Hayden Crowe fronts an all-girls band down in Austin, Texas. Between tending bar so her sister can stay in school and dealing with the fallout after their addict father skipped town, she hasn’t exactly had time to join the social media freak out over the recent outing of vampires and werewolves. Her world comes crashing down the night she’s attacked in an alley after a gig and bitten by a feral … by a feral werewolf. Unable to return home for fear of hurting her sister, and with a message scrawled across her arm warning HOSPITALS NOT SAFE, Hayden is left with just one option…
Him.
Ethan Caldwell doesn’t do relationships. Adopted son of the pack Alpha, he lives a solitary life as a barista and artist. Things three years ago with Hayden Crowe… went too far. By pack law, she couldn’t be told what he was. Ending it was for her own protection.
But when Hayden shows up on his doorstep, newly changed and in danger, Ethan defies his father’s orders to stay away. Someone in the paranormal community is hunting her, and hell if he’s going to fail her again.
Dark is part of the Blood Moon, Texas Shifters series. Sizzling hot romance. Guaranteed HEA. No cliffhangers.
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A Sexy Romp with Werewolves and Vampires in the World of Blood Moon, Texas
If there’s one thing that Dark shows, it’s that author Kat Kinney does nothing half-way. It’s a story replete with werewolves, vampires, sex and angst, and the convoluted plot flows relentlessly to an unexpected, but well thought out conclusion.
Humans have recently learned that they share the world with shifters and vampires, and an uneasy truce is in place. Against this backdrop, Hayden Crowe, aspiring rocker and part-time barrista is assaulted one night after a gig by a feral werewolf and bitten. Stunned and frightened, she instinctively flees to an old flame, Ethan Caldwell, proprietor of the coffee shop Dark, to help her cope with her radically changed life. Ethan is a born werewolf, who is aware of the difficulty of integrating a newly bitten into the community of packs, and afraid that he won’t be able to do it for Hayden, which will result in her death.
Dark is billed as a romance, and it is, and any good romance must explore the ebbs and flows of a newly-forming relationship. Kinney does that, in spades, with plenty of steamy sex scenes interspersed with attacks of angst brought on both by raging emotions and the werewolf virus coursing through the characters’ veins. The characters are rich, developed both by narration of current events and backstory, with chapters in the past written in italics to help the reader keep track of the era. There’s also the mystery – who did this to Hayden, and why?
If Dark has a failing, it’s that the author tried to cram too much into one story. It is a laudable effort, but for me, it fell short, and it was just too much to keep track of. It was a kaleidoscopic read that necessitated backtracking to keep track of all the disparate threads, and that prevented total immersion in the storyworld for me. I was most interested in the mystery, so I found it tedious to be yanked back into the love story – this is always a problem with hybrid works like this. So I give it four stars, but if you like this genre, I think it will be well worth your time and money.
Dark was a fantastic paranormal romance series open! It had vast world building with a big cast that I’m excited to see in the next books.
Hayden gets bitten and turned by a mystery werewolf and shows up at Ethan’s work, and everything gets spicy from there!
It is flashback heavy in the beginning to get you caught up on both Hayden and Ethan’s family and past, but done well and definitely set the world and series.
Pick it up if you love werewolves and rockstar romance, big worlds to get to know and a nice bite of suspense!
Ms. Kinney’s unique writing style grabbed me from the start and immersed me into this alternate reality of werewolves and vampires hiding among and, at times, preying upon, humans. The attraction between Hayden and Ethan is practically a character in itself and, fair warning, this story is anything but “clean.” But if you are up for a page-turning, sensual read, Dark is a fabulous choice!
“Dark” by Kat Kinney is a rockin’ fast-paced paranormal romance. This modern romance is full of hashtags and text messages leaving no doubt about the era of the book. The setting was so well done that I found myself falling for autumnal Austin TX USA as much as the hero, Ethan! The use of a corn maze, fall fair, and autumn’s favorite foods took Kinney’s world-building to the next level. Despite all the fun, the mystery behind Hayden’s troubles kept me guessing throughout the whole book. Who was the villain? There is a long list of suspects Lacey and Dallas, an addict from Zane’s past or Zane himself, a rival group, a random hit – or worse, vampires? Just when I thought I had it figured out, there was another twist or ill-fitting clue.
