Review: Darkly Delicious. . .
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 12, 2014
I am so freaking giddy right now. I just finished reading Hope Restrained and holy mother of crap, that was intense. M.S. Willis is a crazy good writer and this may be one of her best books yet. This book is dark, twisted, and sexy and even in the midst of the insanity that is The Estate, there are touches of light, and love.After the previous novels in the series, I thought I was prepared for what I was about to read. . .but. . .this book.M.S. Willis pulls none of her literary punches, she goes right for the jugular. There is a darkness that seeps throughout, but there is also a light that is working to obliterate it.When Hope, an assassin from a rival network, finds out that her sister Honor has been kidnapped by The Estate, she immediately tries to get her back. Upon arrival though, she gets blackmailed into attempting to kill Aaron, The Estate's new leader. If she can accomplish this than she can have her sister back, but when she fails in her attempt, she encounters Xander.Determined to bring The Estate down from the inside, Aaron, Xander and Maddy have been tirelessly working to burn the network to the ground. When Hope tries to kill Aaron and fails, it brings up the suspicion that the evil of The Estate runs deeper than any of them even know and that someone wants Aaron dead.Charged with finding out who sent Hope, what happens next is a battle of wills between Xander and Hope, that is darkly delicious, sadistically charged and completely addictive. As Xander tries to break Hope, to find out who she works for and Hope resists everything that Xander dishes out, it gets. . . interesting, really interesting.Told from the dual points of view of both Xander and Hope with a few chapters also told from Honor's point of view, it was deliciously addictive. I love these characters, Hope was a freaking bad ass. An assassin, who has been trained since she was little, with a thing for pain. I can't remember the last time that I read about someone that I found this intriguing, quite frankly she's amazing. Xander, oh my goodness, I love Xander. Love him. I crushed on him - hard - in Madeleine, Abducted, Book 1 and this time....EEEK!! And getting to see things from his point of view. Book heaven! Together, they are amazing, where she is dark, he still has a semblance of light and stability. Together, they are unforgettable and one of my favorite book couples. Their chemistry and deep understanding of each other is off the charts.By the time I finished reading I was left with the fact that she did it again, M.S. Willis has given me another book to obsess over and has further proved that she is the Queen of Dark. I would caution though, if Dark, and I do mean Dark, isn't your reading genre, than you might want to think about it. This book is full of dark subject matter, and while that doesn't bother me, because I genuinely like dark books, there were moments that even I was gasping and my jaw was dropping. With that being said, I hope you'll give this series a chance, it's amazingly well done, the writing is top notch, the characters are addictively interesting and the story itself is completely unique.I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Originally posted on Me, Myself & Books