FALLING FOR THE VILLAIN by M ROBINSON & RACHEL VAN DYKEN

“You’re here because I will it, just like you’re alive because I want you to be. From here on out, you live for my pleasure only.”

Hello darkness my old friend, we’ve come to dance with you again….Falling for the Villain is not your conventional romance, even saying that it’s a romance is questionable. Rather it’s an intensely dark, twisted, and at times disturbing story of obsession, torture, and a warped interpretation of an all-consuming devouring love affair. Exposing limits, moving boundaries, and walking a fine line between sadistic violence, degradation, and psychological manipulation, Monica Robinson and Rachel Van Dyken flawlessly wrote a story that will test every reader who picks up Falling for the Villain. If you have triggers or not familiar with dark captive books, this is not a book for you. This book does not go gently into the good night, rather it ravages in the shadows consuming the darkness and destroying the light to rebuild it into its intended glory.

‘Like a prey, I was caught in his spider web of lies and deceit, and the sad part was I wanted to believe I could change him. All the times he touched me and told me I was his. It felt real. Sincere. Consuming.’

We have certainly read extremely dark books of a similar vein, so this story did not shock us as such, but it was certainly unexpected! In amongst the darkness were pure moments of beauty, and they stood out as such when held up against the torturous darkness. Falling for the Villain was compelling reading as we chased that emotional connection that would make the darkness disperse into a willing connection. When desire and controlling power walks hand in hand it’s intended doesn’t stand a chance.

‘I could never tell them. But I could at least know in my soul that I fought, that I tried to become more than the monster in front of me, that while he was making demands, confusing me, dominating me, I could make my own plans – revenge.’

We wish we could’ve had a more in-depth experience of the emotional connection in order to fully connect to Juliet’s reasoning and personal growth through this storyline. To be fair, we felt that Juliet wasn’t really given the chance to shine on her own merit, rather she went from being metaphorically caged by those she loves, to physically caged by the man she wasn’t meant to fall in love with. Perhaps this was due to the storyline not digging deep enough beneath the surface which is so super important in a master/slave relationship. Saying that we loved the fact that Donovan’s personality and obsession didn’t waver. He had a past that scarred him, yet he didn’t seek redemption and we’re not sure we gave it either, but Donovan surely wouldn’t give two shits about that, HA! Going in thinking this is going to be your bog-standard dark romance will definitely be challenged but hey we’re always up for that!

‘I knew my monster. He knew me. This was no fairy tale. This was life. It was hard. And it was mine.’