Book Review: Inked In Lies by Giana Darling

Inked in Lies (The Fallen Men #5) by Giana Darling

Pages: 474
Publish date: July 31st 2020
Publisher: –
ISBN: 9781774440087
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

He moved in next door.
Handsome as sin, older in a way that meant forbidden.
He had tattoos on his hands and wickedness tucked in his grin.
I was a goner as girl to a man they called Casanova for a reason. He would never love me, at least not the way I needed him to.
I tried to move on. But I couldn’t turn my back on him or The Fallen MC.
So when they needed me most, I offered the only thing of value I could use to help them.
My body.
And when helping them meant putting my life on the line, Nova had to decide just how much he was willing to do to get me out alive.

Inked in Lies:

As soon as I finished the last book in this series a couple of months ago, Inked In Lies jumped up high on my most anticipated list. And you know what, I’m not disappointed. There was some aspect that I didn’t particularly like, but overall I really enjoyed reading Inked In Lies. You can check out my series review of the rest of The Fallen Men Series now.

Inked In Lies by Giana Darling follows Lila and Nova as they grow up, go through heartbreak, death, and falling in and out of love. When Nova, known as Johnathon move in across the road from Lila and her family both of their lives change forever. Through the years Lila and Nova grow closer together and both go through heartbreak. But they also drift apart. And when trouble falls upon The Fallen Men things are about to get even more dangerous.

Photo by Yousef Espanioly on Unsplash

Lila was such a fantastic female protagonist. I loved getting to know more and more about her. The reader knows both protagonists pretty well. But we get to see their stories now. Lila was a real pleasure to read, I loved that she didn’t take anything from anyone and just did what she wanted to. I liked that she was strong and even though she had been through hell she made a life for her own. One of the things that I loved most about Lila in Inked In Lies is the fact that we get to see her grow, her character arc was fantastic.

Nova was interesting that is for sure. There were times where I loved him and times where I wanted to wring this neck. The reader is able to see that Nova is holding his feelings back for Lila and while it does this, he does hurt her. But we also know that he also cares about her so much. From the previous books, we already have this image of Nova, but it goes into his life at a deeper level. Nova is a charmer for sure. Darling is able to write him in a way that he isn’t always a pain in the ass.

The romance had many ups and downs. For the most part, I loved Lila and Nova together. I loved that we get to see them from the start. We get to see them meet each other, know each, care for one another. And then we get to see Lila fall in love. But we also see her go through heartbreak, most of it to do with Nova. Lila and Nova are pretty fantastic together. The interactions between these two were pretty great. The dynamics between the two were just so good.

Photo by Lucas Lenzi on Unsplash

I normally don’t love when books time jump, but I think it played it’s part so well in Inked In Lies. The reader is not only able to see the progression in Lila and Nova’s relationship but also see how their lives played out. Giana Darling was able to write the time jumps well. I do wish at the start of each time jump we were told a little about what time we were jumping to. A year or even how many years passed. After reading a little bit, I was able to make that distinction.

One of the things that made me smile in Inked In Lies was seeing Nova’s family. They just squeezed my heart. And I wish that we were able to see more of them. I adored how much they supported not only Nova and their boys. But Lila and her brother Dane as well.

I also wish we got to see more to do with tattooing. I love my tattoo’s and I was expecting to see more of it throughout the book and it wasn’t all there.

Another thing that I loved is that we got to see so many characters that we know and love from previous books in the series. But that means we also have to go through the heartbreak again. Oh gosh, that did hurt. I loved that we got to see The Fallen Men in action. Both when they were younger and when we know them from the current books. I can’t wait to see what happens next with these bad boys.

Photo by Stas Svechnikov on Unsplash

Overall, I loved reading Inked In Lies by Giana Darling. It was a great addition to The Fallen Men series. Lila and Nova were fantastic together. I love seeing their relationship build slowly over the years. At times it was messy and complicated. But the reader can see right from the start how much they care for one another. It’s the most different from the other ones in the series but that was a nice change in pace. I can’t wait to see whose book is next. Things are started to heat up and I can’t wait for more.