Review: Dark Love Story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2014
I thought The Beast was a good book.  Dimitri had a horrible childhood with a monster of a father.  When he was a young teenager, he was caught trying to pickpocket Sergei the head of the Solntsevskaya Bratva.  After beating him, Sergei took him in and trained him. Years later, Dimitri's very successful and has a deadly reputation as The Enforcer, one of the top positions in the Bratva.  Someone lies to Sergei and tells him that Dimitri is attempting to go against him, and unfortunately Sergei believes the lies.  Dimitri considers him his mentor and father figure, and would never do what's he's accused of.  Sergei waits for no explanation and attempts to kill Dimitri and badly burns his face and upper body.  But Dimitri manages to escape.  Dimitri is now in hiding and living under an alias in another country.  He never goes outside or leaves his home and has a staff paid very well to take care of all his needs.  He is a very successful businessman although no one has seen his face.Columbia volunteers with her activist group to break into Dimitri's penthouse in an attempt to persuade him not to destroy buildings in her neighborhood.  When she is discovered in his home, Dimitri nearly kills her thinking she has been sent by Sergei to finish the job of killing him. There's a bounty on his head now and he knows Sergei wants him dead.  But after seeing Columbia and realizing he's attracted to her and he decides to keep her against her will.  He decides that no matter how long it takes, he will break her and make her his.  But Columbia is stronger than he thinks.  Her step-father has molested and beaten her most of her life, so her tolerance for pain is really high.I really loved Dimitri.  He was such a broken soul and the more he's around Columbia, the more broken he seems.  The fact that she accepts him regardless of his scars, means the world to him.  Columbia has scars of her own, so the two together really fit well.  But Sergei is after Dimitri and Columbia could be in danger.  Is he willing to be so selfish as to risk her life even if it means finally losing happiness that he's experiencing for the first time in his life?  Or is he an even bigger danger to Columbia?This is a story of two broken, scarred souls who find true love together and heal the other.