Book Review: The Dark Side of Kingsley by Skylar West

She finds his brand of dominance irresistible…

Old money meets new money when Katarina Wallington walks into King's Castle and immediately grabs the attention of alpha male and heir to the Deveraux empire, Kingsley Deveraux.

Sparks fly when Kingsley discovers Kate's secret and endeavors to give her the tools necessary to not only survive herself, but also a new threat that has come on the scene. He must come to terms with his own dark nature in order to save her from the clutches of a scheming madman.

Will their budding relationship survive?

Publisher's Note: This steamy, action-packed romance contains elements of power exchange.

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My Review:

I wanted to love this book. I tried so hard, but this story bothered me. It started with the hero’s casual comment that he had “played with hundreds of women”. It felt like he had a callous disregard for the feelings of those women with this throw away statement and that got my back up. From there, Kingsley and his brand of dominance just continued to rub me completely the wrong way. I lost all respect for this book when Kingsley blew right through Kate’s safe word. I don’t care that the scene shouldn’t have merited safe wording; the founding principle of a safe word is that it’s the emergency stop button. There wasn’t a stop. There wasn’t slowing down. There wasn’t even a conversation afterwards. It was as if she’d never even said it and that made me very angry. I had difficulty keeping track of which version of Kingsley we were dealing with at any given moment; he blew so hot and cold. And Kate was so invested in being a brat and ‘too stupid to live’ that I spent most of the book being frustrated by her, not able to connect with her at all. The intrigue in the second half of the book was fascinating and there are a couple of secondary characters I think I’d like to know more about. It was just too little too late by then for me to enjoy it properly. I know there are other readers who will love this book and its characters, it just wasn’t the right fit for me. I received a complimentary copy of this book through Booksprout.