This was a dark, sensual love story between a broken woman and the cursed being that watches over her from the shadows.
To start, I didn't know that this was written by Tiffany Roberts. If I'm being completely honest, I tried to read her Kraken series and I just couldn't. I'm all for inhuman/human love stories but they HAVE to resemble humans at least a little to keep my interest. At some point, even if it speaks, it's still a damn octopus. I might finish a few more books and write a real review on that series at a later date, but today, I wanna talk about a book that I really enjoyed.
"His Darkest Craving" is a borderline horror/romance and I have been searching for this genre lately because it's somewhat rare. In this story, Sophie comes from an incredibly abusive relationship and manages to get away from her husband and flee to a rural hunting lodge to start her life over. She wants nothing more than to be off the grid and feel safe, but in these woods, there's something dark lurking in the shadows. Well...he IS the shadows.
Cruce is the guardian of the forest that Sophie has taken residence in and the moment she steps onto his land, he wants her. Cursed to never take on a physical form again and to suck the life out of the creatures he is meant to protect in order to survive, Cruce lives a life of anger and solitude. Sophie calls to him and he longs to feed off her life force, but at the same time, he feels incredibly protective over the broken human.
I greatly enjoyed how Cruce stalked around in shadows and how his presence affected Sophie. It gave me chills, both the creepy kind and the sexy kind. The entire story was meant to lead to the one night Cruce could take a physical form, which was on Halloween. I loved the way their relationship grew and how Cruce slowly realized how much he needed Sophie and Sophie realized how safe and secure Cruce made her feel. There was, however, one drawback. It wasn't big enough for me to throw this book out, but the moment Cruce took physical form, I was slightly turned off. Once more, Tiffany made him a little too inhuman. I can handle antlers. He's fae after all, and those antlers sounded so freaking daunting and wonderfully creepy in his shadow form, but that wasn't the only thing that made him different. Without spoilers, the point that he was a physical being was the point that I ACTUALLY went to check who the author was. I wasn't surprised to see Tiffany's name.
HOWEVER, coming from someone who can honestly say that Kraken sex creeped me out, this was still an amazing read and I would definitely recommend it. The romance was great, despite the mood being torn to shreds with some cringy drama that happened too soon after they FINALLY were able to be together. It's a quick read and yes, it's on my list :P
You can get the book HERE