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Darkly Mine Season One #1
Unsidhe Assassin
Known as Ghost, Jase is an assassin with but one soft spot- his kid sister. He just wants to earn enough money to live life the way he wants while making sure creepers stay away from her. He certainly doesn't believe in fairies, not even dark ones.
Lord Willow needs an assassin and it has to a human one. Humans are hard to come by on his side of the Veil, but he's not above tricking his way into bringing one across. Ghost will be perfect once he's molded into what Willow needs both in and out of bed. First, though, Willow has to lure him across the Veil with a bargain. Then he has to break him.
This book is part of DARKLY MINE -SEASON 1. Each novel can be read as a standalone and contains a dark m/m romance. Warning: These books are for adult readers who enjoy stories where lines between right and wrong get blurry. High heat, twisted and tantalizing, these are not for the fainthearted.
Lord Willow needs an assassin and it has to a human one. Humans are hard to come by on his side of the Veil, but he's not above tricking his way into bringing one across. Ghost will be perfect once he's molded into what Willow needs both in and out of bed. First, though, Willow has to lure him across the Veil with a bargain. Then he has to break him.
This book is part of DARKLY MINE -SEASON 1. Each novel can be read as a standalone and contains a dark m/m romance. Warning: These books are for adult readers who enjoy stories where lines between right and wrong get blurry. High heat, twisted and tantalizing, these are not for the fainthearted.
- GenresFantasyM M Romance
130 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 24, 2019
16 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Leona Windwalker
34 books99 followersLeona is a longtime staunch supporter of human rights and environmental causes. Her favourite genre to read is M/M fiction and she particularly enjoys science fiction, fantasy, and action/suspense subgenres—especially if they have a nice seasoning of romance. She has far too many books on her Kindle, has overloaded her phone with even more and, when not reading, writing, being driven to distraction by her children, or being overlorded by her three cats, can be found trying to locate the portal that the sock monster uses to steal socks from her dryer.
pseudonym for Loretta Johns
***Works by this author are protected by Muso. Please help support the author who is supporting her family by only purchasing legal copies***
pseudonym for Loretta Johns
***Works by this author are protected by Muso. Please help support the author who is supporting her family by only purchasing legal copies***
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 27, 2019
The cover blurb is backstory that isn't fleshed out well enough to actually matter. Both main characters are unlikable and the Unseelie court is just filled with a-holes.
There is 0 romance in this novel; stockholm syndrome and glamour-sex is not romance. There's also no action either; the sniping scene gets aborted immediately. So what is this book other than strangled revenge fantasy against an unlikable captive that demands obedience and sex with none of the work?
And no, explaining why Willow kidnapped Ghost (his name is NEVER used - due to fae nonsense, so what's the point in using it in the blurb) does not remotely vindicate his plans. Willow is just an entitled fae that needs to be beaten up.
Find another book.
There is 0 romance in this novel; stockholm syndrome and glamour-sex is not romance. There's also no action either; the sniping scene gets aborted immediately. So what is this book other than strangled revenge fantasy against an unlikable captive that demands obedience and sex with none of the work?
And no, explaining why Willow kidnapped Ghost (his name is NEVER used - due to fae nonsense, so what's the point in using it in the blurb) does not remotely vindicate his plans. Willow is just an entitled fae that needs to be beaten up.
Find another book.
