Dark Desires by Effie Campbell
18+ Contains Adult Content
Dark Desires is book four in the McGowan Mafia series. It is a standalone, and you don’t need to have read the others to read this one. It follows Valentina, who is a cam girl and Logan, who is a mafia boss. Logan is engaged to Nicole, not because he loves her, but because marrying her will merge the two mafia families together and be good for business. Logan, bored and restless one night, signs onto a cam girl website where he sees Cherry. He can’t stop thinking about her after they have a cam session together, one where he doesn’t show his face; he is well known in Scotland after all. Imagine his surprise when he sees Cherry, or should I say Valentina, at his engagement party, even more surprised when his fiancée introduces her as her cousin. Valentina recognises Logan from his tattoos and his voice; she was obsessed with him before she saw his face, by the way he dominated her and now, after seeing him in the flesh, she can not and will not settle for anyone less than Logan.
I guess I should call you Valentina.
I guess I shouldn’t call you Daddy.
⚫️Dark Romance ⚫️Age Gap ⚫️Daddy Kink ⚫️Cam Girl ⚫️Mafia Romance ⚫️Sharing ⚫️Primal Play
🔴Explicit sexual scenes 🔴Death 🔴Sexual Assault 🔴Talks of grooming and SA in childhood 🔴Violence 🔴Primal Play 🔴Threesomes 🔴Knife Play 🔴Dom/Sub
So I got an ALC for this book; the book itself has been out since 2023, I hadn’t read it, and after reading Unwell by Effie and meeting her at AATA, I decided to sign up for the ALC. The audiobook is a duet narration and is performed by Francesca Peregrine, Freddie Wills and James Joseph. I enjoyed the narration; it left me speaking with a Scottish accent in my head for a full day afterwards, but the narrators were good. I sometimes struggle with audiobooks because I don’t always feel immersed in the story. With these narrators, I felt immersed. It made me want to take a road trip to Scotland and listen to it whilst in the Highlands lol.
You’re playing with fire, Cherry, and you’re going to get burned.
Incinerate me then.
The story itself was good. I do like a mafia romance, but I didn’t get much mafia from this one, though. Other than the marriage for the sake of merging the two syndicates, there wasn’t really any other mafia-type stuff going on.
There was a lot of spice. I did start skipping through the spice because the book was a good 70/80% spice, at least that’s what it felt like. The plot that was there was good, and I enjoyed it. We knew all the way through that the marriage was a front to the outside world and that they weren’t in love; everyone assumed Nicole was in a relationship with her bodyguard. I did not see the twist coming when it came to who Nicole was sleeping with.
‘I’m staying. I may have come here for you, but I’m not leaving without someone f*king me like I deserve, and if that’s not you, I’m sure I’ll find someone willing.’
I’m used to mafia books having a lot more crime, action and the mafia man saving his girl, which Logan does do…kind of, but most of the book was spent in a sex club, that Valentina followed Logan to. Valentina is a bit needy in the way she followed Logan and didn’t accept no for an answer. Although having an MMC that is a stalker is hot, so why does it seem needy when the FMC stalks? 🤔
‘That’s all you’re going to get from me. I’m going to go around here and give my cum to every other plaything while you watch.’ I was rock hard against my trousers already.
‘I’ll crawl around after you and lick it from their thighs.’
Mother-f*king shit bollocks. This damn girl.
All in all, I did enjoy the book, but I just think it could have been better with more action and less spice. The audiobook was a good listen, and if you fancy giving this book a read, I’d recommend the audio!
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
