Name: Carnage
Rating: 4.115384615384615 (13 reviews)

Shantel Tessier

Carnage

A PUPPET
The men in the secret society known as the Lords think they rule the world. And in a way, they do. Each has sold their soul to the devil at a young age in exchange for power and wealth. Like anything else, they have different levels of success. The more they’re willing to serve, the more power they have.

Among them are the Spade brothers, who run Carnage. It’s where the Lords who have not held up their oath go to live out the rest of their lives in shackles. Tucked away from the world as if they never existed.

I VOW. YOU VOW. WE VOW.

I once belonged to a Lord—Saint Beckham Carter. Although nothing was holy about him, I still kneeled as if he could grant me eternity in a world where only evil existed.

At the time, I willingly vowed to be his and allowed him to share me with his “brothers.” But things changed. And what I thought couldn’t get any better got exceptionally worse. So I did the only thing I could and ran from him, knowing I could never return.

Now he’s found me and dragged me back to his hell, where he will make me his pet. The world already thinks I’m dead, so no one will miss me. And I’m just another name on a long list of those who will never know freedom.

What he doesn’t know is why I ran from him in the first place. A Lord doesn’t listen to reason, so it’s not like he’d care anyway. Saint was born a Lord, and he will die as one.

If life has taught me anything, it’s that we all pay for our sins. And Saint will never let me forget that my place is at Carnage, serving him on my knees until death is granted.

The L. O. R. D. S, #5

Thoughts I had while reading : Ashtyn teasing the shit out of Saint knowing he can’t touch her until the vow ceremony is top tier. 

Of fuckinggg course, Saint will do anything to keep ash safe, even if he has to brand her,  or keep her tied up, and never to see light again.

Anyway onto the review. This rollercoaster of a book, phew. Carnage is the fifth book in the lords series by shantel tessier. It is not a standalone, previous books should be read before reading this one in order to understand their world and to avoid spoilers. Carnage was a heavy book for me. 

It made me feel things, just like the second book — the sinner. Sin, and Ellie going through so much tougher and individually, I really can’t stop myself but want them to have a life together. 

Https://shanteltessier.com/trigger-warnings/

Writing style : descriptive, easy to read. (This book many time skips, and flashbacks, but shantel nailed it). 

MMC : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐— saint beckham carter.

side characters :  haidyn jamison reeves, I want to go read this book, but i know i also had enough of the lords dosage to my system, i’m overwhelmed, don’t need more. Probably wait a little before starting madness. Kashton, gavin, devin, tyson (my fav boy) and sin, it was so good to see them in this book. Saint got tattooed and pierced after their fathers died, and they had carnage to run by themselves. The cluster fuck of shit that happens before that though. 🤯Story setting : secret society. 

Summary : <spoiler>i can’t summarise this well, but I will try. The spade brothers’s world is different than the lords. More cruel, dark, and definitely disturbing. Saint goes through three initiations to prove his loyalty, devotion and commitment to the lords. If you read the previous books, you know the drill. Initiation, tests, assignments, and then you’re a lord. And a chosen is given to them to do with whatever they please. Fine, my mind won’t shut up, so barrington University is a home to a secret doctor run by the lords. The lords are the most powerful men who have power and control basically everything. To become a lord, a man has to go through initiations, prove his loyalty to the lords, throughout the three years they spent in the University. They are absolutely refrain from sex, or they’ll be removed, until their senior year, they get a chosen, a woman, or a lady — as they call it, and do with whatever they please. If a lord decides to share her, they can. However, if a lord pisses the other high lords, then he can be removed just as easily. In the spade brothers’s world, only a spade brothers’s child can continue their legacy. Saint, kashton, and haidyn are all spade brothers, not born from blood, but they have always been together.

