Rating: 4.5 š
Fool Me Once is Ariana Nashās opening act in her new dark fantasy series. This is a story and series that comes with a authorās note about triggers in the themes. However, it sends the reader to the authorās website to read them so they arenāt readily accessible.
They should be. While everything that happens and is brought up fits in with character development and the universe thatās being created by Nash , itās disturbing enough to warrant the trigger warnings.
They include off page forced incest, off page rape, attempted suicide, dubious consent, knife play, revenge sex, torture , and enforced confinement/imprisonment by means of a collar. So yes, plenty of triggers.
Now thatās dealt with, Nash is also creating a darkly fascinating world of shattered lands, a missing god, and warring crowns that should be helping each other to safeguard and protect the world the god left for them. Instead they are creating chaos by attacking each other.
Dallin, God of Order divided the Shattered lands into 4 crowns for 4 courts. Love, Justice, Pain, and War.
What a grand concept and Nash starts the arc and journey into the mystery of the missing god with the horrific events and violence that is the world currently.
Thereās Lark, one of the darkest, most traumatized, and multi-layered individuals here. Heās the Court of Loveās Jester , a master manipulator of people, a collector and distributor of lies and illusions. Heās both the agony of heartbreak , heās deceit, and potentially the weak hope for love to revive and survive all the worst this world has to throw at it and him.
This is such a carefully written character that his depths are only gradually revealed through the storytelling. And I expect to see more as the series progresses. I think heās going to break our hearts. Again and again.
Thereās more important characters, each with startling strengths, worse frailties, and appalling histories. One is the mysterious Prince of Love. To reveal anything about this astonishing character is to spoil some of the best narrative elements Nash has in store for the reader.
Psychologically, emotionally, the Prince is impressive because, like Lark, heās nothing like what he appears on the surface. Everyone here operates on hidden agendas, deep secrets, and years of planning for revenge/ulterior motives. Itās a narrative chess game but done with extreme violence and long range tactical aggression.
Much like her last series, the deck of cards and card tricks are woven into the story and strategy of Larkās character. I found that a interesting element. And want to see how itās used going forward.
Also like Nashās Shadows of London series, this ends in a cliffhanger. So I expect the rest of the books to follow that format too.
I was enthralled by Nashās dark new world and traumatized characters. I was so connected to Lark, and all the events as they were occurring. Itās a bleak place, Lark and the rest are indeed in a chaotic world. Read the trigger warnings and take them to heart.
Then decide if adult dark fiction with amazing characters and a well written harrowing story to follow is for you.
Iām recommending it under those guidelines.
Court of Pain :
ā Fool Me Once #1
ā¦ Fool Me Twice #2 – TBD
Description:
The king of the Court of Love wants me dead, the queen wants me in her bed, and the princeā¦ He wants the only piece of me I will never surrender.
They call me jester, dancer, trickster, lover.
I exist to entertain.
But behind my sideways smiles, my quick hands and magician’s tricks, I trade in their lies, their secrets. I know their deepest desires, their wicked schemes. Their sins are my currency.
Their reign is a card castle, and I hold the card thatās about to bring it all down.
And they say Iām the foolā¦
Amazon buy link:
Buy or borrow here.
Fool Me Once is a dark MM fantasy brimming with courtly spice, morally ambiguous anti-heroes, and a fool who plays them all.
This is a dark world with adult MM content.
Potentially triggering content includes but is not limited to: attempted suicide (main character), incest (non-consensual, off-page, not between main characters), dubious consent (main characters), knife play (main characters), revenge sex (main character, off-page).
Assume triggers are on-page, unless off-page is specified above.
The conspiracy theorists of the world might have gotten something right. Maybe not the details, but they got something right. Secret experiments exist!
This is part of the Criminal Delights series, which are standalones by different authors revolving around dark themes. Pay attention to the trigger warnings. This book is about a lawyer named Cowan Kingley, who is a hired assassin. The reader sees him at different ages to establish him as not quite right, and much of the book is in his first person POV. The reader also gets the first person POV of the man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and ends up kidnapped instead of killed. The key here is the why of it. What would make an assassin not kill a witness right away?
Come to Rainbow Island, where all your sexual fantasies will come true.
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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 