Deepest Obsession

Dark Luxuries #1

by Elira Firethorn

Sophia
Here’s the thing about heartbreak—it never goes away.
When I lost my first love at seventeen, I was told the pain would fade.
When I was torn away from everything I knew, I was told I’d eventually be grateful for the fresh start.
And maybe those things are true. But five years after my entire life imploded, the pain still feels just as fresh.
So when my ex crashes back into my life, refusing to leave me alone and demanding a second chance, it's like one of my nightmares come to life. All I know is one thing:
There isn't a safe way to entangle myself with Alexander.

Alexander
For years, I waited.
For years, I planned.
Sophia has always been mine, even when I left her sobbing and begging me to stay.
And now that everything is almost in place, it's time to bring her back to my side.
Danger may be chasing me around every corner, but I can't wait any longer.
I'm going to make Sophia see that she's still mine, and I'm going to keep her safe in the process.

Deepest Obsession is a dark, erotic, suspenseful romance with enemies to lovers themes. It's a second chance romance with a HEA. It's the first of three books in the Dark Luxuries Trilogy, but Alexander and Sophia's story will be complete by the end of the book. Please check the trigger warning inside the book before continuing.

Genres: Dark Romance, Romance, Second Chance, Enemies To Lovers, Dark, Contemporary, Smut

241 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 3, 2022

About the author

Elira Firethorn is an author of dark, steamy, suspenseful romance. Writing has been her passion since she was fourteen years old, and it continues to be her favorite pastime—aside from reading.

Reviews

[vmar · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think maybe this could’ve been something good. Key word could’ve.

It read like a middle school drama when apparently they’re in their twenties? Could’ve fooled me.

The development was rushed and lackluster, the main character had no spine, the love interest was juvenile, and the writing was giving unedited “y/n” wattpad.

To top it all off there’s a literal and actual scene in here where her high school bully challenges her love interest to a tennis match to win a date with her.

Let that sink in, babe.

A TENNIS MATCH!! And the dude accepts it…

No way in hell did I actually witness a tennis duel between two grown men over rights to a date with a grown woman…

The second-hand embarrassment from this entire book was literally beyond.

[✶ ✶ Hummingbird ✶ ✶ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this story in a day.

I am not sure if I missed the first part of this series..or if this is a spin-off series but a lot of this story refers to the characters’ past, and I did feel a little lost especially when the on,y two people from said past are present.. and others are conveniently not present.

Spoilers ahead

The PAST. From my understanding:

1) Sophia and Alexander have been dating since high school and have been completely in love.

2) Alexander’s dad one day abuses his wife (everly) and Sophia’s mom sees Everly reapply makeup and tries to help her out of this abusive situation.

3) the dad hears about it and destroys Sophia’s dad and her family isn’t rich anymore. Alex and Sophia break up but he makes sure to tell her that it is due to his own dad. Then proceeds to date her enemy and it is heavily implied that they actually slept together.

The PRESENT.
3) Alex and Sophia meet again when he walks into the coffee shop she works. Literally chapter 1.

4) even when she’s telling herself that she was broken by him, she accepts his proposal for a date.

5) the sleep together, by ch3-4 (sexual oral and fingers but no penetration)

6) and it is because of this that I failed to connect with these characters. I love a good obsession/stalker story but this failed to hit the mark. Alex came off a lot as an ape who said “mine” every time she asked something and Sophia was the doormat of all doormats that did shit that didn’t make sense and never meant what she said. She was TSTL.

7)there’s some OW drama in the name of the previous enemy I mentioned. Alexander wants to keep her around (implied-said- but nor executed?) because he’s having issues with another enemy who is Sophia’s ex. And not jealousy issues.. actual life threatening ones and he thinks this OW might know something.

8) without going into too much detail- I wanna say the book is soooooo quick and fast I skipped the sex scenes to understand the plot. They are into exhibition. The first sexual encounter happens in his car with the driver in the front. I failed to connect with them, and furthermore… Sophia’s parents… the one who were destroyed are never even mentioned besides rehashing the past. They are not even part of the story.

9) Everly the woman was was abused is Alexander’s mom. I stand for survivors and they have all my support but for her to be a classiest bitc* to Sophia to her face ? After Sophia’s mom tried to help her? I couldn’t connect the Everly character we meet with Alexander’s mom who was abused. One of the reasons why he decided to off his dad.

10) Alexander’s reasons for doing that to his dad seemed to be a plot point for shock value only. And I hate authors using domestic violence as a plot point for gaining sympathy and shock value but no real reason.

