A sexy paranormal story. Bryn went to Vegas and ended up being married to the fae king of the night court.

It's dark and intensely sexy. Definitely not for fans who prefer closed door romance. Bryn and her husband are interesting characters. It's an intriguing world and fun read.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

I didn’t really know what to expect going into this one, but I really enjoyed it! Calling it 50 Shades-esque in the blurb seems wrong since ‘The Dark King’ mostly had a more considerate, thoughtful, safe word-driven outlook on BDSM (though definitely still contains elements of dub-con, so be careful and check TWs). While this checks off a lot of the tropes expected from the genre, I appreciate that it strays from the “she’s not like other girls, other girls are terrible” mentality that tends to be my biggest pet peeve in these sorts of things. The book is marketed as 50 Shades x Neon Gods, but I would go for more of a Neon Gods x ACOTAR description because of the Fae element and the fact that, like Rhys in ACOTAR, Caiden is the ruler of the ‘Night Court.’ I don’t know if all of the similarities I noticed with other books/series were intentional, but I didn’t mind them regardless. In a way, it just makes the book/characters/concepts seem pleasantly familiar, and I like that. There’s a reason I keep coming back to similar concepts and tropes! Nothing is original, blah blah blah, who cares, it’s fun.

It’s very readable and fast-paced, and the plot outside of the romance is intriguing too, if a little underdeveloped. It seems like there might be a second book that expands on the plot, but I’d also say you can definitely read this as a stand-alone. It seems to me like something that booktok will really enjoy as long as interest in moderately dark romance and Fae worlds continue, and, even though I don’t think it’s anything mindblowingly unique, I definitely enjoyed reading it and I would recommend!

Thanks netgalley + the publisher for the advanced copy!