Little Liar: A Dark Taboo Romance (The Web of Silence Duet)

Plot : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Story :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spice :🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Rating :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tropes : siblings to lovers, (foster siblings), dark romance, (please read the warnings) Pacing : medium to fast. Characters : i) Olivia — I’ve liked her in the first book, and i liked her in this one too. Despite her attempts to stop her mom to not follow the tradition, she tries her best to stay with malachi and that should be taken into account too, Olivia isn’t just a doll who follows orders, she does stand for herself, and Malachi too. She decided to not get married to Xander, she also asks xander’s family members to let her wear a gas mask so that Malachi can easily find her at the party of Reznikovs. ii) Malachi — as in the first book, i’ve loved this man, and always will. The way Malachi’s nervousness, anxiety, wanting to protect Olivia, molly and his father touched my heart. This man almost panicked and jumped when he woke up in the hospital only to find Olivia gone. I also loved the banter between base and kai. Base really pisses kai off, and I love to see that. Malachi tries his hardest to protect the people he can protect now, since he couldn’t protect spikey or his mother. Malachi really is a good man, underneath all that violence, hatred, anger, Malachi was a man with a soft heart, he got nervous and would overthink when he’d do something Olivia might hate, he also made sure that his little friend furry was not left like everyone left him, he also wanted Olivia to feel comfortable with his spider friends. How can I forget the time when he was a kid and he accidentally killed a spider, he cried all the way home with his father. There is no way i’d hate this man. Ever.

What I loved : i loved the story, especially told from Malachi’s pov. Yeah, I needed that with my whole soul, I wanted to be inside his head all the time. And i loved to see a part of the story from his pov, and then the story progression to the next part where the characters from the edge of the darkness trilogy are introduced is so good. (Now i’m looking forward to reading that series!) What I struggled with : literally nothing. Loveable characters or not : so loveable. Especially Malachi.

Strong character development : it is complicated ; Malachi and Olivia’s father refused to reverse the adoption, so they chose to not get married legally, they also have a son, and the other characters from the Reznikovs’s family, i didn’t expect them to help Olivia and Malachi, i really thought a snitch was coming, but breath a sigh of relief when it didn’t. Plot driven / character driven : both. Plot driven, and character driven because of Malachi.

Favorite quotes/ highlights : there were so many moments that were my favorite. But i’ll just write them as a paragraph : i really loved how Malachi tries to explain his side, but Olivia does not listen, and he decides to just eat her, because well he didn’t know what else would make Olivia feel better. Then, the moment when their father tries to yank him away from Olivia but he attacks him, and the violence is brutal, but why do I love it? (I need therapy, along with malachi 😭😵‍💫) I also loved base from the reznikovs’s family, wish there was a book for him too, would love to read his book, and if Malachi made an appearance, mm, ever better!

Any other details : this book was unlike anything, I have ever read. I am so glad my dark romance journey is starting with books that i’m loving to read. Malachi is and will always be my favorite man, his love for spiders makes me fall in love with them too, and take care of them, thank you Malachi. I did not expect that i’d love this book so much, but i did. I don’t have enough words to describe this book, it’s just so good, and definitely in my re- read list! 💗 It tops all the other books. My favourite mute psycho who loves spiders, has a soft heart, burns for one girl in the world, would do anything for her, tries his best to be what he thinks his girl wants, cries and wants someone to choose him, and love him, curses at the world, but then also is grateful for the life he has, because he’d have never met his girl, if he was not adopted, feels bad for what he did to his father, makes amends for the wrong he did, inserts a fucking metal ruler in his girl’s mouth, Malachi why? 😭 Anyways, it’s not like i don’t love you already, hmph! Promises to protect his girl and his son. Fulfills his girl’s wishlist, that she wrote in her diary, also saves his precious words for the people he loves, because that was his way of protecting himself. Spikey and furry are not just his friends, they are his strength when he was abused. Malachi kept winning my heart as the story progressed more and more + a fucking screwdriver? into …uhm 🫣 okieee. HE : Obsesses over his girl, loves the scent of her hair, buries his nose in them because it makes him feel safe, also throws away the shampoo bottle which is not strawberry — the scent he loves. Thinks about buying her many bottles of strawberry scented shampoo later. 🤌🏼🥹 Malachi, i love you, thank you for existing. 💗

First half of it is basically a repeat of the first book, the second half is better than the first book so quite mixed feelings about this one

I absolutely loved this duet. It's one of my favorites.

Not as good as the first book. And not as much spice. A little disappointed in it.