USA Today Bestselling Author, Callie Hart, delivers a twisted and edgy new dark romance tale, featuring a girl with nothing left to lose and a broken boy with a heart as black as his soul.
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Blurb
Want something? Pax will take it from you.
Love something? Pax will destroy it.
Love him? Heaven help you. You’d have to be the stupidest person to walk the face of the earth.
PAX
I don’t do complicated. I sure as hell don’t do love. With graduation in sight, I’ve made it almost four years at Wolf Hall without getting tangled up in BS with girls.
I especially want nothing to do with her:
Presley. Maria. Witton. Chase.
The timid little mouse with the red hair, who can’t even look my way without hyperventilating. She’s nothing to me. Beautiful, sure, but I’ve had plenty of beautiful women.
I’m perfectly content ignoring her…
…until her life is suddenly in my hands.
PRES
I’ve loved him from the moment I laid eyes on him.
The cruel, inked anarchist of Riot House.
He’s wicked, and he’s cold, and there’s nothing good left in him.
I fear him almost as much as I crave him.
With only a few weeks left until graduation, all I have to do is keep my head down, and then I’ll be free; I can leave Mountain Lakes and my obsession with Pax Davis in my rearview mirror.
But the demons I’ve been hiding for years now are growing restless…
…and Pax is thing that will keep them at bay.
This is not an act of kindness.
Not an act of love.
Not an act of forgiveness.
You’ll find no redemption here.
This is the final riot.
ACT ACCORDINGLY.
RIOT ACT is a 137,000-word standalone book in the Crooked Sinners Series and does not end on a cliffhanger. This book contains dark content that may be considered a trigger for some readers, and as such is recommended for readers 17+
Review
5 stars and a fave for 2021!
OMG, this book! An incredible, character-rich story that is dark, dramatic and intense with an amazing love story that completely captivated me. It’s everything I was hoping for for Pax’s story, and I freaking loved it!
This is the third book in the Crooked Sinners series, and Pax is the final in the trio of friends to have their story told in the series. Pax and his insanely wealthy and arrogant friends live together in the appropriately named ‘Riot House’, while attending a super exclusive high school in New Hampshire. The boys are spoiled and entitled, and have a well-earned reputation as being malicious and cruel, caring about little else other than themselves.
Like his friends, Pax is from a wealthy family (though he has a practically non-existent, but deeply difficult relationship with his family), though he makes his own money through modelling. He is, to be frank, a complete a-hole with no time for anybody outside of his two best friends, and though he has watched Wren and Dash meet their girls and fall in love, he wants absolutely nothing to do with their girlfriends, or relationships in general.
He is magnificent. He’s also the cruellest, most unbearable asshole I’ve ever come across.
Want something? Pax will take it away from you.
Love something? Pax will destroy it.
Love him? Then Heaven help you. You’d have to be the stupidest person to walk the face of the earth.
Presley has crushed on the untouchable Pax Davies since she first laid eyes on him, but she’s always been too shy to do anything about it, knowing that she’d never survive the bullying or broken heart that she knows would come her way when he declared himself inevitably done with her. But hitting rock bottom causes a shift in her perspective on life. She no longer cares about what will happen afterwards, she’s all about seizing the day and not caring about the fallout, and Pax is first on her list.
Being destroyed by Pax is way better than being eaten alive by the dark memories that threaten to claim me whenever I’m not around him.
The change in Presley is huge, and I loved getting to see this new side of her. She’s bold and daring, and though the reasons behind it are devastating and we can see that she still has a huge heart and vulnerabilities, she’s embracing this new side to herself, and she’s a bold force for Pax to contend with, which creates a fantastic dynamic.
Pax is pretty apathetic about everything in his life, and when he finally starts to truly see Presley, she becomes a fixation for him. It’s actually really funny watching him react to her presence in his everyday life. He truly has no clue what’s going on with his attraction, and it was so great to watch.
