3.5⭐️ 3🌶️
MOOD: adventurous, emotional, funny
TROPES: forced proximity, enemies to lovers (lite), hurt/comfort (lite), bully (lite)
GENRES: contemporary, paranormal/supernatural
FAV QUOTE:  Funny how we fear the shadows only to find comfort and pleasure in them.
New one, LEAST FAVORITE QUOTE: "I will always forgive you and give you more chances than you deserve because I love you..." I read that and said ewww 

MAIN CHARACTERS: Stella (Human) and Kastoron (Shadow Demon)

THE GOOD: I love the beginning of the book. The introduction of the characters and their initial reactions and interactions to each other are amazing. It's feisty and funny and a great way to set up their bully/enemies to lovers type arc. That being said, I kind of lost interest about half way through. There's no real conflict and the forced proximity is really forced in Kastoron's case and as much as I hate a 3rd act breakup, in this instance, all of the blips in their relationship feel super forced and overly dramatic. 
THE NEUTRAL: I'm all about a Consent King, especially in the realms of BDSM/Kink and Dark/Grey romances BUT there are a lot of Kas' lines that feel really forced when you take into account his age and how long he's been trapped in that house. There are also some conversations between Kas and Stella later in the story about why they like/are attracted to each other that don't really make sense. It's all "I like you because XYZ," but the XYZ hasn't been shown in any way and while stuff can happen off the page there hasn't been a lot of time for that to happen, and given that he's trapped and she works from home, it just felt odd.
THE MEH: From the description of the Shadow demon being a Daddy dom and the CW, I thought it would be spicier. Also, as someone who 100% judges books by their cover, and their title, the cover doesn't match the character description for Stella.

Repeat words: snicker and chuckle - it just got annoying to read

CW, provided by author: explicit language, violence, sexual scenes, sexual violence, abuse, alcohol and drug use, dub-con/CNC, bdsm elements and tones, mentions of assault, edge play (breath play, restraints, anal. 
DISCLAIMER: I received an advance review copy. This is my honest review.