about everything and anything ALL THE TIME. She was so irritable that she was violent. She hits the MMC and throws things at his head. One minute she is happy and the next she is gaslighting him and hurting him. THEN she has the audacity to accuse him of maybe wanting to hurt her. He may be into control and BDSM, as well as hurts others, but as he calls out, he has never hurt her. But do not worry, she’s hurt him. She WAS AWFUL!
- she did the toxic, “I hate him, but I want to sleep with him because he’s hot, and I don’t want him looking at other women, but I hate him, so I’m going to hit him, but I want to have sex with him, and then I regret my choices, but I blame him, and then I’m jealous because he’s closer with his sister. Oh, and I’m going to be angry and more angry and more violent.” followed by, “I’m going to constantly put myself in dangerous situations because I’m mad at the MMC. I’m so illogical I can’t think and I love to make situations worse because I can’t listen due to my self-centered thinking, and then I don’t care and blame the MMC. Oh and did I mention that, when he gives me space, I miss him and then I’m mad at him for leaving me alone for two weeks. Then, when he comes back into my life, I’m angry at him, sleep with him, and then hit him.”
- he did the classic, “I am a bad guy so I can get away with whatever I want. I’m going to manipulate her and get what I want from her. Then, I’m going to leave her alone for two weeks and then blame her. I don’t know why I like her. She’s hot and I just want to have sex with and possess her. I like being violent.”
Ok, more about the MFC:
- There was no way she was a doctor. She was by far one of the most unintelligent people. She yells at patient’s loved ones and does unethical things at work. She needed to be fired, what a terrible doctor. She also followed the MMC to a dangerous place when he told her not to multiple times. She was mad because she wanted to go with to rescue her sister. Why? She doesn’t know how to defend herself and she thinks she can just show up and rescue her sister from sex traffickers? STUPID! Oh, and shocker, she shows up uninvited to the sex traffickers' compound and proceeds to yell at the MMC! Of course she does. She then talks back to the leader of this crime business and then again yells at the MMC. WHAT!!! She then continues to make decisions that could kill her and the MMC, and again, she just gets angry and yells at the MMC. The MMC was trying to find and recover her sister, what does the MFC do? Yell, hit him, call him names… she was an entitled, selfish, unthoughtful, abusive, angry, unstable person.
- want more proof of how unstable she was: the MFC was JEALOUS of the MMC and his relationship with his sister. Yep, you read that right. She references her jealousy multiple times. Why was she jealous? Every time the MMC was physically close to her, they either had sex or she was yelling and hitting him. They had no relationship. Yet, she wanted him close to her and trusting her? She was jealous he was close with his sister? Seriously?!?! What a big bowl of toxicity.
- she fully consented to individual, group, and phone sex, but then after said it was the MMC’s fault she consented. SUPRISE, she was angry at him because she consented. She was so dysregulated by her choices and being mad at him that she threw multiple glass cups at his head to hurt him.
- there is more: The MFC thought about how the MMC was crazy to think the MFC would discharge and hand Carrie (MMC’s friend in the hospital) back over to the MMC. What?? First of all, this patient is an adult, she can do what she wants, including go home with whom she wants, even if a doctor does not like it. Second, the MFC had no idea the history of the patient nor the relationship between the patient and MMC. Since the MFC thought she knew who the MFC was, she made a judgement and wanted to control Carrie. What an entitled perspective to think that she could control this patient whom she did not know. Third, this patient came into the ED, had major surgery, and then was admitted to the ICU. The MFC is a trauma/ED doctor, she wouldn’t be rounding in the hospital. Hospitalists round in the hospital.
- the MFC gives the MMC a key to her home. The MFC is then weirded out and angry when he shows up and wants to come in her home. He even knocked and didn’t use the key. Why is she mad, again? Is she that dense?
The MMC:
- The MMC rescues a VERY traumatized woman, Carrie/Lacey, and this woman becomes fully codependent on him. So much so that, when the MMC was not home in time, she had a severe suicide attempt. He just enabled and enabled this terrible codependency.
- how the book started and the MMC used the MFC. 🤮 This was not consensual.
- The MMC loved to play emotional games with the MFC and got off on that. He had some odd obsession and he would manipulate. It was awful.
- He had the trope of, "I don't know why I am like this around her."
- the MMC had direct communication with the MFC and her emotions and behaviors; yet, he fully avoided his history and emotions. The MMC then threw a tantrum after the MFC kissed him. After his tantrum, he didn’t talk to her for two weeks. After two weeks of the silent treatment, he finds the MFC and then said he did not talk to her because that was what she needed, he did it for her. 🤮 way to gaslight her.
