This isn’t a fairy tale. I’ll save you the trouble by telling you that now.This is the tale of a girl who spent her life bouncing around foster homes, who had her innocence stolen in the darkness before she knew it was something that could be lost. Her demons followed her everywhere, after that night. They chased her to the medical school she dropped out of, to the strip club she sold herself in, … herself in, and finally caught her in a river of sin where they tried to drown her.
My name is Bex and this is my story.
I’m paddling, barely keeping my head above water. And even though I’m submerged, I’ll never be clean. The layer of dirt that has clung to me since birth is a tattoo I’ll wear for life.
He can’t see it, though.
Even when I’m torn and tattered, and left in pieces, he wades into the filth to try to put those pieces back together.
He doesn’t seem to understand there’s nothing left to repair. To love. Just sullied fragments of a damned soul.
He’s willing to damn himself in order to exact revenge on those who sent me to the pit.
Problem is, my name is at the top of that list, since I not only damned my own soul, but his too.
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If you’re a fan of The Sons of Templar series you need to know this book is not your fluffy, warm and cozy romance with a cute heroine who happily falls for the possessive, alpha biker male. It’s very dark, full of angst and gut wrenching. It’s also a long, detailed book that delves deep into the heroine’s dark mind. We met Bex (Becky) back in Beyond the Horizon, Lily and Archer’s story. She was and continues to be devoted to Lily and is the best and the worst BFF a woman could have. We saw in that book that Bex had demons she was running from but we didn’t know the depth of those demons. You don’t have to necessarily read Beyond the Horizon to read Dauntless. However, all of the previous books gives you the back story to all of the characters.
Bex alternates between running from her demons and embracing them. She’s suffered greatly in her short life from abandonment, abusive foster homes, rape at 12 years old, physical abuse and crippling drug addiction. She has never had a healthy kind of love from a man, her parents or anyone else, other than Lily. She’s never had the love of another person other than her best friend, Lucy. Lucky is a member of the Sons of Templar. He’s hot, funny, a jokester, and is always smiling. But we find that the happy exterior of Lucky really hides his own demons in his mind. Everybody loves Lucky.
Lucky is immediately attracted to Bex the first time he sees her on the stripper pole in a rival’s strip club. Lucky begins his pursuit of Bex and the real story of Bex’s inner struggles start unfolding. Bex is snarky, bitchy, and resistant to allowing anyone to help or get close to her. She feels degraded, unfit, not worthy and disgust for herself. Lucky is, at first, unaware of the drug addiction. There’s a great deal of self flagellation in the book and we spend a lot of time in Bex’s head. We find that she feels she will never be good enough for anyone to love her because of “her filth”, specifically the drug addiction and her rape as a child. Since this is a long book, you’ve got to hang with her during the first half and reach the point where she actually starts seeing that she has to make choices to make her life better. She gets better and then a vicious attack sets her further back.
Bex is so deeply fighting her demons and feels so unworthy of love, she continuously pushes Lucky away, sometimes in a very hard, bitchy way. I felt empathy for Bex but at times I really didn’t like her. Lucky never gives up on Bex. He keeps fighting for her. He loses that permanent smile of his, the joking stops and his happy state disappears. The darkness takes over him because he can’t imagine life without Bex. He’s willing to take her anyway he can get her.
This is a story of redemption and the long, realistic fight of a person trying to reach a point where they don’t depend on drugs, can feel comfortable in their own skin, and feel worthy to be loved by a devoted man and the people who are his family. This is not a happy ever after story because even though there is a HEA for Bex and Lucky, reality is that Bex will forever struggle to stay in control of her own life and not depend on substance abuse to hide her demons. She’s got to face them, fight them and conquer them.
It was amazing to see the care and support the club members, old ladies and friends gave Bex and Lucky during this long struggle. Gage was the shining star in this book because he knew Bex’s struggles because of his own former addiction. He drags her to his own weekly support sessions and gives her a dose of tough love. I loved his character in this particular story.
Bex and Lucky find a strong love. They share their demons and God love Lucky for hanging in there as long as he did. It was a real testament to his deep love and loyalty to Bex.
I highly recommend this book but again warn you, it’s deep and dark but it accurately reflects what a true abused addict faces in real life as well as the struggles of the people who love them.
This is Bex’s story. She’s in a sea of pain and darkness. What happened to her, she’ll never escape from. This may have some triggers for some, a very sad and corrupt tale.
Just finished Dauntless and WOW! Just WOW!!! Anne Malcom you have outdone yourself with this one. Such a heartbreaking book. So real, funny, sad, smoking hot, sweet, raw, horrifying and most of all beautiful. Such a truly beautifully real, flawed love story. Lucky and Bex were never going to have a fairytale romance – thank god. Their love story is so much more than that. It is everything. This book has jumped into my top 10 this year and will be a definite reread. Cannot recommend this book enough
Where it all starts, the line that hooked me at the beginning and sums up Lucky and Bex….. ‘I don’t need to learn to love the woman you see in the mirror. Cause I already do. Have done since the moment you talked about nuts covered in piss.’
