Yours to Take by Vera Kane is a gripping romance that stands out for its slow-burning tension and emotionally grounded characters. What drew me in most was the suspense that steadily builds between the two leads. Rather than rushing into love, the story takes its time, letting the characters develop a believable and satisfying connection.

I especially appreciated the strength of the female lead. She doesn’t fall head over heels at the first sign of attraction—instead, she holds her ground, making the eventual romance feel earned and authentic. Watching the relationship evolve, with both characters growing and meeting each other halfway, was both refreshing and rewarding.

If you’re a fan of romance with a good dose of tension and character development, Yours to Take is definitely worth a read.

Thank you Netgalley and Vera Kane for the ARC

Quentin lives his life during the day as a tech guy and lives his night seeking vengeance for his sister. Anora works at a boutique and is frustrated after a series of failed dates. Quentin sees Anora at a coffee shop and was immediately obsessed with her. He seeks a relationship with her but is struggling with how to disclose his pastime killing abusers. Anora struggles with what her heart wants vs. what her head says.

While this is definitely an entertaining story, it just was not long enough and as developed as I would have hoped. This story had much potential but in the end fell flat for me. At parts it was a stalker book, but then that just ended, then it was immediately love within the two characters completely forgoing the stalking element. After the 3rd act conflict, Anora goes from being traumatized to forgiving him after a couple of days which did not work for me.

For a quick, easy, entertaining read then read this book!

Good book. I do wish it felt a bit more developed but loved the storyline, characters and the steamy burn this book gives. Spice is 4.5.

This book was so unbelievably beautiful. The build up to their relationship, their love story, then the perfect little bow at the end in the epilogue had me immediately searching for more from Vera Kane.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Author for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars

This book had a lot of potential. It would have had a significantly better rating if the author had fleshed and developed the plot and the characters further. I liked the push and pull between the characters but I still find myself wishing for the story to have been deeper.

Anora, Our FMC, is a clothing designer. She encounters our MMC, Quentin, while on a date that was set up through her boss. Quentin is immediately drawn to her and dislikes the way that her date treated her. He absolutely "has" to fix this issue, and this forms the beginning of their stalker serial killer and obsession dance. Quentin is very inconspicuous by day, and absolutely unhinged at night/when the situation calls for it.

As I said, this book could have been fleshed out a lot more, and this is shown very early on when Quentin.. our serial killer of several years decides to unsafely kill the dude that treated Anora wrong. I have to admit.. if he has been doing this without getting caught for years.. he'd know how to make this look like anything but what it is.. a crime of impulsivity. I would have thought that Quentin would have taken the time to draw things out. I would have also thought that Quentin would have built up the darkness in Anora before revealing that he was the serial killer that everyone is looking for.

Spice wise, it was a lowish spice dark romance.

Look.. the book had a decent premise, and I love dark romance.. but it definitely could have been significantly more fleshed out. I would even rereview this if it were fleshed out further.

Light stalking, serial killer romance? Sign me up! This book was a fun and quick read. I feel like it was missing a lot and it could have been great if it had been more in depth. I feel like everything was rushed and you didn’t get the chance to really connect with the characters. The premise of the book was great and I just wish that it was longer. It lacked detail in so many places that could have make my rating higher. Despite this, I feel like this is a great book to help get someone introduced into the dark romance world. It was still a good read. Thank you for the ARC!

If you liked Haunting Adeline and Lights Out then this is the book for you!
Thank you Netgalley and publisher for giving me access to this eARC.

Anora, a girl who just wants to find love but has a really bad streak of failed dates living with her roommate and best friend Aurora.

Quentin, a guy on a path of Vengeance for the death of his sister he takes it upon himself to hunt down the scum of the city.
They cross paths at a coffee shop where Anora is on another failure of a date. Quentin first sets his eyes on her and he knows he will never let her go.

My opinion and thoughts:

I liked the concept but it was too short for what it wanted to be. You miss a big chunk of their relationship development so it just seems like Anora fell for him in such a short time even though it's said it's been months. Those months weren't shown. 😞
I feel the two girl friends had annoyingly similar names that was unnecessary. Anora and Aurora. If the shortened form of the names weren't used, I would have been confused.
Anora has Silver hair but it's unclear whether it was bleached or if it was natural.
Things happened way to quickly for my liking and when the 'conflict' happened.. it was just anticlimactic.
I wanted to like this so much, but it just was missing alot of plot and character development. There wasn't alot of tension either.

