Review: Blaze of Misery by Brynn Ford

Mercy endures brutal punishment for her so-called sins, and Arlo’s warped worldview begins to fracture. While his affection for her grows, she comes to accept her fate. Knowing her death is inevitable, their passion ignites, setting a blaze across the boundary line between purity and pleasure.

Arlo
She’s destined to die, yet she consumes my every waking thought.

I’m struggling against everything I’ve been taught to believe.
I’m falling for a sinner, and my passion for her is destroying my world.

As Mercy endures untold torment at the hands of my brothers, my soul splinters, breaking in ways I didn’t know were possible. I want her so much it consumes me. I need her so much that I’d burn for eternity in exchange for a single moment with her…if only I could sell my soul to spare her life.

The fear of her looming death begs my mind to open, and all I want is a world where she lives.

Mercy
Absolution. They could etch the word into my skin, and still, it would never find me.

The trials for my soul begin, but they aren’t truly meant to save me.
Nothing can save me from the way I’ve been broken by the men of Ember Glen.

The man who hurt me the most is also the man whose touch sets me on fire. Arlo Rainn hasn’t earned my thoughts, my attention, or my desire, yet he possesses me entirely. My feelings for him strengthen as we explore our forbidden passion, and as he comes to know me better, he begins to see the world through my eyes.

My warden’s perspective is shifting, and I fall deeper into the madness of my need for him.

AUTHOR NOTE: This is a dark romance series that involves many triggering elements which may be upsetting for some readers. A complete list of tropes and triggers can be found on the author’s website.

SERIES NOTE: Blaze of Misery is book 2 of 3 in the Ember Glen series and it ends on a cliffhanger. The trilogy follows Mercy and Arlo and must be read in order.

Brynn Ford sure knows how to end a book leaving the reader with anticipation for the next. And I love her for it. She puts the dark in dark romance! Blaze of Misery is the sequel to Spark of Madness and I loved it even more than the first book. It was a fantastic read!

The start of the book had a rough beginning for Mercy. She endured her first trial, which was horrific and almost broke her. I feel like this shocked Arlo out of his years of indoctrination and started changing right then and there. He, as well as Mercy definitely changed and grew a lot throughout this book, espeically together, because Mercy let herself love him and he her. It was a beautiful character arc for the both of them.

The romance was swoon-worthy as well as fucking hot as hell. The author can write it all it seems and she did it all so well. Mercy and Arlo couldn’t get enough of each other and I couldn’t get enough of anticipating the next romance scene. As Arlo would say, “sweet sin.”

I do have to say that this trilogy is more than a sexy dark romance because it’s also an excellent assessment and commentary of what women face today, what they might face in the coming years and how we’ve all seen the world changing for worst in the last few years. These kind of stories are so important.

I can’t wait to get my hands on the third and final book and see how Mercy and Arlo’s story ends. I, for one, hope they burn Ember Glen to the ground.