Ember Michaels is a dark fiction author from South Carolina. When she's not writing, you can find her binge-watching crime shows, hanging at the beach, and devouring books from her favorite authors! Be sure to follow her on social media!
I didn’t know what I think about this book. The male character was a psycho and the things he and his friends done were disgusting. This book took dark to another level.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Ember Michaels has written one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. But, the darkness within it's pages is real.
This book isn't just dark... it's pitch black. It's taking vengeance on those who had a hand in crimes but slipped through the judicial system... then letting them feel what their victims felt or some other level of f*ckery that Luther believes will balance the scales.
I gotta admit, with characters like these, I want to say I hate them. But, I don't. I love a good story of cold retribution. I love seeing complex characters rationalize and justify their revenge...
While I love a good dark romance, I'm utterly obsessed with deviant characters like Luther that let their grief consume them so thoroughly they execute flawless and detailed plans to exact their brand of vigilante justice.
This isn't romance (at least not yet?); it is horror. Completely horrific, at least to those who escaped justice in a court of law...
This book is raw and brutal, yet flawless in a way we expect a good horror movie to be.
Fans of dark romance or horror who don't have triggers may enjoy this. I totally expect people who enjoyed Tillie Cole's Sick Fux, Natalie Bennett's Dahlia series, or Charity B's RIP to love this.
If you liked Rules of Bennett and thought Bennett was hardcore, as the old saying goes, "You ain't seen nothing yet."
A gripping storyline that captured my attention and didn't relent until the emotional cliffhanger. The anti-hero Luther seeks revenge against the heroine, former girlfriend Sevyn, seven "perfect and complete," for the wrong she committed, or he believes she committed, to his sister. Influenced by numeric seven, Luther crafts a plan to met justice on the privileged Sevyn, and any accomplices and in doing so learns some truths about the events that led to this misdeed.
This book is not to be taken lightly, and though there are spurts of humor as Lunatic Luther unleashes his unique brand of payback, it is truly a dark, depraved tale. Think the Joker meets The Punisher. Feelings vacillating between misplaced excitement and trepidation, fear even, the author craftily wove events, emboldening Luther to deliver on creative and ruthless acts of retribution. I will admit that at times the violence felt gratuitous, and maybe the malice linear. Yet through it all, I could empathize with the heroine, the anti-hero, and the revelations that cast the dynamics of relationship among the side characters. This book actually carried an emotional element, particularly as more of the truth is revealed.
I liked this story. I didn't take a breath until I reached the end. But do heed the warnings. It is pitch black.
Holy hell. This book was is probably the darkest book I've read as of yet. The whole theme was dark. This is a book of vengeance,rage, and murder.
Lunatic Luther is out to seek vengeance for his sister's demise. He has spent the last 7 years plotting and planning every aspect of torture for the 10 people he holds responsible.
Luther is an engineer who has some very creative and unique ways to torture and end lives. Thankfully he has friends and is part of the Brothers of Vengence to help him as he takes the 7 girls at once. Sevyn is who he holds most culpable. He sees her as the ring leader and wants her to suffer the most. She was supposed to be Logan's very best friend, why would she set all this in motion?
Luther's second goal is to find out exactly why. But will he be ready for the secret? Can he accept the role he seemingly played in this? Will the secret and his unknown role change anything? Sevyn doesn't want to tell Luther anything, she also doesn't want to be responsible for anymore death. However, she knows she is responsible.
Sevyn has spent the last 7 years paranoid, waiting for Luther to come after her. Everyone made her feel crazy but she knew he was coming. Can she save herself? Does she even want to? This is one situation that being rich can't save her from? Her parents and who they are can't save her this time either?
As the story unfolds and flash backs and dreams occur, we get more background information that shows us the lives Sevyn,Luther, and Logan lived. It slowly begins to depict what happened and why it all got set in motion. Some of the flash backs or memories depict the romance that used to exist. The ending sets up for the possibility of future romance in the next book. But this book itself is not romantic. This book is all about revenge, pain, torture, and death. This is not a happily ever after. It does end on somewhat of a cliffhanger as the revenge is not fully complete and it leaves you wondering if the secret will change anything and whether or not alll of the revenge will take place.
