But instead of putting up a little fight or at least filing a police report for the sexual assault, this girl softly kissed the hand that was effectively muffling her pleas to stop? Fingers crossed we get a lot more of Dare and Aubrey in future books and possibly even another book of their own one day. I mean she has been surviving without him for this long, she’s met him twice and now he’s her only option. I feel if this happens it's similar to her other content and I actually like Dare in the sense that he is a true villain.

I love delving into the psyche of the MCs, which includes all the emotions, usually bad ones, while reading. I’m not sure what it is lately about reading villainous characters and placing them in romantic stories, but I LOVE IT! He didn't like what the object of his obsession had to say about him shoving her aggressively into the cushions, manhandling and brutally using her body? Because of You was her first finished story (she started writing it when she was 18) and due to a full-time work and college schedule, it took her years to finish. If you go through spoilers, you know this is not a traditional romance, but… it simply doesn't matter.Like any serial killer I suppose, he becomes obsessed, but I’ll just leave the rest of his villainous traits for you to discover because Dare is a thrill to read and needs to be enjoyed. He constructs an entirely reality where our heroine has no path anywhere other than to and with him.

I think those who like paying attention to detail, piecing together what is said and done with what is implied will find this book interesting. See the opening author's note for more explicit triggers, but know this is a very dangerous relationship with a very dark hero. A boy offers her a drink- a boy that has a wrestler for a girlfriend, a VERY jealous girlfriend, and Aubrey gets pushed into the pool. Everything flows perfectly, the pace, the characters, the dialogue, the off-the-chart sex, the almost macabre sexual deviations. Made the girl shudder in revulsion and nearly burst into tears without breaking his promise to Aubrey.He just put his hand on her mouth and kept the ball rolling as if the muffled sounds of his girl's protests were the best prelude he could have ever asked for. So, while personally I would have enjoyed for her to open her eyes to his dark and devilish ways, in the end they probably wouldn’t have worked if she wasn’t who she was. Don’t get me wrong- he does very bad, wrong, not okay in the real world (and to some not even okay in an imaginary one) things to others and to our heroine Aubrey. But adding another name to the cover (and spine) might have potentially complicated the raised glossy features (because the title font at least on the spine would have had to be smaller to fit both of us), so we just did it this way to avoid potential complications. We get an epilogue that wasn't necessarily satisfying (and SM did say we'll be seeing more of Dare and Aubrey's HEA throughout the series).

The concept is brilliant and I love how on the edge it made me, as a reader, want to keep reading, but Dare seriously makes you stop and wonder what’s going on in his head, because he’s possessive AF and his notions of love are very real to him, but very outside of the norm of society. It probably won’t be for everyone, it’s a bit more sexually adventurous than my average book with a much higher percentage of spice, but just like with all my books, the spice isn’t gratuitous.He has no redeemable qualities so far, even if he helped with her mom's cancer and taking them to Italy. At school, I could make sure we weren’t in the same classes and turn the other way if I saw him in the halls, but avoiding him gets a lot harder when I’m living in his seaside mansion.