ARC Review: Dangerous Temptation by Giana Darling

Dangerous Temptation by Giana Darling

Pages: 300
Publish date: October 26th 2021
Publisher: Dangerous Press
ASIN: B098TPMV86
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

He arrives all dressed in black. Diamond cufflinks. A watch on his tanned wrist that cost more than we would ever see in a lifetime of work. He carries a single red rose for my mother. Months later, Tiernan Morelli lays red roses on my mother’s grave. That same day, he tells me that he is my new guardian. I should have known from the very start that he had more in common with the thorns than the rose. Now I know the truth: I’m a pawn in his dangerous game of revenge. I was too young and naive. Now it’s too late to save myself from his clutches. Now I belong to him.

Dangerous Temptation:

I received an earc of Dangerous Temptation by Giana Darling from Valentine PR & Literary Management in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

Trigger and content warnings for Dangerous Temptation include; death of parents, criminal activities, gun violence, age gap, taboo romance, child abuse off the page and more.

This book wasn’t what I was expecting it to be. And that isn’t a bad thing. I knew what I was going into, but I was also surprised by it. I read the novella that gives us an insight into both Tiernan Morelli and Bianca Belcante – do you haven’t read Bad Dreams before picking Dangerous Temptation up, I highly recommend it. It’s a few chapters if that.

Dangerous Temptation follows Bianca Belcante the bastard child and member of the Constantine family. After the death of her mother, she and her brother have been taken in by Tiernan Morelli. Who has not only been cast aside by his family but is the black sheep. But he still does their bidding.

Photo by Julia Nastogadka on Unsplash

There is major tension between Bianca and Tiernan from the start, like off the page. It’s all times of tension from hate to lust, to even disgust. It’s an interesting combo and I really did enjoy it. It wasn’t what I was expecting from these two, I actually don’t know what I was expecting.

Bianca is kinda that typical innocent protagonist, but she had this spark about her that I loved. She didn’t care about what Tiernan had to say. She did what she wanted to do. What she believed in. But Tiernan also intrigued her a lot. And she couldn’t help but get want to get to know him. I absolutely adore how much she cared and looked after her brother. She had a shit home life, for the most part. Their mother didn’t care too much about them. Right from the start, the reader is able to see how much she cares for him.

Tiernan is rough around the edges and more. I wish we got to know him a little more, but I felt that even during his chapters, we still don’t know the real him. Dangerous Temptation I felt gave us these little hints here and there and everything is going to be explore much more in book two. Tiernan is dark and twisty and I wanted to know more about him as the book went on.

Photo by sanjoy saha on Unsplash

The romance was very up and down for me throughout Dangerous Temptation. I wanted to love it, but I just couldn’t. But I also feel that it wasn’t the main focus of the book. Yes, we see the tension between Bianca and Tiernan, but we don’t get to see them really know each other. There are some fantastic scenes here and that, that was brilliant and I loved seeing them both break down. But I was left hanging for more. I’m intrigued to see what happens between the two in the next book.

This duet isn’t going to be for everyone. I’m just going to put it out there. As I mentioned before there are a lot of trigger warnings and it does include a taboo romance. So please be aware of this before you jump in. I think it’s about a 13 year age gap, which is pretty decent. And as I said because of this Dangerous Temptation won’t be for everyone.

If you didn’t know already, I love Giana’s Fallen Men Series, you can check out my review for the series here, as well as my review of Inked in Lies and Dead Man Walking. So I was really excited to try something new from Giana. While I didn’t love this one, I still enjoyed it.

In saying this, I did feel that it fell a little flat at times. While there are things going on throughout the book, I also felt that not much happened after the last few chapters, and while the cliffhanger is intense. I wanted a little more during the book. I also felt that we didn’t get to know more about Bianca’s daily life. It would have been great to see more of her interactions at school and with her new friends. I liked that we got these awesome interactions when Bianca was at home with her brother and Tiernan’s men. But I wanted a little more here.

Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

Dangerous Temptation is set in the same world as the Cinderella series by k Webster, Lessons in Sin by Pam Godwin and more. You can check out the whole world here. I haven’t read any other books in the world and while I wasn’t confused by the family feud, I am intrigued and might end up and reading some of the other books.

Overall, Dangerous Temptation by Giana Darling really did catch my eye. It’s pushed me a little out of my comfort zone and I didn’t hate it. I’m intrigued to see what is going to happen next. The ending was a major cliffhanger and that makes me both nervous and excited. Dangerous Temptation will not be for everyone and that is absolutely okay, but if you like things a little on the dark side and taboo, then this book is for you.

And there we go. Have you checked out Dangerous Temptation by Giana Darling yet? What did you think of it? Are you planning on picking it up? What are some of your favourite dark and taboo romances? Let’s Chat.

Also don’t forget to check out my interview with Giana that I did last year. I had a great time and it was fantastic getting to know Giana more. If you don’t follow me on social media you can now, you can check me out on Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok.