Any worries I had about the two of them meeting so early in life vanished as the story progressed. From the outside, their exchanges might seem weird, but to my own surprise, I could totally relate to her feelings about him. Lou’s severe case of tragically disinterested parents, her cancer diagnosis, and his sense of responsibility towards her are how they end up keeping in touch via letters when he goes to prison, and she remains at the hospital starting chemo. I loved the innocence of their interactions, the abundance of questions she asks trying to understand a situation that goes way beyond her years, and her absolute certainty that she is safe with him, despite what the other adults say. She seeks him out, worried and curious about her guardian monster, much to the dismay of her parents. Zeus and Lou have a series of brief interactions in the hospital after the shooting, essentially building the foundation of what is to come. But of course, I kept going, curious how they would eventually ‘find each other’. While I love the idea of someone instantly feeling such a strong connection to a stranger, their respective ages at the time left me feeling a bit uneasy about their apparent pull towards each other. The way the author described the scene, it was instinct guiding her to him, to, as she would later call him, her guardian monster. Terrified, Lou tries to get to safety and ends up going for Zeus. Zeus is in his mid-twenties at the time, Lou is merely seven. The main characters meet in the middle of a full-blown shootout. I stumbled over Giana Darling’s Welcome to the Dark Side while hunting for a sweet quick forbidden romance read, and I have to say I was a bit skeptical going into this one, but it did not disappoint.

Only, I didn't know that Zeus Garro was the President of The Fallen MC and when you made a deal with a man who is worse than the devil, there was no going back. So, when I finally ran into the man I'd been writing to since he saved my life as a little girl and he offered to show me the dark side of life before I left it for good, I said yes.

I was a seventeen-year-old paradigm of virtue and I was tired of it. What the hell kind of reward was that for a boring life well lived? I ate my vegetables, volunteered at the local autism centre and sat in the front pew of church every Sunday. This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

Welcome to the dark side giana