Sophie Lark

Remi Hayes is beginning to think she’s cursed —her fiancé cheated on her, her brother Jude is a major pain in her ass, and the moldering mansion she inherited from her uncle might just be haunted.

Flipping Blackleaf Manor already feels impossible, even before Remi is blackmailed by Dane Covett, the dangerously hot doctor-next-door, and Grimstone’s most eligible bachelor—if you can ignore the fact that everyone in town thinks he murdered his wife.

Remi doesn’t want to believe it, especially after Dane sews up a gash in her thigh and steals a kiss in payment—a kiss that makes it hard to walk for reasons that have nothing to do with an injured leg.

But as the renovation takes a strange and violent turn, Remi must decide if Dane is the one haunting her nights, or if he’s trying to protect her from something much worse…

Lark Notes :
Halloween is my favorite! I get such a thrill out of writing a spooky, dark book at this time of year. Remi and Dane are two deeply damaged people with skeletons in their closets. It’s only when they meet each other that they finally find the connection and acceptance that allows them to move on from their dark pasts. I fell in love with the gothic beach town of Grimstone, and will be writing a dark romance set there each autumn. – Sophie

"Grimstone" is a deeply dark contemporary romance and a complete standalone. Reader it has extremely spicy scenes and triggering content not suitable for all.

Grimstone

This duet was good. It may be Sophie’s writing style but there is just always something missing when I read her books and my reasoning above may not even be it. I still struggle trying to figure it out. But this was good, I think it would have been better for me to read in October, it gave those vibes more. But it was good, the mystery aspect of the book I think saved it from being rated lower for me. But what could have helped it more would be having that mystery aspect be integrated throughout the whole book and not be focused only at the end. But overall it was good, not my favorite Sophie book but not my least favorite either. 

Priscilla Stanfield

3.75/5⭐️ • 3/5🌶️

This duet was good. It may be Sophie’s writing style but there is just always something missing when I read her books and my reasoning above may not even be it. I still struggle trying to figure it out. But this was good, I think it would have been better for me to read in October, it gave those vibes more. But it was good, the mystery aspect of the book I think saved it from being rated lower for me. But what could have helped it more would be having that mystery aspect be integrated throughout the whole book and not be focused only at the end. But overall it was good, not my favorite Sophie book but not my least favorite either. 

aleksandra

1.5/5

Yep, after this book I am definitely parting ways with Sophie Lark. I forgot about it, but I actually read her Sinners Duet, which I end up rating two stars, and which should actually be a hint not to read her other books, but the blurb here seemed really interesting and I wanted to try this author one last time. As you can see, it wasn't the best idea.

Look, I genuinely think this book had some potential to be actually great. We have a heroine who has devoted her life to raising her brother after the death of their parents, and who moves to her deceased uncle's estate, which looks straight out of a horror movie. That's not all though, because it turns out that this property is next door to the house of an older, handsome doctor who doesn't have a very good reputation in this small town after his wife and son died. As you can see, it sounded like it would be an interesting story, perfect for October and the upcoming Halloween. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way.

It didn't take long for me to realize that this book was totally not for me. I stayed mainly because I wanted to find out why the hero's family died and see if I could find any more absurd quotes. Which leads to my main problem here. The writing. 


First off I just want to say that, be aware of what you are about to read here, because the shit I read in this book literally scared me.


  
    "her nipples harden like pencil points."

"whip those tiny tits until they’re rosy as apples,"
  


The hero actually had some weird obsession with her "tiny, tight little tits" because it felt like he talked about them ALL THE TIME. 


  
    "I hear the distinct sound of her hot piss hitting the bowl. My c*ck hardens."
  


I’m traumatized. 


  
    "I’m like a sock with a foot in it, stretched to his shape. My eyes roll back, and I don’t know what noises I’m making."

"My hand is like a saddle,"

"His c*ck springs out like a white cobra, thick with veins."

"showing an erection that could be used to drill to the center of the earth."

"I’m like those animations of sharks where they sniff the smallest drop of blood, and their eyes go black and they turn into killing machines."
  


I don't know, but it feels like the author was trying to be poetic or something, with all these comparisons, but it definitely didn't work out.


  
    "The heat and weight of his load splashes down like a bucket of lava poured right on my clit."
  