Quite simply put, I loved this book! Its darker than the others that this author has released but with the subject matter, it couldnt really be any other way, but in saying that, its not too dark. I loved the fact that the storyline was original. Plus the subjects are written with obvious research on the authors part and also written with respect.
Bex…..I want to mother that girl. Her story is heartbreaking, the way she thinks of herself had me in tears. ‘His eyes saw to the core of me, not soft and beautiful but shriveled and rotten’ and boy does she get some hard knocks!
Lucky, now that man has a whole lot of love to give…’Im gonna find it. Taste it. And own it.’
Jeez Lucky, come get me baby! He is just so much more than a funny, hard man biker, I loved reading every second about him!
Pay attention to the quotes at beginning of each chapter…priceless!
I really liked this book, once I had straightened it out in my head – I found the book moved all over the place, it seemed broken up – but once I finished, and had it all sorted in my head, I found that I loved it.
The love between Lucky and Rebecca (Becky) – for Lucky it was instant, he wanted her right from the start – Bex was a little slower, although they had a ton of chemistry. They both carried a lot of baggage, but Lucky was patient (what a saint) he never gave up, and boy o’ boy did she go through a lot, more than any person should ever face. Their stories are unimaginable, they both had endured unspeakable heartache.
I’m gonna read it again, for sure. I’m certain there might be parts I missed……. Lucky and Bex deserve a good life together, filled with love.
Dauntless is my favourite SOT novel right behind Bull’s story. And that’s because we get to see a side of Lucky we’ve never ever seen before. Throughout the whole series, Lucky has had this jovial nature about him, always making a crack out of a serious situation and always diffusing the tension. At times, its unwanted and completely the wrong time for his jokes, but who knew Lucky had a darker side to him then all the Sons combined? Throughout the series, it hints at a darkness deep within Lucky, behind this facade he puts up but yet, we truly do not comprehend how far that darkness reaches until it comes to Bex.
Throughout Dauntless, we rarely see the happy-go-lucky Lucky we normally seen. He’s even more alpha and possessive than the other Sons, and its HOT. If anything, I fell in love with him even more. Who knew he had so much soul inside him? Bex awakens a beast deep inside him only she can sate and watching their tragic love story take place is a beautifully haunting thing. There is so much pain and heartache but there is also love and passion, happiness and hope. Finding a way to breathe and survive. Finding a way to make yourself feel worthy. This is a bit different from what we normally get from a Sons of Templar novel, but it’s twice as captivating and extremely HOT. You guys will definitely want to read this one. You’ll never see this one coming!
5 Dark Heartbreak Stars
Dauntless by Anne Malcom is full of heartbreak and such sadness that I had a constant lump in my throat throughout. This is by far the darkest book I’ve read by Anne Malcom so far.
Bex’s life didn’t start out great, she grew up in foster care and came across monsters through most of her childhood. Then she met Lilly and her mam and then she finally had found her family. When Lilly’s Mam dies of Cancer, it knocks Bex for six and she turns to drugs to block out the feels. Lilly has Asher to look out for her she certainly doesn’t need a broken best friend so Bex’ let the drugs rule the way. But when Bex wakes up in a hospital after an accidental almost overdose and she sees her best friend heartbroken at nearly losing someone else she love she sets out to make it right and is adamant to get clean and stay clean.
Lucky is one funny and rough around the edges biker, he is adamant he will save Becky no matter what she says or thinks of herself. He used humour throughout and had me in stitches. But we also saw a big change in his character mid-way through this book.
Dauntless had loads of drama, sadness, darkness and a little happiness throughout, this was one hell of a roller-coaster ride. I loved it and highly recommend reading it. Anne Malcom had become one of my favourite authors.
Well this book was nothing sort of heavy but i loved Lucky and Bex’s story this was a story of darkness, tragedy, love and heartbreak.
I must admit Bex was such a strong character she went into the depths of hell and only just got herself out but what i loved most was she didn’t expect her Prince Charming to save her and that she wanted to save herself and by everything holy did she do just that. I loved her character and one i won’t forget in a long time.
Lucky was always the funny, not serious kind of character that we met in the other books but he also had his demons and we certainly met his serious side in this book, i loved to see his caring side and loving somebody than his own self but for him and Bex there was so much to overcome.
Wow this book was everything and as in true fashion Anne Malcom style it left you on the edge of seat, it had you thinking no there possibly couldn’t be more and the story of drugs, kidnapping, love, loss and getting iou ready for the next book it had it all.
