Rating: 4
Steam: 3
PoV: dual, 3rd person
Series: Coven Ties #3
Genre: paranormal romance, MM
Main tropes: mental health, hurt / comfort, forced proximity
There was something feral inside him that wanted only one thing – to protect Alex at all costs.
In This Shadow, Longing was a heart-warming and gorgeous story, full of hurt / comfort, sweetness and kink!
I’d been waiting for Cross’ story ever since he first appeared in the first Coven Ties novel, and I just adored him and Alex together! There’d been some hints from the other books that Cross wasn’t doing so well, but seeing how bad it actually was… The way he’d been dropping and slowly getting worse and worse both mentally and physically broke my heart. The grief and trauma that Cross carried was a lot, and made for an emotional read.
Cross and Alex were really sweet together, taking it slow since Cross had issues with trusting himself around a sub. They fit each other really well, with Alex being a high-stimuli sub, needing a lot of pain to truly reach subspace, and Cross being a high-pain Dom. I loved how the trust and affection slowly built between them and how Cross felt more and more comfortable around Alex. Their scenes got more and more intense throughout the story, and it was great to see the connection that formed between them and Cross starting to trust himself again.
I love the universe that Marina Vivancos has created with this series, and the hurt / comfort has been fantastic in every story so far! It was great seeing Cross starting to heal and moving on from his past, and Alex was perfect for him. I’m really fond of these characters and their little found family, and I really hope there will be more stories in this series!
Alex was deep in subspace, eyelashes fluttering, mouth parted as soft mewls dropped out.
He was the most perfect thing Cross had ever seen.
Book links:
Amazon | Goodreads | BookBub | StoryGraph
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