Sweetly Unhinged

Devoted In Darkness #1

by Kira Cole

From Booktok sensation Kira Cole, Sweetly Unhinged is the first book of the Devoted in the Darkness duet, featuring a golden-retriever hacker, forbidden tension, and dangerously sweet obsession. Their story continues in Beautifully Ruined.

VIOLET

I sent an anonymous email to The Ghost―a hacker who destroys scumbags for fun―detailing my darkest fantasy.

He replied.

With a phone number.

Now he's texting me, saying he can make it real. That he's watching me. That he knows exactly what I need.

I should run.

Instead, I'm saying yes.

The question driving me Who is he?

The question that's going to ruin Do I really want to find out?

CADE

Violet Carter is my brother's ex-girlfriend.

She's also the girl who just sent me the filthiest email of my life.

She thinks she's texting a dangerous stranger. I'm the guy who brings her coffee and fixes her laptop―and the man planning to fulfill every twisted fantasy she's ever had.

The closer we get, the deeper I fall.

But when she discovers who's been pulling her strings?

She's either going to kill me or kiss me.

Honestly, I'm hoping for both.

Genres: Dark Romance, Romance, Stalker, Dark, Audiobook, BDSM, Contemporary

464 pages, Paperback

Published November 3, 2026

Reviews

[Kursed Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working on an up-and-coming councilman’s campaign as an intern, Violet is repeatedly sexually harassed by her boss. When Cade overhears Vi telling her then-boyfriend - his brother - about the latest incident, he takes things into his own hands.

A few drinks in and fed up with the state of her love life and disinterested boyfriend, Vi sends a risqué message to Ghost, the notorious vigilante hacker. When he replies and feeds into her dark desires, things escalate quickly.

Holy mother of… I literally devoured this book as fast as my fingers could flip pages!! I liked the characters, the storyline, the not-too-angsty angst, the spice and kink, the … everything! I was sooooo not ready for the “To be continued” or that WTAF of the last few chapters! I’m relieved we don’t have long to wait for book two!

Long story short, if you’ve been sleeping on Kira Cole like I was, rectify that problem right TF now!!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Burn: 🔥🔥🔥
Darkness: 🖤
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Range of Emotions: 😤😊🥵😳🤯
Ending: 🧗🏻‍♀️ {Cliffy}

POV: 👫🏻 {Dual | Present}

🗄️ Genre: Contemporary Romance
🗂️ Subgenre(s): Dark-ish, New Adult,

✨ Tropes: Age Gap (10), Forbidden, Forced Proximity, Friends-to-Lovers, Heroine in Danger, Hidden Identity, Kidnapped/Captive, Stalker
 
💫 Microtropes: Caretaker MMC, Golden Retriever

🔆 Character: Hacker, Vigilante

💋 Kinks: 🍑, Anonymous Smex, Blindfold, Bondage/Restraints, CNC, Degradation, Domination, Edging, Masked MMC, Power Exchange, Primal, Public Play, Toys as Teammates

🤰🏻 Pregnancy: n/a

🚩 Red Flags: Alphahole, Bulldozer MMC, Jealous/Possessive/Obsessive, Manipulation, Touch-Her-and-💀, Tracking/Spying

⛔️ Safety Squad: Attempted Assault (Not by MMC), Kidnapping/Captive (Not by MMC), Stalker (Not MMC), Violence, Unaliving, and other potentially triggering elements. If you have any hesitation, check the warnings before diving in. Otherwise, blind is best!!

📍 Setting: New York City

⚠️ Warning: This smutty read will have you DoorDashing batteries for BOB.

📣 Type: Sweetly Unhinged is the first book in the Devoted in Darkness duet and ends on a cliffhanger. This series must be read in order.

🛑 Be Advised: My Goodreads shelves are … explicit in both senses. As such, they could be considered spoiler-y.

[Kaitlyn Weeks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did you read Lights Out and think “I could use a Temu version of this book”? If so, I have a book for you

Spoilers ahead!!

Complete with stalker, masked IT hero in the shadows and murder

Zade Meadows? You mean Cade Maddox - who breaks in and leaves gifts for our FMC

Many editing errors and repetitive statements
No plot with Jack
Enzo went all weird at the end
Isaac is just….dead?
“Fuck meat” …. Just NO
FMC is daft

Few good one liners:
- The girl’s got some ovaries on her, that’s for sure.
- My imagination is good. My libido better.
- “You know, Cade? Most guys buy flowers as a romantic gesture. They don’t murder their girlfriend’s stalkers.”

