The Ritual: A Dark College Romance

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In short, I thought there were a ton of disconnects. Between the plot, the characters, the build up. There were multiple scenes that I thought didn’t make sense in relation to the book. I won’t say how I would have liked the characters to be, because this is not my work and I respect that this is how Shantel envisioned her characters, but for me, it was a miss. Needless to say, it was hard for me to finish this book. It wasn’t keeping my attention. Which really was a let down for me, because I was ready for Tyson. The overall story. I love when a dark romance also has an amazing plot and this book delivered just that. I loved the store in between the spicy scenes. It kept me even more invested in the book.

I want to be your good girl.” I groan at the sound of her voice—so eager to please me. “You are,” I tell her. After reading The Ritual, I may need to consider returning to the church to confess my sins because I should not be falling for the dark, twisted, sadist MMC in this book. It’s all the author’s fault, though. Shantel Tessier made me fall for the MMC that unalives people like nothing whenever someone looks or touches his girl without question. Seriously, what is wrong with me falling for Ryat Archer? My husband will question my sanity the next time he asks me to describe my favorite moments in one of the books I’m reading, and I mention scenes from the Ritual that involve Ryat and Blakely. With one foot in the Lords world and one foot out, Tyson is the mystery we’ve all wanted to solve. We get our answers - and then some, but you can’t even predict the twists and turns The Sacrifice will take along the way. Do yourself a favor, don’t look for spoilers and just dive right in asap! Shantel Tessier brings the spice and suspense in this sinister story of pain, pleasure, sadism, and savagery! Tyson and Lake's love is intense, depraved, and slightly unhinged. Strap in tight, and prepare yourself for a dirty, unconventional romance with a trigger list in the double digits. Trigger(s)/Content Warning(s): Drug/Alcohol Use. Violence. Murder. Death. Non/Dub Con. Branding. Forced Sex Fantasy. Breath Play. Masks. Bondage. Kidnapping.

The spice in this book is just wow, had me in a chokehold. It had everything, I did love how Ryat actually cared for Blakely as their relationship developed. I've no idea how Blakely was even able to stand at times by the amount of times and ways Ryat claimed her, no complaints LOL Going by the cover and the blurb to this book, it appeared, on the surface, to have all the elements that I look for in a Dark Romance.

THEN, once the author places the FL in jeopardy, she has to work out how these two are going to find each other to achieve that obligatory HEA… I really enjoyed reading this book! I've seen it pop up on my feed several times so even though it wasn't on my August tbr I dived right in. This book has drama, suspense, murder and lotssssss of spicy smut. You get to read about the world of L.O.R.D.S which is very interesting to say the least. I want to read the other books in the series to get to know more of their society.Read this book if you want to read a dark romance, with a secret society, an amazing plot, excellent character development, and relatable characters. The Ritual and Sabotage remain my favourites. I have unresolved issues with The Sinner but I like The Sacrifice even though: Ryat Alexander Archer may be morally grey however deep down hes soft.. especially for Blakely. I loved this couple, their starting may not have been a fairytale but by the end it was perfect. The twists and turns in their love story will have you hooked! I was nervous about the secret society aspect since it’s not my favorite trope. The LORDS is an underground society of the world’s most powerful people and their offspring. Ryat has gone through some troubling actions to get initiated and even once he was through, the rituals were barbaric at times. They are judge, jury and executioners but they do live by a code. There were so many twists and turns in this story surrounding the LORDS and I wasn’t entirely prepared for some of the surprises we learn towards the end. Matt is just an awful dude and kept me on my toes as he eluded everyone time and time again until the end.

Things to know about The RitualIt is MFTW (Please see the author's note on the inside)J/P & OTT Hero (jealous/possessive & over the top)This is a 150K word dark romance and may contain triggers for some due to sexual situations, language, and violence. After that year, well, the men have already been betrothed to another, in an arranged marriage between other ‘Lords’ families. Blakely, I really liked her. She had her life planned out or so she thought. Get her degree, marry her boyfriend, and have a life she always pictured. Then she finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. Blakely wants freedom but Ryat has other plans for her. She comes to accept that what she wants is not so bad and that she does in fact love Ryat. Another book that I am asking myself why? Why did I wait so long to read this? I NEEDED this book, I have been in my fantasy era for so long, that I was starting to get bored again and this book woke me right up and got me out of an impending reading slump. Blakely is clueless about the dark secret society inhabiting Barry University that she’s about to immerse herself in due to Ryat. She knows she shouldn’t since she’s dating someone, but that someone is a grade-a-hole to her, and I was all for her being Ryat’s chosen, especially after truths started to come out about her so-called boyfriend.While Shantel is passionate about writing, the family will always come first. As such, she spends most evenings at home with her daughters and her husband alongside their dog and cat. She loves and loved to read and could read up to a book a day and hence, books have been a constant feature in her life over the years. The more she read, the more she felt that she needed to touch readers just like she had been touched. Both of these dislikes though did not change my final rating, as everything else was so good, that those 2 minor things did not affect my overall thoughts on the book. This book will probably be a re-read every single year. This book has me legit questioning my sanity. We start off learning about the secret society that the mmc is a part of, “The Lords”. Then we learn about the college that this secret society pretty much owns, Barrington University, where all the rich kids end up as it is a private institution. Enter the fmc, Blakely, a rich girl who did not want to go to this university but was forced to by her parents. And in this world, as they are all “the elite”, arranged marriages are common and Blake is already promised to another and so is our mmc. But there are no contracts that are legally binding, so yeah. lol, from there, you can pretty much guess what happens. But it is a wild ride, that I was loving the entire time. But I am here for Carnage and the Spade brothers. Obsessed with this world and with all the epilogues with their kids it’s got me excited for the next gen!

This series gets better and better with each book. And it is entered into "reasons why Shantel Tessier is just top tier" But on my wedding day, I was handed over to another man—an even more ruthless Lord that my family hated. I enjoyed the characters, even when I thought the heroine was acting dumb. While Lake acted like she knew it all, she knew very little. Her ignorance is what drove this story though. Tyson had so many secrets and even I was guessing, right to the end, what his motives were and why things were happening the way they were. Honestly, I wanted to rate this book higher because it was hotter and more deceptively devastating than I thought it would be. However, in the end, I felt that things were left dangling a bit. The, staved for attention, sexually adventurous Blakely can hardly contain her bashful, more socially acceptable side,anymore, when around the equally sexually deviant Ryat. Shantel Tessier’s novel “Grave,” tells the story of April and Grave. He had lost his mother in his teenage years, robbing him of the only woman he ever loved. This event had taken a huge toll on him as he was left to live with a heartless father.As it happens, I didn’t read the last 10% of this story because it was evident nothing was going to happen barr Matt’s demise.