2.75 ⭐

The beginning started out strong but the farther into the book I got, the more it didn't make sense. There were a lot of unanswered questions. If the beginning hasn't hooked me in, this would have been a 2 star read for me.

The FMC wasn't relatable and annoyed me. She kept saying she needed to talk to her therapist but there was never any contact with said therapist. She would think one thing then contradict it a moment later. I never really knew how she felt.

There's mention that the MMC was stalking the FMC but the only time that is shown is when they first saw each other. He watched her go to work and then home but nothing after that

I love the side characters and would have liked to hear more about their story.

As for the ending, I didn't understand how the bag guy figured out who our MMC is, it was never mentioned.

I think that this story has a great start but could have used more plot/story and character development throughout it.

🌶️!! Yours to Take by Vera Kane is a dark, spicy romance that dives into the complexities of love and vengeance. Quentin is a brooding vigilante, haunted by his past and driven by a thirst for revenge. Anora, a fashion designer tired of the dating scene, unexpectedly finds herself drawn to Quentin’s enigmatic allure. Their connection is intense, filled with steamy moments and emotional turmoil. While the story offers a thrilling ride, some readers have noted that certain plot elements, like the pacing and character development, could have been more refined. Nonetheless, if you’re into morally grey heroes and passionate, high-stakes romance, this book might just be your next read. 

3/5 stars.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I do like it, but I don’t love it. I love the characters. The FMC is so relatable. Same girl, I prefer fictional men over real one 😔. The MMC was just my type. I cried what happened to his sister. The writing is so good. The storyline pace is also great. The reason why I didn’t give it 5/5 is because I feel they fell in love so fast. I needed more heart-warming and lovely moments between them to believe that they’re in love. Their chemistry felt like insta one.

Anyways, this book is fine. Great to read in one evening or on Halloween 👀

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fast-paced and fun read! The storyline was easy to follow, and the characters were awesome. While I did feel the FMC lacked some depth, she was still relatable at times, and that didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the story.

I especially loved the Ghostface-inspired dark romance vibe—perfect for a Halloween read! The book itself is on the shorter side, and I flew through it in one sitting. That said, it has a solid foundation and could easily be expanded into a longer, even more intense dark romance.

I’m definitely excited to see what else this author has written or will write in the future. I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys dark romance, fast-paced stories, and masked men.

I really wished for more of the components I loved from the scream movies. When I read the dedication I was really excited and ready to jump into the story . It ended up being more about obsession with her more than anything else. I pushed through and kept reading but it fell short for me .i love slasher films so the author definitely delivered on the scenes where he was out doing his thing . The fmc was not my favorite but she was ok.

4/5 ⭐️
5/5 🌶️

*inhale* QUENTIN THORNE THE MAN THAT YOU ARE!!!

Hi, can you tell I loved this? I'm usually not a huge fan of insta-love/lust but the whole 'touch her and die' thing that's going on trumps that entirely. The drama was immaculate, the banter was utter perfection, and I can only fantasize of a love like Quentin and Anora's.

Also, the epilogue....gods the epilogue, where do I find a personal Quentin?

Huge thanks to Vera Kane and NetGalley for this eARC!!
2 likes

This could have been great if there some more depth. The characters weren’t flushed out well and everything happened too fast. However, the MMC was addicting. We love a masked murdery man.

4.5⭐️
Thank you netgalley for an e-arc of this book. This book follows Anora who has never had much luck with men until she meets Quinten. Quentin seems perfect but he seems to know a lot about her. Even stuff she hasn’t told him. I really loved this story and these characters.

ARC:
My biggest complaint, it's not long enough cause the premise and plot could have been developed so much more and it had such a potential.

The MMC (Quentin) is a fairly normal guy who works in tech and he sees the FMC (Anore) one day on a date and is instantly enamoured by her. Let's just say something happens to the date.
The fmc I think lacked some personality, but she did react in a realistic way to finding out the truth and in the 3rd act conflict.

The stalking element I wished happened for longer and I feel like some parts of the plot wasn't fleshed out fully or explained.

GoodReads: "Megan’s review of Yours to Take | Goodreads" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7496645229

Fable: Check out this review of Yours to Take on Fable. https://fable.co/review/3d8efa70-c293-485a-a3b6-07f1b0a5196f/share

StoryGraph: megan_r1

I really, really, loved this story! For such a such short book - borderline Novella, it was very impactful.
It had everything you could love about a Dark Romance; the only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is that I just wanted MORE.
I would have loved another 200 pages of the build up, the background, the banter, the romance, the Slasher, the spice, the characters. The story was soooo good I couldn't put it down, but I just needed more.

