MM Dark Psychological Romance Extreme Power Imbalance Captor / Protector Enemies to lovers Obsession & Possession Morally Black Anti-Hero Touch-Him-and-Die Energy “Mine” Energy Forced Proximity Psychological Control Trauma Bonding Dual POV, First Person Secret society 🚨Please check the TW
“I'm glad you found me at the auction. I'm glad you broke whatever rule made you take me home. I'm glad that whatever's wrong with you is wrong in exactly the way that matched what's wrong with me."
"You're so good at this," he says. "Taking me so well. Like you were made for me."
"Content," he says finally. "Satisfied. Like there's nowhere else I need to be and nothing else I need to do. Like this moment is enough."
"Every time you touch me. Every time you look at me like I matter." "You do matter." His arms tighten around me. "You're the only thing that matters."
This book had me on the edge of my seat! Starting with a bang, in just the first two chapters I couldn’t wait to see wha happened next! I was completely hooked! This author is an auto read/buy author for me! Havens writing sucks you into the world she’s written unapologetically. Jace is a trained weapon, known to show no emotions. But when he goes to an auction he sees Elliot who reminds him of himself a bit and sees the fight in him, and things start to get interesting. Both men connect both broken and damaged in different ways, going through their own journeys. But seeing Jace want something for himself was fantastic. Seeing Elliot start to open up and trust was 😍 loved seeing some characters from beautiful Design Such a great dark read! again please check the TW page! I’d definitely recommend this read! I can’t wait for book 2! The Silent Reaper is Book One in the Hollow Kings series. This is a dark MM romance containing disturbing themes, coercive dynamics, and psychological trauma. Intended for mature readers only.
I liked the premise - it reminded me of Gale Iain Tate’s The Sterling Acquisition with the programmed corporate robot falls for the traumatised basically sex slave and overthrows the system to protect him but yikes at the flowery dialogue, inconsistencies, and lack of connection between the mains.
It’s so overly wordy. With heaps of internal dialogue that does nothing to progress the plot or character development. And I’m supposed to believe these two are in love?! They barely speak or interact. Elliot is extremely traumatised and Jace has the emotional spectrum of a rock. It’s action-y and that part of the book I found intriguing hence why I almost finished it but I just can’t keep going with this dialogue.
Re: inconsistencies - it’s all minor stuff that doesn’t affect anything but it did give me pause and question the editing or lack thereof.
He wasn’t supposed to care. But he said mine... and meant it.
Jace is The Silent’s most precise weapon. He doesn’t flinch, doesn’t hesitate, and doesn’t feel. Until the day he walks into an auction and claims an asset he was never meant to touch. One word rewrites everything. One look triggers something buried so deep, he barely recognizes it.
Elliot was trained to obey, stripped of agency, and sold. When the stranger stops the auction and takes him home, he expects pain. Instead, he’s handed silence, rules, and protection that feels like possession. He should run. He doesn’t. Jace never demands trust. He earns it in silence.
When the system turns against them, Jace is forced to choose between loyalty to what created him or the man who makes him want more. Help comes from two men who escaped before him, Briar and Landon from Beautiful Design, who know the cost of choosing freedom. Together, they build something that looks a lot like rebellion.
What follows is a war, not just against the system but the walls inside them. In the aftermath, Jace and Elliot shape a new kind of survival, built on trust, intimacy, and the power of choosing each other.
Jace evolves from a detached killer into someone who learns to feel and protect, while Elliot reclaims his voice after a life built on fear. Their relationship shifts from power imbalance to partnership, built on trust, consent, and connection.
A dark, steamy, psychological MM romance with enemies to lovers and captor protector dynamics, trauma bonding, forced proximity, and a dominant submissive power exchange. It explores trauma recovery, psychological control, emotional obsession, identity, found family, and survival through connection. It’s about two broken men shaped by silence and violence who find something real in a world built to erase them.
The Elevator Pitch: A dark psychological MM romance where a trained killer breaks protocol to protect a man sold as property, triggering a chain of betrayal, survival, and obsession. What begins with control and fear slowly unravels into trust, consent, and a bond neither of them expected. High-stakes, emotionally charged, and quietly intense, it's about reclaiming agency and choosing love in a world designed to destroy it.
I was hooked, completely, utterly, hooked. Right from the beginning there was no turning back for me.
I am not sure I have words that can easily describe Jace and Elliott's story. Jace was a product of a life of conditioning to be a thorough and efficient killer. Elliott was property with no true value to the organization who held him. Their encounter was by chance, and immediately Jace deviated from everything he knew.
This story is hard to read. As hooked as I was there were times I had to put it down for a bit to process, but every time that happened there was a strong pull to return and keep reading. There is a list of trigger/content warnings at the beginning for a reason and I strongly recommend anyone who chooses to pick up this book to take a moment and read over those warnings. None truly triggered me, but I still needed time to digest as I read through this book.