At the heart of Hayden’s troubles is the love interest, Ethan. The cinnamon roll hero with an angry past is a true romantic. Bonus points for his love language shown through acts of service like feeding Daisy (so cute that he calls Hayden Daisy). He is a coffee artist with a respectable job, a casual girlfriend, and controllable life when Hayden runs to him for help.
Hayden is a hard rock chick with a soft spot for Ethan. She reminds me of a cross between Joan Jett and Anna from Frozen. Hayden puts her sister Ellie before Ethan repeatedly even though Ethan risks his life for her. I guess that makes Ethan into Kristoff. However, Hayden and Ethan met as kids in a swoon-worthy story that explains why perfect guy Ethan puts up with moody Hayden. The damaged-but-not-broken pair are perfectly matched. In my opinion, the biggest surprise of the book was Ellie’s reaction to the couple and the final choice she makes regarding them. This is what sets “Dark” apart from the cookie-cutter shifter romances. Overall, I give this book 5 stars because I was hooked from beginning to end.
Cute, PNR shifter romance story. After years apart, Hayden and Ethan were brought together by an unforeseen circumstance. Hayden must figure out who is hunting her, while navigating a new life with Ethan by her side to guide her. Their connection can be felt throughout the story. I enjoyed the mystery and quirky characters.
I really wanted to like Dark by Kat Kinney but for me, sadly enough, it missed its mark. I’m a lover of paranormal romance and there were some things I didn’t entirely dislike in this book but I can’t say I really enjoyed the story or characters that much.
I felt that the start of the book was a little all over the place and disorganized. A lot was going on and I felt like I had missed some things. But after the initial start and I was getting to know the characters more I slowly got into it all. The middle was the best part for me but by the end the story had lost me again, unfortunately.
The characters were tricky for me. On the one hand I did like them for the most part but there were just things that bugged me, mostly with Ethan. I liked him to a certain point and he was a hot werewolf so he gets bonus points for that but he had for too many issues, especially with trust and getting close to people. And those issues kept coming up way too much. He was one of those I don’t do relationship guys and I’m just over that at this point.
Hayden I also did like because she was pretty awesome but it never got to the point where I fully loved her as one of the two main characters. I went back and forth with her. There were also a lot of hashtags used throughout the story which was fun at first but eventually it started to annoy me just a little bit because they were used quite a lot in the end. I was like, okay enough already.
I don’t want to end this review in negativity so I’m going to sum up the things I did like. Luckily enough there were some:
-Hayden being the lead of an all-girls band (so badass!)
-The story was funny at times (I love humor in a book!)
-Werewolves (I’ll never stop loving them!)
-Ethan wearing glasses (hot!)
-Hayden’s relationship with her sister (so sweet!)
I hope I haven’t put off too many people with my review because I do feel other people will enjoy it more than I did. I’ve seen lots of good reviews but it just wasn’t a hit for me, personally.
I hadn’t read a wolf shifter book before but I thought I’d give it a try and am really glad I did! Fast paced, sweet and spicy, and with a mystery too — it had a little bit of everything I enjoy, including some complex large-family dynamics. While I didn’t quite grasp *everything* regarding the shifter element, I loved how pieces of Hayden and Ethan’s stories were revealed slowly and at just the right time. Great first book for a series. Looking forward to the next!
Hayden is the hard-working lead in an up-and-coming all-girl band that is slowly gaining popularity in the music industry. However, when she is mugged in an alley after a gig, her life takes an unexpected turn. Unwillingly turned into a werewolf, Hayden turns to the only person who can help – Ethan.
Ethan is stunned when Hayden walks back into his life and is desperate for help. Against the wishes of his pack, Ethan determines to help her through the difficult transition that’s upon her. He also vows to find out who turned Hayden against her will, especially since she becomes a victim of stalking. Who is targeting Hayden? What do they want with her? Does this have anything to do with the other missing people in the area? Ethan isn’t sure, but he will do whatever it takes to protect the only woman he ever cared for.
Dark is an intense paranormal romance with well-developed characters, excellent dialogue, and super-steamy chemistry. The story is told from both Hayden and Ethan’s perspectives, which I liked. You really get to understand their emotions and motivations and why they resist their feelings. Hayden, for example, is a newly-turned werewolf, and her struggles with this change, as well as her conflicting feelings about Ethan, are skillfully explored. I love the humor and sarcasm that the author weaves into Hayden’s story. Hayden is fierce and independent, and her funny and sometimes acerbic personality shines through, even in the midst of her complex situation. The dual perspectives also help to delve into Hayden and Ethan’s family dynamics and how they’ve influenced Hayden and Ethan.
