The Devil We Crave by Jagger Cole
Dark Descendants Book 1
Dark College Romance
Release: May 26, 2026
One elite mafia college, four shadowy secret societies, and the ruthless dark-hearted heirs of legends.
Your acceptance letter to the most dangerous campus in the world is on the way…
Achilles Drakos is every girl’s dream.
Charming. Gorgeous. Popular. The captain of the football team and an untouchable golden god of Knightsblood University, where the most elite mafia families in the world send their heirs.
But I accidentally peeked behind that perfect exterior, when I stepped into the wrong dark fantasy, and into the hands of the wrong masked monster.
Now, the shy good girl no one notices just became his prey.
I’ve seen the devil behind the gold.
The darkness he wears like a second skin.
The predator now hell-bent on dragging me kicking and moaning into his vicious world of sadism and sin.
I know I should fear the devil.
But I might be more afraid of the girl who craves him back.
The Devil We Crave is a fully standalone dark college romance. No previous books in the Jagger Cole Universe need to be read before diving into this book or series. Readers are highly advised to read the TW inside.
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The Devil We Crave by Jagger Cole
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
***Review copy requested and reviewed on behalf of OMGReads Blog***
The Devil We Crave is book one in the Dark Descendents Series. This is a dark, college, mafia‑ish romance and was noted as a story you can read as a standalone. In my opinion, that’s absolutely not the case. The sheer number of characters, connections, and backstories made it overwhelming, especially being that this was my first read by Cole.
There were so many characters and interconnected dynamics that I constantly found myself confused or mixing people up. The story frequently side tracked into explanations about side characters, which ended up pulling focus away from the main plot and making it choppy and harder to stay grounded in the main character’s romance.
This is definitely a dark romance, so read your trigger warnings. There are mentions of sexual assault, impact play, somno activities, knife play, consensual non-consent, and several other heavy kink elements.
The book doesn’t shy away from intensity, but the emotional depth didn’t match the level of physical content for me. I struggled to connect with the “romance” as I had a hard time connecting with the characters or feeling their chemistry. Yes, there are plenty of spicy scenes, but they were more physical than emotional. And again, with so many side characters popping in and out, it was hard to stay focused in the main couple, and honestly, I often found myself more interested by the side characters than the leads.
There was a lot of potential with the mixture of spice, drama, suspense, and angst. But the execution didn’t land for me. The friendships didn’t seem very genuine, the character growth was almost non-existent, the twists felt anticlimactic, and the pacing left the ending feeling a bit flat.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
A reader first and foremost, Jagger Cole cut his romance writing teeth penning various steamy fan-fiction stories years ago. After deciding to hang up his writing boots, Jagger worked in advertising pretending to be Don Draper. It worked enough to convince a woman way out of his league to marry him, though, which is a total win.
Now, Dad to two little princesses and King to a Queen, Jagger is thrilled to be back at the keyboard.
When not writing or reading romance books, he can be found woodworking, enjoying good whiskey, and grilling outside – rain or shine.
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