November 26, 2019
Once more, all the life gets sucked out of a potentially great concept through clumsy plotting and immature literary values. The main lines of the high fantasy universe within which, but for the first few pages, the entire action takes place, are never pellucidly established due to the orogenesis of background verbiage the reader is spoon-fed each time a secondary paranormal character gets onstage. Worse, this topsy-turvy view of the necessary universe building comes hand in hand with terrible psychological portrayal; for this is the kind of dual-POV story in which the internal discourse of the two leads awkwardly intermingles with the narrative in the form of a weird kind of stream of conscience, slowing down a fair bit the flow of the narrative while never fleshing out the characters - a most glaring offense when neither Ghost nor Willow make for likable protagonists, let alone life-like characters. Let me demonstrate all those criticisms with three samples :
Ghost's POV :
"That asshole grabbed me when I went to shake his hand, eager to salvage this deal. I was only a few hundred thousand short of my goal. Then I could retire and spend my time looking after my half-sister’s best interests. Molly was only ten, and all she had was our mother and her father. Mom was a former Miss Sugar Cane and never forgot it. She lived and breathed pageants. She used to travel all over, doing make-up on the circuit. When she ran off with a pageant judge, no one was much surprised. Now the pair of them travel the circuit, Molly in tow as a contestant. Molly’s first pageant took place when she was only four months old. Those two are after the glory. Me, I wanted to make sure the kid is alright. I send money for dresses, plane tickets, and shit to make sure they don’t take any sponsorships from potentially skeevy people who’d want their hands on my baby sister.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” I yelled. That’s all I say to him because my brain caught up with my eyes. Oh hell, naw. What kind of new fuckery is this? I could see the building we’re on, only it’s like it’s two separate buildings. I spun around. Fuck. It was like that all over. There was like a line in the air. One bit looked normal. The other looked like I walked onto a dystopian movie set. Crumbling city buildings with weeds broke through the pavement and vines snaked up the outsides. Not only that, but while this building looked like it’s kinda the same one, some of the buildings on the weird side don’t match up with what I knew was out there. Different signage and hell, completely different structures. “Fuck me,” I whispered."
"A doorman nodded obsequiously at him before reaching a white-gloved hand out to open the door. I tried not to stare as I took him in. He was apple-cheeked with mud-brown hair and eyes, and his ears were pointed, but not as long and elf-like as Asshole’s. He cocked an eyebrow at me, giving me a cheeky grin as if he knew something that I don’t. It revealed his front teeth. They looked like a chipmunk’s. I turned my eyes away but not before I spotted a squirrel-like tail held up against his back reflected in the glass. I blinked, then hurried after my fae as he stops in front of an old-fashioned elevator.
Wait. My fae? Since when was he mine? We weren’t even friends. Okay, he’s hot as hell, but he’s also a massive self-righteous prick. I knew that much much already, even if I’d only just met the guy. And why did the building look so modern, only for the elevator to be one of those with a metal gate across it and have what looked like a man who was literally part tree operating it? Jerk Face stepped in the elevator, and I follow him in. Tree Guy closed the metal filigree gate and began hauling on a gold rope as soon as Jerk-Face told him to take us to the penthouse. I felt sorry for Tree Guy as this building had to be at least twenty stories tall. Did he have to haul us all the way up himself, or would we get off every few floors?
I studied Tree Guy as he worked, not even trying to disguise my curiosity. He stands close to seven and a half feet tall, and what at first I thought was a one-piece uniform is instead his skin. Or rather bark and leaves. Or maybe the bark and leaves are his clothes, given how they appear on his frame. His hair looks like pine needles, the long thin kind you find down South on the loblolly pines that grow everywhere. Hell, you can’t move a lot of places without seeing at least one of the damned trees and finding their pinecones all over the place. Girls practice braiding with them, even.
Some of his needles are braided together, too, I see, and it looks somewhat random, almost like a child was playing with his hair, and he left in a hurry without undoing them. I noticed this as we suddenly came to a jerking stop and he silently opened the filigree gate that’s the twin to the one downstairs. He followed us out and opened yet another barrier to a second elevator. Though I supposed given what his tree-trunk arms are doing to make it work, I guessed the British term lift is more appropriate."
Willow's POV:
"“On your knees,” I said.
He narrowed his eyes and ground his teeth together but obeyed without saying a word in response for once. I knew he expected me to make a move on him but now was not that time. First came my comfort, then his punishment, followed by dinner. After that, a good look at the plans the masons drew up, followed by a night’s rest. It was an excellent way to spend the evening, I decided, despite the change in plans. As he bent down to lift up my foot to free me from my trousers, I got a good view of the curve of his ass, the loincloth having worked itself a bit to one side. A firm globe peeked out, a ripe peach ready for the plucking.