If the triggers are not too much for you, you will find yourself drawn into Jace and Elliott's story. It is delicate, tender in so many ways, beautiful, and ugly at the same time. It is raw at it's core and absolutely perfect for these characters.
Also, there was no true need to have read other works by Haven Snow, but a couple mentions of Westpoint were dropped throughout this book so I would recommend reading The Feral Boys of Westpoint first, just to truly get the mentions. It's not necessary at all though and holds no weight on this story. This story is separate, completely, just set in the same world.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The Silent Reaper is an MM dark psychological romance that absolutely pulled me under. This book has serious touch him and die energy, heavy psychological control, trauma bonding, and strong dystopian/secret society vibes that make the world feel both terrifying and fascinating.
Jace is a lethal weapon—trained, programmed, and stripped of emotion—whose sole purpose is to erase threats for the Silent. Elliot, on the other hand, is treated as nothing more than a commodity, meant to be used and discarded. They’re both broken in very different ways, and watching their journeys unfold was painful, intense, and incredibly rewarding. Seeing Jace start to go against his conditioning and want something for himself, while Elliot slowly learns how to trust again, hit hard.
I also loved seeing Haven Snow bring back characters from Beautiful Design as the story begins to expose and challenge this corrupt power that seems to control society itself. The emotional payoff of watching Jace and Elliot fall in love and truly rely on each other was so well done.
Haven Snow is building a complex, dark world filled with layered, damaged, and deeply compelling characters—and I am fully invested. I cannot wait to see where this series goes next.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Wow!!!! This book was so good!!! So raw, so sensitive, so deep!!! How Jace was pulled to Elliot to save him and protect him. How Briar and Landon wanted to join the fight from the safety of their hiding place. How Jace's brothers, Jagger and Jinx were willing to take up the fight against the Foundery, and the search for what Protocol Omega was, and taking down everything wrong with it! Finding out what happened to their parents, preventing the wrongs from happening again, so powerful! Jace made so many powerful statements in this book that grabbed me, one was: "Whatever happens, whatever you hear, whatever they tell you I've done, remember one thing: I will come for you. I will always come for you. "I'm going to burn it all down," I breathe into his ear. "Every piece of this. Every person who had a hand in taking you. And when the fire's done, I'm going to carry you out of the ashes.” Another was: "Because the world without you in it isn't a world I want to exist in. Because every equation I run, every scenario I model, every future I try to imagine— none of them work if you're not there" My absolute favorite part about this book was two people finding each other and teaching each other how to be human in a broken world. I can't wait to find out what happens next in this world and how it's connected to the other little worlds that Haven Snow has created!!!!
Though this book was unsettling in a way that feels very deliberate, once it had its hooks in me, it didn’t let go. The power imbalance is front and centre from the start, and the atmosphere is heavy with control, silence and unspoken threat. Every interaction feels loaded, making even the quieter moments tense. I found myself constantly questioning whether what was happening was protection, possession, or something far more dangerous – and that uncertainty is one of the story’s biggest strengths.
Jace is a chilling character: restrained, efficient and emotionally locked down to the point of being frightening, yet there are subtle cracks that make him impossible to look away from. Elliot’s perspective is equally compelling, shaped by fear, resignation and a cautious hope that never quite feels safe. Their connection is messy, uncomfortable and emotionally intense, leaning hard into obsession and dependency rather than romance in any traditional sense. This isn’t a comforting read, but it is a gripping one, and it handles its dark themes with commitment and confidence. By the end, I felt wrung out but fully invested, eager to see how far this morally grey world is willing to go next.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The Silent Reaper is book 1 in The Hollow Kings series and is a MM, captor/protector romance. This story, it's not an easy love story. It's full of trauma, fear, so many emotions, psychological manipulation, torture, and trauma bonding. Jace's character was a little intimidating to be honest. He can be so cold, calculated, precise, but also caring, and compassionate. Elliot just seems so broken in the beginning, after reading the things he had to endure, I can understand why. Something about Elliot though, just keeps pulling on Jace's heartstrings and Jace gets Elliot out. Now though, he has to answer for what he did and not having a good enough answer means they both may die. Jace now has to try to see how he can take this broken soul and make him into something useful enough to save them both. Every time I think of Elliot, I just want to cry. What he endured was heartbreaking. But the way Jace saw him, not as disposable like everyone else, but as a person who deserved to live, how he strived to make him something useful and give him purpose... oh.. my heart. This story was so well written and amazing. Haven Snow keeps you hooked to the plot. I couldn't put this down. I highly recommend giving this a read. Don't add this one to the TBR, bump it up to your next read!
I have never read a book like this such a unique story and characters. First off we have Jace cold calculating best at what he does. And what he does is follow orders and take out who the high ups tell him too. Or at least he did until he sees Elliot on the auction block.