The story progresses but I won’t read the next book. I am too tired nursing my neck from the constant whiplash and the back and forth between these characters.

[Angel Luna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t remember a single thing about this book so I guess that says it all

[Naya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its a No for me. This is the first book I read of this Author. I was really excited after seeing it on TikTok. Unfortunately I will not continue this series or read from this author. It felt rushed but repeated at the same time. They have sex on every other page, but its always the same sex. It ends with a cliffhanger but its more like she just stopped writing. The storyline and the characters have great potential but it just didn’t work for me.

[CassDamm · Rating 3 out of 5]

3✨

This is apparently a series but I’m not going to finish it bc the next book is another characters relationship and there was WAYYY too much left unresolved in this one. The characters were literally split up again at the end lmao it just ended with “Brooke is missing and I’m not letting you out of my sight”
Brooke is the female love interest in the next book and this male MCs sister. So, I guess the “I’m not letting you out of my sight” must mean they’re getting back together ? Would’ve been cool if there was actually a resolution.

In addition to this, if you aren’t fond of smut do not read this.
This book is absolutely 70% smut. There is barely an actual story just chapters of smut scenes 😂

[Yolanda | yolandaannmarie.reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Debut novel and book 1 in a series.
Told in dual pov and split into 2 parts.
Part one: Sophia
Part two: alternating Sophia & Alexander

- kindle unlimited
- second chance romance
- rich mmc
- barista/writer fmc
- mild bdsm and exhibitionism
- “little bird”
- “you’re mine”
- possessive mmc
- would do anything to protect her
- car crash / kidnapping / gunpoint / mentions of human trafficking / murder
- misogynist side character
- leaves in a cliffhanger

This was a shorter read, but it dragged on for so long. A lot of the writing was too repetitive for my liking. Sophia is constantly shivering, Alexander is constantly declaring “you’re mine”, his scent is brought up in almost every other chapter, and there was almost no variation to all the sex scenes.

There wasn’t much of a blurb, so I went into this blindly. From the opening, I was expecting a typical second chance romance to play out - but it really wasn’t that at all.
Sophia & Alexander used to date in high school - circumstances with their families caused them to break up - it’s 5 years later (they are 22) and he resurfaces in her life and claims that he will never stop loving her or never lose her again, etc.
I thought their ages were a little young for what it was.

One of the issues I had was with the subplots in this - there is a group of friends/business partners that are out for revenge/blackmail. It drags Sophia into the middle of everything - so was this really a genuine second chance romance? Or was it more out of convenience? I don’t know. And Sophia gets left in the dark and isn’t provided answers to anything but is expected to trust these people, and it ends up being more frustrating than anything.

Lots of mentions about soaring, being free, a bird tattoo - but it didn’t really lead to anything. It also didn’t make sense how in order for her to truly feel free, she needed Alexander?

The side characters in this - I disliked them so much. They either didn’t provide much value (the parents), or the characters traits were written so awful (Vanessa, Tristan, Brent - iykyk).
Jade & the vanishing photo / the kid - that made no sense to me and I still don’t know how it was relevant to anything in the story.
I had a hard time connecting or feeling attached to anyone in this story.

Brent as a side character / side love interest was so random and pulled away from the main plot. The only thing it added was the extra element of possessiveness from Alexander. I disliked so much how Brent was portrayed as a nice, timid, slightly disheveled man, but the second he got a chance with Sophia, he became crude and misogynistic. And then he completely disappears from the story!!

One thing I did enjoy though was how Alexander created a house for them based off of every last detail they crafted from when they were kids. I thought that was cute and sentimental.

Overall, I wanted more development or cohesiveness, and I thought the second chance romance was too forced and unnatural. For the amount of talk of being so utterly heart broken, it really felt glossed over.

[Nandini · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really want to give this a zero but that's not possible so give this a one.

[a 🔮 · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

[Manuela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review contains spoiler regarding the characters (no names) but not the story.

I’m not gonna lie. I find it utterly difficult to write this review. The reason being is I’m not a fan of the the two main characters (female and male) but on the other hand I know my fair share of BDSM and kinks to know that they perfectly fit into the scheme.

