Book Info
Delicious by AJ MerlinSeries: Pleasure and Prey #4
Rating:
Book ratings explainedGenres: Dark Romance
Pages: 234
ASIN: B0C32MLK1X
Published: 31/01/2024
Available on
Purchase at: Amazon | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon AU
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When I'm confronted in the woods by a man with a chainsaw and a gorgeous face, I should’ve known it would end poorly.
But when I end up in the killer’s house instead of chopped into little pieces, I don’t know what to think. Not when he promises me that he won’t hurt me, and especially when he tells me that I can’t leave.
Not unless he can trust me.
He can’t, of course. I’ll tell anyone that will listen that this monster cut up some man in the moonlight, even if he promises that it had been deserved.
He’s lying, because there’s no way anyone deserves what he did.
Earning his trust is an act, but when the lie starts to fail, I find that the man underneath the terrifying mask is something altogether different than I could ever expect. He’s charming, sweet, and his obsession with me is dangerous enough that I know I should run far and fast before either of us can act on it.
Can a monster like him ever love a girl he found in the woods, or am I destined to become Sunday dinner for a recovering cannibal and the family he swears to hate?
Delicious is a contemporary dark romance standalone set in the Pleasure & Prey universe. This is an MF romance. Please see author’s note at the front of the book using the ‘look inside the book’ feature for a full list of content warnings.
Delicious - My Review
Another Pleasure and Prey book? Of course, I’m reading it. AJ Merlin is one of my comfort authors and although the books in this series follow a particular form, they never feel predictable. Delicious was exactly the read I thought it would be, and that was everything I needed.
The way in which Saylor tells her story is a little different to the other Pleasure and Prey books. As a photography devotee, she sees the world through the lens of her art, and the result is captivating. Instead of focusing on horror and gore when she meets Jed for the first time, she’s taken by an immediate need to take his picture, noticing the unconventional elements of his appearance. Even when her instinct tells her that she should run, her brain still focuses on “that something about him that makes [her] loathe to look away”. Knowing what’s to come in the story ahead, this was a theme to take note of. Even when she meets Jed for a second time, in the darkness of the forest, and realises that he’s a chainsaw-wielding killer, there’s something in her that can’t look or run away.
Thus begins the familiar moral dilemma of how our FMC can love or even be attracted to a serial killer. The answer – as we all know by now – is quite easily if Saylor can just stop listening to the voices inside her head that tell her she shouldn’t. Despite Jed kidnapping Saylor at the beginning of the book it’s inevitable that he will let her return to her life, she’ll miss him, there will be a test in which she proves her loyalty, she’ll meet his friends (the good old Pleasure and Prey boys) and there will be a moment where she sees him at his most bloody and violent but she’ll still choose to stay. See what I mean about it being comfort reading – who can say no to that sort of happily ever after?
Jed was a refreshingly different character from the other killers we’ve seen in the series, his insecurity being the sweetest. If I didn’t want to jump him (because you know AJ’s MMCs are always sexy as hell) I’d want to mother him. I enjoyed reading the push and pull between him and Saylor as their emotions and their doubts worked around each other through the course of the story. Saylor was the perfect final girl, her insecurities relatable (serial killing aside) and her snarky attitude towards her survival the perfect balm to all the blood and gore.
About AJ Merlin
AJ merlin is an author, crazy bird lady, and rampant horror movie enthusiast. Her debut novel, A Little Wicked, is the product of being enamoured with the paranormal and the need to hunt down all things that go bump in the night. Born and raised in the midwest United States, AJ is lucky to be right in the middle of people who support her and a menagerie of animals to keep her somewhat sane. Connect with her on Facebook or social media to see updates, giveaways, and be bombarded with dog, cat, and pigeon pictures.
Last Updated on 14 March 2024 by Glowstars
