But the real question was who was I?
When my pretty little pet leaned forward, offered me a view of her cleavage, and tried to make a deal, I said why the hell not?
Five days. Thirty minutes. She could ask me anything to her heart’s content. Anything but my name. She had to figure that one out on her own.
It should have been easy enough. I was the man she stole from, whose life she ruined, whose future she destroyed.
I was the man she left behind and she was… mine.
Okay, there’s unhinged… and then there’s Cohen Michaels.
The Reviewer’s Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Spice Level
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Okay, I need to say right out of the gate that the author warned us. She tells the reader right in the beginning of the book that “Frank” is an bad man (paraphrasing).
There is a very good reason for her warning… This book is not for the faint of heart and the trigger warnings need to be heeded if you’re a sensitive reader.
CONTENT WARNING: This is a good opportunity to remind everyone to check out the Trigger Warning page over on my author website. This message applies to my books and pretty much everything you’re going to see on my blog, whether it’s dark romance or urban fantasy romance (which tends to be violent). I don’t include this message with every review but some antiheroes rise above the others and do some truly depraved hijinks. In Skin, Frankie likes to dabble in nonconsensual sex and birth control tampering, just to name a couple of the horrendous things he does. Ye be warned.
Quick Note: I struggled with writing this review for a few days because I don’t want to spoil anything. With this story, I have to be super-choosy about what details I share because of how everything ties back into itself. So, please pardon my vagueness and know that it’s because I don’t want to ruin the book for you. Back to it.
I’ve read a lot of dark romance and Skin was, by far, the darkest I’ve picked up yet. This is a true Rumpelstiltskin retelling in that the bones of the original fairy tale are there, as opposed to a series like Emily McIntire’s Never After where only surface inspiration was used. And if you know anything about old school fairy tales, they are not pastel bedtime stories with all the sharp edges sanded down. Skin is no exception. As I mentioned, the trigger warnings for this book are like a shopping list of red flags. Cohen is a stalker. An over-the-top jealous/possessive Dom-type with a brutal temper and absolutely no sense of boundaries. If you’ve read the Cat & Mouse duet by H.D. Carlton (Haunting Adeline / Hunting Adeline), I want you to take Zade Meadows and crank his rage factor all the way up to the tippy top of the dial and leave it there. Cohen Michaels (aka Frank) is made of pure wrath and revenge. He even has his very own Armie Hammer moment, but that’s just the tippy tip of the depravity iceberg waiting for you in this book. And no, I won’t clarify my meaning behind the Armie Hammer comment. Read the book. You’ll totally get it. Until you crack those pages, you’ll just have to use your imagination. 🤣🔪
On the flip side of the coin is Emily. In the grand scheme of romance tropes, she’s the brat to his Dom. She isn’t helpless. When you meet her, it may seem that way at first because in the opening of the book, she’s being held captive and hasn’t got a clue why. It doesn’t take long for that misconception to clear itself right up, though. She’s a fighter and she’s a little snarky, which I love in a FMC. I’m not a big fan of the distressed damsel vibe. Emily is the opposite. She’s smart. She plots and plans. Rather than just crying about her situation, she takes every shot she can.
Of course, Skin wouldn’t be a romance novel if we didn’t get a happy ending, but know that their HEA is definitely their own brand of happy. Fans of Shantel Tessier’s L.O.R.D.S. series or That Sik Luv by Jescie Hall will love Skin. Cohen is a seriously broken book boyfriend and I loved him!
Alphahole Antihero (OTT/JP)
Kidnapping
Hidden Identity
Dark Retelling
Revenge
Stalker & Obsession
Badass Heroine
Second Chance Romance
Dom & Brat
Play & ❤️ My Review Clip Video on TikTok
Dark romance author AVERY LENNOX‘s loves include spicy romance with lots of angst, bad boys we’d be better off not wanting, and lovers with a taste for the darker side. Weaknesses include perfectly made coffee, badass tattoos, loud metal music, and beautiful men with beards.
See More of My Reviews
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The review copy of this book was supplied by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
(I also loved it so much, I purchased a copy on Amazon to support the author.)
SYBIL KNIGHT is a career-driven Philadelphian native. A crime show enthusiast by day, and club hopper by night. When she isn’t working or writing, she is talking about working and writing. She is a single mom to her beta fish (Fish) and way too many dead houseplants.
Her stories range from gray to black, with darker themes throughout. She prefers heroines with a kick-ass mentality and the heroes who know how to rein them in. The mental and medical aspects of her books are well-researched, though they are given a humanistic approach and diagnoses aren’t the focal points. She believes her characters don’t need to wear labels in order to get her messages across.
Her books are mostly standalones, though her characters may interact and intersect worlds. Additionally, she works closely with and writes alongside author Dahlia Reign and some characters will appear in cameos in each of their publications.
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