“Why would he be happy with me when I can’t even stand myself?”
— Brandon King
When cold control crashes into unmedicated chaos, Nikolai Sokolov and Brandon King spiral into the slowest, most self-destructive enemies-to-lovers mess imaginable. Mafia legacy? Check. Unresolved trauma? Obviously. Forbidden obsession that could level a small country? Oh, absolutely. It’s not love, it’s a mutually assured emotional explosion, and we’re reading every second.
Review:
This book ripped open my ribcage like it was checking for spare trauma to play with. I knew I was screwed the moment Nikolai opened his mouth and something so unhinged it looped back around to seductive, immediately fell out. He sounds like sin, speaks in red flags, and somehow still makes Brandon feel like he’s the safest place to fall. It’s giving opposites attract but in a *what if stability kissed volatility on the mouth* kind of way.
Brandon is repressed like it’s his full-time job. Quiet. Gentle. The kind of soft that gets overlooked until it explodes in emotional shrapnel. And Nikolai? That man is a chaos demon in designer shoes. A sexy liability. A war crime with a jawline. Together, they’re a crime scene and a love story rolled into one, and I would watch them ruin each other forever.
No. It doesn’t just work. It hit every single nerve like it had a personal vendetta.
The chemistry is insane. It's "I'll throw hands with your trauma if it looks at you wrong" levels of intense. This isn’t a romance arc, it’s two walking trigger warnings falling face-first into codependency. I love enemies-to-lovers, but this was more like “emotionally constipated art boy and unhinged mafia menace accidentally imprint on each other and never recover.” And I ate up every beautifully deranged second.
Let’s talk Brandon. Sweet, tortured Brandon. My dude spends half the book trying to convince himself he’s unlovable while actually being the most emotionally honest character in the whole damn series. His inner monologue reads like someone’s therapy homework that got left out in the rain. His arc hits because it’s not polished or pretty, it’s raw. Cracked and clawing toward something better. This is a man who spends most of his time trying to disappear quietly, and when he finally decides to want something, it feels like the earth shifts. Watching his growth put me in a corner crying over it.
Now Nikolai. Listen. If “chaotic bisexual with a god complex and a heartbreak kink” was a genre, he’d be the poster boy, the syllabus, and the final exam. He’s emotionally unstable in the most magnetic way, uncomfortably soft when it counts, and so violently protective it feels both concerning and strangely therapeutic. His love for Brandon doesn’t show up politely. It crashes in, flips a table, and refuses to leave. He won’t sit with his own pain. He dodges meds like they’re bullets. And he masks everything behind deflection, violence, and pitch-black humor. He is one bad day from a full psych workup, and I would still follow him into the void without hesitation. And I adore him for it.
Also? I screamed. Out loud. Multiple times. This book has so many emotionally unhinged one-liners I should’ve read it wearing a helmet and emotional support eyeliner. “Even if you hate yourself, I’ll love you for the both of us”?? That line from Nikolai body slammed me into the concrete. I had to put the book down, walk outside, and whisper “be so for real” at a tree. I have not recovered. I remain unwell.
Let’s be so clear: this book is not soft. It’s raw. It’s feral. The trauma, the mental health spirals, the mafia violence, the ever-present threat of emotional and literal destruction—it does not let up. This isn’t fun little “boys kissing” energy. This is “I looked into your broken soul and decided to die there” romance. No wonder this wrecked me harder than any of the books in the series. It showed up, stole my stability, and left. Like, WTF?
There are moments where the pacing stumbles. The middle gets a little stuck in the “we’re toxic but in love” hamster wheel. Some of the emotional moments become repetitive if you’re not paying attention. And yeah, if you haven’t read the other Legacy of Gods books or done your homework on the Rina-verse, a few plot threads might feel like inside jokes you weren’t invited to. But if you’ve been here from the jump? This is your reward. Cameos. Callbacks. Generational mafia drama. The strange little romance world opened the door for unhinged queer chaos and I was absolutely gnawing the pages.
The way this series leaned into MM romance? We love it. The representation matters, obviously. But what matters more is that it wasn’t performative or just a token queer moment. It was raw. It was heavy. It was messy in the way real love stories are, especially when they come wrapped in trauma, bloodlines, and emotional repression. Queer boys in love with knives, guilt, and barely-earned tenderness? Yeah. That hit different.
Caution for dark themes: mental health, self-harm, mafia violence, stalking, and very questionable emotional coping skills are all front and center. If you’re looking for fluff, you took a wrong turn somewhere near the gates of hell. Nothing here is safe. Nothing here is neat. This is rage holding hands with vulnerability while love throws itself down a flight of stairs and says “it’s fine, I meant to do that.”
But if you’re like me, and your nervous system thinks that love and pain are basically the same thing, this book might feel like crawling into a weighted blanket made of red flags and bad decisions.
★★★★½ four and a half stars, because Brandon reminded me I’m not okay, Nikolai confirmed it, and I wouldn’t trade a single moment of their chaos for my peace of mind back.
★★★★★[★] ..yes i see the red flags. no i will not be leaving.