Elliot has been bought and sold so much he can't recall what life was like before. What he didnt expect was for a strange man to demand he be released into this custody.
Now at home with Jace, Elliot has no idea what to expect. He waits.. for pain.. to be used.. but nothing comes. And he finds himself intrigued by Jace.
I really enjoyed Jaces character ot was like watching a robot become sentient. The story then headed in a direction I was not expecting and there was action and fun new side characters. I really liked this book.. Spice is pretty low 2.5/5 but it has action, character growth. I can't wait to read more in this series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I love Haven snow and she is one of my favourite dark romance authors. This book was different from her usual books, but I loved how it retained the dark elements while going for a more emotional and angsty vibe. This also be the only book where there is no dub or noncon between the MCs. But however one of the MCs has very heavy trauma of being SAed so please still check triggers. I loved both Jace and Elliot and was so invested in their story. The plot was amazing, and those twists had me so shook. This book was an amazing shortish but dark romance.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
'The Silent Reaper is Book One in the Hollow Kings series. This is a dark MM romance containing disturbing themes, coercive dynamics, and psychological trauma. Intended for mature readers only.'
Great start to the series! Look forward to more from this world.
The characters drove the storyline and they were very compelling and complex and complicated and perfectly steamy together. Plot was intriguing and intense and well paced. World building was excellent and impressive. Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.
Kick back and enjoy the read!.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Book two in the Hollow Kings series, an MM dark psychological romance that reels you in from the start! Enemies to lovers between Reaper, Jace, and the Silent’s asset, Elliot. It’s unforgivably dark and twisted in so many ways, but you can’t stop reading it. So looking forward to Monster’s Prey in April, I’m always a sucker for when a Haven Snow book drops, I know I’m going to devour and reread it! There are only a couple authors who can lure me in to reading MM content without a female between them, and she is one of them.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This book shook me. OMG, it was so good! I was immediately drawn in. From the first few pages I knew I was invested. The twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Jace was incredible. He was a perfect weapon so to speak. And when Eliot came into the picture things changed. Eliot wasn’t so disposable suddenly. The spark between them was undeniable. This book was intense and chaotic. I couldn’t get enough. The depth and description was just so well done!
Jace is a reaper, trained from a young age to not have any humanity. Loyalty only to the organization. Elliott was taken from a young age and trained to be sold time and time again. Two broken people who come together to make attachments. A continuation of Briar & Landon’s story, on how they can get the organization to change for the better. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Three quarters of the way in and the feeling of sadness still lingered. It took those three quarters for me to finally feel hopeful for the outcome. There’s so much to unravel here as the ties into Beautiful Design and hints of Westpoint. Not sure where the author got the idea for the storyline but I’m really hoping it’s not based on reality. Excellent and intense read.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was a generally good read, I found the perspectives of each character intriguing especially as they evolved along with the plot. However the writing itself was a bit stiffer than I would have liked it to have been which is why it received four stars.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was an amazing read, that from the moment that I started reading, I was hooked and could not put it down. The pace of the story makes for an enjoyable read and is perfect for the story. It has characters that you want to know and cannot help but love. This book needs to be read, you will not be disappointed.
Jace and Elliot's story is everything. Dark, dirty, gritty, psychological mind games, obsessed and possessed, secret society, MM, forced proximity, captive and so so much more. Wow, I can't wait for the next book to draw me in...
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Elliot is just a number to sold but not to Jace the silents assassin, hes a man who gets what he wants and thats Elliot, but keeping him captive, controlled and protected is another thing entirely! Well written engaging steamy MM secret society and more
The Silent Reaper by Haven Snow is a great dark gay romance. The story is entertaining, interesting, suspenseful, dark romance, and more. The Silent Reaper is the first book in Hollow Kings series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This book is part of the Hollow Kings series. It’s a gripping psychological thriller that held me spellbound throughout the story! It’s a very interesting MM, enemies-to-lovers romance. It drew me in right away and kept me turning pages! Read the tw’s. It’s not for the faint of heart!
Dark and intense with such damaged characters that are actually perfect for each other. The way their relationship developed had me totally invested in their story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Welp... if i didnt need therapy before...Psychological torture, but i just couldn't not read it fast enough. I love this author. All the books that I've read keep me fascinated, this was no different.
This is book 1 of a series and a dark romance - please check triggers before reading.
This is a fascinating MM dark romance with an interesting beginning. Jace is a contract killer, sent in to an auction for a job, but he finds Elliot, who is being auctioned and seems.....broken. The emotional connection grows, and seeing Elliot begin to trust again is beautiful.
If you love dark psychological romances, this is your book. It's Jace and Elliot's book and it's so good! I love how Jace protects Ellliot so well and loved each of their characters. They are two broken people who find each other. A dark and beautiful story.
I thought this book was a great read and it's a fantastic start to this series. It was well written and I couldn't put it down. I can't wait to what's next.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.