Not a good one yall. I read it so you don’t have to

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

Editorially, this book is rough. Missing words, wrong letters, repeated sentences, inconsistent settings, unclear timelines....its a mess.
The story is okay, nothing extraordinary. I feel like we went from quirky dark romance to a mafia thriller at the end, so that was a bit of a harsh transition.
The chemistry between Vi and Cade was great, though. I loved their dynamic. Cade lost me a bit at the end, seemed like a completely different character than he's been built up as. Violet was consistent all the way through, and I appreciated that. I also appreciate that the author took the time to really drive home the difference between kink and unwanted advances.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to read the second book. I wouldn't recommend for the story, but the smut is fun.

[Sheri | HawksNestReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweetly Unhinged is a dark romance featuring morally gray characters, obsession, and some very dark themes!

Violet has an obsession with a mysterious hacker known as the Ghost, along with some dark fantasies of her own. Meanwhile, Cade has an obsession with Violet.

This one definitely leans into the darker side of romance, and readers should be aware that there are quite a few content warnings.

While the storyline kept me curious about what would happen next, I didn't quite connect with the writing style, and some of the more explicit content wasn't my personal preference. I think this is one of those books that comes down to individual reading tastes!

I don’t see myself continuing with the second book, but I can absolutely see fans of darker romances with morally gray characters and obsessive relationships enjoying this one more than I did!

A huge thank you to Bloom Books, Sourcebooks, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC! All opinions are my own.

[bookrat_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Good smut, okay plot, a lot of errors.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what it is about me but I'm really good at picking books with stupid FMCs.

Like I wanted to like Violet, I really did. I tried so hard to like Violet but I just could not find it in myself in the end. She had no character development and for the lack of a better description, the survival instincts of a fart. I think she's one of the main reasons why this book fell so flat to me. Not to say the MMCs were any better but this was supposed to be about Violet talking to a creepy cyber stalker and living out fantasies and yet....it just seemed like a lot of filler for the book.

Spicy level was...eh. For someone who was supposed to be so "kinky", most of Cade's fantasies took place in his head or written out in text.

And don't get me started on the ending of the book. Somehow we went from weird stalker fetish to...mafia? I don't think I'll be reading more.

[Emms-hiatus(ish) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This really isn't a dark anything. This is poorly edited, repetitive, and lacks any trust in the reader to understand the difference between CNC and assault. A hammer to the head would've been less irritating than repeating that theme over and over and over and over and over and over.

Two things missing in the description/trigger warnings that would've stopped me from picking it up - Age Gap 🤮 and Mafia nonsense. There is absolutely ZERO reason this story needed to continue, especially with the whole hardcore mafia ridiculousness that comes out of left field at the end.

[Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violet drunkenly emails a notorious vigilante hacker her darkest sexual fantasy, he texts her back, and the man on the other end is her boyfriend’s older brother, who is already in her life fixing her laptop and bringing her coffee. Violet thinks she has two men suddenly taking up a lot of mental real estate. She has one man with excellent scheduling. And Cade knows exactly who she is the whole time. I need that emphasized because he is standing there in daylight acting normal while also going home and replying as The Ghost. Sir, this is a lot of administrative work for one crush.

Jack, Cade’s brother, makes this even easier for everyone because he is such a useless boyfriend that Violet breaking up with him feels less like heartbreak and more like overdue maintenance. She is dealing with a creepy boss on a political campaign, trying to build a future for herself, and Jack is busy disappointing her on multiple fronts before finally cheating on her in Vegas. Meanwhile Cade is watching all of this with the exhausted energy of someone who has known for a while that his brother should not be trusted with anything emotionally valuable.

Then Violet starts messaging The Ghost and telling him exactly what she wants, which would already be enough mess, except she is ALSO starting to notice Cade in real life. This is where I started yelling internally because she is sitting there thinking, wow, Cade makes me feel safe and seen, but The Ghost somehow knows exactly what I need in ways that are almost eerily specific. Violet. Babe. We are circling the airport.

Cade is objectively the reason this worked as well as it did for me because he is both ridiculous and weirdly endearing. He is this nerdy, dependable, glasses-wearing IT guy in one lane, and then in the other lane he is a vigilante hacker with stalking tendencies, a possessive streak, and a very specific skill set he is MORE than happy to apply to Violet’s fantasies. The contradiction is the whole thing. One minute he is bringing her coffee. The next he is tracking her. And somehow the coffee is not the concerning part.

