Book Review: Dead Man Walking by Giana Darling

Dead Man Walking (The Fallen Men #6) by Giana Darling

Pages: 542
Publish date: 27 December 2020
Publisher: –
ASIN: B08RDSGPV1
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

A killer.
A criminal.
A psychopath.
The Irish enforcer for The Fallen Men MC is everything good girls are taught to stay away from.
Only, I found myself inexorably drawn into his dark gravitational pull. I wanted to know what it would be like to walk beside the human personification of Death and hold his hand, feel his kiss, and maybe even earn his undying love.
But Priest McKenna is older, cold as ice, and notoriously unfeeling.
So what are the odds that a dead man walking would come to life for little, insignificant me?
When a serial killer begins to target the women of Entrance, BC, and The Fallen suffers another terrible blow, Priest resolves to hunt down the killer himself.
And when the murderer sets his eyes on me?
My very own psychopath steps between me and certain death, thrusting us into an intimacy I prayed we would never recover from.

Dead Man Walking:

I received an earc of Dead Man Walking by Giana Darling for review in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I have a lot of feelings about this book, and even now nearly a week after I’ve finished it. I’m still not sure how I feel. I haven’t read many dark romances. My experience of reading this band of romance is very small. So I don’t have much to compare it to. This isn’t for the faint-hearted. It’s dark, questionable and something I would not want to happen in real life. But it’s also intriguing, damning and sexy. It’s a great addition to this series and adds another layer to all the characters.

As soon as I heard that this was going to be Priests and Bea’s book I was super excited and intrigued. They are such different characters and before this book, we didn’t know too much about them. Priest is very closed off and we only get a few little things about him here and there. And Bea, we might have seen her grow up, but she was a side character for a lot of it. Dead Man Walking follows their journey. The ups and downs. The rough patches. And both of them going through a hell of a lot. At first, they don’t seem like a good pair, but as the novel goes on. It makes sense.

Photo by Tamas Munkacsi on Unsplash

Priest is a very interesting character. As soon as he was introduced in the series, he caught my eye. And as it went on I wanted to know more about him. Priest likes to kill. He does it and will do it again. And that makes him such a hard character to love. He has had a hard life and it’s turned him into someone that doesn’t feel and when he does it’s mostly angry. But because of all this, it makes him intriguing and I just wanted to keep on reading Dead Man Walking. The reader can see Priest come to not only understand himself, the man that he has become, but those around him too. Priest isn’t for everyone, and there are times where I had to pull myself back as well, but I still wanted to know more.

Bea was this fantastic mix of sweet and dark. I really enjoyed this side of a female character. We don’t often see it, especially in MC romances. But the reader can see a side of Bea that is dark and dangerous even. But then there is this sweet side that shines through. She is the sunshine in their group and I loved that. And as Dead Man Walking goes on and things intensify Bea grows and the reader can see her both stand-up for herself and for Priest.

The romance had its ups and downs for me. I think that there was so much chemistry between Bea and Priest that it jumped off the page. I liked seeing them become comfortable with one another and break those walls downs. Priest walls were built over many years and even being part of The Fallen Men didn’t break those. But Bea slowly but surely picked at them and broke it down little piece, by little piece. Like I said before I don’t read many dark romances, and their romance was not conventional. There were a few times that I have to pull myself out and just take a break. But I didn’t hate it either.

Photo by Valerie Elash on Unsplash

The plot for Dead Man Walking was so intriguing and interesting. Like the rest of the book, it was dark and dangerous and kept me hooked. It was so interesting and at first, I didn’t know what to think of it. But as the book went on everything fell into place and just made sense. Dead Man Walking was intense. There were so many moments that were fast-paced and kept ongoing. I have found that a lot in MC books and I think it’s a fantastic mark of it.

Giana Darling did such a fantastic job in Dead Man Walking. She had two very different characters and she was able to make them both interesting, intriguing and real. The MC world in books isn’t always. There is a fine like and this dabbled in the dark side.

Photo by Max Muselmann on Unsplash

Overall, I have a lot of feelings about Dead Man Walking by Giana Darling. This book isn’t for the faint-hearted. Well, none of this series is. But while the series started off somewhat light, as the books went on things got much darker. And Dead Man Walking is dark. Priest is not an easy protagonist to get along with. He isn’t someone that you can fall in love with immediately or at all really. But that made for such an interesting combination, with Bea. Dead Man Walking explores the notion of darkness and light, of good and bad. And the grey in between. If you like you dark and even sadistic romances, then this one is for you.

Have you read Dead Man Walking by Giana Darling yet? What did you think? Have you read any of The Fallen Men Books. You can check out my review of the first four books in the series as well as Inked in Lies for more.