Tag Archives: Charlotty Byrd

Review: Dark Temptations (Dark Intentions #4) by Charlotte Byrd

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Title: Dark Temptations
Author: Charlotte Byrd
Publisher/Year:  Byrd Books 9/20/21
Length:  180 Pages
Series: Dark Intentions #4

Overview

I pushed her away to keep my secrets to myself. What I don’t yet know is that her life is already in danger.
I have so many regrets. If we had never met, she’d be safe now.
Some love stories are a slow burn. Ours was quick to ignite, scorching and branding our souls before we’ve even taken that first breath.

From bestselling author Charlotte Byrd comes an intense romance about debts, lies and secrets and the extent to which people go for love.

Everything around me blurred and all that existed were his lips, his touch… 
The chase and the heat between us became addictive.
Our nights together were a distraction; one we craved to the point of letting the world crumble around us.
We should have paid attention; we should have known that it would come to this.
We both knew it couldn’t last, but that didn’t change what we desired most. 
All we wanted was each other…

My Thoughts

What a roller coaster we’ve been on in this series and I actually thought that it was the final installment, NOPE! thank goodness because get so much more complicated in this 4th installment. there’s so much uncertainty around just about everything in this story. We watch as Jacqueline tries to dig into the truth around her brother’s death, and comes to the realization that her brother isn’t dead – so that means that there’s more to the story than anyone knows, and when she learns that Dante not only knows her brother, but knows more about what was going on, well…..the story gets deep!

There’s the side story around Dante, Lincoln and their father – how he’s roped them back into the profession and life that they tried so hard to get away from, and what happens isn’t the outcome that they needed. Instead, they are all put more at risk and that means that the flow of this story is going to be one filled with risk and angst.

There are many things that happen in this story that make you wonder who’s on the up and up. There are things that the police detective does and says that gives me pause because I feel like he shouldn’t have access to things that he does, and Jacqueline’s friend Allison makes the same point, but nothing comes of it. On the other hand, we keep learning more and more things about the past, about what Jacqueline’s mother knew about Michael’s life before he ‘died’ and how they all kept her Jacqueline in the dark.

So we spend the entirety of this story back on the east coast, away from Vasko and that initial goal, and on a roller coaster of emotions. It seems like there’s no bridge that can be built to bring Dante and Jacqueline together, yet through a series of unfortunate events, they are pushed together for an uncertain amount of time.

There’s heat and passion, hatred and emotion. An attempt on a life, the impending entry of a new life and a gun battle. We don’t know what that all means for the future, and we know that plans have to be devised but whatever we thought could happen for their safety is blown out the window in the last scene of this book. So on that note, while I was going to take a break from this series, i’m now going to read book 5 and see what happens. Enjoy!

Review: Black Contract (Black Edge #4) by Charlotte Byrd

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Title: Black Contract
Author:  Charlotte Byrd
Publisher/Year:  Byrd Books 9/22/18
Length:  180 Pages
Series: Black Edge #4

Overview

They can take everything from me, but they can’t take her.

Mr. Black is coming back. With a vengeance.

“I need you to sign a contract.”

“What kind of contract?”

“A contract that will make you mine.”

This time she’s going to do everything I say. 

She’s going to hate it and then she’s going to beg for more.

This is the game we play. It’s our game. 

But what happens when others find out? Will we lose everything?

My Thoughts

The summary implies that the biggest concern is what everyone else will think when they find out about what Ellie and Aiden do, but frankly, that’s not the issue at all is it? I mean, we saw the whole world figure out how they met, and what they do when someone leaded information to the press, so really that’s not the issue. It’s trust and broken hearts – that’s where they go awry.

We ended the last book with Aiden breaking Ellie’s heart because he couldn’t handle what was going on and blamed it on Ellie and while that’s not right, that was his reaction. Ellie sees him out at a club with another girl and draws conclusions and lucky for her, Aiden is persistent, and she gives him the benefit of the doubt.

That sets the tone for this next installment of the story. We watch them find a place where they can work back to what things once were. Aiden wants to jump right back into the engagement and Ellie uses the time to think about what things are going to look like in the future.

This story takes us on a healing journey of sorts- watching Caroline try to come to terms with what she went through, and at the same time, watch the evolution of life with Ellie. Ellie and Aiden are in a better place and we want to hope for the best, and at the same time, we get news that Ellie is pregnant and that means that life is happy yet uncertain all over again.

Highs and lows are the balance of the story. Aiden gets the good news that he’s back at Owl, and that means that there’s a bit more certainty out there. He and Ellie seem to be in an ok place and he’s even happy at the idea of a baby. Things crash again though. There’s a death that’s likely a suicide, there’s a case that’s going to get dropped, there’s a fight, a shooting and someone in a coma.

Aside from that – we get a nice supplement to this story in the form of Brie’s situation. Brie is Ellie’s step sister and she blows into Ellie’s life in the middle of all the nonsense. She’s not sure what she wants to do with her life and who she is frankly. And she’s gone to the one person that she feels like she can be honest with and have no judgement.

So, on that note, we end this story on another cliff. While one of our mains is in a coma after a shooting, the shooter is on the loose and we fear that they will never be brought to justice. The other main finds themself in a confrontation of sorts and we’re not sure how to get out of that situation unscathed. So…I guess we’re going to see how things net out in the fifth book. Hopefully there’s something happy to pull out of it all, but things are looking bleak. Enjoy!