Dark Romance/Why Choose/New Adult
227 Pages
Book 1 of Dance with my Demons series
Published 27th March 2024
Purchase from |Amazon AU | Amazon US | Amazon UK |
My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Avery knew that she was going to jail, had prepared for it as much as one could. So, when she was informed that she’d been granted a place at the Lilydale Foundation Center, she didn’t know what to expect. Apparently, it’s the home of second chances, a rehabilitation centre for those who have committed heinous crimes. Avery doesn’t believe that she deserves a second chance, and when she joins the population of patients at the centre, she realises that maybe none of them do. Called a rehabilitation centre, the Lilydale Foundation is nothing but a glorified psychiatric prison. And when you put a bunch of unhinged, young criminals together, what else will you get but pure chaos?
I was keen as a bean to read this one. Something about the blurb just tickled that part of me that just cannot pass up a dark romance full of psycho love interests, and I was not disappointed. I’m still struggling a little bit to get back to my normal reading volume from a couple of years ago, yet I absolutely devoured this. I finished it in just over a day, which at the moment, for me, that’s pretty damn good. This definitely felt like more of a foundation setting introduction to the series. It gave us the setup of the facility, as well as the hierarchy inside said facility, and gave us the introductions to the characters. However, just because it felt like a foundation setter, that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. I positively loved this one.
The story itself is told through alternating points of view between Avery, Damon, Grey and Theo, though we mostly see the world through Avery’s eyes. Told in first person perspective, I felt dropped into the world and fully immersed in the story. There’s intrigue at how the facility actually works, what their aim is, and also how certain characters are involved. It gives me government experiment vibes, but I’m probably hugely off track with that assumption. Getting to learn about Avery was wonderful, though I’m sure that there’s more to come, learning about the trauma that she had gone through makes you wonder how a justice system could do her so dirty.
I absolutely adored all of the characters, even the ones that I hated. Macca has the ability to write a solid, four-dimensional character that is so fully flawed it’s beautiful. I really empathised with Avery and her situation and found her to be such a complex character with many layers. It’s going to be fun getting to follow the series and learn more about her and watch her come into her own and fully evolve. I fell head over heels for probably the most psycho out of the love interests – Theo. From the minute we meet him, which was a passing introduction, I just knew that I was gonna love him, and I was not wrong. His cinnamon roll psychoness is exactly what I love in a dark romance love interest. This one is full of the touch her and die trope, and I adore it. Grey was surprisingly a sweetheart, and I do have a soft spot for him. I’m keen to learn more about him because, again, like the others, he has a lot of layers, and I can tell that his character is very complex. Damon does intrigue me, and I love the protectiveness he holds over Grey. Pretty much, the characters rock, and I can’t wait to learn more about all of them. I want to know it all, their triumphs and their traumas included.
All in all, this was a great set up to what is promising to be an enthralling series. I’m keen as to see what happens next as, yes, this book did kinda end on a bit of a cliffy. In my mind, though, it’s a manageable one. I’m looking forward to seeing how the character relationships evolve and develop, and I’m super keen to find out what is going on behind the scenes of this supposed second chance facility. This one promises so much more than what meets the eye, and I cannot wait to dive deeper.
Read Book. Repeat 