Book Review | The Darkest Temptation

Before I get started on my summer reading challenge books I wanted to get to the next book in this series so it was still fresh in my mind.

The Darkest Temptation
Danielle Lori

A fortune teller once told Mila she’d find a man who would take her breath away. She refrained from telling her it would be literally while Mila ran for her life.

Having always done what is expected of her, Mila dresses the part, only dates college boys with exemplary backgrounds, and doesn’t ask questions. Not about her papa’s absences or his refusal to let her set foot in her birthplace—Russia.

Suffocated by the rules and unanswered questions, Mila does what she’s always wanted to. She boards a plane to Moscow.

She never expected to fall for a man on the way. One with unexplained wealth, tattoos on his hands, and secrets in his eyes. But it doesn’t take long for his caress to become a rough grasp muffling her screams.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Unfortunately, a Russian winter is the coldest of them all, and Mila soon learns the only way to escape intact is to do the impossible and thaw her captor’s heart.

Amazon | Goodreads

After reading the first two books and loving them I was very excited to get to this book because I was hoping for that same gripping tension that caught me from the first chapter and just didn’t let me go. With this book, I feel like it started well and there was enough intrigue in the story for me to overlook Mila’s obvious naivety, which is not a bad thing in itself but I think I was expecting another feisty heroine so I was a little wary.

Unfortunately, this story didn’t quite play out in the same way as the rest of the series, there is a very definite difference in Ronan’s motivation and this has a big impact on the romance aspect. Now I don’t take issue with the fact that Ronan takes Mila captive, what I found it really difficult to get past was how he treats her in the beginning, I know this is a story and that with any story you have to suspend belief but for me, this was perhaps just a step too far. I think this may stem from the fact that whilst the first two books in the series had violent moments they were not really directed at the heroine, whereas in this book Mila is being forced to suffer and it just didn’t sit right with me that she would then fall for him in any kind of healthy way.

Don’t get me wrong I kept reading and eventually, I was caught up in the push and pull of their gravity toward each other, but the doubt was always at the back of my mind so I didn’t feel as absorbed in this story as I had in the others. It did help that there were glimpses of my favourite couple from the series so far in this book and that I got to see how their story progressed, which added a couple of high points to a very dark story.

Even though Mila was very naive, almost ridiculously so at some points, she is a hard character to hate, she is so vulnerable but also completely herself, she is the sunlight in a bleak setting. So even when she could get to the stage where I feel like I am about to get wound up at her, I then admire her for still being herself in such a dire situation. Ronan, after starting well and then letting me down a little, does get back that mysterious dark edge that does help with the chemistry between the two, he doesn’t entirely redeem himself but he wasn’t difficult to read about either.

It is a shame that this book wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, it had a lot of the right elements and I’m sure others could read past what happens to Mila and just really enjoy the story, it is just unfortunate that I am not one of those people. I am still looking forward to seeing what the author will come up with next.