They share everything, including their chosen. Saint goes through three initiations before he becomes a lord. And gets branded with the 666 carnage brand. Carnage is a place of the secret society where a lord who was done wrong is punished ruthlessly, and carnage is run by their fathers, before saint, kashton, and haidyn take over. Adam, ashtyn’s brother fucks something up with the lords and goes missing, along with her father. Ashtyn’s mother is killed by tyson, another lord. (Tyson’s book is the third — the sacrifice). So, ash is dead to the world, and therefore, saint decides to keep her locked in carnage, since the fathers want her dead, and saint loves her, so he agrees, and initiates her into carnage. Being branded with the 666 carnage symbol. Ashtyn wanted to be with saint, but as she watches him, and what carnage is, she realises that she does not want to stay there and flees away for four years. Four years, she suffers, and then saint gets her back to carnage, a changed man, because carnage may have been a bad place under their father’s rules, but it gets worse when they run it. The trio — saint, kash, and haidyn — they are changed men, saint no longer wants to love her, but loves her, and hates her for running because things get messed up, they are all trained after she leaves, and messy things happen to them. Ashtyn is seeing a therapist — ellie’s mother — laura. (Ellie, the FMC in the sinner, the second book on this series). She’s fucked up, and she also severely traumatises ash. Ash gets punished everyday of her life because saint refuses to see past his revenge and the anger he feels when ash runs away. Ash is kidnapped again by James, her former boyfriend, who she lived with when she ran away from saint. She also loses her baby, which wasn’t saint’s. She does not tell him, and also keep the secret that haidyn helped her run away. Things take a messy turn when saint figures out that she was taken by ace, and Adam, who was ash’s brother wanted to help, but he couldn’t, so all he could do is bring back haidyn to life, well, he was just pretending to be dead. Not actually dead. It was a bait so they kidnappers would let ash go. It ends in a bloodbath. Saint gets ash back, and if you have read the second and the third books in the series, you’ll know what happens. Laura is taken to carnage, (like she should, the bitch was flapping her wings too much) and Nicholas is freed, because sin exchanged his life to her nico (ellie’s father) back, if nico was freed, maybe Ellie wouldn’t have suffered so much at the hands of her mother laura. Nicholas also helped saint during his initiations. Carnage is a place of blood, murder, death, and reeks of torture and more fucked up shit. Ash should have told saint about the kid, but doesn’t. Probably because she thought the child would suffer, because carnage is no place for a child, as per saint’s words. Carnage becomes a place for all the people who piss the lords off. Whitney (ellie’s sister, luke, ace (James) are all thrown and suffer. But laura being the motherfucker she is, shows up pregnant, and Ellie and sin decide to keep the child and raise it as their own. (Yikes, having to raise your own brother as your child, because parents were stupid enough to make a mistake like that).  They have an hea, but fuck, it’s earned. I wonder how haidyn and Charlotte’s story goes. Really curious about him.</spoiler>

Pacing : slow to fast. It starts slow, and then the plot starts making sense. 

Tags for the book : blood, torture, death, violence, murder. This book is so dark, needs more than trigger warnings. Please read them. So kinky too. What i loved : saint, haidyn. And tyson. I loved the story, and am currently feeling the after effects of it. I feel like I got stuck in a storm. Uh, this book was heavy. But i loved saint, and kashton, and haidyn, want to see more of them. I also loved the ways in which saint protested and fought for his loved ones, everyone. The side characters stood out for me. 

Favourite parts/ highlights : saint’s protection, obsession, and love for ashtyn. I don’t know how i feel about ash, she went through things she shouldn’t have, but then ahain, some things are not in our control, is it? Saint’s killing spree, yeah, i loved that. Man will go to any extremes to have ash, and free her of the men who tormented his wife. Saint “my wife” carter, you won my heart. You are twisted. Yes. Do i care? Fucking no. Still love you. I don’t get why ashtyn is hated. 

Strong character development : yes, but not too much.

Interconnected/ or standalone : interconnected. <b>Cannot</b> be read as a standalone. 

Recs from the same author : if you loved this book, then you’d love other books in this series too, however a spade brothers’s world is different than the lords’s. Just a little. You may want to read madness, and chaotic after you are finished with this one. 

Similar books : if you love secret society and less smutty books, then. 

