[ARC Review: Pennies by Pepper Winters]

“I couldn’t think while he looked at me like that, kissed me liked that, stole everything from me like that.”



It’s been awhile since I’ve read something dark and the last one I’ve read was still left unfinished. I always love a dark read especially if it’s more on play of the mind. And my favorites are those of what I termed under captive-abduction thingy. It’s fascinating how the mind works, how one person will react in this way and the other wouldn’t. But lately, I’ve been reading almost the same type of characters that I shy away from it.

However, I can’t resist something dark when the cover is so beautiful and it calls to me. I didn’t have a choice, I was a goner the first moment I laid my eyes upon my copy and started reading the first word.

“We didn’t speak. Just stared. Me standing like some fallen from grace goddess and him like some devil worshipper doing his best to find the light.”

And what do you know, a character I’ve longed to read. A heroine I know is strong in will and strength and not stubborn and stupid and would seem so different from others. No, a heroine who’s smart enough to listen and do something worth admiring.

I expected gruesome details, vivid descriptions of torture and graphic moment by moment retelling of the sordid tales of torment, but I was a tad bit disappointed somewhere in the middle of the book. Though, I think, and I feel along the way that that was because I was being initiated into a slow build up, to prepare me of what’s to come and what might happen. And it did happen.

Is it fucked up that I happen to be turned on by the mind games? To be so intrigued of the secrets and that I wanted to unravel the mystery? To love the protagonist even though I don’t even understand him? All I know is that his soul is so rotten that it excites him to steal a soul?

“A penny for your thoughts, girl.”

The author have written the book in such a way that it captivated my dark soul. The one that hungers the blood and the violence. The unleashed power that is hidden in the recesses of the mind and to explore something unknown. I am riveted, and I wasn’t able to stop until my heart pumped with adrenaline knowing that the end is near.

I love that this book comes with a word of warning. And I quote “This is a black abyss that must be climbed blind before deserving the light.” And yes, go in blind. So if you fancy anything dark, then this book is just the right one for you.

“I take and take and take. I steal. And when I steal, I find something worth living for.”