Sarah Mac’s Reviews > Dark Fires > Status Update

‘In how many more ways would he hurt her? She was sure of nothing any longer, except herself, & the fact that she loved a man who was both her husband & a stranger—her lover & an antagonist. “It doesn’t matter…it doesn’t matter!” her mind whispered.’

‘It was at times like this, when he smiled at her—the smile reaching his eyes instead of being just a sardonic twist of his lips—that Missie forgot everything they said about him, about his being an outlaw & a killer w/o a conscience, & even the fact that he was Toni’s lover. She knew she was falling in love w/ him, even if she didn’t know him at all; & the thought scared her.’

This section about the swaps & cattle drives is really draaaaaagging. 🥱 Aside from Toni’s hilariously OTT evilness, it’s just filler for RR to drool over Steve’s ~animal masculinity~. Oooh, what would he become without a civilizing veneer?! 😱 (Answer: No real difference from normal. He’s still got a hair-trigger temper, murders for whatever, & can’t keep his dick in his pants.) Move on, already.

Classy. 😂 Toni is one psycho whackadoodle bitch, & I hope she stomps all over Steve like dirt. He deserves it for treating every woman he sleeps with like garbage.

‘She was the applauded darling of two continents—a woman whose rages & temperamental tantrums were feared by lovers & theater managers alike. And yet, of late, she had caught herself acting almost like a lovesick girl over a man who took her just as lightly & casually as she had taken other lovers.’ ….So, another woman too good for King Douche Steve, yet inexplicably in love despite his asshole behavior.

‘She was still a beautiful woman. The buggy she drove was new & obviously expensive, the horse a thoroughbred. And in any case, it was unusual to see a woman driving herself. The men who gaped asked themselves if she was a high-class whore. Or perhaps a lady playing at being one. In San Francisco, it was difficult to tell. But all the same, she was the kind of woman men would stare at.’

Steve is one of the worst spies ever if he can’t comprehend that Ginny was tricked into marriage & is terrified of her husband, let alone how Ivan been feeding her drugs to make her compliant enough to rape himself or throw at men of his choosing. How stupid do you have to be to not put the clues together? Pretty damn stupid, apparently, since everyone BUT Steve can see the marriage is glaringly abusive. 🙄

‘Had it really been she who had pleaded so abjectly? Should she not have known, from past experience, that pleading with a man who felt himself in command of the situation & of her did no good at all?’

‘She’d turned into a rotten, promiscuous little bitch, all right, but he’d contributed to turning her into one. And with it all, she still managed to retain that rather innocent air. How did she do it?’ ….STFU, asshole. 🙄 Like all first-rate ripper douchebags who continually flaunt their power & agency, Steve is legit incapable of conceiving how it is to live as someone WITHOUT that power & agency.

‘She was a prisoner, of a sort, after all—imprisoned by the luxuries & comfort that surrounded her, & by all the kind people who said they wanted only her happiness. When she looked back at herself as she had been a year ago, or even months ago, it was like looking at a different person. A stranger so completely at variance w/ the woman she was now that it was hardly possible to recognize herself.’