The Beautiful Dead cover art

The Beautiful Dead

The Darkness Within, Book 1

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The Beautiful Dead

By: Skyla Raines
Narrated by: Liam DiCosimo, Zachary Zaba
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Domino

They say I'm a monster. Cold. Unfeeling. A man born to rule with bloodstained hands. They're not wrong. I don't feel guilt when I kill—only euphoria. There's nothing like the rush of holding someone's life in my hands, knowing I control the exact moment it ends. Life is weak. Fragile. Death is the only truth.

Then I met Remi Cain. Quiet. Obsessed with the beauty of death, just like me. The second I see him, I want him. Not just his body, but his darkness—the parts no one else sees. I want to own him, break him, bind him to me with blood. I want him breathless in my grasp, heart pounding, knowing I could take him apart piece by beautiful piece and he'd let me. I'll destroy anyone who tries to come between us.

Remi

Life has always felt temporary, fleeting. People lie. Moments fade. But death? Death never changes. It's permanent. Unyielding. The only thing you can trust. That's what I've always believed—until Domino DeMarco came crashing into my world.

He's terrifying. Brutal. Beautiful in a way that should make me run. But I don't. I can't. Domino doesn't just thrive in chaos; he is chaos, and I crave it more with every beat of my heart.

We are bound by blood and obsession. In a world ruled by violence and betrayal, love is as deadly as death itself. But for us, maybe that's exactly what makes it beautiful.

©2025 Skyla Raines (P)2025 Podium Audio
Action & Adventure Romance Romantic Suspense Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Exciting
All stars
Most relevant
The interesting plot is supported by excellent narrators but even they cannot deliver a masterpiece out if a disjointed and poorly researched narrative

Intriguing story ruined

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I love most genres & tropes in MM including Dark romance (even pitch black and taboo). If I’m reading a dark then the darker & more psycho the better. But it’s such a delicate balance and hard to get right. And unfortunately many authors miss, they just write morally grey/black characters and put them together on the page with no chemistry or logic. This is one of the worst I’ve read tbh.

I was so excited for this book.. but it missed by a mile and is trying WAY too hard. The premise is good, but ruined.
To start; it’s not a romance, in any sense of the word. It’s just a bit spicy.
📖 1 ⭐ The book itself is terrible. Plot holes everywhere with a timeline that literally doesn’t exist. Such poor writing, constantly repeating itself. The fact that both characters have a constant internal dialogue of “we are darkness” “we are sin” “we are death” “we are devils” blah blah blah over and over again…makes it sound like a couple of kids who are playing dress up. Then you’ve got dialogue that reads like this.. “he’s dark, like really dark, like darkest dark, like darkest darkest dark like absolutely darkest of all dark, he’s a devil and not just a sin, he’s also hell and he’s also darkness full of sin and he’s the darkest devil ever, and now I’m darkest devil too 🙄🙄🙄 It’s honestly laughable and all round quite juvenile.

Then you’ve got Domino who constantly savagely bites Remi lip like on.every.page.. it would be hanging off, there would be NOTHING left to bite 🤣

Zero ⭐ 🎧 Seriously don’t waste your time. The Audio is absolutely awful. Neither narrator suit the character and both sound like they couldn’t be bothered. Liam
Is awful lately anyway. So both narrators get zero ⭐

I gave up chapter 11 on audio and then eventually 23 on kindle. I just couldn’t take it anymore. Save your credit. There are plenty of good MM dark romance read them instead.

Terrible!

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