Peach…I suddenly knew just the thing. I grinned, recalling exactly what I had in my toy chest. This was going to be first-rate if what I suspected about him was true. My cock throbbed in anticipation, and he reared back as he knelt back up."
A pretty generic high fantasy written in such a fashion, even one no longer than two hundred pages, cannot expected to get more than two stars from me.
Ghost's POV :
"That asshole grabbed me when I went to shake his hand, eager to salvage this deal. I was only a few hundred thousand short of my goal. Then I could retire and spend my time looking after my half-sister’s best interests. Molly was only ten, and all she had was our mother and her father. Mom was a former Miss Sugar Cane and never forgot it. She lived and breathed pageants. She used to travel all over, doing make-up on the circuit. When she ran off with a pageant judge, no one was much surprised. Now the pair of them travel the circuit, Molly in tow as a contestant. Molly’s first pageant took place when she was only four months old. Those two are after the glory. Me, I wanted to make sure the kid is alright. I send money for dresses, plane tickets, and shit to make sure they don’t take any sponsorships from potentially skeevy people who’d want their hands on my baby sister.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” I yelled. That’s all I say to him because my brain caught up with my eyes. Oh hell, naw. What kind of new fuckery is this? I could see the building we’re on, only it’s like it’s two separate buildings. I spun around. Fuck. It was like that all over. There was like a line in the air. One bit looked normal. The other looked like I walked onto a dystopian movie set. Crumbling city buildings with weeds broke through the pavement and vines snaked up the outsides. Not only that, but while this building looked like it’s kinda the same one, some of the buildings on the weird side don’t match up with what I knew was out there. Different signage and hell, completely different structures. “Fuck me,” I whispered."
"A doorman nodded obsequiously at him before reaching a white-gloved hand out to open the door. I tried not to stare as I took him in. He was apple-cheeked with mud-brown hair and eyes, and his ears were pointed, but not as long and elf-like as Asshole’s. He cocked an eyebrow at me, giving me a cheeky grin as if he knew something that I don’t. It revealed his front teeth. They looked like a chipmunk’s. I turned my eyes away but not before I spotted a squirrel-like tail held up against his back reflected in the glass. I blinked, then hurried after my fae as he stops in front of an old-fashioned elevator.
Wait. My fae? Since when was he mine? We weren’t even friends. Okay, he’s hot as hell, but he’s also a massive self-righteous prick. I knew that much much already, even if I’d only just met the guy. And why did the building look so modern, only for the elevator to be one of those with a metal gate across it and have what looked like a man who was literally part tree operating it? Jerk Face stepped in the elevator, and I follow him in. Tree Guy closed the metal filigree gate and began hauling on a gold rope as soon as Jerk-Face told him to take us to the penthouse. I felt sorry for Tree Guy as this building had to be at least twenty stories tall. Did he have to haul us all the way up himself, or would we get off every few floors?
I studied Tree Guy as he worked, not even trying to disguise my curiosity. He stands close to seven and a half feet tall, and what at first I thought was a one-piece uniform is instead his skin. Or rather bark and leaves. Or maybe the bark and leaves are his clothes, given how they appear on his frame. His hair looks like pine needles, the long thin kind you find down South on the loblolly pines that grow everywhere. Hell, you can’t move a lot of places without seeing at least one of the damned trees and finding their pinecones all over the place. Girls practice braiding with them, even.
Some of his needles are braided together, too, I see, and it looks somewhat random, almost like a child was playing with his hair, and he left in a hurry without undoing them. I noticed this as we suddenly came to a jerking stop and he silently opened the filigree gate that’s the twin to the one downstairs. He followed us out and opened yet another barrier to a second elevator. Though I supposed given what his tree-trunk arms are doing to make it work, I guessed the British term lift is more appropriate."
Willow's POV:
"“On your knees,” I said.
He narrowed his eyes and ground his teeth together but obeyed without saying a word in response for once. I knew he expected me to make a move on him but now was not that time. First came my comfort, then his punishment, followed by dinner. After that, a good look at the plans the masons drew up, followed by a night’s rest. It was an excellent way to spend the evening, I decided, despite the change in plans. As he bent down to lift up my foot to free me from my trousers, I got a good view of the curve of his ass, the loincloth having worked itself a bit to one side. A firm globe peeked out, a ripe peach ready for the plucking.
