Den of Vipers

My first DNF for 2023...
I don't know how you can go through almost 700 pages without a plot. There is literally no interest in this book, no plot. I tried to read it and I also tried the audiobook which was soooo much worse because of Diesel's voice and grunting.

So these men kidnap a woman because her father sold her, the author never explains, why, or even why they choose to do it at that point of time, you would expect this to have something to do at least with birthday etc, but no, they just decide to take her a random night.
I got up to chapter 28, I struggled to get there as there was no plot, nothing to hook on, nothing to wait for.

What the Wattpad did I just read :(

STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK. It's so horrible and I've never dropped a book so fast in my life. DNF 10% of the way in. So many of the scenes get so close to r*pe that I can not continue. If you're into that by all means go ahead. The writing and characters are so boring and one note. One of the guys is a literal psychopath and not in a cute way. How this has an almost 4 star rating I couldn't tell you. I blame TikTok.

This restored my faith in the mafia RH genre

I'm sure you've already read the summary of what the book is about, so I won't bore you repeating it. I've read a LOT of RH, Mafia, bad guy (all in the same book or one of the 3) and honestly I was getting tired of the same story line with different names, geographical locations and a couple of things to try and make it different. This book is amazing! I'm not sure what made it different except maybe K.A. Knight is just a fan-freaking-tastic author. The FMC and MMC's are all incredible. Their back stories and personalities so well developed that I felt like they were friends by the end of the book. Off in the head and dark friends, but friends none the less. The FMC is an insanely brave woman, who survived a bad upbringing and life on the streets to become this epic, tattoo'd, tough, confident biotch. The MMC's are loyal and true family and I loved them all, regardless of how dark, depraved and unalivey as they act throughout the story. Just a great book.

Den of Vipers was unnecessarily long. I was struggling to get through the last 250ish pages. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it didn't drag on. Honestly, I can't even recall what I liked about it because of the struggle to just get through it bc I can not DNF.

3.5 stars

Mafia dark romance, with a shit ton of red flags. Also Knox & Garrett <3

If you're gonna tease a fivesome at least bloody write it - half a star down just for that

It was alright but I thought around 80% into the book that the ending got predictable, it was a lot of sexual content which I enjoy but it became very obvious what would happen in the plot early on which was kinda disappointing.

[MY RATING] 6.5-7/10
- SPICINESS: 7/10 coz these men r so hot LMFAOOOO and also bonus cos it explored more unusual kinks u dont really see normally in books

[SOME SPOILERS AHEAD]

[PLOT, WRITING, WORLD-BUILDING, PACING & CHARACTERS]
- i loved the first half of the book the story was SO GOOD HAHAHAHAH
- it was my first mafia novel and i can definitely see why women eat this shit up bc i ate it up as well LMFAO
- I cannot decide, for the life of me, who is my favourite boy. LMAO i would say it's probably diesel because he's got this weirdly sweet and gentle and romantic side to him?? but GAH the gun and knife play would probably be too much for me if i was roxy. my other fav boy candidate is probably garett because he grew on me.

- I do have a few complaints, however:
1) It was extremely unrealistic in a few cases!
let's take roxy's hatred towards them for example. how tf did she go from hating all of them to falling for all of them within A WEEK?!?!? ma'am i know they are super hot but like THEY STILL KIDNAPPED U AND LOCKED U IN THEIR HOUSE HAHAHAHA
for it to be more realistic i would've expected a longer timeframe. also the fact she wasn't extremely shocked by diesel's unique interests in the basement was unrealistic to me coz ma'am he was burning peoples eyeballs out and you didn't feel more scared ?

2) why is it possible that roxy was able to friggin FIGHT and get up and even kiss them after being sliced open, tortured, waterboarded, bones and ribs all broken, shoulder dislocated, nails plucked out and fingers broken like HUUHHHHH u're telling me she could still have the stregnth to beat people up and kiss people after this ordeal??? AINT NO WAY MAN that was unrealistic for me HAHAHA

3) THERE WAS TOO MUCH SEX. at first the balance and build up was GOOD like i thoroughly enjoyed the scenes cos they were extremely well written to the point i was able to visually see it in my head (very nice thank you) BUT THE 2ND HALF HAD SOOO MUCH SEX THAT it started to get unnecessary?? like WJGAWGEG JUST LEMME READ ABOUT THE STORY PLEASE WE DONT NEED SEX EVERY CHAPTER AAAAA LIKE ITS HOT AND ALL but bc there was so much i got desensitized to it and it became a “alright here we go again w the seggsea time”

4) it started to get draggy around the 400-500+ page mark (i read this on my kobo e-reader and there were 825 pages so for me it was 400-500+ page mark) and i almost stopped reading it cos i was lazy but WOOHOO i persevered!

overall i would not re-read this because i am lazy af to reread all 825 pages but hm it's good material for men who don't know what women want in bed LMAOOO (not the knife and gun play or the super aggressive side but the moderately aggressive side is good)

Earns a 2-star rating, primarily for its ability to keep me engaged enough to see it through to the end. However, the book is significantly marred by numerous issues. The most glaring problem is the presence of typos throughout the text, which consistently disrupts the reading experience and detracts from the story's flow.

Additionally, the prose in is lackluster. The writing lacks the finesse and depth that one expects in a well-crafted narrative. This shortfall in the quality of writing makes it challenging to fully immerse oneself in the world and the story that the author is trying to convey.

The book also ventures into the realm of smut, but unfortunately, it does so with less than desirable results. The scenes intended to be provocative or tantalizing fall short, coming across as forced and lacking in genuine passion or creativity. This aspect of the book could have been a redeeming feature but instead adds to the disappointment. It definitely was one of those novels overhyped by booktok.

