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The Scent of Sin
I've spent my whole life hiding what I am. Turns out, I was never hidden at all.
I'm broken in ways I don't talk about. Eleven years of suppressants. A childhood I barely survived. A secret buried so deep I almost forgot it was there.
When my adoptive mom married Richard Graves, I thought I could keep pretending. New house. New family. New chance to be normal. To be invisible. To be anything other than what I really am.
Then I met his sons.
Atlas, Zero, and Bane Graves are everything that should terrify me—dominant, ruthless, and tangled in the dark underbelly of their father's empire. They run a world built on blood and silence. They don't do soft. They don't do safe.
And they're my stepbrothers.
I wanted to stay invisible. I wanted to keep my head down and my secret locked away. But the moment I step through their door, something fractures.
They scent me.
My suppressants are gone The shame I've carried since I was nine years old is clawing its way to the surface. And the Graves brothers—the ones who should hate me, the ones who should look right through me—they're looking at me like I'm something to devour.
I've spent my whole life believing I was wrong. Dirty. Broken beyond repair.
They don't want me fixed. They want me claimed.
Even if it destroys us all.
I'm broken in ways I don't talk about. Eleven years of suppressants. A childhood I barely survived. A secret buried so deep I almost forgot it was there.
When my adoptive mom married Richard Graves, I thought I could keep pretending. New house. New family. New chance to be normal. To be invisible. To be anything other than what I really am.
Then I met his sons.
Atlas, Zero, and Bane Graves are everything that should terrify me—dominant, ruthless, and tangled in the dark underbelly of their father's empire. They run a world built on blood and silence. They don't do soft. They don't do safe.
And they're my stepbrothers.
I wanted to stay invisible. I wanted to keep my head down and my secret locked away. But the moment I step through their door, something fractures.
They scent me.
My suppressants are gone The shame I've carried since I was nine years old is clawing its way to the surface. And the Graves brothers—the ones who should hate me, the ones who should look right through me—they're looking at me like I'm something to devour.
I've spent my whole life believing I was wrong. Dirty. Broken beyond repair.
They don't want me fixed. They want me claimed.
Even if it destroys us all.
341 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 19, 2026
47 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 21, 2026
Pretty sure this is AI.
February 24, 2026
DNF @ 11%
Because of my first assessment being that this reads very incredibly similar to a stereotypical wattpad story, I’m DNFing. I can’t do it.
So far, this is what’s happened:
Main character’s adoptive parent (cause the main character has to have some sort of trauma) announces that she’s getting married to a Dude Named Richard with 3 adult kids in three weeks. At the wedding, MC meets all 3 ADULTS separately who treat him like doodoo. Parent and dude go on their honeymoon, leaves MC with 3 unknown ADULTS in a mansion (cause Dude Named Richard and his 3 ADULT kids are majorly balling in the moola obviously, and MC and Parent aren’t). Parent and Dude Named Richard return from their honeymoon in Italy (obviously) and say they want a family dinner.
Cringe AF. If I wanted to read a stereotypical wattpad story, I would’ve gone to Wattpad, selected a story from 2016, and been golden.
Because of my first assessment being that this reads very incredibly similar to a stereotypical wattpad story, I’m DNFing. I can’t do it.
So far, this is what’s happened:
Main character’s adoptive parent (cause the main character has to have some sort of trauma) announces that she’s getting married to a Dude Named Richard with 3 adult kids in three weeks. At the wedding, MC meets all 3 ADULTS separately who treat him like doodoo. Parent and dude go on their honeymoon, leaves MC with 3 unknown ADULTS in a mansion (cause Dude Named Richard and his 3 ADULT kids are majorly balling in the moola obviously, and MC and Parent aren’t). Parent and Dude Named Richard return from their honeymoon in Italy (obviously) and say they want a family dinner.
Cringe AF. If I wanted to read a stereotypical wattpad story, I would’ve gone to Wattpad, selected a story from 2016, and been golden.
February 19, 2026
wow
This book is sooooo good, finished it in one reading. Couldn’t put it down. Need to know what happens next. I like max but he can be so annoying at times but if you understand his experiences you can see why. I know fans are rooting for zero. He’s the bad guy with a temper. I wasn’t a big fan of him this book but he might change my mind in the next. I don’t like bane the most. He treated max the worst and if it wasn’t for max scent he wouldn’t have given max th time of day. I know a lot of ppl are not atlas fans cause he’s boring and predictable. But out of all the brothers he treated max the best before all of this. They have to understand these brothers are like in their late 20s while max is barely an adult and even if he is 20 his mentality is that of a teenager as he’s never had to comprehend real life matters as he’s always had to hide his own designation. Will leave with a cliffhanger till next book. Can’t wait.
