DARKEST DESTINY
Series: Darkest Destiny Trilogy #1
Genre: Dark Romance Fantasy Fusion
Author: Pepper Winters
Release Date: January 28, 2026
From New York Times Bestselling Pepper Winters comes a Dark Romance with a twist…
For twenty years, Lucien Ashfall has been caged by the very men who profit from his blood.
He’s dangerous, uncontrollable, and deadly.
He’s also the only one carrying his bloodline and they need another.
Every six months, thirty girls are sent into his prison and tasked with one goal: Make him create an heir by any means necessary.
But everyone who goes in, never comes out.
Until Rook Snowdon is thrown into Cinderkeep by mistake.
She isn’t a seductress.
And she certainly isn’t there to save anyone.
In fact, she only has three goals in life:
One, hide her true identity for as long as possible.
Two, nap and self-medicate with wine.
Three (and most problematic) ignore the fact that stress is slowly killing her.
Lucien only has one goal: escape and burn everything to the ground.
Unfortunately, everyone has their secrets and these two have many.
They just don’t know it yet.
Because she might be the key to getting him free.
But if he gets out, it’s not the world that will burn.
It’s him.
This isn’t just a Dark Romance.
It’s fated, feral, and dangerous—until it becomes something else entirely.
Tropes:
morally grey, caged & tortured antihero
chronically ill heroine with a twist
emotional support pet (unalives for fun)
captive / captor tension
touch-her-and-die energy
her touch terrifies him for a good reason
luxury palace built to cage a monster
slow-burn obsession → forbidden, fated bond
modern dark romance that mutates into fantasy
I’d never seen someone who could suffocate a room with his very arrival. Never seen someone as beautiful as him—but just like beauty could make people commit awful mistakes, his beauty promised cold-blooded murder.
Holy…wow. How do I even begin to review this without spoiling the smallest detail? Because this is a story that you have to go into absolutely blind. Just trust me on this.
This was unlike anything I’ve read in a long while and I loved that about it. It wasn’t quite modern fiction, not quite fantasy. Yet it was this dark and gritty mix of both with a twist. It also had some vibes of beauty and the beast mixed with cinderella.
Rook thinks she’s going to an exclusive spa and instead gets thrown into a game of survival that she’s not even remotely prepared for. She ends up at Cinderkeep in the crosshairs of the elusive Lucien, who’s more legend than man. He’s also more feral than human, with a panther for his only companion. He’s been caged within the confines of Cinderkeep for over 20 years. His blood a currency he’s forced to give, while he dreams of escape and bloody revenge.
Women are thrown into his fortress in the hopes of being his mistress and bearing an heir….or killing him. But Rook doesn’t fall into any of those categories. But how do you convince a man who’s only know pain and betrayal his whole life that you want nothing from him? You don’t. You survive him.
This was very much a slow burn romance, and I loved every agonizing moment of it. It took me a little bit to get fully immersed in this world, but right around the 30% mark, I couldn’t stop reading. And that cliffhanger? DESPERATELY NEED the next book!
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