Review: Inked In Lies by Giana Darling

INKED IN LIES
Genre: MC Romance, Contemporary
Series: Fallen Men #5
Author: Giana Darling
Release Date: July 31https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50256015-inked-in-lies?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=DabMWCzZCp&rank=1, 2020

He moved in next door.

Handsome as sin, older in a way that meant forbidden.

He had tattoos on his hands and wickedness tucked in his grin.

I was a goner as girl to a man they called Casanova for a reason. He would never love me, at least not the way I needed him to.

I tried to move on. But I couldn’t turn my back on him or The Fallen MC.

So when they needed me most, I offered the only thing of value I could use to help them.

My body.

And when helping them meant putting my life on the line, Nova had to decide just how much he was willing to do to get me out alive.

A standalone romance in The Fallen Men series.

 AMAZON

He was it. My dream man wrapped up in a sinful package. And he was still completely and utterly forbidden.

I’m a sucker for unrequited love tropes and gritty MC and this book was the best of both worlds.

She was mine. And I was hers in the way a wolf is owned by his moon, elementally, fuckin’ irrevocably.

Nova and Lila’s story was not an easy one. It was full of angst, frustration, and pain. They first meet when Lila is only a little girl and Nova quickly becomes her everything. His family becoming Lila’s escape when all she’s known in her young life have been liars and criminals. Lila’s childhood is anything but pretty or easy. It’s full of loss, pain, and lies. But what starts as a bit of hero worship soon bleeds into something so much more as Lila grows older.

Nova is the pretty playboy of the Fallen Men. He’s quick to smile and isn’t above using his good looks to get what he wants. He’s perfectly content spending each night with a different woman and has no illusions that he would ever want more. But not all is as it seems with Nova. He’s a true wolf in sheep’s clothing. His easy smile hides some very dark demons. Lila has always been like a foster sister to him but there’s also something more that pulses between them when she gets older. He knows he can’t be what he wants and he pushes her away, cruelly and bluntly. Theirs is a dance of push and pull that will drive you to the brink of madness at times, but it hurts so good!

There’s so much that happens in this book; secrets unravel with so many twists and turns, it will leave your head reeling. The romance is gritty, frustrating, and oh so delicious. Lila, even if she does forgive Nova too easily in parts, is still a force to be reckoned with and I really loved her fire. Nova was impossible not to love, even when you wanted to hate him. His decisions in parts had me wanting to shake him and rip my hair out. But there’s just something so addictive about this man.
hight=”50″ width=”50″ />Loving someone shouldn’t be contingent on them returning that affection. Loving someone existed apart from reciprocation.

I loved the story and the gritty feels of it. Lived for it. But it was missing some polish. There were some minor continuity and timeline issues. There were also some very minor characterization issues. For example, 17 year old Nova sounded exactly like 30 year old Nova biker, which wasn’t a huge thing in the grand scheme of things, but still noticeable. The other thing was all the fallen men sound the same. same intonations, same turn of phrases and lack of constants. Don’t get me wrong, the biker speak is great, and I loved the Kristen Ashley feel of it in parts. But in the same breath, it was tough to read when it was also in their inner monologues. Like I would have to re-read sentences 3 times before it finally clicked what they were saying. Sorry, y’all, I simply couldn’t shut off my picky brain long enough to look past it. Le sigh. This series has a very strong KA feel to it, which I love. But the lack of constants and the blurring of words like “all of the” for: “alla the brothers” or “you think you can handle alla that” became a bit grating for me.

Clearly I still really enjoyed the book so please take my nitpicking with a grain of salt. Because it’s just that; nitpicking. The story was great and I devoured it. After Welcome to the Dark Side it has now become my second favorite book in the series. If you love gritty MC, it’s definitely not to be missed. Giana is a talented author that can weave an addictive tale full of twists and turns that will have you glued to the pages.