<— M/M romance that is causing a “can’t-put-it-down!!!” frenzy amongst our crew! And there may only be two books in it so far, but I could NOT resist posting this right away. It’s absolutely going to be my next read.
The way I’m understanding it, the two books already out in this series will blow my mind. I’ve been hearing phrases such as: “Bad Things high”, “book fog”, and “book hangover” and “favorite couple” and isn’t that just about everything I want to feel when reading? 😉
MichelleS and Fabi saw my “need” for an INTENSE book:
Michelle: Angst, emotional action, passion, INTENSITY you say? you have got to join in on reading Bad Things. Fabi’s 5-star doozie of a book! WOW. It’s got that IT that I needed….. no formula book here! I bet you’re hooked in 10 pages!
Fabi: Sweet mommy dearest, I thought I was becoming jaded from reading too much. Losing interest in books. Either not finishing or picking up and putting them down over and over. Well, I was just riding the wave until this author crashed into my life. I don”t care if she writes about men, women, or pretty yellow daisies, I’m reading all her freaking works.
Maryse: LOL!!! Now THAT is convincing. Thank you, my friends!! I’m on it.
But let’s get down to the main *big* freak-out over this book-find. ‘Cause it’s our fabulous Fabi that got us started!
Fabi: Download the sample of Bad Things. Once you read even the first few pages, you’ll be hooked. And BOY does it get better and better and better as it goes on…it is difficult if not impossible to talk about that book without giving away spoilers. I found it easiest to just talk about the feelings it evoked. I think you will do just like I did and immediately go to her previous book.? It’s hard to get enough of this author’s writing. I missed a very important day at work yesterday and am borderline about to miss the most important day of the year at work today if I can’t somehow put this next book down and get out of the house. I want to talk about it so bad but fell like I’m cluttering up Maryse’s blog. Especially with this one that wasn’t on one of the lists. I want to write a review on Amazon but this one can’t be just “I really loved it” it’s so much more than that….replaying scenes?? I’m still doing that. AND some pages I found myself reading over and over again.
MichelleS: Fabi- I picked Bad Things for my next read. I’m only at 15% now. Whoa… it’s going to be a good one, I can tell. Gritty. Painful. A whole lot of discomfort. Good writing. He reminds me of Evan Arden. Love the storyline about vengeance for his sister. I even like that he “doesn’t f*ck women”… and that his tastes run dark and twisted and to other men…. just all of it. Wow. Great recommendation so far. He’s a hell of a character! And the fact that he’s so big and tatted up and has so so so much attitude. I’m squirming all over the couch reading this one.
Fabi: MichelleS, I think I love you right now. I sooo needed someone to share this with. And girl, just wait. You won’t know if you even LIKE him at some points. You begin to wonder if he is the good guy or the bad guy. And does it resolve?? Hmmm, let me tell you, I’ve done nothing but read the entire weekend and the book was at the end I had no more fingernails left and no sleep for two days and I was STILL wondering. What a ride! Now I’m very late to work on a very important day, can’t possibly come up with a way to miss work today, but I can’t, just can’t, pull myself away from another of her books.
Fabi: MichelleS every time you think that book has given you all it gives more. All the way through. I was at 95% and still freaking out over new things. Whew. What a book. I’m directly on to another one of this author’s works… Here is what I think is a good measure of whether you’ll like Bad Things. If you liked/hated The Tied Man you’ll like/hate Bad Things. It is not so horror inducing but still cringe worthy. If you loved the love story of Try, then Bad Things, and much more so, Dangerously Happy will blow you away. These books all contain elements of Beautiful Disaster, Maybe Someday, Surviving Raine, etc. In fact, I think there is also a strong relation to Surviving Raine. I remember feeling this way with that one too.
MichelleS: Well…. this fabulous book Fabi found is dark dark dark! Reminds me of all the good ones: Mud Vein, The Tied Man, Captive in the Dark….. it has that flavor, that feeling. …it’s so so so so bad….. the kind where you turn off your Kindle if someone looks over your shoulder. But I am hooked… Xavier is one of THE baddest bad boys ever. Ranks right up there with Soren from Original Sinners series… and Caleb from Captive in the Dark. Maybe even a little darker and more sadistic, if you can believe that! I am uncomfortably engaged and blown away by page after page. I’m at love – hate with him right now. And I like that. FABI…. do you have a hangover from all this?? FABI – aren’t you asking yourself why no one else is reading this book? I know I am! Everyone went berzerko for The Tied Man a while back… you’d think they’d be all over Bad Things…. huh? I don’t get it. It’s better than TTM, I think. I guess it’ll just be our own dirty little secret?
