Tyrant

I am still reeling after reading this new masterpiece of Gianni Holmes - I wasn't sure ‘till the end will I survive the onslaught of emotions that slammed into me from the first pages like a freight train. The intensity of the pacing, the brutal yet realistic colors of the detailed descriptions, the yawning chasm of so vivid emotions really threatened to drown me from the start. At the core of this story is the question of how far one would go when feeling betrayed and lied to. Clearly for our main character - Yaroslav the answer is very, very far. As someone who learned at an early age the bitter lesson of how easily loyalty can be bought and how fickle love can be, if there is any, Yaro keeps everyone at arm's length. The one time he didn't, history repeated itself. The story is so well written, Yaro's feelings so hauntingly clear, that they resonate painfully deep in the reader's soul. No one could remain a bystander to the description of such painful despair and helplessness. Yes, Yaroslav's actions and decisions are questionable at best, cross many moral boundaries, and lead to even more complications in the future. This is not a typical romance, no, far from it in fact - it shows the ugly face of what a broken trust and betrayed love can lead to. When a man chooses the darker path of revenge and seeks pleasure in inflicting pain on those around him as a substitute for what he has lost. And just when I was dreading the next twist of the story, the past came back with vengeance and with it came a miracle. A miracle called Daisy who had a nightmarish childhood filled with brutal abuse and neglect, but somehow managed to retain so much incredible kindness, light, naivety and faith in humanity in his own unique way. Even as a fictional character, Daisy is a rare and precious image of something that almost doesn't exist in real life - an innate primal goodness and an ability to find a grain of it even in the utter darkness and hopelessness. When Daisy entered Yaro's world in its terrifying toxicity, the explosion was inevitable. But after it came the change - step by painful step. From the very beginning Yaro and Daisy's Daddy - boy relationship was unusual, wildly unconventional, with a touch of taboo.
I'd recommend reading the TW because it's definitely a heavy, darker story.