Recent Reads: Lovely Violent Things by Trisha Wolfe

Lovely Violent Things by Trisha Wolfe

Series: Hollow Row #2
Publisher: Lock Key Press
Publication Date:  March 29, 2023

 

Format: Ebook
Source: Borrowed - Kindle Unlimited

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

He’s the devil. And she’s his wicked game.

Book two in the Hollow's Row series.

The night I gave in to Kallum Locke, I sold my soul to the devil. Now that devil has returned for me, a daemon siphoning off what soul I have left.

The Harbinger killer has descended on Hollow’s Row amid an active case, where I’ve been hired as a consultant to profile two killers. One offering gruesome sacrifices to obtain an ancient philosophy, and the other a bad omen from my past.

A dark truth hovers at the edge of my memories—but is it real, or a trick by the chaos magician himself, meant to trap me in his web of lies and corruption.

Kallum is too consuming, his clashing green-and-blue eyes staring into my depths, demanding I feel the frenzy he teased from my soul.

I have to escape him.

I’ve tasted Halen St. James, my muse of heartbreak. I’ve sank my teeth into her tender flesh, lapped at her tears, marked her as mine…

So I’ll be damned if I let her go now. Not this time—not when I’m so close to revealing our truth. It’s easy to be tricked when you believe your own lies. And, oh, how my little Halen loves her pretty lies.

She’s obsessed with naming me the killer. She’s afraid of me, but I’m not the danger she should fear.

The moth is attracted to sweetness—and my little Halen is the sweetest damn thing.

Halen needs her big bad villain to protect her.

Trigger warnings: Mention of loss of loved ones, grief, attempted SA, violence, gore, murder, detailed crime scenes, knife / sharp object / blood play, breath play, occult references and rituals 

Review: 

This is such a dark series. Halen and Kallum are tasked with solving a case that has now taken several body parts from several victims and left them in a swamp. While the crime scene is eerie already, it is made more maddening that there are no full bodies, and there are random clues spread throughout the swamp. 

When last we left Halen and Kallum, they were unassigned from the case, but brought back on by the locals. At the start of this book, they are both being brought back in and there is a new scene to analyze, but there is also the matter of ensuring Kallum is kept close. Halen still believes he is somehow a part of the Harbinger case as well, but can't figure out why she feels so strongly for him. 

I think that this series so far has done well at the darkness. Kallum is psychotic for sure, but his obsession is what seems to drive him. Halen is also full of sadness and trauma and while she tries to keep it together there is always a breaking point and Kallum is trying to give her the opportunity to break safely under his watch. She isn't comfortable with that but it seems like he if the first in a long time to give her this option and so she leans into it more than she would like. 

There are a lot of emotions at play thoughout their 'romance' if you can call it that. I think that there is something to be said for broken finds broken and they can help each other heal. That being said, I think most are reading the series for Kallum's sexy, dark, weirdness, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is a plot as well, its mystery is interesting and I liked the philosophy that is tied throughout the crimes. I like the dynamic between Halen and the other law enforcement and moreso her relationship with Kallum. Is it twisted, yes, but it hits right.