Giana DarlingDead Man Walking (The Fallen Men Series Special Editions)

Oh my soul- what an epic story! Darker, sexier, somehow even grittier, and psychologically riveting- Bea and Priests story is hauntingly original, beautiful, and explosively intense!Dead Man Walking is Giana’s darkest entry yet- and perhaps the most novel of the series. Dark. Delicious. Gritty. Psychologically intense. I was consumed from the very first word. The drama, the violence, and the mystery surrounding the romance are compelling enough on their own, but where this book really distinguishes itself amidst the already magnificent other books in the series is the tenor of the love story between Bea and Priest. Because Giana doesn’t just play with darkness- she embraces it entirely, embraces its fractured beauty, finds its tenderness and soul. Unlike the couples before, this isn’t a story about bringing light to the dark, the healing touch of a romance’s shine. Oh no, this is about bringing the dark to the light, about characters who find solace, are at home in the shadows. This is a story about embracing and relishing our own depravity, and the fine line between what aspects of our darkness make us human and what make us deranged. This is a story you feel in your bones as much as it stimulates the mind. Completely intoxicating, utterly beguiling, and unforgettable.Giana has created her darkest characters to date- yet somehow, their love story is the sweetest, the most hauntingly beautiful, the least angsty but no less intense. This is about a love that is only realized when our lovers are willing to embrace their dark. Priest is every bit as magnetic and ensnaring as you’d imagine. He’s the ultimate dark anti-hero- unapologetically menacing, admittedly emotionless, a man who loves dealing in death. Giana doesn’t shy away from him- she doesn’t soften him to make him palpable- she lets him be Priest. But she also gives him substance, complexity, a past that will haunt me- and she helps us find tenderness and beauty in his darkness.But Bea- Bea is the true revelation of this story, and now my favorite leading lady. She’s got the doe-eyed wonder and innocence I loved about Lou- the light, the joyfulness, the exuberance that draws you in. A bubbly blonde adorned in bubblegum pink, she’s the sweet, animal rescuing, church-going good girl. But even a good girl has darkness- and Bea comes to terms that she can still be light, she can still be good, when she embraces not just Priest’s dark but her own. The contrasts of not just her and Priest but between the different parts of Bea make her one of the most interesting heroines of all time.And the CHEMISTRY! LAWD. The intensity between these two is undeniable, kinetic, turbulent but somehow so simple and pure. Oh, they bring the dirty, but there is a sweetness to their connection, a tenderness that emerges- to Priest’s reluctant possessiveness and Bea’s hopeful devotion.The prose, as always, is astoundingly beautiful and brilliantly architected- symbolism, parallelisms, imagery galore. Giana is truly an artist with words- and the juxtaposition of our lyrical style to the disturbing aspects of this story create an even richer experience. This plot is truly jaw dropping- and even though I pieced together the puzzle before the big reveal, I still was reeling. Total page turner- a beautiful balance of MC action and romance, and some twisted themes that Giana has not explored before but that I found so philosophically intense and intriguing. I could not stop thinking about this plot line- or these bad guys- the most scary and menacing yet.There is no MC writer like Giana Darling- an author whose romances’ emotional range is as captivating as the poetry of her prose. An author who writes stories about flawed, rough, and grizzly men who create their own moral code, but men who also are driven by loyalty and love to their chosen family, men whose tender hearts match their edge. An author who writes about nuanced women- women who find power and freedom in their capacity to love, women who find beauty in the gray. Giana already has established herself as a powerful storyteller unique in this genre- but Dead Man Walking is one of her finest. This love story carries the epic emotional intensity that has set this series apart in the MC world, but like Bea and Priest themselves, this story is also decidedly unique, carving its own path in the Fallen universe. Their story is dark, depraved, twisted, but like all Giana stories, at its score, it is tender, emotional, and profound.The Fallen MC has always been about the family and love you choose- how connections so deep and powerful can heal you, give you purpose, be your home. Bea and Priest have a love that defies explanation, a connection inexplicable- but their love is about finding acceptance with the people who choose, the people who love you no matter who you are and what you’ve done, and it’s about finding love with the person who gets you.Sometimes we only find ourselves when we dig into our own depravity, swim in our own darkness, accept that with love and pleasure we also get pain. Being broken is part of living. Bea and Priest show us how living and loving is full of contrasts, but not mutually exclusive ones, how there is beauty in brokenness, and how love is not one size fits all.