Fabi: MichelleS, I am in such a fog. I can’t hardly think of anything else.
MichelleS: I finally finished Fabi’s recommended “Bad Things” on Saturday morning. Life has just gotten in the way this week. It was fantastic. If you are in the mood for dark and forbidden and gritty it is THE choice. Reminded me of Original Sinners (so much so I recommended that series to Fabi). I loved that it had sex scenes that were polar opposites: one was shocking and crude, the other the most tender writing I think I’ve ever read. The fact that it was m/m didn’t factor in at all. Very complicated characters. Very well written. Not for the faint of heart. 5 stars for me too!!!
Kristi: Loved Dangerously Happy by Varian Krylov. A 5 Star read for me for sure. I haven’t been able to read Bad Things yet because life keeps getting in the way but I can’t wait!
Kandace: Dangerously happy was 5 star for me too.Varian’s an auto buy for me. I loved DH but I LOOOOVED Bad Things.
Maryse’s Book Blog: I think that one’s next for me!!
Kandace: I’m obsessed with Danio, Aiden, Xavier and Carson. I loved Dangeriously Happy and I was so nervous if I would love Xavier’s story with the same intensity. I freakin loved Bad Things even more than DH. I feel you should read Dangeriously Happy before you read Bad Things. The characters are too connected. I sighed when Danio and Aiden showed up in Bad Things. Varian Krylov is an auto buy for me.
MichelleS: Kandace – Fabi turned me on to Bad Things and I fell for Xavier… now I am almost done with Dangerously happy and am in love with Aiden & Dario. Now who is Carson? another yummy Krylov male lead? hottest sex scenes ever! (who cares if it’s m/m – hot is hot). Bad Things is not a heart breaker. No crying. Lots of jaw dropping and squirming…. Bad Things?has OOMPH – and all that other stuff. (Broken record, I know….) 🙂 (read 10 pages…. that’s all… right Fabi? 10 pages and you’re hooked).
Fabi: Ummm if you were wondering, Bad Things was a 5 star for me. Dangerously Happy was a 4.5 star read for me. As afar as Dangerously Happy and Bad Things are concerned. DH wad published 1st. The DH characters make a cameo appearance in Bad Things. I read Bad Things first because I was in the mood for a dark read and it was on your new release list. I fell in love with the author and had to learn more about the characters that made a cameo appearance so I picked up Dangerously Happy which is a love story.? I’m glad I read them in that order. But I don’t think it really matters which order you read them in. If you want a dark read, get Bad Things. If you want a love story, get Dangerously Happy. More than likely, once you read one of them, you’ll want to read the other to learn more about the characters.
WOWOWOWOW!!! Convinced yet? I am.
And the author confirms that:
The action in Dangerously Happy takes place before Bad Things, and there is character overlap, but they have totally separate plots, so each book stands alone.
About book #1:
Aidan has always played it safe. Instead of pursuing his dream of creating innovative music that makes his soul sing, he settled for a degree in software, a job in a cubicle, and a spot in a generic band with his buddies.
And he’s always been straight. But when he’s seduced by magnetic local literary luminary Dario, Aidan must decide whether to keep playing it safe, or succumb to a ravenous passion and a nourishing love unlike anything he’s experienced before. Will he find the courage to go after real happiness if it means admitting he’s in love with a man?
Their journey together isn’t easy. Sometimes it isn’t safe. Even if Aidan has the courage to admit he’s in love with Dario, can he endure the repercussions of the traumatic event in Dario’s past?
- Dangerously Happy
- Bad Things
- book #3 ??? *fingers crossed*
Holy cow, just when I think I might, maybe, start moving on from the wild ride that was Bad Things, you all start talking about it again. Here I am again. Nothing else is measuring up yet. I think there’s there’s nothing for it but more Krylov writing. 🙂
LOL!!!
You’ve sold my, Fabi. I can’t wait for tonight!!
Crikey…. how embarrassing…. did we gush THAT much about it?