“After a while you get tired of pretending that you’re in control of everything that happens to you and you start being what happens to everyone else.” — Damon Torrance
Emory Scott wakes up in what can only be described as a mansion-prison. They call it Blackchurch. A secluded fortress where the rich stash their problematic sons and expect silence, obedience, and zero therapy. Will Grayson III, once the golden boy, is there. Now broken, furious, and done playing nice. When Emory lands in his personal purgatory, the past crashes into the present with brutal consequences. Secrets unravel. Power shifts. Survival gets messy. This finale isn’t just a book, it’s blood, closure, chaos, and every Devil’s Night ghost clawing its way to the surface.
Review:
This book broke my spine and then politely asked if I was enjoying myself. Spoiler: I was. I’ve never been so emotionally attached to a group of degenerates like I am with the Devil’s Night characters. These are my comfort psychos. I will defend them like they’re real. I’ll psychoanalyze them instead of myself. I would die for them. Especially Will Grayson III.
From the second book I was feral for this man. Then Nightfall came along and said, what if we show you exactly why he’s the most emotionally unstable and somehow still the most lovable Horseman? And I said thank you, with tears in my eyes... while shaking.
This book is kinda long. And no, I don’t particularly care. It's 700+ pages of emotional carnage and I was glued to every word like it was gospel. If you’ve been following the series, this is the pay-off. You get the arcs. The trauma. The redemption. The full circle moments. You get to see who Will really is. Not just the party boy, or the spiraling addict, but the man underneath. And yeah, that man is a mess. But he’s my mess. Our mess.
The setting? A remote mansion-prison called Blackchurch where "troubled" rich boys go to rot. I had doubts. Especially with an entirely new group of side characters. But it ended up being the exact claustrophobic, tension-drenched hell this story needed. The vibe is thick. Isolated. Unstable. Like being locked in a haunted house with your worst memories, someone you once loved, and a group of psychos that haven't seen a woman in months. I’ve been in psych wards. I’d still take Blackchurch. At least they let you scream, and you could get out some rage without repercussions.
Now, let's talk about Will! The addiction. The trauma. The grief. The fear. The way he hates himself for it, but desperately wants to gain control. So damn raw. I also have an addictive personality so maybe I understood a little too well a little too much. And the way he sees Emory? Like she’s the only thing keeping him tethered. The only soft thing in all his ruin. Its feral. It’s obsessive. It’s beautiful. I saw parts of myself in Will's spiraling. In his self-sabotage. In his avoidance style. I felt seen and it was horrifying. I know I'm not well, but at least I'm never boring. I am the disaster you couldn’t stop reading. Take that how you will.
Emory ended up being one of my favorite Devils Night girls. She's right up there with Banks. Her trauma is handled so well. She’s not immediately strong or “fixed” by love. She’s complicated. She’s scared. But she fights. And when she finally starts demanding space, demanding freedom, demanding more? Yes. YES. Give that girl a crown and a knife. Let her take down the systems that hurt her.
And the chemistry between her and Will? Top tier. Soulmate psychosis. These two are unwell and in love and that is my favorite genre. In the present timeline, they are not good for each other, but they become what the other needs. And that transition is everything to me. That’s why I read dark romance. I want the mess. I want the slow transformation. I want the pain before the healing. i want to overanalyze their trauma so i don’t have to think about mine. i don’t process emotions. i hyperfixate on characters who are worse off than me.
You know the way I said I was worried about the other horseman not being in the book? Well, they were! And we got some great couple moments, and got to see the group dynamics I was so desperate for. Yeah, sometimes it distracted from Will and Emory’s arc. But also? If we didn’t get our Devil’s Night family reunion, I would have rioted. Let me have my emotionally traumatized friend group and their stabby love languages.
That being said, the romance in present-day does take a backseat to the finale chaos. There are flashbacks, and they do deliver. But kinda wanted to sit with Emory and Will in the slow moments, where they can be soft. I wanted more of them just existing without legacy of all the blood or violence still hanging in the air. But I get it. This is a finale. Not everyone gets to lay in the grass and heal. Some of us have to burn everything down first. I vibe with that. Fight for your ending.
There is a lot happening here. Conspiracies. Revenge. Psychological warfare. And somewhere in the middle of all that mess, a love story that has been crawling through fire for years to finally drags itself to the surface. If you haven’t read the rest of the series, you may have trouble surviving this book. It is defiantly not a standalone. It’s fan service, trauma edition. The kind of ending you have to earn.
And the themes! Power. Control. Forgiveness. Freedom. Obsession. And my least favorite, letting go. Not just of other people, but of who you were when everything hurt. Of what you had to become to survive. Some quotes in this book hit like they were ghostwritten by a licensed therapist. Damon especially speaks like he’s halfway through starting a cult and honestly? I’d consider joining. It's a bit concerning that I relate so much to the most twisted characters.
If you're here for soft boys and clean resolutions, run. But if you want pain and depth and a main character so catastrophically human it makes your chest ache, this is it.
This isn’t just a book. It’s like a love letter to all the kids who survived something and never got to talk about it. For those who were always too loud and who joked through pain. For the ones who made it out, even if they had to crawl.
★★★★★[★] six stars, because Will Grayson is etched into my psyche and this series claimed me, body and soul.
I did a thing (again).
Because apparently my “totally normal reviews” weren’t enough for my overachieving brain, and I started drawing book covers too.
Was it smart? Nope.
Will I stick with it? Probably not.
But they’re cute, and I’m riding this manic wave with pride 🫶
Pick your fave (or don’t, I’ll still obsess anyway).