1) loving the liar by lola king. (A brother’s best friend, angsty, dark romance). 

2) loving the reaper by Lola king. (A best friends to lovers angsty dark romance). 

Last details : carnage was a heavy read, but i enjoyed it. The book took my sanity and is not giving it back. Shantel is an exceptional writer, this book is 600 pages long, wow. I was so curious about them, when they were all mentioned in tyson’s book. (The sacrifice), and now I know what their world looks like. So fucked up. Wow. I need to go take a break before i can step in again and start another book in this series. But shantel if you are reading this, I DEFINITELY WANT A SECOND GENERATION’S BOOKS. PLEASE. it would be so amazing to read Holston, and heartlyn’s books. Also, can we talk about how tinsley is such a diva. 🤌🏼💅🏼

Girl planned murder on the boy who pushed her to embarass her. Loved her too. More than ash. Sorry. I don’t hate ash, but i don’t love her either. I want to see tinsley’s book, she’s 18, but she slayyyys. 💅🏼😌😮‍💨 Shantel, please so consider writing for them, mm? Also, just heard that there’s another book coming in the lords’s series, yayy. I can’t get enough of this series, what a treat! 🌸

ruhaani ♡

Thoughts I had while reading : Ashtyn teasing the shit out of Saint knowing he can’t touch her until the vow ceremony is top tier. 

Of fuckinggg course, Saint will do anything to keep ash safe, even if he has to brand her,  or keep her tied up, and never to see light again.

Anyway onto the review. This rollercoaster of a book, phew. Carnage is the fifth book in the lords series by shantel tessier. It is not a standalone, previous books should be read before reading this one in order to understand their world and to avoid spoilers. Carnage was a heavy book for me. 

It made me feel things, just like the second book — the sinner. Sin, and Ellie going through so much tougher and individually, I really can’t stop myself but want them to have a life together. 

Spoiler ahead ‼️

Https://shanteltessier.com/trigger-warnings/

Story : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Plot : ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Writing style : descriptive, easy to read. (This book many time skips, and flashbacks, but shantel nailed it). 

MMC : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐— saint beckham carter.

FMC : ⭐⭐⭐ — ashtyn lane price. 

side characters :  haidyn jamison reeves, I want to go read this book, but i know i also had enough of the lords dosage to my system, i’m overwhelmed, don’t need more. Probably wait a little before starting madness. Kashton, gavin, devin, tyson (my fav boy) and sin, it was so good to see them in this book. Saint got tattooed and pierced after their fathers died, and they had carnage to run by themselves. The cluster fuck of shit that happens before that though. 🤯Story setting : secret society. 

Summary : <spoiler>i can’t summarise this well, but I will try. The spade brothers’s world is different than the lords. More cruel, dark, and definitely disturbing. Saint goes through three initiations to prove his loyalty, devotion and commitment to the lords. If you read the previous books, you know the drill. Initiation, tests, assignments, and then you’re a lord. And a chosen is given to them to do with whatever they please. Fine, my mind won’t shut up, so barrington University is a home to a secret doctor run by the lords. The lords are the most powerful men who have power and control basically everything. To become a lord, a man has to go through initiations, prove his loyalty to the lords, throughout the three years they spent in the University. They are absolutely refrain from sex, or they’ll be removed, until their senior year, they get a chosen, a woman, or a lady — as they call it, and do with whatever they please. If a lord decides to share her, they can. However, if a lord pisses the other high lords, then he can be removed just as easily. In the spade brothers’s world, only a spade brothers’s child can continue their legacy. Saint, kashton, and haidyn are all spade brothers, not born from blood, but they have always been together.