The sexual dynamic gets very specific, very fast, so this is absolutely a check-the-content-warnings book. We are in consensual non-consent, primal play, stalking, domination, hidden identity territory. What made me stay with it is that Cade is actually very intentional about Violet’s limits and the difference between fantasy and real violation. That distinction matters because she is also dealing with men who absolutely do not care what she wants, and the book does make room for that difference instead of pretending those things are interchangeable.

That said, these two can have the same emotional crisis A LOT. Violet wants Cade. Violet wants The Ghost. Cade wants Violet. Cade is The Ghost. Cade is panicking about how to tell her. Violet is wondering who The Ghost could possibly be. I am sitting there like, there are only so many masked-hacker clues one woman should need before we involve a corkboard and some red string. Their chemistry kept me in it, but there were stretches where I felt like I had already attended this meeting.

And then the book suddenly starts opening doors into Cade’s much more dangerous life. Mafia connections, bigger threats, people who are not just creepy bosses or bad boyfriends, and now Violet is in a situation where the stakes jump hard. I had never read anything in the Devoted in Darkness series before this, so I came in with no context at all, and I definitely had a moment of, oh, we have changed restaurants. Same date, totally different menu.

Under all the chaos, though, I did like what Violet gets from Cade. Not just the sex, although obviously that is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. He makes space for the parts of her she has been afraid to admit she wants without making her feel broken or gross for wanting them. There is something genuinely tender in that, especially because she has spent so much time being ignored, dismissed, or pushed past her boundaries by other men.

Sweetly Unhinged lands at 3 stars for me. Cade entertained me, Violet made me want to gently remove her from the detective portion of her own life, Jack can stay gone, and I had a much better time when the secret identity was actively blowing things up than when everyone was privately thinking about it for another chapter. The cliffhanger also absolutely announces that this is only half the disaster, which, apparently, is how I entered the Devoted in Darkness world.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books and NetGalley for the ARC, and for giving me a man who can dismantle corrupt people online, monitor a woman’s entire life, and navigate deeply specific sexual boundaries, but still cannot figure out a normal way to say, “Hey, by the way, I’m the hacker.” Cade, start with the coffee. You already have a system.

[Sarah♡books · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 ⭐️

Violet x Cade🤍

📚 Hidden Identity
📚 Stalking
📚 Age gap (21 I 30)
📚 ex boyfriend brother
📚 dark rom com
🚩no cheating or sharing, no OW/OM

[ThatsSomeGoodSmut · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Thank you to Bloom Books, NetGalley, and the author for a copy of this book.

Cade is a man OBSESSED. I had a good time with this dark stalker romance, it's got a little bit of everything: age gap, ex-boyfriend's brother, morally grey vigilante hacker/stalker, CNC, public play, hidden identity, saving her from her super creepy/gross boss. If those things call to you, you will absolutely be in for a wild and very spicy ride.

[Laur · Rating 0.25 out of 5]

I feel like I’m worse off for having read this. Not my cup of tea (but to each their own I guess).

Outside of the very questionable plot, the writing also felt a little juvenile. Short paragraphs, single sentences only in some chapters.

It ends in a cliffhanger, but I won’t be reading the sequel.

[VickieLovesBooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf@65%
This book was a drag, repetative and far too long. The internal monologues were exhausting. Idk how many times we had to read about the differemce between consensual sex and fantasies. Ok, we get it! Also, the fmc Violet was definitely tstl and don't get me started on the ex boyfriend who she dated for 3yrs. The girl was a fool.

[Maya Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yawn. 🥱🥱


Would've liked for the story to get to the important parts quicker, but the sudden turn of events was totally unnecessary and didn't feel believable- and yet it went on longer than needed.

[Kendra Renae · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️3 🌶️2.75


I’m not gonna lie it took me way too long to get through this and at times I wanted to dnf; I just needed to read the reveal for myself.

The plot itself wasn’t bad and I did love the connection between Violet and Cade, but Violet was such a weak/dumb fmc in my opinion. Yes she was sassy/fiery and portrayed to be book smart, but she wasn’t life smart. I was more intrigued with her best friend Lia tbh.

I wanted to make it to the reveal just for Violet to piss me off the entire way through😒🙄. I was with Enzo like girl why are we defending Isaac that has tried to basically rape you multiple times? Like how dumb can you be smh. Quite literally Cade, Enzo and Lia were what kept me from dnf’ing this book.

Just read at your own risk.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐️ This had a lot of potential from the start… but by the end, it was just kind of mid.

Definitely a Tuesday.

The thing that really took me out of it was how much the book tried to rationalize the fantasy. It goes without saying that non-con is never okay in real life. But it felt like the author was so worried about readers judging the fantasy that they repeated the explanation over and over again.