This book is sooooo good, finished it in one reading. Couldn’t put it down. Need to know what happens next. I like max but he can be so annoying at times but if you understand his experiences you can see why. I know fans are rooting for zero. He’s the bad guy with a temper. I wasn’t a big fan of him this book but he might change my mind in the next. I don’t like bane the most. He treated max the worst and if it wasn’t for max scent he wouldn’t have given max th time of day. I know a lot of ppl are not atlas fans cause he’s boring and predictable. But out of all the brothers he treated max the best before all of this. They have to understand these brothers are like in their late 20s while max is barely an adult and even if he is 20 his mentality is that of a teenager as he’s never had to comprehend real life matters as he’s always had to hide his own designation. Will leave with a cliffhanger till next book. Can’t wait.
February 20, 2026
I saw a TikTok about this book and I became super excited. I love a good mm omegaverse. This book was super good and had me hooked from start to finish. Max is an omega with his three Alpha stepbrothers Zero, Atlas, and Bane. I loved the dynamics between the brothers and the whole story in general. The only part I wasn’t super into was the basement scene with Zero. He’s not the most likable character and I’m hoping that there will be some good character growth in the second book. But Atlas is such a MAN let me tell you and Bane definitely grew on me. Max made me a bit annoyed at times with how he treated Margot but I understand why he was so agitated. I hope that they rekindle their amazing mother/son relationship in the second book, and hopefully Richard removes that stick up his ass. I can’t wait for the second book!
February 23, 2026
I have mixed feelings about this.
the concept is nice even if nothing new but the execution....
!!!! SPOILERS!!!!!
The whole situation was created by Zero who decided for whatever fucking reason to flush Max suppressant to show him who's boss.
that's the whole plot!
no more suppressant = heat obv
the three brothers were the worst honestly.
Petty, jealous, worse than teenagers.
I will read book 2 just to know what happens but it was pretty bad and I regret having it taking space in my brain now
the concept is nice even if nothing new but the execution....
!!!! SPOILERS!!!!!
The whole situation was created by Zero who decided for whatever fucking reason to flush Max suppressant to show him who's boss.
that's the whole plot!
no more suppressant = heat obv
the three brothers were the worst honestly.
Petty, jealous, worse than teenagers.
I will read book 2 just to know what happens but it was pretty bad and I regret having it taking space in my brain now
February 24, 2026
I thought this book wasn’t so bad? I’m sort of confused by the overall rating. Was there some points that were ehhhhh? Yes. Was there some stereotypical abusive plot points? Absolutely. The ending I thought was a little cheap.
I was confused about the rationale behind the stepbrother’s hostility when they pretty specifically told him off on their first meeting and throughout the book they acted as if Maxwas the one that was nasty to them. I may have read something wrong but it did bother me a lot.
I think Max might be my favorite character I’ve read about in a long time. I felt as though Max did what he could (within reason) to avoid conflict, and problems still occurred. I like a character that goes out of their way to avoid dumb things. A massive pet peeve of mine is when characters intentionally put themselves in bad situations (i.e. get caught eavesdropping, stealing, lying, sneaking out) and then reap what they sow. Max does this two and a halfish times and the only one that bothered me was the ending, which I thought was cheap/lazy compared to the rest of the story.
I felt Max’s responses to his past and present traumas were geared towards my own responses(avoidance, fear, anxiety) so I found it refreshing but if you lean towards a more aggressive response(confrontation, outspokenness, hostility)- it won’t be found here in this character. I also appreciated that there wasn’t instant forgiveness, or “by gones be by gones” nothing is really resolved yet, no groveling (by a specific character that deserves to grovel), but things were leaning on the upswing by the end of the book with two of the three love interests.
I saw a review suggesting the book was written by AI, I didn’t see any give aways but I’m obviously not the author so I wouldn’t know either way unless they left a prompt in.
I was confused about the rationale behind the stepbrother’s hostility when they pretty specifically told him off on their first meeting and throughout the book they acted as if Maxwas the one that was nasty to them. I may have read something wrong but it did bother me a lot.
I think Max might be my favorite character I’ve read about in a long time. I felt as though Max did what he could (within reason) to avoid conflict, and problems still occurred. I like a character that goes out of their way to avoid dumb things. A massive pet peeve of mine is when characters intentionally put themselves in bad situations (i.e. get caught eavesdropping, stealing, lying, sneaking out) and then reap what they sow. Max does this two and a halfish times and the only one that bothered me was the ending, which I thought was cheap/lazy compared to the rest of the story.
