Deviant Hearts by Jagger Cole: A Five-Star Dark Romance Review
Between the covers / A dark romance review
Deviant
Hearts
Five stars for the tension, the spice, and exactly my kind of fictional trouble.
★★★★★
A marriage arranged to stop a mafia war is hardly the beginning of a love story. For Neve and Ares Drakos, it’s a family obligation with an enemy waiting at the altar. For me? It’s the setup for a five-star dark romance.
Deviant Hearts opens Jagger Cole’s Dark Hearts series with a union between rival Irish and Greek mafia families. Ares is the new head of the Drakos family, and marrying Neve is meant to put an end to the bloodshed. Nobody is asking them to fall in love. They just need to make the alliance work—which gets complicated when the person you’re supposed to hate becomes the person you want.
01 / Meet the groom
Ares Drakos was absolutely my problem.
Strong, deliciously sexy, and very much a take-charge kind of guy, Ares was exactly the morally grey man I love reading about. His position as the head of a mafia family gives that commanding presence a context: he’s accustomed to power, and he’s entering this marriage with more at stake than his own happiness.
But it was his dark streak that really did it for me. Ares has that dangerous, possessive edge that makes him such an appealing fantasy, especially opposite a woman who has every reason to resist him. He isn’t arriving in Neve’s life as someone she chose. He’s the enemy she’s expected to marry.
02 / Meet his match
Neve has more to lose than an argument.
Neve is smart and strong-willed, but the marriage puts her future in the hands of an agreement between families. Her resistance has a reason behind it. Being told who you belong with is one thing; discovering that you actually want him is another complication entirely.
That was the part of their dynamic that stood out to me. Ares has a darkness Neve didn’t know she wanted, and suddenly she can’t do without it. Her attraction means confronting something about herself, too. How do you hold on to your determination to keep a man out when you’re discovering how much you want to let him in?
His dark streak was something Neve didn’t know she wanted—and suddenly couldn’t do without.
03 / When the arrangement gets personal
The attraction complicates everything.
The sexual tension was great because desire makes an already difficult situation messier. Their marriage has a purpose, their families have expectations, and neither of those things accounts for what happens when the relationship starts becoming real.
And the spice? On another level. I loved how that take-charge side of Ares fed into the dynamic I was already enjoying. For my taste, the heat delivered on the attraction between them, and it was a big part of what made this a five-star read.
The final verdict / 5 out of 5
An alliance worth getting tangled up in.
If arranged marriages, rival mafia families, and intensely possessive heroes are your thing, put Deviant Hearts on your list. Ares and Neve’s shift from obligation to desire gave me exactly the dark romance escape I wanted.
Before you read: This is the first book in the Dark Hearts series, but it’s a standalone romance with a happily-ever-after and no cliffhanger. Check the author’s content warnings inside the book.
Would Ares make your book-boyfriend list?
Tell me what you thought of him and Neve in the comments—or share your favorite arranged-marriage romance.