We were constantly being told that the FMC only enjoyed it because permission had been given beforehand. I didn’t need to be told a thousand times.

There are so many ways to show that dynamic through the characters, their trust, and their actions instead of repeatedly spelling it out. After a while, it started pulling me out of the story more than immersing me in it.

Overall I liked the plot line but the story telling left a lot of room for improvement 🤷🏼‍♀️

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off be sure to check trigger warnings. I can see there may be a few that bothers people a lot. Anyways this is a great story fast paced and ended on a cliffhanger. Thankfully the next book is out finishing the series. Dark twisted fantasy romance. Some mafia moves in the plot as well.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first the beginning was a little rough because some of the same sentences were repetitive. I had to reread them to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. The story picked up once the editing got better. I love Violet and Cade. I wish Cade groveled more, but he only did the groveling with his dick. I wasn’t expecting it to end on a cliffhanger. So now I’m invested to see what happens next.

[Bri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Get it here:
Amazon US * Amazon UK

[Melissa L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinky, dark, stalker, spicyyyy, twisted, and a little touch of sweet teehee. However, it leaves you hanging so you have to read the next book to find out what happens….

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★★✬✩ ₃.₅

Sweetly Unhinged was entertaining in a "this is kind of ridiculous but I’m still turning the pages" way. I laughed, I rolled my eyes, and I definitely questioned how calmly everyone handled situations that should have involved way more panic (and a lot less dirt in places dirt should never be). The setup is fun, the dynamic between Violet and Cade mostly works, and the kink exploration is handled with a clear emphasis on consent, which I appreciated.

That said, it's messy. Some character choices felt wildly stupid, the tone swerves hard near the end, and the cliffhanger comes out of nowhere. It's not amazing, but it's decent, and that ending was just intriguing enough that I'll probably grab the second book at some point this year.

[Lauren Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 / 3 stars

Sweetly Unhinged is certainly dark, but it is absolutely not a romcom. That’s fine, but the title is misleading. The story itself and the dynamic between Cade and Violet was definitely interesting and showed a mostly positive view of their kink preferences, which I appreciated. However, the editing and formatting throughout the book was rough, and it took me out of the story often enough that I was incredibly frustrated as a reader. There were simply too many typos and too many weird formatting issues for me to stay fully engaged. On top of that, I felt like too much time was spent on their internal narration defining the differences between consensual encounters and abuse, and the circular justification of their desire (in their own heads) was honestly just too much. Overall, I did like this darker exploration of politics, hacking, and desire, I just wish some significant editing had gone into it.

[Jenny•●♡●• · Rating 2 out of 5]

•○● Fantasie und echtes Leben sind nicht dasselbe. ●○• S. 299

MEINUNG:
Bin bei diesem Buch nach dem Genre gegangen. Wollte wieder einmal lauthals lachen und mich köstlich amüsieren.
Nun, das war es leider nicht. Viele Aussagen und Gedanken wurden wahnsinnig oft wiederholt und das sogar auf einer verdammten Seite 🤨
Bei den Protagonisten war es leider nicht anders. Ich konnte keine Bindung zu ihnen aufbauen, da sie sehr oberflächlich blieben. Warum dieses Buch unter RomCom läuft, kann ich auch nicht verstehen. Entweder es war überhaupt nicht mein Humor, oder dieses Buch besitzt wirklich keinen. Richtig loslachen ... Leider Fehlanzeige 🫣

Ich muss zugeben, dass ich eine Geschichte mit Charaktere suchte, die ich in 'Lights out' gefunden habe. In diesem Buch hab ich definitiv umsonst gesucht.
Gegen Ende wurde es dann doch spannend, aber ansonsten plätscherte alles so dahin.😒 Bin sehr enttäuscht.

KLAPPENTEXT:
Violet
Ich schickte eine anonyme E-Mail an den Geist—einen Hacker, der Abschaum aus purer Laune heraus zerstört—und verriet ihm meine dunkelste Fantasie.
Er antwortete.
Mit einer Telefonnummer.
Jetzt schreibt er mir, sagt, er könne es wahr machen. Dass er mich beobachtet. Dass er genau weiß, was ich brauche.
Ich sollte weglaufen.
Stattdessen sage ich Ja.
Die Frage, die mich wahnsinnig macht: Wer ist er?
Die Frage, die mich ruinieren wird: Will ich es überhaupt wissen?

