Still of the Night, (End of Days)
Cerise Cole
Goodreads, AmazonCerise Cole
It's a...Reverse Harem
The seals are cracking. Hell will follow after, and I'm caught in the middle.
Everyone says I'm cursed. My father would've used the word evil. That's his excuse for being so strict, at any rate. Little does he know how right he is. I might look like a good girl on the outside, but deep down I'm really not.
I carry the mark on my hand to prove it.
But being good means not getting in trouble at school or he'll take it out on me. I am barely allowed to hang out with my friends, and they're starting to resent it. The safe and stable life I've been forced into is falling apart.
Then my stepbrother moves in.
Suddenly, being good doesn't seem so important. He makes friends with the local bad boys, and being around them feels like exactly where I belong. The problem is that Dad is having none of it. They're trouble, I'm supposed to be good, and the only one suffering here is me.
I'm going to have to choose what matters most. Is it the years I've spent with my best friend? The boyfriend who's my escape from this insanity? Or maybe it's the three guys who finally make me feel alive - even with all the secrets they keep.
Secrets that I'm stuck in the middle of.
Secrets that prove I'm so much worse than I thought.
Secrets that are tied directly to the scar on my hand.
Still of the Night is a slow-burn, paranormal romance where the heroine doesn't have to choose between her love interests. This is the first in a four book series.
Some aspects may be triggering for some readers. Includes stepbrother romance, an abusive parent, a parent lost to cancer, incidences of domestic violence, bullying, and plenty of teen awkwardness.
This series is a joint writing project between Auryn Hadley and Kitty Cox, as we've teamed up under a combined pseudonym, Cerise Cole.
First off, I have no idea why the song "In the Dark of the Night" song by Rasputin from Anatasia always comes to mind.
It never fails to stop playing in a loop whenever I see this cover and title.
Yet it does.
Secondly, I had no idea this was a co-written collaboration between Auryn Hadley and Kitty Cox.
I probably would have picked it up sooner if I had realized.
Auryn never fails to capture my attention with her books.
However, I do sometimes feel like I'm getting a history lesson.
A completely different, sometimes controversial, but definitely intriguing history lesson.
With that being said, I want to encourage people to remember these are books of fiction.
This series is based off of the the Revelations from the Bible and the Four-Horseman.
Though these authors have surely put a different spin on everything I've ever read about the apocalypse and the four horsemen.
It definitely intrigued me and I've been gobbling up the books since I started.
Jess is not your typical girl.
Of she plays the role of goody-two shoes and daddy's little angel.
But she is far from that.
Things have been hard since the passing of her mother at the age of fourteen and a mysterious scar showed up on her hand.
She has been dealing with the fallout for the last four years.
But things change when her father suddenly gets remarried and then her stepbrother shows up for the holidays.
Things are far crazier than Jess had ever expected.
Jess has three guys in her harem.
Bax, the man who can have any girl he so wishes.
Gavin, Bax's shadow and foreign exchange student.
Lars, the Native American stepbrother.
These guys are intense on their own.
But when they set their sight on you? Or have a strong conviction?
There is nothing that will not hold them back.
In this book, we are getting a lot of the foundation for the series.
Jess' story has to unfold in order for us to get to the good stuff.
And trust me, it does get good.
We are finding out about what it is like for Jess to live at home.
The dynamics of her new family.
What her friends are like.
The new friends she is making.
This story is mostly told from the point of view of Jess.
However, the prologue and epilogue are always in the points of view of one of the male harem characters.
There are times when I would definitely love to know what the guys are thinking.
But that would make for some really long books. (Not that I will ever complain about that).
This book is a slow-burn romance.
Things take their time progressing but I love seeing the development grow between the characters and the storyline.
Definitely worth picking up.
There is a slight cliffhanger, however, they put in the back snipbits of the next book.
You get the next prologue and I think a few chapters.
Though the second (and third) book are already out in this series so you don't have to wait to read everything about these amazing characters and what they are going through.
If you haven't picked this series up, I urge you to go do so now.
You will not be disappointed.
Book two, Tainted Love, is already out.
Book three, Enter Sandman, is already out.
Book four, Highway to Hell, releases December 4th, 2021.