Like a bucket of lava? What the actual fuc-


  
    "pulse after pulse of thick, creamy come,"
  


Creamy? GAGGGGGG The worst thing is that, I think the story could have been quite interesting if the smut here didn’t exist. The hero didn't even ask about the heroine's sexual preferences and just went full BDSM on her. Also, I don't judge anyone's kinks, but the moment the heroine started f*cking the hero's foot, I kind of lost it. Put the trigger warnings for something like that. Please. 


The romance here didn't make me feel anything. It was insta lust, so definitely not my cup of tea. Dane's initial thoughts about her didn't help either, because how?


  
    "Her smile changes everything about her looks. Without it, she’s barely pretty,"
  



The reason I rated it one and a half stars instead of one is because I liked three things. The heroine wasn't so bad because she tried her best for her brother. There was one thing she did for her brother that I didn't support but overall, she was bearable. The illustrations were beautiful and the plot twist was quite great.


As you can see, this is unfortunately my last story by this author, as I'm not the biggest fan of her writing, and the writing style is quite important for me.

Decent dark romance in a mysterious town setting with a bunch of ‘interesting’ town characters.

Starts off as a slow-burn, but the spicy moment do go hard.

The Darkness mostly comes from the situational trauma and earlier trauma of the characters and how they’re left to deal with it. 

There are several T.W. so do check it before reading, however, it isn’t as dark as some of S Lark’s other titles.

Rabia Sitabi

Decent dark romance in a mysterious town setting with a bunch of ‘interesting’ town characters.

Starts off as a slow-burn, but the spicy moment do go hard.

The Darkness mostly comes from the situational trauma and earlier trauma of the characters and how they’re left to deal with it. 

There are several T.W. so do check it before reading, however, it isn’t as dark as some of S Lark’s other titles.

marta 

☆═━┈2 Starts┈━═☆

I'm so sorry. I really wanted to like this book, but it just wasn't it.

First, let's start with the only positive thing that I can say, which is that I loved the gothic vibes. Now onto the not-so-positive things:

Characters 

For me, characters are one of the most important things in a book. You can give me a no-plot book with great characters and be happy with it. But that is clearly not the case; the characters lack depth heavily and lack cohesion, and an example of this is Emma (the best friend of a dead character). She does not like Dean through the hole book, but suddenly, at the end, she decides to like him with a laughable excuse. Why would she? Because she is the only friend that the main character has, and that is her only purpose in the book.
Also, why is the main character's brother the most interesting character out of all of them (view spoiler)[ even if the plot twist is so out of pocket  (hide spoiler)], and why is Dane's brother way hotter than him even if he only appears once??


Relationship 
Again, if this relationship happened in a book with a way heavier plot, I wouldn't mind the way that it was done. It was insta-love; they met fuck around and at some point decided that they fell in love :) I have read a lot of Sophie Lark's books, and they don't feel like this at all. I really don't know what happened with this book.


Plot
Finally, there is the plot, or the lack of it because nothing happens until the last 10%, and it's so predictable that it's laughable. I was so bored since almost the beginning of it.

j ♡

Remi Hayes is beginning to think she’s cursed —her fiancé cheated on her, her brother Jude is a major pain in her ass, and the moldering mansion she inherited from her uncle might just be haunted.

Flipping Blackleaf Manor already feels impossible, even before Remi is blackmailed by Dane Covett, the dangerously hot doctor-next-door, and Grimstone’s most eligible bachelor—if you can ignore the fact that everyone in town thinks he murdered his wife.

Remi doesn’t want to believe it, especially after Dane sews up a gash in her thigh and steals a kiss in payment—a kiss that makes it hard to walk for reasons that have nothing to do with an injured leg.

But as the renovation takes a strange and violent turn, Remi must decide if Dane is the one haunting her nights, or if he’s trying to protect her from something much worse…

Halloween is my favorite! I get such a thrill out of writing a spooky, dark book at this time of year. Remi and Dane are two deeply damaged people with skeletons in their closets. It’s only when they meet each other that they finally find the connection and acceptance that allows them to move on from their dark pasts. I fell in love with the gothic beach town of Grimstone, and will be writing a dark romance set there each autumn. – Sophie

"Grimstone" is a deeply dark contemporary romance and a complete standalone. Reader it has extremely spicy scenes and triggering content not suitable for all.

Grimstone

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