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

Little Stranger left me wondering what I was supposed to take away from Olivia and Malachi’s relationship. They are two deeply traumatized people continuing a cycle of abuse with each other. I can handle dark romance, but the foster sibling dynamic paired with the repeated emphasis on Olivia being Malachi’s sister made their sexual relationship uncomfortable rather than provocative. Their history of childhood abuse pushed me further outside my personal limits. The backstory could have created a unique psychological angle for a dark romance, but it was too dark for me. Olivia and Malachi enter their adoptive family carrying significant childhood trauma. Their new home hardly offers safety. Their adoptive parents seem more concerned with preparing the children for their roles within a powerful criminal circle than helping either of them heal. Malachi enters the family with a reluctance to speaking and relies on sign language. Olivia learns that obedience and pleasing the adults around her are necessary for acceptance as she is prepared for an arranged marriage. Malachi’s obsession with possessing Olivia did not come across as romantic devotion. It was more like a traumatized child desperately trying to hold onto the safe person he fears losing. Olivia repeatedly appeases people who hurt and control her. Their trauma responses make sense within the abusive environments they must survive. With a dark setting like this, the novel needs to have the depth to make the relationship feel like more than another extension of the cycle of abuse. The childhood sections were difficult. Malachi sexually assaults Olivia when they are young. Their relationship continues to revolve around violations of consent as they grow older. Olivia eventually testifies against him, resulting in an eight-year prison sentence. His return transforms their already volatile relationship into a revenge driven cycle of captivity, sex, fear, and possessiveness. The circumstances surrounding Olivia’s testimony and Malachi’s conviction needed more development considering how important they are to everything that follows. The larger mafia storyline also felt strangely underdeveloped. I kept waiting for the history of their adoptive family, the arranged marriage details, and the circumstances that brought Olivia and Malachi into the family to become more important. Those pieces remained background material while their sexual relationship consumed most of the pages. I was curious about whether the novel was suggesting a deeper connection between their biological families and the criminal world surrounding them. I never felt this plot thread received a satisfying explanation. Rivers can write explicit scenes. Her talent is very apparent here. This is an extreme taboo romance filled with obsession, revenge, captivity, and graphic sexual content. The sexual writing was much stronger than the plotting for me. I wanted the psychological pieces surrounding these characters to receive the same attention as their physical relationship. Little Stranger crossed from dark romance into territory I did not enjoy. Olivia and Malachi’s relationship felt less like two damaged adults finding something within each other and more like two abused children carrying a trauma bond straight into adulthood. I could see the potential in Rivers’ writing, but I needed far more character development and plot in the darkness.

Unexpected plot twist ..totally recommend don't read if you're not open minded

This book took me by surprise but I absolutely loved it. Definitely reccomend people to read this.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Wow! This book must be listened to. The Joe Arden nails it as a mute p$ych0. It is narrated with MF DUET narration, 2 narrators, 2 POVs, first person
The first half is all her POV, and the second half is mostly his, but a bit of hers too. It's really interesting. 

This book. Whew! It has all the triggers, so watch yourself, but if you like them dark and twisted, this book is for you.
The first half of the book is a little repetitive, but it's to really drive home the relationship between Malachi and Olivia and is very taboo but not too dark. These foster siblings cross boundaries from day one.
The second half? Put your seat belt on because Malachi is putting his mask on, taking the wheel and letting his fre@k flag fly. This is why the book is dark, and the majority of the triggers are in this part of the book. *shivers just thinking about spider webs.
The end of the book is great if you like your characters crushed under the author's thumb, the epilogue does soothe it, but the end is hard, especially to listen to. I haven't cried at the end of a book in ages, and this one did it for me. 
There is a very HEA though so stick with it until the end. 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶/5 chilis on the spicy scale.

-He is a v!rg!n
-somn0philia
-CNC
-dub con
-restraints 
-drugg!ng
-brand!ng
-ch0k!ng
-🔪 play
-pr!mal play
-bl00d play
-screwdriver play
-p@!n
-fear
-breed!ng w/o pregnancy 
-@n@l
-Foster bro/sis
-m^th&r fckn spiders

Very spicy and taboo! I was a little uncomfortable with how far some of the TW's went because it got too close to rape for my liking, but the audio is a MUST. I could not stop listening.