What bugs me about the characters:
The female lead is a sub to the core and her relationship to the main character could be described as “toxic and manipulative”. She constantly thinks about ending stuff but the moment he lays hands on her she’s like a puppet. He knows that (at some point in the story he has a inner monologue talking about how to manipulate her into doing something).
As the story continues we get a bit of character development from the female protagonist but it’s not enough to satisfy me. At least she knows how easy it is to manipulate her (she states that multiple times in the book).
I’m not a fan of these dynamics especially because she seems like in a cage.
Thankfully we get a bit of an inside on his intentions and why some things he does and did are to her own good. But we get these information way back into the story and at this point I already made of my mind. After over 95 % of the book we finally get a major piece of information regarding his back story but the story still lacks to tell me more about it. Feelings etc.

Why I think the characters are still well written:
Regardless of my opinion on the main protagonists questionable relationship, the author still did a good job describing them and their kinks. And their sexual dynamic is not unknown in the BDSM world. She a sub with a degradee kink and probably a tendency to be a light slave and he being the fitting dom. So I can’t really be mad at the author for making their character like that because they perfectly fit into the BDSM world.
And as far as I can tell from his character he still deeply cares for her. It’s just their sexual dynamic that’s kind of fucked up.

Smut:
If you expect this book to be as smutty as Ruthless Desire #1 and #2 you will be disappointed. We still get plenty of sex scenes but they are not as detailed as in the other book series. The main focus is definitely not that.

Conclusion:
In their world these characters are well written, and the story is interesting as it unfolds, but I can’t ignore the fact that the female lead and her actions just grind my gear. Countless time I put away the book to sighed out in irritation.
It’s definitely a story to split the mass and I’m somewhere in between. I know the BDSM scene to understand the dynamics but it hits my limits. I miss the female empowerment moment where she finally states her opinion, stands up for herself and doesn’t regret it 10 min later.
I’m still going to read the other books from the series because I find it interesting to read about their dynamic. I just don’t want them as my friends in real life.


Short Info:
Since I talk a lot about BDSM, kinks and limits I thought it would be helpful to some of you to share a website where you can take a free quiz to test your kinks and limits: bdsmtest.org

[Regina Blume · Rating 1 out of 5]

⭐️1

Why do I let bookstagram reels convince me a book is worth reading? It never ends well.

I hate to say this; because I believe every book has its perfect reader, even if it’s not me but this book should never have been published (even self published) it’s unedited and has many, MANY errors, it reads like it was written by a 13 year old with no experience how adults should and do act and nothing about it is based in any reality.

Starting with the romance, if you can call it that. This is one of the most unhealthy relationships I’ve ever read. The MMC acts like a dog peeing on his territory (and not in an attractive way) like a child having a constant tantrum over their favourite toy. He hides things from the FMC that affect her, makes decisions for her and when she tries to go against him her just attacks her sexually until she agrees with him. Even when they get their HEA he overwhelms her and doesn’t allow her to process her thoughts and trauma to make the decision to be together on her own. There are so many examples of how this relationship is unhealthy I just can’t put them all into this review.

Next the plot. So we are meant to believe this man is running a multi-million dollar business/es. Ummm when? Yes this is fiction and doesn’t need to be 100% realistic but all he seems to do is take meetings about the villain of the story and how they’re going to catch him out and go to events. He’s always available to drive around the FMC, is nearby whenever it suits the story and can spend all his time in the morning sitting in a cafe. I don’t want to spoil the ending (not that I recommend anyone read this) but even the justification for any of his criminal actions is really rushed and unbelievable. So these terrible things happened all your life, you got everyone involved out of the situation and then decided it was justified to kill someone… that no longer had access to the people they were hurting? Yes that’s completely ok and honourable 🙄 I’m all for a morally grey hero but this is really pushing that boundary, if this was a mob romance some of the things that happened would have made a lot more sense. Was it meant to be and I just missed that?


In summary the writing is bad, the romance is toxic, the hero is unlikable… don’t bother.

[Chey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sophia's ex comes crashing back into her life, demanding a second chance. She knows Alexander isn't good for her, but he won't take no for an answer.

***Mind your triggers***
I loved this book. It's dark and has dark themes, but the writing was done so well that you don't feel overwhelmed by the dark themes. Sophia dealt with a lot, and the things she was put through shows the strength of her character. Alexander is very demanding and isn't really willing to budge on anything. At first his character was off-putting because of that, but as the story progressed, I did start to like him a small bit.

[Madi Baer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Read

I enjoyed this mostly to see where the whole crew ends up in the end as the story started to unravel and learning more about the characters and how they are all connected is really interesting.