The relationship:
- there wasn’t one. They had sex and that was it. Oh sorry, he would manipulate her and she would yell and hit him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright, now the details of this book and why is sucked. I am a clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma and works in a medical residency training physicians, so OF COURSE this book triggered me to be frustrated. Why?
- The MFC’s best friend was a clinical psychologist working in a forensic private practice. I was really disheartened to see this psychologist friend manipulate the MFC. Specifically, the friend begged the MFC to not see the MMC again and said “do this for me?” The friend made it all about her and tried to manipulate the MFC by making the MFC feel guilty so it would change the MFC’s behavior to be what the friend wanted. Classic manipulation. This friend continued to bully her friend. The friend then engaged is super unethical practices, such as threatening the MMC and putting a patients care contingent on the MMC not seeing the MFC. She also used this manipulation at her advantage to earn more money. DISGUSTING
- You can tell this was not written by someone who has any training in advanced psychology. The "psychologist" friend was also incredibly emotionally unstable and should not have been practicing psychology.
- OK, something super nitpicky, but it stated that the psychologist friend was board certified by the Board of Psychiatric Medicine…. Nope, not true. Psychiatrists are certified by a board of psychiatry. Psychologists cannot get board certified by that group. Psychologist are board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology.
- Comments about other medical mistakes written: This book took place In the United States, yet started off describing something that was incredibly unrealistic in regards to a controlled substance. The MFC stated that she was a 5th year resident and could get a prescription for a controlled substance, such as a benzodiazepine, which is what Valium is and what she got prescribed, She stated that she could get anyone at her hospital to write the prescription and put it under a false name. HAHA YEA RIGHT! 1) There’s a whole controlled substance monitoring system that must get checked each time a prescription is written. 2) When a controlled substance is picked up from the pharmacy, you have to provide a government issued ID to assure the name on the bottle matches the person picking up the medicine.
- on that same page, the MFC states she’s a 5th year resident at a large hospital, then two paragraphs later, she says she’s a medical student. Being a medical student means you’re not a physician yet, you’re in school to be a physician and rotate through hospitals. Being a medical resident means that you graduated medical school and are now a physician, completing your residency in the area in which you are specializing in, such as family medicine, hospitalist, surgeon, emergency medicine, pediatrician, etc.. the MFC saying she was a resident and then soon after a medical student made absolutely no sense.
- emergency medicine residencies are 3-4 years. Why was she a resident in her 5th year of residency and then still in her residency 2 years later when the book jumped forward 2 years? Was she a surgical resident? If so, most are five years. So factually off about all of this.
- OK, more complaining. We had information given to use about the MMC in prison talking to a psychologist. The psychologist says he’s “sorry” for what the MMC experienced and the MMC feels the sympathy from the psychologist. Psychologists are trained to NOT say sorry to patients like that. Saying sorry for someone having trauma is minimizing and gives pity to patients, which they DONT WANT. There are so much better tools to help someone feel heard, such as reflection, validation, and empathetic statements.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
OH. MY. GOD. This book is A+ phenomenal. I was hooked from the very first page, right up until that absolutely devastating cliffhanger, leaving me yearning for more.
This is dark romance wrapped in a bow of perfection. It is gritty, violent, spicy, and deliciously addictive.
Zeth is completely unhinged. Morally gray in the most delicious way. He’s ruthless and calculated, and trust me, you’ll love every second of it.
Sloane is his perfect contrast, bound by rules and morality and yet drawn to Zeth from their first encounter. The tension between them had me at the edge of my seat. I loved every interaction between them. Utter perfection.
The side characters are just as compelling, layered, and written in a way that makes you want to know everything about them. Every moment of violence keeps you on edge.
This story is dark, intense, and completely consuming. If you love morally gray men, high-stakes tension, and romance that is hot and wrong in all the best ways....then this is for you.
An absolute must-read. I am already counting down the days until the next book.
This is dark romance wrapped in a bow of perfection. It is gritty, violent, spicy, and deliciously addictive.
Zeth is completely unhinged. Morally gray in the most delicious way. He’s ruthless and calculated, and trust me, you’ll love every second of it.
Sloane is his perfect contrast, bound by rules and morality and yet drawn to Zeth from their first encounter. The tension between them had me at the edge of my seat. I loved every interaction between them. Utter perfection.
The side characters are just as compelling, layered, and written in a way that makes you want to know everything about them. Every moment of violence keeps you on edge.
This story is dark, intense, and completely consuming. If you love morally gray men, high-stakes tension, and romance that is hot and wrong in all the best ways....then this is for you.
An absolute must-read. I am already counting down the days until the next book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews