The Secrets That Kill (Obsidian Knights Secret Society 1) by Kristen Luciani-review tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 15, 2024
When your best friend’s sister becomes your obsession…
When a complicated assassination job comes my way, I finally get the chance to get my revenge on the woman who put me behind bars.
My best friend’s younger sister.
Sweet, naïve, and innocent, Ivy becomes the unsuspecting accomplice in a cruel and twisted game that will destroy her as well as my target.
Only one thing threatens my plan. She makes my blood burn hot, setting off all kinds of fires. One taste, and I’m addicted to the forbidden. Each depraved act draws us further into a dark, sex-soaked world where my objective for revenge becomes blurred by obsession for the girl who ruined me.
She thinks she knows betrayal. She has no idea.
And as Ivy falls deeper under my spell, she doesn’t know that the dark secrets of my past are about to shatter her dreams for the future.
••••••
REVIEW:THE SECRETS THAT KILL is the first instalment in Kristen Luciani’s contemporary adult OBSIDIAN KNIGHTS SECRET SOCIETY dark, erotic, romance series focusing on a secret society of billionaires and assassins. This is billionaire Mercer Vale, and twenty-three year old, college student Ivy Gardner.
NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise including graphic scenes of BDSM and Dom/sub scenarios, there WILL BE triggers for more sensitive readers.
Told from dual first person perspectives (Mercer and Ivy ) THE SECRETS THAT KILL follows the unconventional and questionable relationship between our story line couple. Mercer Vale blames Ivy Gardner for the implosion of his life, years before. Demanding payment for sins of the past, Mercer takes control of Ivy’s life, forcing our heroine into a world she knows nothing about. As Mercer’s submissive, Ivy is about to become a pawn in a dangerous game of murder and vengeance wherein years of betrayal culminate in the ultimate showdown, and consent is questionable at every turn.
The world building is complex and gritty. Power and vengeance are the focus for one man who is struggling for control of his life. His need to avenge is bred from years of trauma and abuse, and Ivy will become a victim of revenge, jealousy and obsession.
The relationship between Ivy and Mercer is atypical and forced. Ivy will become Mercer’s captive, a sexual slave, a submissive to be used when and how Mercer demands. Consent is questionable from the outset but Ivy will succumb to Mercer’s needs and demands, often instigating and pushing Mercer to the edge of control. The $ex scenes are aggressive, intense and provocative.
There is a large ensemble cast of questionable, controversial and dark characters. We are introduced to a secret society whose members are cruel, and their actions are heinous.
THE SECRETS THAT KILL is a dark story of power and control, betrayal and vengeance, secrets and lies, domination and submission, acceptance and love. The premise is dark, dramatic and tragic; the characters are desperate and contentious.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
It becomes thicker, alight with all the dark fucking possibilities that come along with her.
I know, because I can think of things so depraved, twisted, and thrilling even the unrepentant in Hell’s depths would moan with pleasure.
I know, because I’ve done many of those things.
She sets off a vibrating edge, a sliver of excitement. The air sings when she’s near.
I can use that.
And I’m going to.
Just not yet.
Because the wait brings the pitch up to a sweeter level.
I’m also busy watching a dead man walking.
Right now, the poison’s destroyed his liver and kidneys, unraveling his DNA. He’s dead. It just hasn’t come full circle. Even if he was rushed to a hospital, he’d still end up dying.
I spent a long time devising the poison. Tasteless, odorless. Untraceable. Death cap mushrooms are a marvel, my favorite weapon when I’m not working with guns or knives.
But poisons take time. The right approach, the right formula, the right administration. And then they require time to work. Get one thing wrong, rush a step, and it all crumbles.
Patience, they say, is a virtue. And I play that game like a prodigy.
Stone-cold. A killer. These are me. I’m also rich as fuck. So rich my past can’t touch me. That long and scarred path that stretches as far back as I can remember might not have ever been paved with gold, but tools? Things that have enabled me to become who I am? This version of Mercer Vale?
Fuck yes.
Logan Cooke begins to sweat. There’s a flicker of light in his eyes, a sign of things not quite right. But nobody notices.
And no one will.
The people surrounding me are off their tits and balls on coke and drunk on thirty-dollar artisanal cocktails. Not one of them is going to notice until Cooke hits the floor.
I lean against the wall in the shadowy corner of Seven7Seven, a trendy faux secret spot in Tribeca complete with an entry password and a non-descript flight of stairs. They lead to the graffitied door, which opens into a long, tall, black velvet-lined hall that opens up to the bronze door of Seven7Seven’s dark, glamorous interior.
This is the height of the below-Fourteenth Street crowd’s pomposity. As one of the silent, hidden owners, Seven7Seven makes me a shit ton of money, and I can keep an eye on movers and shakers of all kinds.
Some of them I can use.
Some of them I might need to dispose of.
The Barnes and Noble and Japanese convenience store on the ground level don’t even hint at what’s up here. A person has to book a spot weeks in advance or receive a special invite. The place is well-known to its very specific target audience, and entry is highly coveted.
I settle back in the shadows and observe.
I don’t need to be here. Cooke’s demise is a done deal, and glitterati parties are not my fucking jam. With the next job I decided to take on? Let’s just say there are other avenues to get what I need. But there’s a certain symmetry, an air of fate about doing it this way.
Not real fate. This is crafted down to the finest detail of the evening, complete with her arrival on the dot. But like all good artists, it’s going to appear seamless, effortless. A natural occurrence, just like fate. And when she realizes there isn’t a drop of serendipity or chance of any kind involved, her real fate, her future, finite as it is, will be sealed.
But I still refuse to look at Ivy Gardner. Not yet.
I want to time everything perfectly. Cooke, my revenge, my next project—
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Kristen Luciani is a USA Today bestselling author of steamy and suspense-filled romance. She’s addicted to kickboxing, Starburst jelly beans, and swooning over dark, broken anti-heroes. Kristen is happily married to her own real-life hero of over 20 years. In addition to penning spicy stories, she also has a part-time job as her three kids’ personal Uber driver, which she manages to successfully juggle along with her other tasks: laundry, cleaning, laundry, cooking, laundry, and caring for her adorable Boston Terrier puppy.
Mafia romance is her passion…and her poison.
