Title: ⟫ These Deviant Ties (Dark MM Romance Anthology) Author: ⟫ Various
Blurb: ⟫ Deviants and delinquents...
These men exist outside the law. They walk in the shadows and thrive in the dark.
Bad to the bone, they take what they want.
What happens when what they want is you?
What happens when the anger that burns through their veins is now directed at you?
Can enemies really become lovers or is it just a losing game?
These Deviant Ties follows eleven authors who bring you steamy, dark MM stories that will make your toes curl and your heart pound.
Review: ⟫ My general review would be that the stories I have read so far were nowhere near as dark as I was expecting. I don’t know if that means I’ve got a really dark/dirty mind or that my expectations were too high, but none of them struck as me as particularly out there when it came to the relationships. That isn’t to say that the anthology doesn’t contain anything good – some were really well interesting and I will definitely be looking for other stories from some of the authors.
Individual reviews are below.
Below the Belt by Andi Rhodes
The first rule of fight club is – well, this isn’t that kind of fight club for a start. And the fighters aren’t all there voluntarily. This was fast, brutal and sexy in a very dark way. The relationship between Grizzly and Phantom was also fast, brutal and sexy but it made sense in the world in which they lived – they could hardly go out for tea and cupcakes! Not a lot of romance, but a LOT of chemistry! 4/5
Diavolo by Andrea Joy
This one felt a little misleading for a dark read. It started with torture and then took a turn that I didn’t expect. The writing was good – some of the descriptions of what Skyler and Ashton got up to were pleasantly toe-curling, but I’m not sure it fully belonged in this anthology. 3.5/5
In the Eyes of my Enemy by C P Harris
This went somewhere I wasn’t expecting with the reason behind the relationship not working out, so that was a good surprise. I liked it but this actual story didn’t stick with me particularly which is a shame because it was well written. 3.5/5
Caged in Shadows by Amy Thorn
I could imagine this on the small screen very much like Sons of Anarchy. Really well written, my heart went out to Shakespeare and you could definitely understand his motivations. I wish there had been more time spent with Liam – Shakespeare’s backstory was important but in a novella of this size, I felt too much time was spent on what had happened in the past rather than on his relationship with Liam. 3.75/5
Evil Beautiful by Rene Van Dalen
This story wasn’t my definition of dark but I did really enjoy it. Kellen sounded delicious and I loved that he wasn’t a walk-over, and I was intrigued by what I read of Gideon. I would definitely be interested in more mm romance by Rene Van Dalen, but this wasn’t anywhere near as dark as I was expecting/hoping. 4/5
Loan Shark by Nero Seal
This is a hard one to review because what happened between the two of them was straight up non-con, with nothing that I would call romance. I think as part of a bigger, longer story, things could have got much more interesting but as it stands, I can’t say I liked it. 2.5/5