Flashbacks to Ethan’s childhood provide further context for his tortured actions and explains why he struggles to let people in. His memories, as well as his fear of abandonment and rejection, guides his relationships. Ethan constantly questions his worth, and Hayden is the only one who has ever gotten past the walls he has put up.
Ethan and Hayden both have difficult pasts and put a lot of pressure on themselves, and their tumultuous relationship prevents Hayden from fully trusting Ethan. However, he’s the one she turns to in times of crisis. Ethan is the person that she knows can help her. It is clear that both are afraid to give in to their feelings for each other, but their connection is too strong to deny. I loved how their story progressed! Their chemistry is fantastic, their bond is deep, and their love is true.
In addition to the awesome characters and the swoon-tastic romance, I enjoyed the suspenseful plot in Dark. This is a world where vampires and werewolves are common knowledge, but humans aren’t entirely comfortable with the knowledge. Many possible antagonists could be targeting Hayden, and I enjoyed trying to figure out who turned her and who was stalking her. The closer Hayden and Ethan get to the truth, the more dangerous their lives become, which led to some nail-biting scenes.
I really enjoyed this paranormal romance, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the Blood Moon, Texas Shifters series! Thanks so much to Kat Kinney for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
Entertaining. What starts as a tale of forbidden love becomes a complex unravelling of pack mentality and tests of loyalty. Hayden has been mugged, they took nothing but her eyes have been weird ever since. She is a young woman left to look after her younger sister after their dad’s addiction problem leaves him unable to care for them. She works in a bar and she is the super cool front person in an all-girl band.
Everything is changing in the world Hayden lives in, paranormal occurrences are being reported, and Hayden has noticed something about herself. And the hero Ethan works in a coffee bar called Dark.
Kat Kinney’s writing is very entertaining, the text messages, the name of the band, the chocolate cupcake obsession. It all makes the narrative real – it can’t be real though it’s a paranormal romance!
Such a great read, I couldn’t put it down. The two main characters have great chemistry together and the storyline was entertaining. I have to be honest I didn’t know what Mexican coke was, after googling I am now well aware and hoping to source some to try. If you like werewolves and romance give this book a try!
I was a little confused on what was happening to begin with, but I think that was mainly through being distracted by my daughter and partner lol… But that soon passed and I got really into the story.
I loved the characters, even the secondary characters had depth to them. Full of heat, romance, secrets and mysteries.
Can’t wait to read the next one.
A sexy fast-moving start to this series
As a novice fantasy/dystopia reader, I found this an interesting introduction to the world of werewolf/shifters. Hayden is a newly, unwillingly transformed shifter who runs away from her sister and returns to an old flame, Ethan.
This story is a mix of romance, as Ethan helps Hayden become accustomed to her new life, and the mystery behind disappearances and an increase in feral attacks.
It works well so that the reader can learn about this different world at the same time as Hayden and the pages turn quickly with increasingly sexy, yet often tender scenes between our protagonists.
The conclusion is satisfying, and yet still leaves some of the mysteries to solve in the next books.
Highly recommend for a newbie to the genre, and I’m sure it will be loved by old hats too.
Well, hello new awesome favorite book! Where have you been all my life? That’s what I felt like saying when I scrolled through the last page of Dark on my Kindle. As an avid romance and paranormal romance reader, I was really excited about this book, being that it was written by the author of Dyrwolf. I really enjoyed that book, although I’m not a huge YA fan, so I was excited to see what the author would do with characters a bit older. And she did not disappoint!
Our main character is Hayden, who is an overall badass lead singer of a band and so freaking funny that I LOL’d every time we were in her POV. Her inner dialogue is great…heck, so is her outer dialogue! So many funny pop culture references that I could barely keep up. Ethan is our hero, who’s had a thing for Hayden for a while but is convinced he can’t have her. When she comes to him for help, it’s amazing to see how protective he is of her. The romance is steamy, the banter is fantastic…I think my favorite scene is when she’s in feral wolf form and they’re in the kitchen. Good lord…even the silent wolf banter is hot! Such a creative and interesting book. The vampires are a different species but werewolves are created by catching a lycan virus. I love world building and this had some really creative threads.
Great book for lovers of fantasy, romance, paranormal romance or anything with humor & pop culture references. I couldn’t put it down!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
I finished this book, so that’s a good thing!
I can’t say what didn’t quite work for me, I hate that I can’t, you all know it annoys me so!