Are you kidding? She only included a few of my gushes. when I first read it I was so worried I’d get banned from the blog because I couldn’t shut up about it.
I am glad I read them in reversed order (BT before DH)…. it was a 5 star for me, like Fabi, and a 4.5 for DH…. and I appreciated Dario and Aiden’s story more after having gotten a glimpse of them in BT. Not sure why, but reverse order made it better for me.
Fabi – who is Carson? I’m such an idiot. I was thinking it was some other book I was missing, and it was Xavi’s Carson!!!! LOL…..
Yeah you guys… I’m saving the rest of your gushes for the review. Tee hee!!!!!! 😛
I agree with that Michelle for Karina Halle’s “The Artists Trilogy”. Even though “On Every Street” (the prequel) came out after “Sins and Needles” I wish I had read it first… I would have appreciated Javier’s quest much more while reading “Sins”.
(Fabi – if she only knew that we exchanged 30+ emails about it too… 🙂 ). Not sure why, just the right timing I guess. Felt like a dark read, and this was well written, steamy, interesting, and Xavi is just…. an island unto himself. Fabi and I have dissected it to death! LOL. Hope you actually like it after all that hype.
I so desperately needed a reading buddy. I read it blind. I saw it on the new release list. I was in a humbug mood. Looked at it as m/m, steamy, kinda dark, and thought, why not. Then WHAM I was on an island all alone and really needed someone to talk to. Michelle, you saved me from madness. Lol
It’s obviously not for everyone. I think I’ve said that a million times. But it worked for me (and maybe Michelle too) in getting out of a reading slump.
Michelle, do you agree…? I want to be bff with D but I never want to meet X in person. :-/ lol
Dario is the tender one, so, yeah, I want him to be my bff. But I want to meet Xavi just to SEE him. 6 foot 5, tatted up, that grin…. I just want to see him. Not talk to him. But he’s my kind of bad boy for my book world.
Ok, I’ll go with that. But, see him only. hahaha. How in the world did an author develop a character like that and then present him with such precision that he rocked my world?
I would also like to SEE, but not talk to: Evan Arden, Bastian, Wrath, Zhadist, Caleb, Soren. I think I could handle talking to KA’s men…. 😉
Michelle and Fabi. Have you read ‘Slide’ and ‘Rare’ by Garret Leigh. Ash is so messed up. It’s a dark edge read. My favorite MM books of 2014. If you liked Varian’s books I think you would like Garret’s Slide series too.
Big breath… breath in, breath out… I just have no words. I’m so overwhelmed this morning… That was so heavy and yet I don’t want it to end. Love, love, love, love, love (5-Love) “Bad Things”. Did I mention Love? Ok, I can hardly wait for your review Maryse! After reading this book, my stomach was, and still is, in knots. My head is still reeling! W.O.W.!
Teri I know exactly how you feel! Just keep breathing. It was a wild ride.
Kandace, thank you so much for the recommendation. Those just went on my tbr. Did you like Dangerously Happy? If so, then Try and Take have that same type of love story.
Varian Krylov is a genius. Brilliantly deviant. All of her books have that “squirm factor.” You have to go in completely open-minded and willing to look at the darkest, deepest side of yourself and your limits. I hope you love them as much as I did! <3
I read them in order and loved them both. Maryse must have featured DH on a release or bargain day post. I bought BT when it came up on my Amazon as a suggestion. I can’t get enough of M/M books!
On an unrelated matter, I have to share with you guys a gift idea for your book friends. I got the coolest thing for my birthday. My friends got me an Amazon G/C but presented it with a BBF album. They printed off pictures of all my favourite book boyfriends and wrote me little love notes from each of them. I loved it!!
@Kandace – I will check out Slide and Rare
@Fabi – I loved Try and Take
Have you guys read the Rock Gods series by Ann Lister? I was needing a MM fix and recently re-read them which is something I rarely do. Not dark but loved the 3 stories. I got my first dose of MM with the Sinners on Tour series have never looked back. Since I read so much, I’ve learned variety is essential!!
OMG! So many new m/m books to check out. My new obsession! Well, any well written edgy book is okay by me. Slide and Rare – going to go check them out right now!
Kim – I LOVE that idea. Did your book boyfriends call you pet names? ha!