They share everything, including their chosen. Saint goes through three initiations before he becomes a lord. And gets branded with the 666 carnage brand. Carnage is a place of the secret society where a lord who was done wrong is punished ruthlessly, and carnage is run by their fathers, before saint, kashton, and haidyn take over. Adam, ashtyn’s brother fucks something up with the lords and goes missing, along with her father. Ashtyn’s mother is killed by tyson, another lord. (Tyson’s book is the third — the sacrifice). So, ash is dead to the world, and therefore, saint decides to keep her locked in carnage, since the fathers want her dead, and saint loves her, so he agrees, and initiates her into carnage. Being branded with the 666 carnage symbol. Ashtyn wanted to be with saint, but as she watches him, and what carnage is, she realises that she does not want to stay there and flees away for four years. Four years, she suffers, and then saint gets her back to carnage, a changed man, because carnage may have been a bad place under their father’s rules, but it gets worse when they run it. The trio — saint, kash, and haidyn — they are changed men, saint no longer wants to love her, but loves her, and hates her for running because things get messed up, they are all trained after she leaves, and messy things happen to them. Ashtyn is seeing a therapist — ellie’s mother — laura. (Ellie, the FMC in the sinner, the second book on this series). She’s fucked up, and she also severely traumatises ash. Ash gets punished everyday of her life because saint refuses to see past his revenge and the anger he feels when ash runs away. Ash is kidnapped again by James, her former boyfriend, who she lived with when she ran away from saint. She also loses her baby, which wasn’t saint’s. She does not tell him, and also keep the secret that haidyn helped her run away. Things take a messy turn when saint figures out that she was taken by ace, and Adam, who was ash’s brother wanted to help, but he couldn’t, so all he could do is bring back haidyn to life, well, he was just pretending to be dead. Not actually dead. It was a bait so they kidnappers would let ash go. It ends in a bloodbath. Saint gets ash back, and if you have read the second and the third books in the series, you’ll know what happens. Laura is taken to carnage, (like she should, the bitch was flapping her wings too much) and Nicholas is freed, because sin exchanged his life to her nico (ellie’s father) back, if nico was freed, maybe Ellie wouldn’t have suffered so much at the hands of her mother laura. Nicholas also helped saint during his initiations. Carnage is a place of blood, murder, death, and reeks of torture and more fucked up shit. Ash should have told saint about the kid, but doesn’t. Probably because she thought the child would suffer, because carnage is no place for a child, as per saint’s words. Carnage becomes a place for all the people who piss the lords off. Whitney (ellie’s sister, luke, ace (James) are all thrown and suffer. But laura being the motherfucker she is, shows up pregnant, and Ellie and sin decide to keep the child and raise it as their own. (Yikes, having to raise your own brother as your child, because parents were stupid enough to make a mistake like that).  They have an hea, but fuck, it’s earned. I wonder how haidyn and Charlotte’s story goes. Really curious about him.</spoiler>

Pacing : slow to fast. It starts slow, and then the plot starts making sense. 

Tropes : ☑️secret society.

☑️ dark romance. 

☑️touch her and meet god. 

☑️Sharing of the heroine. 

☑️smutty. 🤯

☑️kinky. 

Type of romance : dark. 

Tags for the book : blood, torture, death, violence, murder. This book is so dark, needs more than trigger warnings. Please read them. So kinky too. What i loved : saint, haidyn. And tyson. I loved the story, and am currently feeling the after effects of it. I feel like I got stuck in a storm. Uh, this book was heavy. But i loved saint, and kashton, and haidyn, want to see more of them. I also loved the ways in which saint protested and fought for his loved ones, everyone. The side characters stood out for me. 

Favourite parts/ highlights : saint’s protection, obsession, and love for ashtyn. I don’t know how i feel about ash, she went through things she shouldn’t have, but then ahain, some things are not in our control, is it? Saint’s killing spree, yeah, i loved that. Man will go to any extremes to have ash, and free her of the men who tormented his wife. Saint “my wife” carter, you won my heart. You are twisted. Yes. Do i care? Fucking no. Still love you. I don’t get why ashtyn is hated. 

Is a part of a series : yes.

Series name : the L.O.R.D.S 

Series order number : 5 of 7. 

Plot or character driven : A mix. 

Loveable characters : yes. 

Strong character development : yes, but not too much.

Flaws of characters a main focus : yes. 