Peach…I suddenly knew just the thing. I grinned, recalling exactly what I had in my toy chest. This was going to be first-rate if what I suspected about him was true. My cock throbbed in anticipation, and he reared back as he knelt back up."
A pretty generic high fantasy written in such a fashion, even one no longer than two hundred pages, cannot expected to get more than two stars from me.
March 24, 2020
DNF. Simply because of three reasons.
1) At around 40%, a scene is cut abruptly. Like, the author erased part of the chapter accidentally mid conversation which can only mean that this book had a crappy editor or no editor at all.
“I thought I should finally get a move on to establish myself properly. I’m close to my majority and....”
That’s it. That’s how the chapter ends. How the conversation ends.
2) The blurb says “dark romance” but there is no romance whatsoever. Ghost is kidnapped, roped into a contract full of lies, forced to part from his family, locked in a cell for days where he is chained, put in inhumane conditions, starved (He doesn’t want to eat or drink because eating/drinking will force him to stay in the realm and he can’t never leave. Think Persephone and the pomegranate seeds), he then is tricked into drinking because Willow couldn’t wait for it to be Ghost’s decision. I assume he is sexually assaulted at some point under the guise of Stockholm Syndrome but its never pointed out so we can masquerade the whole thing as “romance”. Oh and Ghost is being constantly mesmerized by Willow which makes it even more rape. When he drank, he formed a “bond” with Willow which affectedly not only trapped him in the Realm but made it so that he couldn’t actually defend himself against Willow. He couldn’t even have a “I’m going to murder this guy” thought without twisting in pain. Literal, physical pain. Even more non consensual stuff disguised as “dark romance”.
3) Willow is just a selfish, cruel asshole. He is an unlikeable character completely. I understand “dark romance” but when you effectively remove the romance part you’re just left with dark which is NOT what I wanted when I read “dark romance”. If I wanted “dark”, this would have hit the spot. I was 40% in and I had yet seen not 1 redeemable action by Willow. Not even a hint of kindness towards Ghost that didn’t come with bad intentions. That would, again, give me the “romance” part. Oh and, lets not forget how Willow was ready (I don’t know if be used the information later on but I assume he did) to use Ghost’s little sister and mother as leverage so Ghost would do whatever he wanted him to do. He is shared between whatever fae Willow feels like sharing him with without asking what Ghost wants first (at around 87% Ghost himself says in his mind that he doesn’t want to suck some Fae’s dick but Willow pushes him to do so, so he does it. Stockholm Syndrome disguised as romance, guys. Remember)
(After Ghost has been held in captivity for days, he started hallucinating from sleep depravation, starvation, infection, isolation and had a panic attack due to the visual hallucinations)
“The one saving grace of that experience was that he’d fallen so deep under my spell, he was completely checked out. This meant he could be moved about like a doll...”.
What part of that falls under “romance”? That is just a full on dark statement. Romance would have been Willow consoling him and trying to calm him down. Give him some space and move him to a better environment. But nope. He is just thinking about getting a (forced) blowjob from Ghost when the poor guy is almost comatose. He also immediately puts a leash on him and pulls him around with it. We had, what sounded like a cool contract killer, reduced to a sex object. A shell of what he once was. This story could have gone in so many different ways and still keep the “dark romance” tag without making Willow such an unlikeable character.
Seriously, what an awful character.
Consent? I don’t know her.
Editor? I don’t know them.
The romance part in the “dark romance”? Nowhere to be seen.
The award for the worst book of 2020 (for me) goes to this book. God, there is always one book that pisses me off. It never fails...
1) At around 40%, a scene is cut abruptly. Like, the author erased part of the chapter accidentally mid conversation which can only mean that this book had a crappy editor or no editor at all.
“I thought I should finally get a move on to establish myself properly. I’m close to my majority and....”
That’s it. That’s how the chapter ends. How the conversation ends.