Cade
Violet Carter ist die Ex-Freundin meines Bruders.
Und sie ist das Mädchen, das mir gerade die schmutzigste E-Mail meines Lebens geschickt hat.
Sie glaubt, sie schreibt einem gefährlichen Fremden. Ich bin der Typ, der ihr Kaffee bringt, ihren Laptop repariert—und der Mann, der plant, jede ihrer verdrehten Fantasien wahr werden zu lassen.
Je näher wir uns kommen, desto tiefer falle ich.
Aber wenn sie herausfindet, wer ihre Fäden gezogen hat?
Sie wird mich entweder töten oder küssen.
Ehrlich gesagt hoffe ich auf beides.

[Book Keeper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I am not a big fan of dark romance novels. Even without reading a ton of them, I would say this is on the "lighter" side, all things considered (you know what I mean, if you read that dark dark romance). So I have a bias, obviously.

With that being said, this book wasn't horrible, ultimately. I think it could have been edited a bit more, the overall writing wasn't too bad. I enjoyed the banter between the main characters. I was intrigued by the softer male lead. Maybe that doesn't make sense, if you have read it, but compared to other dark romance, he was sweet and mature. I can appreciate a man that knows when to turn on the kink and when to leave it be.

Violet... *sigh* I struggled with her. She would have me in her corner and then start spouting some stupid shit and I could not do it. It was further proven to me when she followed Cade. I tried to be charitable. I did! But she is going to be one of those too stupid to live chicks. Call it a "Spidey sense".

This book should have been wrapped up in one go. If it was, I may have given it 3.5 stars? After the "I love you's" an epilogue would have been better. The rest was unnecessary and I can only see her being a trainwreck, in this next book, with Cade being led around by his d***.

I really liked their chemistry and banter, but I'm out.

┐⁠(⁠´⁠ー⁠｀⁠)⁠┌

[Hana · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Voto complessivo: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
Dramma: 💧💧
Sugar: 🧁🧁
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Tropes and vibes: dark romance - secret identity - age gap - ex’s brother - stalking - kink exploration

Sweetly Unhinged è il primo dei due romanzi dedicati a Cade e Violet nell’ambito della Devoted in Darkness. Disponibile su Kindle+ in italiano, ho l’impressione che la traduzione sia stata fatta con l’IA, per cui non mancano refusi e tempi verbali non proprio azzeccatissimi. Se potete tollerare la cosa, buon per voi, altrimenti consiglio la lettura in originale. Fatta questa premessa, nel mio voto ho deciso di non valutare la traduzione zoppicante, limitandomi alla storia di per sé.

Presentata come dark rom-com, la rom-com è praticamente assente: c’è una sola scena divertente in tutto il libro, per cui ridimensionate le vostre aspettative. Il libro si concentra sul tema della separazione tra realtà e fantasia, per cui si possono nutrire un certo tipo di fantasie senza volerle realizzare, a meno che non si resti nella sicurezza di un concordato gioco di ruolo. In altre parole, è un’apologia della kink culture, ma anche, indirettamente, dei dark romance, dove tutto rimane nel recinto della fantasia con un forte accento sul consenso. Tutto bene, sennonché c’è una certa ripetitività: un concetto basta esporlo una volta; non è necessario ripeterlo, altrimenti l’impressione è di essere a corto di argomenti.
Per il giudizio finale mi riservo di leggere anche il secondo volume; al momento sono soddisfatta e spero che in Beautifully Ruined ci sia ancora della sostanza, e non solo un allungamento della trama.

[Deidre Smallwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoyed Lights Out by Navessa Allen, you’ll enjoy this book. It’s got the same vibe—kinky dark rom com with some light stalking and a bit of primal play. Violet wounds up in a love triangle with her ex-boyfriend’s brother, Cade, and a vigilante hacker, The Ghost. Unbeknownst to her, they are one in the same. The banter was so good, and the smut was spicy. I laughed out loud multiple times while reading this book! It ends on a cliffhanger, and I’ll be immediately moving on to the sequel. This was such a fun read!

[Elizabeth Mars · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like it was fine I guess up until the ending. Kind of like a knock off of lights out but with more plot holes. Like the ending plot to drag it into needing another book just came out of nowhere really.

[Lyha Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this take on showing both fetish and realism. it shows the difference between a rape scene vs real rape and to know kinks are ok.

[Shanna Kirkpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omg I loved this book! Boyfriends brother... hacker... stalker... and he protects her... yes please.

[Eden Gosselin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sa ma prit la Moitier a embarqué dedans mais avec la fin je n'aurais pas le choix de lire la suite !!

[Trea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for PC book club.