There are several triggers so beware.
Ember Michaels is a genius when it comes to revenge and torture writing. I thought Rules of Bennett had so much creativity. This book has much more creativity. I also thoroughly enjoyed the spin off of the Fredy Krueger song probably one of my favorites!!
Ember freaking Michaels... I am left speechless by this intense, twisty ride that's left me salivating for the next book in this series. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC, and I have to tell you, I'm chomping at the bit for more.
Michaels has honed her skill in creating a dark world that you can't get out of, even if you tried. But then again, why would you want to. Drawn in from the very first chapter, I've fallen in love with Luther, and the twisted tale of revenge that he's on. Sevyn is an incredible female lead, and most times, I'm a bit iffy about female characters, but I loved her!
These two together are pure angst, drenched in darkness and rage that only seem to culminate in Kindle-melting desire.
This is a dark read, so if you're not into those, please tread carefully, but if you like playing in the dark like I do, this book is definitely a must read.
Michaels once again proves to be upping her game with every new release, and this is book no exception. Now get me book two!
Oh my dayz. I’ve read other books by this author and loved them. However this blew me away.
Luther and Sevyn..gah these characters are amazing.part of me was saying I shouldn’t like Luther but hey my mind is warped lol
I love dark reads. It’s my escapism from the real world. This story did exactly that. I pulled an all nighter to read this. I should have known reading a few chapters wouldn’t work lol I highly recommend this if you love real dark stories. Now if I could get book two asap I’d be very happy lol
I was beyond curious to see how the author was going to top what she created with the Bennett series. To say it is something beyond twisted, cruel, epic and down right mind blowing is an understatement. Honestly, if you are not a fan of really dark and depraved stuff, I do NOT recommend this book. There are multiple triggers in this book so proceed with caution. But if you are a twisted individual who loves all kinds of stories, even the messed up ones, I would recommend proceeding! I like them once in a while just to mix things up. I love getting some twisty messed up stories but what Ember Michaels created is something that will linger in your mind for a long time coming. The history between Sevyn and Luther is deep. It is raw, intense, heartbreaking and so much more. But due to what happened between Sevyn and Luther’s sister sealed her fate. As we get flashbacks in this story, you feel the depth of why and how things played out. The pain that not just Luther endured for so long but also the guilt that Sevyn lives with. Overall, this is a twisted story of revenge that leaves you breathless. The build through the story and the lies and truths that are exposed make your head spin. There are moments of what just happened as well because I did not expect them. What I really enjoyed is seeing how much this author's writing has progressed and the depth of her imagination. It is dark and twisted. That much I can say. But overall, the concept is unique and will leave you asking yourself “What did I just read?!?!” And I can totally imagine what the author’s search history is like!
I should warn you, the vengeance and revenge that will be served in this book are not for the faint of heart. This book is dark and there are triggers. Several triggers. Do not read if you can't handle them.
I am absolutely speechless after reading The Destruction of Sevyn. Ember captured the plot, the details, THE FUCKING GORE, the reasoning and the emotions absolutely perfect.
Lunatic Luther and his family feel they have been wronged when money means more to the judicial system than granting justice for the people responsible in the death of Logan. Luther has waited a very long time to plan his revenge and make these people suffer the most imaginable pain possible. The mastermind behind how all of these events and contraptions played out was brilliant. There were torture devices I could not even begin to imagine on how to engineer, let alone using.
The Destruction of Sevyn was a very dark and angst-filled story and I loved it. Seven and her clique of friends have a very dark past where they caused Logan, a friend, to commit the ultimate sin. And for seven years they have all lived with their choices and their contribution to this horror. Now Luther has decided to make them pay for those choices and the payment is devastating and extreme. His wrath is very real and he looks for the peace with what he inflicts on this group, but especially their leader Sevyn. Friends turn on friends, lies and secrets are revealed, and the havoc is reaped on these cruel people. This story is dark, tragic, and unforgettable. And it was written so well that I recommend it for those who love to read dark stories.