The world building is good, with werewolves and vampires exposed to the world a short time ago, in a thoroughly modern way!
Hayden and Ethan have history, I was expecting that history to be a bit more than it appeared to be. Ethan’s personal history is bad, as is Hayden’s, both of them having difficult childhoods. There is much angst about their childhoods.
Or there SHOULD have been. While Ethan regularly comments on what his childhood did to him, how he closed off from everyone, Hayden does not. I wanted MORE from Hayden about her childhood!
Ethan brothers held more interest to me, than Etahn himself, I’m afraid and I would like to have had a bit more about them. I can see a pairing between one of his brothers and Hayden’s sister, Ellie. Who, in my humble opinion, needed a slap a time or two!
There is a back story that kinda got lost on me, and I wasn’t sure what the whole point of the kidnappings was, to be honest. It tells you, in the book, but the penny did not drop for me, I’m afraid.
Some sexy bits, although much of those are glanced over, off screen as it were. Some violent bits too.
Still, as the first by this author AND a first in series, not a bad read, just not one that really pushed any of my buttons, I’m sorry to say!
3 good stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
This book was exceptionally well written. The author is amazing and has a way to draw you in.
The flow didn’t skip a beat. I initially thought it was about vamps because of the cover but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was about werewolves. I’m team werewolf, probably because I love dogs, have an awesome husky/shepard mix, and because the whole blood-sucking thing just freaks me out (I hate the sight of blood). Anyway, this was an awesome read. If you like shifter stories, with a tortured hero and a bad-ass heroine with lots of dirty talk and sass, then you’ll love this book. I enjoyed the dialogue between the the characters and at times made me laugh aloud. Great story!
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Dark is the first book in the Blood Moon, Texas Shifters series and it introduces us to a world where shifters and vampires are not the best of friends, where you can be turned by sex or a bite, and where the thunderstorms are FIERCE!
The story itself is a simple one. Unrequited love, up-and-coming band, kidnappings, stalkers, silver addiction, did I say simple? The world-building is fulfilling enough as it is set in contemporary Texas (as you might have guessed from the series title!). Although I have never been, it was easy enough to ‘see’ this world.
If I had any complaints, I would mention the transitions in some of the scenes. A couple of times, I was confused between what was actually happening and what had already happened but was being remembered. Another time was right at the start. Was Hayden speaking to Ellie in the car or was she remembering the conversation?
Told from the first perspective from both Hayden and Ethan, this was a fast-paced story with plenty of action to balance out the blooming second-chance romance between our two main characters. I would love to know more about Ethan’s brothers as I wasn’t sure at the end just what was happening but that’s probably just me.
A great start to a new series by a new-to-me author but one that I hope to continue with. Definitely recommended by me.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books!
What a different twist to paranormal. I liked the difference; however, towards the end I get confused. It was a little hard for me to follow. The viral transmission was different which I liked. The plot moved too slowly for me as well. I loved Hayden and Ethan together. Hayden has the right amount of spunky for Ethan. I can’t wait to read book 2.
I voluntarily read and reviewed free copy of this book.
Dark checks all the boxes for what a paranormal romance should be. The writing is crisp and clear, and the editing is good. I appreciated the strong, modern female characters.
I could have done with less backstory. I think that much of it was unnecessary, and those parts that were needed could have been dribbled in within the context of the plot.
I would also have liked to see more development of the mystery plot. There isn’t much forward motion in the plot until suddenly at the end it gets resolved by a bunch of characters we’ve never seen before. That seemed to negate all the efforts of the two main characters to figure out what was going on.
The story did deliver on the HEA ending, as promised, and it set up the environment for more volumes in the series. If you’re a fan of paranormal romance, then you’ll want to grab a copy of Dark.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dark by Kat Kinney. The author really knows how to make her characters compelling, I was torn between savouring each word trying to elongate the reading experience and turning pages quickly to get to the end of the mystery!
Yes, we have mystery, romance and it all ties in beautifully. Our main character Hayden is NOT a damsel in distress, she knows how to take care of herself. Her greatest redeeming quality is her love for her sister. Cool points for being in a band! Ethan, simply put, I am in love with.
I am now an avid fan of the Blood Moon, Texas Shifters series.
Ethan & Hayden I have not read a story like this in quit a while. Very intense a little confusing to start but I finely found the click and things fell into place. Good story a lot of little twists and turns so subtle you don’t realize it until later.