Interconnected/ or standalone : interconnected. <b>Cannot</b> be read as a standalone. 

Recs from the same author : if you loved this book, then you’d love other books in this series too, however a spade brothers’s world is different than the lords’s. Just a little. You may want to read madness, and chaotic after you are finished with this one. 

Similar books : if you love secret society and less smutty books, then. 

1) loving the liar by lola king. (A brother’s best friend, angsty, dark romance). 

2) loving the reaper by Lola king. (A best friends to lovers angsty dark romance). 

Last details : carnage was a heavy read, but i enjoyed it. The book took my sanity and is not giving it back. Shantel is an exceptional writer, this book is 600 pages long, wow. I was so curious about them, when they were all mentioned in tyson’s book. (The sacrifice), and now I know what their world looks like. So fucked up. Wow. I need to go take a break before i can step in again and start another book in this series. But shantel if you are reading this, I DEFINITELY WANT A SECOND GENERATION’S BOOKS. PLEASE. it would be so amazing to read Holston, and heartlyn’s books. Also, can we talk about how tinsley is such a diva. 🤌🏼💅🏼

Girl planned murder on the boy who pushed her to embarass her. Loved her too. More than ash. Sorry. I don’t hate ash, but i don’t love her either. I want to see tinsley’s book, she’s 18, but she slayyyys. 💅🏼😌😮‍💨 Shantel, please so consider writing for them, mm? Also, just heard that there’s another book coming in the lords’s series, yayy. I can’t get enough of this series, what a treat! 🌸

This is weirdly the closest thing to a second chance romance that I will get in this series😂

So the first half of this book I felt was incredibly tame for what this series has consisted of and I really liked it, but once that part 2 hit the switch was flipped and I was worried this would feel like book 2 antics would occur again. But instead of that the book focused primarily on plot. Don’t worry the spice was there just not what I expected it to be. It’s really hard to explain my thought process on this. Outside of the relationship between the characters the plot is really dark compared to what has happened especially on page, so please read that content warning page because it is detailed, explicit, and can be triggering for readers. 

Priscilla Stanfield

4/5⭐️ • 5/5🌶️

This is weirdly the closest thing to a second chance romance that I will get in this series😂

So the first half of this book I felt was incredibly tame for what this series has consisted of and I really liked it, but once that part 2 hit the switch was flipped and I was worried this would feel like book 2 antics would occur again. But instead of that the book focused primarily on plot. Don’t worry the spice was there just not what I expected it to be. It’s really hard to explain my thought process on this. Outside of the relationship between the characters the plot is really dark compared to what has happened especially on page, so please read that content warning page because it is detailed, explicit, and can be triggering for readers. 

jenna

Renata

holy fuck, this was one of my most anticipated reads and it didn't disappoint me, i feel like ive been through hell and back to get that ending but it was damm worth it, saint and ashtyn were amazing and most of all made for eachother i loved this i cant wait for the other books agh 

- "Ashtyn Lane Price belongs to me. She just doesn't know it yet. But she will, very soon. And once I make her mine, the world will know it too."

- "but she's exactly what I want, and I compare every woman I see to her. Not a single one even comes close."

- "I've waited years to have her. She's mine. I refuse to let the Lords take the one thing I want away from me. Not when I've already given them so much. They can have whatever I have, except for her. She's off-limits."

- "Ashtyn was made to be mine. I've always felt that way about her. And any man would be lucky to have her. That's why I'm going to take her. I saw her first and wanted her first. I'm in it for the long game. Even if that means I have to chain her up in my basement to keep her away from the world that seems to want to take her from me."

- "I love you, Ashtyn." It's the first time I've ever said those words out loud, to anyone. But I've felt it for years.
"Please..."
"Remember that, sweetheart. I love you so much that I have to hurt you." She shakes her head, tears filling her pretty blue eyes. She's starting to come back around, and my chest tightens. She'll survive. But I can't promise my love won't be what kills us both. The Lords have taught me to fight until death to get what I want. I'll do the same for her."