Loved this story and as usual can’t wait to get into note of Anne Malcoms books
If you’re a fan of The Sons of Templar series you need to know this book is not your fluffy, warm and cozy romance with a cute heroine who happily falls for the possessive, alpha biker male. It’s very dark, full of angst and gut wrenching. It’s also a long, detailed book that delves deep into the heroine’s dark mind. We met Bex (Becky) back in Beyond the Horizon, Lily and Archer’s story. She was and continues to be devoted to Lily and is the best and the worst BFF a woman could have. We saw in that book that Bex had demons she was running from but we didn’t know the depth of those demons. You don’t have to necessarily read Beyond the Horizon to read Dauntless. However, all of the previous books gives you the back story to all of the characters.
Bex alternates between running from her demons and embracing them. She’s suffered greatly in her short life from abandonment, abusive foster homes, rape at 12 years old, physical abuse and crippling drug addiction. She has never had a healthy kind of love from a man, her parents or anyone else, other than Lily. She’s never had the love of another person other than her best friend, Lucy. Lucky is a member of the Sons of Templar. He’s hot, funny, a jokester, and is always smiling. But we find that the happy exterior of Lucky really hides his own demons in his mind. Everybody loves Lucky.
Lucky is immediately attracted to Bex the first time he sees her on the stripper pole in a rival’s strip club. Lucky begins his pursuit of Bex and the real story of Bex’s inner struggles start unfolding. Bex is snarky, bitchy, and resistant to allowing anyone to help or get close to her. She feels degraded, unfit, not worthy and disgust for herself. Lucky is, at first, unaware of the drug addiction. There’s a great deal of self flagellation in the book and we spend a lot of time in Bex’s head. We find that she feels she will never be good enough for anyone to love her because of “her filth”, specifically the drug addiction and her rape as a child. Since this is a long book, you’ve got to hang with her during the first half and reach the point where she actually starts seeing that she has to make choices to make her life better. She gets better and then a vicious attack sets her further back.
Bex is so deeply fighting her demons and feels so unworthy of love, she continuously pushes Lucky away, sometimes in a very hard, bitchy way. I felt empathy for Bex but at times I really didn’t like her. Lucky never gives up on Bex. He keeps fighting for her. He loses that permanent smile of his, the joking stops and his happy state disappears. The darkness takes over him because he can’t imagine life without Bex. He’s willing to take her anyway he can get her.
This is a story of redemption and the long, realistic fight of a person trying to reach a point where they don’t depend on drugs, can feel comfortable in their own skin, and feel worthy to be loved by a devoted man and the people who are his family. This is not a happy ever after story because even though there is a HEA for Bex and Lucky, reality is that Bex will forever struggle to stay in control of her own life and not depend on substance abuse to hide her demons. She’s got to face them, fight them and conquer them.
It was amazing to see the care and support the club members, old ladies and friends gave Bex and Lucky during this long struggle. Gage was the shining star in this book because he knew Bex’s struggles because of his own former addiction. He drags her to his own weekly support sessions and gives her a dose of tough love. I loved his character in this particular story.
Bex and Lucky find a strong love. They share their demons and God love Lucky for hanging in there as long as he did. It was a real testament to his deep love and loyalty to Bex.
I highly recommend this book but again warn you, it’s deep and dark but it accurately reflects what a true abused addict faces in real life as well as the struggles of the people who love them.
Raw and emotional, can Bex and Lucky survive the drama that surrounds them?
I have wanted Lucky’s story since his first appearance in this series and with the beginning of his and Bex’s story at the end of Asher and Lilly’s book, I just knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed when I got my hands on it. WOW! This book has it all and then some…. badass biker who is a complete softy when it comes to his woman and will go to any lengths to destroy those that hurt her, and an even more badass chic who gives her everything to overcome her demons to have her man. Let me just say she has demons and then some. I loved every word of this book! Dauntless is the best yet in this series, it’s darker than the others, and will have the reader hanging on the edge of their seat with the unexpected twists and turns within its pages.
Bex is a powerhouse in this book and what she endures had me in tears. I loved how her girls where there to help her through her struggles and yet shake the crap out of her when needed. Her story is dark from the very beginning and gets much darker further into the story, at times I had to wonder if she would ever make it out in one piece. Lucky is her salvation and her damnation, her hero and her villain, and her home in the darkness.
“They didn’t live happily ever after because this isn’t a fairy tale. But they LIVED. With pain, suffering, and darkness. And happiness, love and laughter. And most importantly, each other.”
Wow …wow….wow. I was not let down. Lucky and Bex was a difficult story to read. I am so glad they found their happy ending in each other after all they went through.
This is Bex’s story. She’s in a sea of pain and darkness. What happened to her, she’ll never escape from. This may have some triggers for some, a very sad and corrupt tale.
Just finished Dauntless and WOW . Just WOW!!! Anne Malcom you have outdone yourself with this one. Such a heartbreaking book. So real, funny, sad, smoking hot, sweet, raw, horrifying and most of all beautiful. Such a truly beautifully real, flawed love story. Lucky and Bex were never going to have a fairytale romance – thank god. Their love story is so much more than that. It is everything. This book has jumped into my top 10 this year and will be a definite reread. Cannot recommend this book enough