Years of animosity and violence have made their mark on me. It’s hard to tamp down the drive to wrap myself in sharp barbs, to protect myself from this…this…whatever this is. I’m so drawn to her at the same time, magnetized to her, hands itching to reach out and touch her again, that I feel like I’m losing my mind.
Pax is a wonderfully complex character. Like his friends before him, he’s got a vicious dark side, but there is SO much more to him than we ever knew. He’s absolutely fascinating, and I absolutely loved being in his head, getting to explore his past, his present, and what makes him uniquely him. And watching Presley come into his life and shake everything up when he’s so sure he’s got his life under control is so freaking entertaining.
In the small, dark corner of my soul that still wants things, I recognize that I’ve claimed her and she’s mine now. It’ll be a long fucking time before I’m ready to admit that out loud.
And Presley is just perfect for him. She’s a ‘normal’ girl who has been through the unimaginable, and her past is hinted at throughout the story so we know just enough to guess at what is going on without knowing everything, and I thought it was so cleverly written. Her feelings for Pax are all-encompassing, but at no time did I feel like she was a doormat. She’s strong and brave, she accepts him just as he is, and she takes from him exactly what she needs. I absolutely loved her, and loved her for him.
Pax encompasses me. He always has. Every dark, angry, ugly part of him, wrapped up in such a devilishly beautiful package. He’s hostile and he’s hateful, and he wields his anger like a blade. There is nothing good about him. But when I’m with him, I can let go. I don’t think anymore. I don’t rage against my own inner pain. The waking nightmares that plague me every second of the day have no power over me in his presence. I used to crave him because of how he looked. Because of how he made me feel. Now, I crave him because, around him, I can surrender. I can feel nothing at all.
Together, they are a passionate powerhouse. I can’t freaking believe that high school kids are having sex like this, but holy damn! And I loved watching their lust for each other naturally and unexpectedly (for them) turn into something so much more.
I saw this happening.
I fucking felt it.
I told myself it wasn’t real. That I could outrun it. Escape it.
I told myself that I wouldn’t fall victim to the same bullshit human condition as my friends, but damn.
I’ve been such a stupid c*nt.
Arrogant.
To think I was bigger than this.
The love story is an emotional rollercoaster, but it’s a beautiful journey, playing out amidst the chaos of their lives, and intense and extreme family drama. There is a lot going on in this book, but it’s woven together so well, and I loved watching it all unfold. The pacing is perfect, the shifts, twists and reveals all happen at just the right time, and the emotion of it all is beautifully written. There are scenes that made me laugh, and moments that made my heart ache, and I longed for a happy ending for these two. It’s unpredictable, but was just so right, and I loved every moment of their tumultuous story.
“The path of least resistance doesn’t always mean taking the easiest option. Sometimes…it means that your soul finds its way home, towards something it loves, after you’ve held it back for too fucking long.”
I loved these characters, their individual journeys, and their romance so much. This is a fave for 2021.
5 huge stars!
An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Crooked Sinners
Riot House (#1) (Wren & Elodie)
Review
Buy: Amazon | Paperback
Riot Rules (#2) (Dash & Carrie)
Review
Buy: Amazon
About the Author
Callie Hart is a USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary and dark romance. Her Blood & Roses Series is currently being translated into multiple languages all over the world. Having spent the last seven years living in Australia, Callie now calls Los Angeles
home, where she enjoys hiking, spending time at the beach, daily hot yoga classes, and generally pretending to be a hipster.
Callie is often asked, ‘What is dark romance?’ Her reply is always the same: Dark romance is a story that makes you fall for the anti-hero. It is a story that will make you walk a tightrope, question your sanity, and have you checking your moral compass at the door. If you love a good story about a very bad boy, then dark romance is for you.’ Under her legal name, Frankie Rose, Callie writes young adult fiction that has been globally recognized, and has received numerous awards for her ‘Halo’ series.
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