2) The blurb says “dark romance” but there is no romance whatsoever. Ghost is kidnapped, roped into a contract full of lies, forced to part from his family, locked in a cell for days where he is chained, put in inhumane conditions, starved (He doesn’t want to eat or drink because eating/drinking will force him to stay in the realm and he can’t never leave. Think Persephone and the pomegranate seeds), he then is tricked into drinking because Willow couldn’t wait for it to be Ghost’s decision. I assume he is sexually assaulted at some point under the guise of Stockholm Syndrome but its never pointed out so we can masquerade the whole thing as “romance”. Oh and Ghost is being constantly mesmerized by Willow which makes it even more rape. When he drank, he formed a “bond” with Willow which affectedly not only trapped him in the Realm but made it so that he couldn’t actually defend himself against Willow. He couldn’t even have a “I’m going to murder this guy” thought without twisting in pain. Literal, physical pain. Even more non consensual stuff disguised as “dark romance”.
3) Willow is just a selfish, cruel asshole. He is an unlikeable character completely. I understand “dark romance” but when you effectively remove the romance part you’re just left with dark which is NOT what I wanted when I read “dark romance”. If I wanted “dark”, this would have hit the spot. I was 40% in and I had yet seen not 1 redeemable action by Willow. Not even a hint of kindness towards Ghost that didn’t come with bad intentions. That would, again, give me the “romance” part. Oh and, lets not forget how Willow was ready (I don’t know if be used the information later on but I assume he did) to use Ghost’s little sister and mother as leverage so Ghost would do whatever he wanted him to do. He is shared between whatever fae Willow feels like sharing him with without asking what Ghost wants first (at around 87% Ghost himself says in his mind that he doesn’t want to suck some Fae’s dick but Willow pushes him to do so, so he does it. Stockholm Syndrome disguised as romance, guys. Remember)
(After Ghost has been held in captivity for days, he started hallucinating from sleep depravation, starvation, infection, isolation and had a panic attack due to the visual hallucinations)
“The one saving grace of that experience was that he’d fallen so deep under my spell, he was completely checked out. This meant he could be moved about like a doll...”.
What part of that falls under “romance”? That is just a full on dark statement. Romance would have been Willow consoling him and trying to calm him down. Give him some space and move him to a better environment. But nope. He is just thinking about getting a (forced) blowjob from Ghost when the poor guy is almost comatose. He also immediately puts a leash on him and pulls him around with it. We had, what sounded like a cool contract killer, reduced to a sex object. A shell of what he once was. This story could have gone in so many different ways and still keep the “dark romance” tag without making Willow such an unlikeable character.
Seriously, what an awful character.
Consent? I don’t know her.
Editor? I don’t know them.
The romance part in the “dark romance”? Nowhere to be seen.
The award for the worst book of 2020 (for me) goes to this book. God, there is always one book that pisses me off. It never fails...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2023
2.5
I didn't like the style of writing.
Also it was boring.
Long exposition dumps via thoughts, is not a particularily attractive way of telling stories.
But that's just a small gripe.
I honestly can't put my finger on why I didn't like the writing, but one of the problems is that it felt detached, if that makes sense. It's too bad, but its a case of good premise, bad execution.
I didn't like the style of writing.
Also it was boring.
Long exposition dumps via thoughts, is not a particularily attractive way of telling stories.
But that's just a small gripe.
I honestly can't put my finger on why I didn't like the writing, but one of the problems is that it felt detached, if that makes sense. It's too bad, but its a case of good premise, bad execution.
April 30, 2021
Fun beginning
I would have liked to have seen more sexual torture, to go with the physical and psychological assault that Willow put Ghost through. I didn’t really buy that Ghost was successfully broken; simply that he learned to wait, observe, and plan for mayhem long-term.
I would have liked to have seen more sexual torture, to go with the physical and psychological assault that Willow put Ghost through. I didn’t really buy that Ghost was successfully broken; simply that he learned to wait, observe, and plan for mayhem long-term.
Want to read
December 9, 2019
→ Just released! ←
Merged review:
→ Just released! ←
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