So i am kind of on the fence about this book. the writing in this book is good. the characters in the story were good, and for the most part realistic. its so hard to write this review without giving away spoilers...which i will not do.. i don't want to ruin anything for another reader by giving away spoilers.
my problem starts with Luther... he has a very distinct style it seems at the start of the book... his punishments seem to be very well thought out and fitting towards the character it is aimed at. like he took the time to think, and plan it all out so it would fit them perfectly to pay for what they had done. somewhere along the way though...that seems to have stopped and towards the end it seems like its more for shock value? how can i top the last scene? then well thought out revenge aimed at a specific character.
also part of my problem comes in with Sevyn....I really can't believe how weak this character is...Usually Ember Michaels writes strong, feisty, kick ass women.... and then we have Sevyn... a doormat....that takes it all because that is all she deserves...at one point in the book she decides she doesn't want to die... that what she did didn't deserve her dying as punishment and i thought... yes! this is where she is gonna start fighting back....nope she just lays back down again... :facepalm:
I really hope this is a build up to a better story in the second book. i hope to see Luther go back to his well thought out punishments then just what can we do to top the last act... I also hope we see Sevyn grow a back bone and stand up for herself and others instead of just being a doormat.
HOLY FREAKING HELL Ember!! You have done an amazing job at creating this world where revenge and vengeance are top priority. I will say Luther is not a man that I would ever think about crossing or going against. His mind will give you nightmares as he is as dark and twisted as they come. His diabolical mind and his methods he uses to quench his thirst for vengeance will leave you thirsting for more. I will say this book is definitely dark and really twisted, but as you will read Luther is out to set the wrongs of his family right. Retribution is all he sees and all he cares about. Now with this being said you will need to prepare yourselves for the mind f#$k that Luther is about to bestow on you. Keep your minds open and know that secrets are going to be exposed the pain from the last seven years is going to reek havoc on everyone involved. Prepare yourselves for the vindictiveness that Luther is about to divulge to you!!
I don't forgive Sevyn. What happened to her was sad but it does not even come close to what she did to Logan. I also don't much care for her in general maybe because of the poor writing. Unless the author introduces more past trauma or atleast one negative quality in Logan I don't see myself liking her in the future either.
I also don't see why all her friends had to die. If we were asking for reasoning maybe some of them had their own sob story for going along with Sevyn's lie.
Again. Misogyny. Slut shaming. Shaming Sevyn's friends for literally everything they did including drinking, dressing up, flirting.
Reiterating again and again that Logan was innocent and pure and a virgin and NOT A SLUT as if a slutty girl deserves to be gangraped?
I also didn't like how in the beginning Sevyn kept insulting her lover in her mind? Calling him Micro Marco and stuff when he was very sweet with her and very understanding.
Lunatic Luther is SAVAGE! He's out for revenge and he is not messing around 😱
Sevyn really doesn't have a clue what Luther has in store for her, and all I'm going to say is its bloody and it's ruthless and it's only just started 😏
"Knowing Luther, he was just getting started and it wouldn't end until he was ready for it to."
The guilt eats away at Sevyn but this means nothing to Luther, he won't stop until he has her secret and everyone who had a part in his sister's suicide is 6 feet under (or swimming with the crocodiles 🤣)
He has some very inventive ways of making them suffer, so buckle up and get ready for this bumpy ride!
““I am sick,” I admitted. “But you and your clique of bitches made me this way. Payback’s a mother fucker, isn’t it?””
The revenge a brother gets after his sisters suicide... Ember Michaels is the most creative when it comes to killings. That’s what makes her dark writing so damn entertaining. She really knows how to make you cringe.
This is a fast paced AMAZING dark ass book. Yes it leaves on a cliffie but read it anyway. It’s awesome.
ARC provided by Red Hatter Book Tours & PA Services.
