Darkest Night is the start of a romantic suspense series by Tara Thomas that takes place in Charleston. The series features one of three brothers romance in each of the books. While I am writing this, there are only three books in the series, and I haven’t researched to see if there are plans to go beyond that. Their family is being targeted by someone trying to destroy the Benedicts.

The first book is the introduction. So you usually try to give it a little to help build up the story, but they rushed the first 25% of this book. It is all murder chaos, rushed character introductions, and few descriptions of what's going on. Most of it feels like just conversations.

It starts with Tilly Brock and Keaton Benedict. They were best friends throughout childhood and first loves until they charged her father with embezzling funds from the Benedict‘s family company. At that point, it gets weird with the writing style. Keaton’s mother told him Tilly and her family moved to Texas, and he never contacted Tilly again. She was even hinting for him to date another family’s daughter, Elise, right after. There is only a handful of mentions about the embezzlement scandal and it leads you to believe it was a mistake. It doesn’t touch that plotline at all after those few sentences. Then Elise moving in and practically promised to Keaton because her father worked with his father. Apparently, marriage is all business then. That character felt odd, because she was angry and vindictive, but turns out to be a throwaway character in a bizarre turn of events. It felt clunky and thrown in for some hopeful intrigue. Not to mention there is a murderer who is targeting Tilly specifically. Why because she knew the Benedicts almost 10 years ago…. what… like she is from the deep past childhood, why is she a lynchpin to taking the boys down? It is written like the killer intended for Tilly and Keaton to meet, but they wrote the scene like a random meeting. There are so many random plot things in the book. The murders, a family affair with a half-sister, there is a mastermind with minions who murder. I think there is a human trafficking element.

I want to touch beyond the story and hit the characters a little here too. Keaton is supposed to be this “notorious bachelor” but he feels like just some random college kid in a rich family. The family doesn’t feel like they are as famous as that label suggests. Maybe one of the other brothers would fit that description better, but beyond their own household, they don‘t feel like they are that renown to the community. They really could just be any slightly rich people. It just added to the rough feeling of the story.

There is a lot of unanswered questions left in this book. The writing got better as the story progressed. It ends well to lead you into the next book(s) I feel. I just don‘t know if it is a strong enough start to pull people in for the whole series. I almost quit myself at the start. There are issues with the story I have, but again, that will hopefully be resolved in the future books. I’m just not sure if I am interested enough to try and finish it. I try to push through tough points in books. I am glad I did it with this book. I appreciate this story, but I wasn’t completely sold on it. ( )

Darkest Night
By
Tara Thomas

This book is about two strong southern families...once united...now torn apart...with lots of mystery surrounding their issues.

Tilly and Keaton...members of these estranged families...also torn apart...but on the verge of reuniting.

However...something sinister...the Gentleman...is lurking in their lives...something evil...something that may keep Tilly and Keaton apart and destroy Keaton’s family.

Are the Keaton men...Kipling, Knox, and Keaton...strong enough to survive this plus Elise? Elise is determined to marry Keaton.

I liked this book but didn’t really love it. It has tons of mystery...tons of very juicy sexy bits...and tons of murder and mayhem. Keaton and Tilly are a romance in the making. Elise is the mean girl bully determined to tear them apart. Plus it seems as though this book will have a sequel...there were lots of unanswered questions. I didn’t love this book but I might have to read the sequel just to see what happens next.

Readers who enjoy romantic suspenseful books...should like this one.

My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this book. I read it and reviewed it because I wanted to. ( )

reat start to a series!
Well I really enjoyed this book, I liked the 2 main characters. It had romance and suspense which I like and I was sorry it was so short. At 142 pages it was more of a novella. Can't wait to find out who the gentleman is and I think I know who Kaja is but would like to learn more - look forward to the 2 sequels. I o not gave 4 stars because of the shortness of the book and the lack of background to the story as in why the gentleman hates the Benedicts so much and why Elise was estranged and turned bad ( )

Every once in a while, you need to take a break from the murder mysteries and pick up a romantic suspense novel. That is just what I did with this book. I enjoyed this book. The balance of romance to suspense was just about right for me. What I mean but this is that the romance seemed to take over more in the beginning and stayed throughout the rest of the storyline; whereas, the suspense part tickled the senses.

However, speaking of romance, the chemistry between Tilly and Keaton was steamy. Keaton is the type of guy that women want. He is tall, smart, good looking, rich, and a protector. Although, I am not going to say that Tilly was a wilting flower. She was tough too. Yet, it never hurts to have extra back up. While, I will say that Tilly and Keaton hooked up quickly, I didn't mind this time. They were good together. Plus, their romance was not a distraction. This book is a good start to a new series from author, Tara Thomas. The next book promises to be just as good. ( )

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is a voluntary review; all opinions are my own and not influenced by my source.**

After reading and enjoying the prequel novellas, I couldn't wait to dive into the main plot of this series. The novellas did a great job of setting the scene with an anticipation of danger and secrets and I couldn't wait to get some answers to some of my lingering questions.

Compared to the novellas, this novel is more romance than straight thriller. I felt like this was a second chance story for Tilly and Keaton and the thriller aspect was just one of the many obstacles in their way. At times the mystery takes a back seat to their blossoming reunion and because of the danger, everything happens rather quickly between them. For me, that's what makes this very much like your classic romantic suspense. However, that being said, they have enough bumps along the way to keep me interested.

That was one of the aspects that impressed me the most about this story: its many layers. There are a lot of things at play here and that kept me hooked. I started coming up with various theories, attempting to solve everything myself only to be thwarted later on by another development. We didn't get too many answers but it has me eager for the sequel.

I'm very much invested in this underbelly of Charleston and seeing what will happen in the next two novels now that we have a little inkling of what's to come.

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESousBookReviews.com as well as read book series recaps!

Full Review: https://wp.me/p7hLUw-2sQ
Actual Rating: 3/5 ( )