Cheryl's Book Nook

Title: Venomous Games Series: The Venomous Series Author: T.L. Smith Genre: Dark Romance Tropes: Secret Society; Forced Marriage; Marriage of Convenience; Enemies to Married Couple; "We have to pretend we're happily married"; Bound by Duty; Reluctant Partners; Opposites Attract; Detective x Assassin; Secret Identity Release Date: September 24, 2026 Cover Design: RBA Designs Discreet Design: Hang Le He was supposed to catch killers, not marry one. Detective Boston has built a career on hunting dangerous people. Rules don’t scare him. Blood doesn’t bother him. And morality has always been … negotiable. But nothing prepares him for the night he walks in to find her. An assassin for hire with electric blue hair, a blade in her hand, and no intention of being caught. He should arrest her. Instead, he makes her an offer. Marry him, and he’ll keep her secret. Refuse, and her life will fall apart. For him, it’s a calculated move. For her, it’s blackm...

  Three authors. Two morally grey characters. One deadly world. In the silence of the morgue, she fixes what violence ruins. Bullet wounds disappear beneath careful stitching. Evidence vanishes. Secrets are buried with the dead. Every crew in the city relies on her. All except one. The largest. The most powerful. The one even other criminals fear. She has spent years avoiding them. Until the night their leader walks through her doors. He does not shout. He does not threaten. He simply watches her work, calm, immaculate, disturbingly intrigued. When he tells her she will be working for him from now on, it sounds less like a request and more like fate closing in. She refuses. He returns. Again. And again. And again. The more she resists, the more fascinated he becomes. He calls her extraordinary. Says her talent is wasted on small men with smaller ambitions. Says beautiful things belong in powerful hands. He thinks she will bend. He has no idea she has been surrounded by monsters her...

  I was supposed to expose him. Soren Nixon, the untouchable media mogul, the one who hides behind locked doors and whispered oaths. My job was simple. Uncover the truth behind The Forsaken Society. But nothing about him is simple. I found a man who is carved from control and sin, who spends his free time fighting in underground rings to feel something real. He’s dangerous in ways I can’t write about, intoxicating in ways I can’t resist. Every secret pulls me deeper into his world. Every touch makes me forget my purpose. He’s everything I should fear. But when he looks at me as if I am already his, I start to wonder. Maybe the story I have been chasing is the one that will destroy me. My Review Yes, my new book boyfriend is Soren. He is so deviously yummy! I loved every moment of this book. It was a catch twenty-two as I was devouring this book so fast but at the same time, I was trying to savor it to make it last longer as I did not want it to end.  Cressida is amazing. I lov...

Title: Venomous Attraction Author: T.L. Smith Genre: Dark Romance Tropes: Secret Society; Morally Grey Hero; Obsessed MMC; Touch Her and Die; He Falls First; Billionaire Anti-Hero; Possessive Vibes; Strong Independent FMC   He’s supposed to fix broken minds. Instead, he’s unraveling mine. Thread by thread. Dangerous. Obsessive. Addictive. He’s not the settling down type. Too bad I’m not in the market for a fling. I’ve played the game enough times to know a man like that is used to getting his way. Before I can stop myself, I’m tangled in his dark web. Paralyzed by the way I want him. The harder I push, the tighter he pulls. It started as an attraction, but now it’s bordering on venomous. My Review Arlo is almost pitch black and I love him. The way that he is utterly "unhinged" for Cora is why we romance readers love our book boyfriends. If this was real life, Arlo would be someone to get a restraining order against. Yet, every obsessed man needs an e...