Cover Designer: Rebeca Covers
Everyone is a little broken
Dark Island holds secrets. In the summer months when the sunny weather draws in members of the boat club, the castle is filled with laughter and good times. As winter brings icy wind through Alexandria Bay, New York, the halls fall silent.
Four lonely hearts alone in the castle are drawn together by voices of the dead when they send up an alarm that someone is on the island who shouldn’t be. What begins with solitude has them coming together to protect their secrets.
If they can survive the harsh winter, the silent attacks in the night, and their own emotional baggage, there might just be a happy ending for the new year. IF they can survive.
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This is a polyamorous LGBTQIA+ story with content not intended for those under 18 years of age due to graphic scenes and situations.
Dead Nights by Crea Reitan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Dead Nights is part of the Van Doren Universe, where majority of the characters are psychopaths or morally grey, but always entertaining, (the Van Doren’s play small parts here).
Zephyr, son of (loving?) psychopaths, as well balanced as any one in his situation can be. On the families island for the summer he just doesn’t leave. He’s not sure why he’s stuck around, but he’s really glad he did when another resident, Darwin, proposes a friends with benefits arrangement. Darwin discovers Zephyr isn’t the ahole he presents to the world. They begin what might be called a relationship.
Matty refused to kill a man. His punishment for that is death. His boyfriend Liam kept him from being killed and Matty is made a prisoner on the island. Liam leaves Matty alone for long periods of time. Matty sees ghosts and the island is full of them, sinking Matty into hell. They torment him unceasingly. Zephyr and Darwin befriend Matty. And he becomes a welcome voyeur to their intimacy’s. Liam returns to the island and is not happy with what he finds. Matty is his! These men have no right to him. But do they?
This author has once again taken borderline personalities and made them human as they find love. In this case that’s four very different men. None of them are Van Doren’s but their cult still has impact on the story. Yes, I said cult.
I didn’t expect to like Liam but I felt he redeemed himself. Zephyr and Darwin’s (with) benefits morphed into true feelings. Matty, even though he lived in, and with hell, became the catalyst for the relationships. He is very definitely the center of the story. He may be the best character the author has created. His relationships with the “ghosts” was sort of like CCTV. They saw all and and helped Matty protect his men. Blood was spilled without remorse and spicy times just kept getting spicier.
A couple of mysteries remained unanswered. Zephyr’s sister’s death and just what is up with that tower? Patiently waiting for the next book which I think will explain Zephry’s sister.
Review Copy requested and reviewed on behalf of OMGReads.
About the Author:
Crea lives in upstate New York with her dog and husband. She has been writing since grade school, when her second grade teacher had her class keep writing journals. She has a habit of creating secondary, and often time tertiary, characters that take over her stories. All of her RH relationships end up being heavily polyamorous – meaning it’s not just all the men for one woman. There’s also some M/M action going on. When she can’t fall asleep at night, she thinks up new scenes for her characters to act out. This, of course, is how most of her meant-to-be-thrown-away characters tend to end up front and center – and utterly swoon-worthy! Don’t ask her how many book boyfriends she has…
When not writing, Crea is an avid reader. Her TBR pile is several hundred books high (don’t even look at her kindle wish list or the unread books on her tablet). Sometimes, she enjoys crafting; sometimes, exploring nature; sometimes, traveling. Mostly, she enjoys putting her characters on paper and breathing life into them. Oh, and sleeping. Crea loves to sleep!
Author Links:
https://facebook.com/crea.reitan
https://www.facebook.com/groups/creasgodlings
https://www.facebook.com/ladycreaauthor
https://www.instagram.com/creareitan/
https://www.patreon.com/creareitan
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