My first book by Ember Michaels is AMAZING! I love books that can take me by surprise and this was one of them! It was totally unpredictable! I loved the way it made me FEEL. I was addicted from the very first page and I never wanted to stop reading.
The Destruction of Sevyn is a shocking read full of unthinkable moments leading up to a blood bath.
I totally LOVED this book!! Dark and gritty, raw and shocking, and utterly addictive.
Nothing prepared my heart for this book. God it wrecked me, destroyed me, gutted me. This book had it all!! The dark, the grit, a rollercoaster of a ride!! The highs and lows just pulled me in further and further.
Perfect. Like it was written with my taste in mind. It was my absolute pleasure to read this! I highly recommend this read to anyone who enjoys a ride on the twisted and dark side.
I give this book a very dark rating. I give respect to the writers talent. Clearly the writer can cultivate and create a thrilling, dark story that had me anxious to find out what was the cause of issues in the book. I found this book Riveting and psychotic at the same time. All in all the book was good.
Important this book contains dark triggers. Please be advised.
This book is not for weak at heart. I cringed on some scenes, walked away from my Kindle came back and re-read the passage, I even shed a tear of two for Sevyn.
I have read so many dark books. I'm completely speechless and that's a great thing. I felt things for Luther that I shouldn't have. He's my favorite villain of all time and poor Sevyn. At first I didn't root for her but as I got to know her. My heart goes out to her. This book is in my top ten favorite read this year and I CAN'T wait for the second book. The anticipation is killing me. This book deserves a 10 star.
You better hope you don’t get on Lunatic Luther’s bad side. This book is DARK! I couldn’t put it down!
Luther and his buddies take you on a wild ride for some good old fashioned revenge and murder. If you don’t like really dark books then this may not be the book for you. However, I loved every dark and depraved moment of it! I can’t wait to see what’s next!!
Revenge never tasted so sweet! Luther has waited a long time to get his. Seven years to be exact, and he is gonna enjoy every. single. second. of it. Was it all worth it? Was it everything he thought it would be? Would he make Sevyn pay for her sins after all this time? Come find out. This is the first book in the series where we get to meet these two characters and their messy, screwed up relationship. You think the present is complicated, wait til you learn of their past. Either way Luther is our for revenge and he will stop at nothing to avenge the murder of his innocent little sister. Can you handle it? Cause Luther is about to make rain down red!! 🖤🖤🖤😈😈😈
Ember Michaels has brought the dark to a whole new level with this amazing book. From the minute you begin, her words suck you into a plot full of a raging passion for revenge.
The characters are fully flawed. Luther in particular is driven through his obsession with obtaining justice for his sister’s death. He’s brutal and evilly creative with his need to get vengeance. Essentially, he’s ruthless and goes to extreme measures to make his victim pay.
The author makes these moments intense. I’m in awe with her imagination and her writing style to create the vicious extremes Luther goes to.
It’s a dark twisted tale filled with characters who slowly unravel the truths and lies that led to death.
This book is not for the faint of heart. Trigger warnings for many dark themes to include brutality, self harm and rape. I was left with a hate to love these amazing characters and cannot wait to see how Luther’s story continues.
It was impossible not to read this in one sitting! Ember’s amazing writing kept me engaged from the first page with twisted storyline of revenge and vengeance and interesting characters.
I was eager to meet Luther and he definitely didn’t disappoint. He’s deliciously dark and really something else. His methods were more than creative and definitely didn’t lack excruciating pain and suffering for all who had a hand in his sister’s suicide. This book is more than dark so please be aware there are many triggers.
The storyline was raw and intense and Ember captured character’s emotions perfectly. Both Luther and Sevyn are well developed and complex, damaged characters. And flashbacks really provided great depth to their history. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book!
No, seriously, what did I just read!?!!!!? Moreover, why the hell did I like it so much! Actually, like isn't the right word. I am not sure what is. This is twisted and sick, but I couldn't stop reading it. I will give everyone the warning this is brutal. However, the fact that the author can write something this disturbing and still keep me engrossed. Bravo.
