The Ritual | Dark Erotica Romance

 

I am delving into a genre I'm not used to. I dipped my toes into the dark romance with Butcher & Blackbird but this is a whole level of spice for me. I'm usually not fond of sex scenes written in books and prefer to skip them in favor of some plot but this time I can't skip 90% of the book. I picked this one because it intrigued me with the premise of secret societies.

Let me tell you that this was a wild ride from start to finish. We've got murders, secret rich societies, stalking and kink sex within the first four chapters. This book is over 500 pages depending on if you get it on kindle or paperback and it did not feel like it. I read this book in less than 24 hours, spanning 2 days. It sucked me right in, even skipping some of the more erotica (It wasn't exactly vital to the whole plot but I still read most of the scenes) It was very fast paced. 

Some of the trigger warnings included

Graphic violence, non/dub con, branding, forced sex fantasy, drug/alcohol use, masks, breath play, bondage, kidnapping, anal, praise kink, death/murder.

The premise is the MMC has been preparing himself to be initiated in the Lords, a Secret Society. He has done everything that is expected without question including murder, and now it’s time for him to choose his Chosen. Every Lord gets to choose a girl from a list of girls that want to be part of the chosen. Blakely is chosen to be Ryat's but Blake is also Ryat's rival Matt's girlfriend. Ryat ends up stalking Blake until she joins him in his final task to be initiated. Cue lots of sex and violence.

 Characters were despicable.

I know what I was getting myself into when I decided to read this book but the character Ryat is misogynistic piece of shit, so are most of the entitled men in this book and it really boiled my piss.

Our pharmacist, yes I'll call him that since all he does carry around a phenomenal amount of rohypnol and drug Blake, is just like the rest of the LORDS and has a god complex.
We are already told from the beginning of the book that both Ryat and Blake should not fall in love with each other as they are in arranged marriages with other people for status because all the women are pretty much sex slaves to the LORDS and have to abide by anything they are told to do otherwise receive a punishment. The only thing going for him is the fact he takes care and calms Blake after their rough sex sessions and he doesn't judge her but that doesn't mean he gets a free pass from all the horrendous things he also does.

Our main girl Blake is the stupidest girl I've ever read. She's clueless to the world of this secret societies even though everyone around her is part of them.
I give her points for trying to run away and that is it. Blake is the virgin and because she's so desperate to have sex with her boyfriend Matt before becoming a "chosen" she has developed a few kinks. One of them being forced-sex fantasy. However I do feel a bit sorry for her when it comes to her choices in life as everything has been mapped out for her in some way.

I did enjoy one of the characters Tyson, who owed the nightclub and I'm well aware his story is told in book 3 of the L.O.R.D.S series but he was the lesser piece of shit.

Aside from all the sex, the plot was quite interesting and got me wanting more, there was a twist at the end that I really enjoyed and had me shook. However I think our main characters falling in love was such a U-Turn considering everything that had transpired beforehand. I've also come to find out I don't like the trope "touch her and I'll kill you" possessive partners do not do it for me.

Other tropes are

secret societies, dual pov, virgin fmc,

For fans of much harder dark romance, then this one is for you. If you don't like erotica in your novels, you'll hate this but it's a work of fiction. You could also hate read this too. Surprisingly I quite enjoyed this and gave it 3.5 stars on good reads /storygraph.

Will I pick up the rest in the LORDS series? I might pick up The Sacrifice because that is Ty's story but I won't be reading the whole series. I might give Dark Romance another go with other authors.

💭Have you read Dark Romance? Did you enjoy it?