mm dark romance | Book-Endz

TITLE: ⟫ Cruel When He Smiles
AUTHOR: ⟫ Avery Collins

SERIES: ⟫ Sinners of Blackthorne U #3
RATING: ⟫ 4.5/5

BLURB: ⟫ Liam Callahan likes to break things.
… and Nate Carter was made to be broken.

Liam
I was trained not to feel. Taught to observe, manipulate, and control.
Nothing prepared me for Nate Carter.
He’s stubborn and beautiful in his resistance. The harder he fights, the deeper I sink my teeth in. I engineered the therapy sessions so I could get closer and watch him unravel. To dissect his fire and watch him spiral from the inside out.
But Nate is fury wrapped in lace, and he makes me feel things I was never meant to feel.
Want. Possession. Hunger.
Now, I can’t stop. Not until he’s mine; broken, rebuilt, and burning just for me.

Nate
I knew Liam Callahan was dangerous the moment I met him.
Too perfect. Too polished. Too in control.
They said the anger management sessions were routine, but nothing about Liam is routine. He gets into your head with softness, pulls you apart with praise, and leaves you craving the pain he caused.
So why do I keep going back?
I don’t know what’s real anymore…what’s me, and what’s Liam’s design.
***
Cruel When He Smiles is the third book in the interconnected Sinners of Blackthorne U series, but it is a complete standalone. Readers are advised to approach with caution and ensure they are comfortable with the listed triggers and content warnings before proceeding.

This is not a traditional romance. Reader discretion is advised.

REVIEW: ⟫ Reader discretion is right – this book was so full of red flags, it looked like a football stadium! I couldn’t decide which one of them was the most messed up but then I reached a certain point in the story and realised just why they were so well matched and fit together perfectly. The background characters were so good – Killian is my absolute favourite although I’m not sure what they says about me – but we also got to see Sage and Roman again which was great.

The research that must have gone into this is mind-blowing and I really wasn’t expecting this. I’m trying so hard not to give spoilers because I really think this series is so much more rewarding when you go into it blind, but suffice it to say that books 1 and 2 were tasters for the absolute gourment meal that this book was. The sex was steaming, the possessive obssessiveness was next level and I raced through it because I really wanted to know where it was going. The back and forth, the banter, the lace – yeah, this may well be my favourite out of all of these books and I’m not surprised to realise that I read all three of them within a week! Adding Avery Collins to my must-read list and contemplating reading her heterosexual romance to see if she can cause the same feelings in me that these three stories did!

TITLE: ⟫ Pretty When He Bleeds
AUTHOR: ⟫ Avery Collins

SERIES: ⟫ Sinners of Blackthorne U #1
RATING: ⟫ 4.5/5

BLURB: ⟫ Roman Bishop hides his pain behind bruises and penalties, using the ice to escape the ghosts of his past. But when Damon Ward, the brooding, tattooed art major with a grudge and a sharp tongue, returns to campus, Roman’s carefully constructed world begins to crack.

Damon is Caleb’s brother—the boy Roman loved and lost in the most devastating way possible. But where Caleb was light, Damon is all fire and shadows, dragging Roman into a dangerous game of hate, lust, and regret.

What starts as a battle of wills turns into something darker, something neither of them can control. Damon wants revenge, and Roman craves the pain Damon is more than willing to give. But as their obsession spirals out of control, the line between love and destruction blurs, leaving them both questioning how far they’re willing to go—and whether they’ll survive the fallout.

Hate feels a lot like love when it cuts this deep.

REVIEW: ⟫ I picked up this book following a recommendation in a facebook group I belong to and oh my word!! I don’t even know where to start with this book – it’s described as a Dark MM Hockey story and dark doesn’t even cover it! Damon and Roman should have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Damon blames Roman for what happened to his brother, and Roman is drowning in guilt. It sounds so simple, so basic, but the complexity of everything these two are going through – Damon’s personal issues, Roman using physical pain to combat the mental pain he is suffocating under – how they are with each other. So incredibly hot whilst also being painful to witness. When Damon insists that Roman will bleed for no one but him, it shouldn’t be hot but it really and truly is.

And amidst all of this darkness, this wrongness, pain and grief, the romance is next level. I finished this book in tears – like, didn’t realise I was crying until the tears were dripping off my chin, but I also immediately grabbed book two as soon as I’d finished because I was that blown away by the quality of the writing. I don’t want to spoil this story for anyone because you deserve to go into it blind, the way that I did, because then you can really fall into the story, bleed alongside these troubled young men and reach the other side feeling like you’ve lived a whole life.

Pretty damned amazing and I am so incredibly grateful to the person who recommended it – I just wish I could figure out who it was so I could ask them for more recommendations!