- "I love you, Ash."
"No," 
"Yes." "I've been in love with you." "And when forced to choose-keep you or let you go—I will hurt you before I live a life without you."

- "Would you end my life if it was the only way to save me?"
"No," "I never want to exist in a world without you in it, sweetheart."

- "Everything with Ashtyn has always been complicated. I love her. I hate her. It's always been black or white. Never any gray areas."

- "She's always been the girl of my dreams-the one I
wanted and needed."

- "But it's only a half-truth because she won't actually leave Carnage. She'll be buried here in the cemetery next to me, where we'll remain together forever just like we said that day in the cathedral when she became mine. We took vows, and I took them very seriously, even if she thought they were a joke."

- "We all enter our office, and I walk to my desk. I catch sight of the picture on my desk of the four of us from years ago. The one Elli had seen when she visited. It's our senior year at Barrington. She's got a smile on her face. The guys aren't smiling, but you can see how protective they are of her. I knew that if anything ever happened to me, they would make sure she was taken care of. That's all I ever wanted. To make sure that she got everything I ever wanted her to have-the world.
Now she's gone. Naked, bleeding, and probably crying. She needs me, and I'm nowhere to be found.
Maybe Haidyn was right...I should have never brought her back here. She deserves a life outside of here. Without me."

- "Ashtyn Lane Price.." I start, and her lips part. "I'm in love with you." She blinks, and the first tear falls. "I've been in love with you all my life. This is me, a Lord, asking you to be my Lady. Will you marry me, sweetheart?"

- "I don't deserve the life I have. I get to lie in bed with my wife at night, holding her, loving her, and talking about our future while during the day, I'm covered in another man or woman's blood, making them pay for their betrayal. I'm not sure what I did to deserve the life I have, but I'll do anything to keep it."

- "I was born a Spade brother, but I will die a husband and a father. And when I am buried in our cemetery and arrive at the gates of hell, I'll smile because I'll already know what to expect from the devil. A very short life with my family is worth an eternity of damnation."

This is like a 3.75 to me. Doesn’t compare to The Ritual or The Sacrifice, but I still found myself needing to flip the page over and over and had to know what was next. Main disappointment was how disconnected I felt from the MMC and the FMC I didn’t find myself caring about them like have have past characters on the series. The only time I felt anything for Ashtyn was when she left Saint at the end of part one. Other than that, they were hard to appreciate. Spice was great, the the romance/relationship was meh. 

Kristen G

Be sure to check the triggers because boy it was a lot! I was so happy to get back to the Lord world - the first half was absolute perfection, with the tension, world building. The second half? It felt so rushed, after what Ash endured. 😭 I still love every single book S Tessier puts out 🥹

brittney arthur

The men in the secret society known as the Lords think they rule the world. And in a way, they do. Each has sold their soul to the devil at a young age in exchange for power and wealth. Like anything else, they have different levels of success. The more they’re willing to serve, the more power they have.

Among them are the Spade brothers, who run Carnage. It’s where the Lords who have not held up their oath go to live out the rest of their lives in shackles. Tucked away from the world as if they never existed.

I VOW. YOU VOW. WE VOW.

I once belonged to a Lord—Saint Beckham Carter. Although nothing was holy about him, I still kneeled as if he could grant me eternity in a world where only evil existed.

At the time, I willingly vowed to be his and allowed him to share me with his “brothers.” But things changed. And what I thought couldn’t get any better got exceptionally worse. So I did the only thing I could and ran from him, knowing I could never return.

Now he’s found me and dragged me back to his hell, where he will make me his pet. The world already thinks I’m dead, so no one will miss me. And I’m just another name on a long list of those who will never know freedom.

What he doesn’t know is why I ran from him in the first place. A Lord doesn’t listen to reason, so it’s not like he’d care anyway. Saint was born a Lord, and he will die as one.

If life has taught me anything, it’s that we all pay for our sins. And Saint will never let me forget that my place is at Carnage, serving him on my knees until death is granted.

Carnage

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