For a quick and fun Dark Romance this is a must read for sure.

3.75/5 ⭐️

Yours to Take by Vera Kane is a gripping, emotionally-charged romance that blends classic tropes—grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity, and emotional healing—with a darker, more intense atmosphere. The story follows two guarded souls forced into each other’s lives, where vulnerability becomes as dangerous as it is necessary.

The writing is clean and easy to sink into, making this an addictive read from start to finish. Kane builds strong chemistry between the leads and doesn’t shy away from exploring the characters’ deeper wounds. Some scenes, especially pivotal emotional moments, felt a little rushed—I would have loved to see them linger longer in those raw spaces—but overall, the emotional weight still lands powerfully.

If you’re looking for a romance that’s a little rougher around the edges, with heartache, tension, and hope woven together, Yours to Take is absolutely worth picking up.

Yours To Take by Vera Kane

ARC Review: ⭐️3.5 (Access granted by NetGalley)
Completely Honest Review / Spoilers

For NetGalley: The review has been posted to my GoodReads which is @oliwiawioletta, this review was pasted on 04/04/2025. It will also be posted to my TikTok/BookTok account which is @oliwiawiolettaagora within the next week as I still need to record, edit and upload so please bare with me, therefore, there is not a publication date for the video review yet but please expect it within the next week.

“For every girl who’s watched Scream and fantasized about Billy Loomis. This one is for you.”

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book, I feel very privileged to have been able to receive it pre publishing date!

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed this book it was very easy to read and a pretty quick read. I really liked the storyline it was giving vibes of Lights Out + Butcher & Blackbird which I am so here for as I loved both of these books. Both the FMC and MMC were really easy to like. I really did enjoy this book and it kept me entertained throughout.

However, I do have some issues with it and because I am a big advocate for growth, development and honest reviews I cannot miss past the issues I had while reading this book AND that is not to say anything bad about it because I genuinely did enjoy it however, it was missing some things and if it wasn’t the rating would have been significantly higher. Please bare in mind this is my own personal opinion and everyone is entitled to their own views on how they like their books to play out.

Storyline: Anora is on a first date at a coffee shop, Quin sees her and instantly becomes obsessed. He nicknames her ‘Little Moon’ after the first ever encounter at the coffee shop. Her date was rude to her so Quin offed him. Said date is cousins with Anoras boss and her boss was the one to set the date up. Quin is a serial killer who kills bad guys from the underworld because his sister was murdered by her boyfriend and his friends and he wanted revenge. Light stalking of FMC. Anora and Rory are roommates, Quin and Joey are roommates. Rory and Joey are dating and introduce the MCs to eachother at a party. MCs pretend to hit it off in front of their friends, eventually do hit it off and start dating. Aurora finds out Quin is a serial killer, she gets kidnapped by his enemies & rescued by Quin. They get married and have a baby.

- I feel like the book was quite rushed throughout and therefore, it didn’t really dive into some of the following issues.

- I think since this was a ‘stalker romance’ Quin should have stalked Anora a bit more than just the first sighting at the coffee shop which doesn’t really count because he was already at the coffee shop for a drink and didn’t go out of his way to go into the coffee shop to stalk Anora and then lurking in the shadows outside the boutique and then coincidentally being introduced at the party by his and hers best friends. That last encounter doesn’t really count either as they were introduced to one another and Quin didn’t actually ‘stalk’ her to the party because it was at his apartment nor did he know Anora was going to be on the roof when he had gone out there to get some air.

- Also how the heck did he end up in her kitchen making breakfast for her and her roommate and her boyfriend/his best friend after the so called 1st double date? Where was the explanation for that development? How did it happen? I don’t understand… Did Rory and Joey invite him back after the double date to stay over because they wanted to MC to hit it off? Did he break into her apartment after they went to sleep? HOW did it happen I need an explanation, the backstory for that event was absent. Mind you Anora left the restaurant before the rest of the group and was alone in the apartment that night. Woke up to Quin in the kitchen unexplained and Rory and Joey staying over which also was unusual and those two usually stay at the boys apartment. So how did this conspire? Did Quin get invited over by the couple? Did he break in, in the middle of the night and then sleep on the couch??

