Insatiable: The Edge of Darkness Trilogy

Insatiable has a lot of dark romance drama, but Kade and Stacey exhausted me. Their relationship begins as a secret teenage romance because Kade's twin sister, Luciella, decides nobody in their friend group is allowed to date. Luciella needed to check her controlling attitude at the door. Watching her interfere with two people she supposedly loves irritated me. Years later, Kade returns after being pulled into a violent criminal world. Stacey is trapped in an abusive home with her stepbrother. Both characters are carrying an enormous amount of trauma, but every problem between them gets worse because they refuse to communicate. Kade believes an edited video proves Stacey cheated on him and spends years blaming her for it. This really bothered me. Stacey is the victim of doctored revenge porn. Kade's anger toward her felt far too close to victim blaming. I understood why Kade struggled with trust, emotions, and relationships after everything he experienced growing up. I did not need the book to remind me so often. His trauma was explained repeatedly instead of coming through naturally in his behavior. This made parts of the story feel heavy handed. Kade's situation with Bernadette was interesting to me. Dark romance frequently places women in sexually exploitative situations, so seeing a male character being trafficked stood out. I wanted more exploration of that dynamic because Kade spends much of the book feeling strangely helpless against Bernadette despite being incredibly dangerous everywhere else. The biggest issue was the length of the story. Kade assumes the worst. Stacey hides what is happening to her. They hurt each other, reconnect, and still avoid the conversations that could move them forward. That cycle was exhaustive long before the cliffhanger arrived. I can handle damaged characters making messy choices, but I need them to grow. I know Insatiable is the beginning of a trilogy, but I am not very interested in continuing. Another book of Kade and Stacey refusing to talk while their abusers control their lives sounds more exhausting than enticing. Pick this up if you love screaming at characters to just talk to each other.

UGH will never get over the EOD trilogy.

The frustration with the characters in this book is real, but we'll deal with that in a sec.

This wasn't as epic as I was hoping, it was going to be. After reading the reviews, it sounded like this was going to be an extremely dark, smutty experience. Compared to other dark romances that I've read, it was more of a grey, and the spicy times were very descriptive and hot, but just didn't have what it took to get five chilies, so I'm giving it 🌶🌶🌶🌶4/5 chilies on the spicy scale.

Now the frustration.
The H, Kade, can't seem to save himself even though he has plenty of opportunities and apparently is very rich with his own team of mercenaries.
The h, Stacey, is one of the most doormat heroines have ever read. People are constantly asking if she is okay and what is wrong with her? And she is constantly lying to them for apparently no reason that she is not being controlled, beat and SAd by her step brother. She knows Kade is literally a killer and nothing would happen if he killed the step brother, so why doesn't she just tell Kade what's happening so he can solve the problem, especially when it starts to affect Kade.

I listened to the audiobook and WOW! This cast is extraordinary. Just amazing!
DUET narration, 7 narrators, 2 POVs, first person

A dark, second chance romance trilogy that will simultaneously make you fall in love and rip your heart out.

Super dark romance with a darker past between the FMC and the MMC. Great series