My only complaints: the view switching happened so late in the story which felt a little wonky and the first couple chapters were a little messy interms of writing. I felt like I was reading a high schoolers attempt at a book. At about chapter 6 it became a lot better.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is very different from the author’s newer books that have dark themes but still very healthy dynamics. This books is toxic and glorifies abusive behavior. DNF

She seems like a shallow, ex princess, hot mess. She is so wishy washy and blames everything on her hormones, “I just lose my mind when he puts his hands on me.” The body betrayal trope is the worst. He is a controlling, abusive caveman. I hate when the FMC picks the a$$hole over the sweet guy just bc the’s hot & they have good spicy time. It’s so superficial.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been popping up on my Instagram feed for days, and since I loved/liked h the authors other series…I thought sure why not.

Good story and description of characters, even though it starts without any backstory and the story takes place roughly 5years after HS. The characters sounded too mature and yet the main female character also had teenage or young adult feelings and trust issues. The sexy scenes were always fast and hard, which felt extreme, considering that’s how the characters had always done it, forceful. Taken hard.

It’s been a few days, and the story is still lingering in my brain. Possible rating 3,5 stars.

[dd_wonderland_of_books · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fun read. And even though I loved the characters I didn’t really like the behavior. Ok most men were just *assholes but Alexander was a killer? And he ordered her around? Played with her like a sex toy and when she wants to move on en get over him, he just refused?

I like the story, but it felt like dragging at the end.

I personally like the blissful masquerade series way more then this one 😅

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it
I usually don’t like possessive men, but Alexander made me boil under my skin. It’s just like the dedication says “To all the people who
fall for fictional men
they'd punch in the face
in real life.”
I don’t give 5 stars for the single fact that a few scenes where too much for me, too possessive
But I loved everything else in this book
THE SCENE WHEN SHE FINDS OUT THAT HE BUILD THE HOUSE THEY DESIGNED AS TEEN is absolutely my favourite scene
I sobbed so much for over an hour.

[Kendra Way · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this wasn’t for me, I ended up not finishing. I assumed because of my love for the Ruthless Desire series I would love this, that wasn’t the case. The writing is totally different in style but also just the actions/personalities of the characters were for me. I love Oliver, Elliot, & Rhett because despite who they are, they have respect for the FMC, this character was the opposite. I know some people like that, but I’ll stick with my consent kings!

[Laila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sooooo, there is a lot in this book.

i love love love that the book is based off her high school lover. now i do find it strange that there was a literal tennis match to win her for a date like she is an object that could be won. i also do think the author couldve done better to hold suspense and make the book less predictable but other than that the book was amazing. i recommend it for people who have trouble focusing on books.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do you do with a man who will do anything to keep you? A man who makes his own rules and won't take no for an answer? Sophia and Xander have a past filled with lies and half-truths, and their future is not full of fairy tales and rainbows for sure.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Jeanne Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 1st book I've read written by Elira Firethorn; I can’t wait to read more of her books.

This is the 1st book in the Dark Luxuries Series; it is a stand-alone book. The story is about Sophia & Alexander; he broke her heart before but now is back begging for another chance.

I received a free copy of this book via booksprout and I’m voluntarily leaving a review.

[Angeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deepest Obsession By: Elira Firethorn. I really enjoyed this dark theme book. This is about Sophia and Alexander. He wants her back and won't take a no. She saw that her came back to her life. See what would happen.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Erin - Books&nails&puppydogtales · Rating 5 out of 5]

New fave author found

What is it about these possessive, filthy, slightly crazy men that makes them so hard to resist? Well maybe I answered my own question. Alexander is a new favorite book boyfriend for sure! This book is going on my "to re-read often" list. I regret not finding Elira sooner!

[Vale (Olympic_help) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a hundred percent making my Goodreads account an Elira fan account. She's just the absolute best when it comes to writing. This book actually made me believe a little bit more in the second chance trope.
I really really recommend to give this book a go!!! As always remember to check the TW first!!!! Happy reading loves!!!!

[nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️
it was quick paced and intense romance between the characters. the pacing felt weird because for the first half it was like the tension between the characters and the plot was all thrown at the end and felt like a set up for the next book. it was still fun to read and i enjoyed it. also the spice was amazing as usual with this author

[Caoimhe · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

I need more Alex scenes and also a recap did they destroy Tristain's company or not.

So vanessa hates Sophia because she has Alexander.
Tristain hates Alexander because he has Sophia.

Are you actually kidding me? 🤨

[Sowmya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Ankita Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The female lead is somewhat irritating and male lead deserves better

[y · Rating 1 out of 5]

wtf ?

[Katherine Amey Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was Amazing I loved the love-hate relationship between the main character and the love interest with 'its always been you'touch.

[Alanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

an easy read. kinda confusing at times but i enjoyed it!