- Running off the previous point, Anora slept in Quins hoodie after the double date cause he had given it to her because she was cold when they were walking to the restaurant, and he somehow appeared in her kitchen making breakfast the following morning, why the hell did Anora not question him? Why did she let it slide like nothing happened other than cussing in her POV? And why did she go along with the impression that the two had slept together infront of Rory and Joey just because she slept in his hoodie and he appeared in the kitchen shirtless in the morning without a damn explanation???? Why did she not react to it? Anora let it slide and the event wasn’t revisited later? I’m confused.

- Why did Anora keep hanging out alone with Quin to feed into the assumption for their friends that they were hitting it off? Even though we didn’t get an explanation of why they were portraying themselves as hitting it off to their friends when at the time they barely even spoke to eachother. She was constantly saying she was scared of him so why would he spend time alone with him if she was scared? Why did they continue to hang out alone and not talk to eachother when the other two weren’t in their presence. They had time alone so why did Anora stay quiet and not pull Quin up on his stunt that led to that assumption on their friends? Why didn’t she cuss him out for allowing them to assume that they slept together after the double date when Anora left the restaurant before the others and went home alone and didn’t even know Rory and Joey had come back to their apartment when they usually stay at Joeys and Quins place?

- I feel like Anora forgave Quin far to easily there was basically no grovelling which would have benefited the storyline / story telling massively. Like Quin tells you he’s the Slasher that’s been killing disgusting men from the underworld all because his sister was killed and you’re telling me she didn’t react in a more dramatic way when being told he’s a serial killer? Or the fact that she forgave him in about 3 days and all she needed was space 0 grovelling occurred.

- The story line about his sister being killed by her boyfriend and his friends because the boyfriend thought it would be funny to scare her and his friends had another idea and all parties including said boyfriend raped her, passed her round the group then beat her to a pulp and left her to die? What happened there? There was no further information provided regarding that storyline, it was the sole reason Quin started to kill so I thought there would be more, like hello one of the people who killed his sister was her own boyfriend so how did that conspire?

- Also when Quin killed Anora’s blind date with her bosses cousin and she found out about that why didn’t he tell her that he too was a bad man and just went along with the only reason he was killed was because of the date and not telling Anora that he was a disgusting pig towards women aswell as him being simply rude to her on their first date? I just don’t understand why Quin didn’t tell her surely it would have painted him in a better light than letting her think he was killed simply because he was rude to her on their date?

- When Anora was kidnapped and was captive for serval says we didn’t really get a deep deception of what exactly was happening to her during the captivity just basic ground information. We also didn’t get Quins POV much while Anora was captive, she’s his love interest and we didn’t get much of him panicking and trying to find her for days on end to then finally find her on the day she is set to die if he doesn’t show up because his hacker gets the footage.

- The book had minimal tension between the characters, they spent a lot of time as a group and then alone without the other couple and the tension was just lacking for me.

- The book was also a little predictable.

Overall, I feel like there should have been more stalking, more event development as some events and how they occurred were just not explained and it would have only benefited the storyline, I think the book also would have been better if we got some more killing events, he was a serial killer but we didn’t really get that side of him much and the bits we did get weren’t very descriptive. Also, the spicy bits were good but they were lacking too, they would have benefited with more description of the play by play. Additionally, the ending felt rushed more so than the rest of the book. It just had a lot of gaps which were not filled in and events that weren’t explained. Missing them out only hurt the storyline a bit because if we got those missing gaps filled in it would have easily kicked this up to a 4 star read and up to 4.5 stars if we got more descriptive writing and more of the plot development.

Please do not take anything I say to heart, it is simply a honest review with constructive criticism. It is feedback for next time to be able to improve the books that follow. This is my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own. I do not mean any harm at all I just wanted to give a real, raw and honest review. This is also not to say I didn’t enjoy it because I defo did I mean I read it in a day hello? It’s just constructive feedback.

Again, thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy I am so so grateful for being able to have read this book before its publication date.

I wanted to like this book, it was giving me some of the vibes of Lights Out and Butcher and Blackbird both of which I loved, unfortunately Yours to Take fell flat for me. Overall the story felt rushed and forced, one of the big conflicts in the book didn't have an actual explanation for how it happened. The best part were the spicy scenes, but they weren't good enough and there weren't to make up for the rest of the book.
2.5/5 stars