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!