Roxy being a badass and the vipers' obsession with her is what made this book one of my best reads

E-BOOK
I only read the first chapter. Too dark for me. He got aroused thinking about killing someone and he was full of joy bitting off a dude's ear. Nope, not for me.

DNF

Holy hotness, Batman!!

Very steamy!!


Was a little insta-lovey, Roxy was kidnapped/sold by her father to 4 mafia types who by day two or three she was ready to join the club.

But, gotta say I loved me some Kenzo.

THIS HAS SPOILERS SO PLEASE SKIP IT...DONT SAY I DIDNT WARN U

I just found out its a standalone and I'm crying literally tears rolling down my face

MY GIRL GOT FUCKED WITH THE HANDLE OF THE KNIFE AND SHE LOVED IT LIKE WHAAATTTTT AND Diesel GOT CUT WHILE DOING IT... I WANNA GET KIDNAPPED BY A GANG NOW :(

THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE WAS SOOOO DAMN GOOD LIKE I LOVE . this was the book I been Waiting for my entire life. The girl father payed a lot of debt and he was going to get killed by the vipers so without getting killed he sold his daughter off to them.. THERE WAS SEX ON EVERY DAMN PAGE... I MEAN BOOM BOOM BOOM SEX SEX SEX SEX SEX THE ENTIRE BOOK IS ABOUT SEX AND I LOVED EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT IT. They cut ppl heads off even when they touch their girl like y'all omg.... blood was dripping...people was hanged OK. I WILL READ IT AGAIN LITERALLY BC IT WAS THAT GOOD. THERE WAS BLOOD ALOT OF BLOOD BUT IT WAS OK I LOVED THAT TOO. IDK HOW YALL HATE THIS BOOK BC A BITCH LOVED THIS SHIT. I WANT MORE MORE MORE LIKE THEY GOT MARRIED ALL OF THEM MARRIED HER And garret oh my poor garrett... I'm glad his ex died I'm glad She killed that bitch NOBODY DONT TOUCH HER MAN NOBODY NOT EVEN THE REST OF THE GANG BC THEY ARE HERS ONLY HERS... THEY DONT WANT NO DAMN BODY EXCEPT HER. THEY FELL IN LOVE WITH HER. RYDER UGH RYDER I LOVED HIM TOO ALL THE CHARACTERS I LOVE.

This book has no plot.
or, I guess, I wish that the plot that is kinda, sorta here was actually worth reading about. I didn't care about the triad and I don't feel as though the main characters did either.

I care more about character than plot in any book and I wish there was a character that made reading this entire thing worth it but there wasn't. The characters weren't good, and I don't mean they weren't nice people. I mean I thought they were just awful to read from the perspective of. There isn't enough sad backstories in the world to make me care about any of them. I didn't care what happened to them, any of them could've dropped dead and I wouldn't have batted an eye.

I feel like this is meant to be a stepping stone for older YA readers to get into adult dark romance. But it's not a good introduction, in my opinion. The dialog felt a immature, too many bad one-liners and too rushed whilst also being too long. This is a long ass book, 70 chapters, the characters didn't have to be banging by chapter 17. The insta-love is so, so jarring. It went from ‘I could kill her and I wouldn't care' to ‘I hope our enemies never learn about her ‘cause it'll destroy us if anything happens to her' in a week. Like I said, this is a long book no need to rush it, jesus. If I have to read the word Vipers ever again, it'll be too soon.

The best part of the book was the sex scenes and after awhile even that wasn't enough to keep me interested...

T

Tbh the PDA bothered me more than anything else, but I think that says more about me than the book lol.

Research those content warnings though bc it definitely earned them.

THIS WAS AN ABSOLUTE BANGER.

This was my first reverse harem book and I cannonballed in for sure. Once I started this novel it was very hard to put it down to do anything else.

Oooooookay.....so that was a thing.

This is definitely not going to be for everyone. Read the content warnings, read some non-spoiler reviews and be very aware of what this book contains before going into it, because it is dark. Whatever you think ‘dark' is times it by 10 then you have this book. It's graphic and violent at all times - sex, torture, killing, repeat.

So all in all I did enjoy it, but did have some issues with the writing. Mainly that it was just way too long! There is absolutely no reason for this to be 640+ pages. It's 5 people in the same apartment for a good 93% of the book. The rest of the time they are either in a non-descript car, a non-descript casino/restaurant/bar in a non-descript city. There is literally no world building (and there doesn't need to be in this story) so how can it be this long? Oh yeah, inner monologue. The repetitive inner monologue of 5 people takes up I'd say around 200 pages of the book, it feels endless. I'm fine with inner monologue but a paragraph at most is sufficient, we don't need 2 pages per person every few chapters. I ended up skimming this by half way.

Another gripe was the weird mix of UK and US English throughout. In one sentence we're hearing about someone's “mum” and a rugby team, and the next there's a “stick shift” in the car. I get that the decision to not pick a real city may have been deliberate so it appealed to global readers but the vocabulary used should at least be consistent.

All that said I did enjoy this for the most part and will look out for more from the author.

dayuuuuuuuum...like, seriously? this book was hot as hell. as a fanfiction reader, the plot wasn't anything i haven't already read, but i still really liked it! of course, love a powerful woman, being loved and appreciated by some hot ass men. i mean, yes, they're all crazy and sadistic, but at the end of the day...it's a twisted little love story. wholly unrealistic, and yes, infuckingsane. there is absolutely nothing that should be read here and make a person want this for themselves. and towards the end, i could've used less sex and more just getting to the end of the book. i get bored reading about that when it's every other paragraph. just finish the damn thing.