This is like if Jigsaw (Saw) and Dexter had a baby. I'm scared of this author and her mind. Her search engine must be insane. Bennett was brutal but Luther has him beat. This author is my favorite discovery of 2020. Read this at your own risk.
Ember Michaels is a perfect example of the kind of author I would love to work with! She has a fabulously twisted, dark, depraved mind, yet she needs an anal retentive editor/proofreader to make sure her incredible talent is meticulously typed out. This is a +++5-star story, yet I deducted 1 star because of the typos and all of the Chicago Manual of Style and English grammar/punctuation rules that weren’t followed. Fortunately, all of these are things most readers won’t even notice, are super easy to fix (I’d love to work with you, Ember😉), and did not diminish how much I enjoyed this twisted tale!
I read over 200 books for pleasure every year, the majority of them being dark romance/erotica. Because of that, there’s rarely anything that surprises me in books as far as darkness. However, Ember did it again!!!! Like she did with her RULES OF BENNET series, she somehow created torture methods I’d never heard of or imagined, impressing the he|| out of me and making my dark heart very, very happy!!! And the premise…. I promise, there is nothing out there that is even close to similar! Ember Michaels is a creative genius, so I will continue to automatically 1-click anything and everything she writes in this genre!
*** If you are not Ember or curious about my critical eye, this is where my review ends! ***
MY RATING: 3.5* RELEASE DATE: 20 July 2020 CLIFFHANGER: Yes
I once again find myself down the KU rabbit hole and I stumbled upon this book. I don’t even know why I decided to read it because I don’t even remember reading the blurb. I don’t know what the fuck I just read but I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! Now, listen. If you’re one of those people that tend to read over or ignore trigger warnings by authors on their books, or tend to not even bother reading them, THIS IS NOT THE BOOK TO DO THAT SHIT WITH. Seriously! HEAD THAT WARNING because if books are dark, this shit is pitch black. I’m talking about the early hours of the morning kind of dark. Dark that is darker than black. Seriously. You’ve been warned.
When Luther sets out to avenge the injustice that befell his sister. He takes seven years to plan the most perfect revenge scheme known to man. With psychotic tendencies as a child, he managed to suppress them until he lets loose to do right by his sister. 10 people owe him revenge and he intends to make sure his sister gets the justice the court system has denied her.
Sevyn is your typical trust fund baby. Rich as sin, beautiful but lonely, unloved, manipulative and with sociopathic tendencies. Raised by people who show her very little love, when Luther showed her some affection, she clung to him like glue after she befriended his sister. When a misunderstanding lead to the start of a series of unfortunate decision that led to rape and death, no one could have anticipated the clusterfuck that they have unleased and the whatthefuckery that is only the beginning for everybody involved.
I really enjoyed this story. The characters were nothing like I expected. Luther didn’t seem as crazy as he was to begin with. He reminded me of Dexter the TV show. Able to function in normal society, but lethal in the shadows of the night. And their parents. These kids’ parents were crazy. From Luther mom all but asking her son to let loose of his lunacy, the Ryan’s father and godfather. To Jamie’s parents using their daughter to get richer.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to know the supporting characters well at all. I thought they could have been better developed. The story revolved around Luther’s revenge but the resources with which he was able to cover his tracks, The Brotherhood etc, was not well developed either. I thought that could have done with some fleshing out. Considering both Sevyn and Luther’s friends played an important role in the story, I felt that they should have been a bigger part in the narrative. It also would have been nice to have spent time with them in their childhood, to get a better understanding as to why Luther was how he was, the build up to being the man he was now, and Sevyn’s upbringing rather than them merely mentioned. It just wasn’t enough to get us really acquainted with them. Nonetheless, I cannot wait to start the next book because this is supposed to be a romance novel. But after the shit that happened between these two, I just don’t see how they come back from this. I mean now that he knows the truth, how could he possibly proceed with the current plan? But if he doesn’t, he’s well and truly fucked.