I felt Max’s responses to his past and present traumas were geared towards my own responses(avoidance, fear, anxiety) so I found it refreshing but if you lean towards a more aggressive response(confrontation, outspokenness, hostility)- it won’t be found here in this character. I also appreciated that there wasn’t instant forgiveness, or “by gones be by gones” nothing is really resolved yet, no groveling (by a specific character that deserves to grovel), but things were leaning on the upswing by the end of the book with two of the three love interests.
I saw a review suggesting the book was written by AI, I didn’t see any give aways but I’m obviously not the author so I wouldn’t know either way unless they left a prompt in.
March 24, 2026
AI garbage. Every sign is pointing that this is an AI generated story.
1. there’s no copyright, publisher, authors note, nothing within the first few pages of the book.
2. This so-called author “Halle Dawson” does not even exist. And if they do, there’s no internet presence, which is very suspicious.
3. The word play/writing flow is extremely repetitive and robotic… it’s actually infuriating. The same exact words are said over and over and over and over… you get it.
4. It’s one thing to have grammatical errors but plot errors??? Nobody proofread this.
5. There’s not even personality changes with each POV.
To the people who rated this anything higher than two stars, I’m convinced you’re a preteen or have a reading literacy of a juvenile.
I NEVER DNF A BOOK, BUT THIS IS SO HORRIBLE. I JUST CAN’T FORCE MYSELF TO FINISH. Kindle needs to ban this BS.
1. there’s no copyright, publisher, authors note, nothing within the first few pages of the book.
2. This so-called author “Halle Dawson” does not even exist. And if they do, there’s no internet presence, which is very suspicious.
3. The word play/writing flow is extremely repetitive and robotic… it’s actually infuriating. The same exact words are said over and over and over and over… you get it.
4. It’s one thing to have grammatical errors but plot errors??? Nobody proofread this.
5. There’s not even personality changes with each POV.
To the people who rated this anything higher than two stars, I’m convinced you’re a preteen or have a reading literacy of a juvenile.
I NEVER DNF A BOOK, BUT THIS IS SO HORRIBLE. I JUST CAN’T FORCE MYSELF TO FINISH. Kindle needs to ban this BS.
March 16, 2026
I'm not sure why the reveiws are all over the place on this read. I thought it was pretty good. At first, i wasn't too sure I'd enjoy it. Some of the details were a littler over done, constantly making saying the same descriptions over and over. But as i kept reading, the plot held my interest enough to finish it out. And I'm glad I did.
Sure, a few details like the healing of bloody knuckles was too quick, but this is fiction. And maybe this author didn't use a good editor to catch that, or some of the little things that were missed through out. As an author myself, I know things get overlooked. But i enjoyed this book and can't wait for the next part.
Warning....other than TW....this book leaves off with a huge cliff!
Sure, a few details like the healing of bloody knuckles was too quick, but this is fiction. And maybe this author didn't use a good editor to catch that, or some of the little things that were missed through out. As an author myself, I know things get overlooked. But i enjoyed this book and can't wait for the next part.
Warning....other than TW....this book leaves off with a huge cliff!
February 25, 2026
When max damaged his hands so bad there was bone showing, and days later it was healing. I started to check out.
I’ve been skimming a while now. It has a very Wattpad feel to it.
I’m not sure I’m going any future.
It’s not a unique storyline but has potential. I really like Maxs character too.
I’ve been skimming a while now. It has a very Wattpad feel to it.
I’m not sure I’m going any future.
It’s not a unique storyline but has potential. I really like Maxs character too.
Read
February 25, 2026Dnf at 49%
The writing was atrocious, so many repetitions, contradictions from one paragraph to the next, words thrown together without full sentences.
And then, the main character is r*aped by one of the love interests… and I was out 🤮
The writing was atrocious, so many repetitions, contradictions from one paragraph to the next, words thrown together without full sentences.
And then, the main character is r*aped by one of the love interests… and I was out 🤮
February 25, 2026
I liked it!
First time reading work by this author but I really enjoyed this book! Kind of annoyed it ended on a cliff hanger (a personal problem lol) but looking forward to rereading when the next book is released.
First time reading work by this author but I really enjoyed this book! Kind of annoyed it ended on a cliff hanger (a personal problem lol) but looking forward to rereading when the next book is released.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews