{"id":79318,"date":"2025-06-25T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=79318"},"modified":"2025-06-24T08:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T12:49:09","slug":"arc-review-one-dark-kiss-grimm-bargains-2-by-rebecca-zanetti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=79318","title":{"rendered":"ARC Review: One Dark Kiss (Grimm Bargains, #2) by Rebecca Zanetti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

3 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

The second book in the Rebecca Zanetti\u2019s Grimm Bargains<\/i> series, this is a dark romance with a morally grey uber-possessive hero, a feisty young lawyer with Snow White vibes, mystery, suspense, minor paranormal magic and all the steam. It\u2019s an intriguing read that kept me engaged, and even though I wasn\u2019t the biggest fan of the first book, I enjoyed this one.<\/p>\n

Alexei Sokolov is the heir to one of the four most important social media empires in the country, as well as the Russian mob, but he has spent the last seven years in prison after being convicted of murder. Rosalie is a young lawyer whose latest case is overseeing Alexei\u2019s release and retrial, and with that release, she is thrust right into the middle of his world as he immediately sets about reclaiming his empire, seeking his revenge for those who set him up, and claiming his spunky young lawyer as his own.<\/p>\n

I know what I want. Who I want.
\nAnd I will have her. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alexei is dangerous, violent and lives in his own world of dubious morals and ethics. He has no problem with killing (though we later see that he does have somewhat of a conscience when it comes to who and why), but when it comes to Rosalie, he is unapologetically controlling. The sex in this book is really freaking steamy, and at least half of the time there is dubious consent. Rosalie enjoys their wild sexy time, but she initially hates herself for it, and their early encounters start off with her either asleep or refusing him. And even when they\u2019re in the midst of it all, he brings kink, dominance and smacking (including with a belt) into their encounters without any conversation. It\u2019s a bit borderline, to be honest, but\u2026 fiction. Just keep reading.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want a choice in this?\u201d he rumbles.
\nI gape at that statement. \u201cI-I do have a choice in this.\u201d What an asshole.
\n\u201cYou really don\u2019t, but I\u2019ll let you get there yourself.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For me, Alexei wasn\u2019t actually that likeable. He claims Rosalie and is super protective of her, but he doesn\u2019t actually treat her well. He\u2019s kinda scary to be honest, and Rosalie seems pissed, but she\u2019s drawn to him and doesn\u2019t put up too much of a fight with any of it. And we ultimately do get to see some character growth as feelings become involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t even know me. The sex is good, and you think I\u2019m pretty, but that\u2019s not enough.\u201d
\n\u201cI do think you\u2019re pretty, and the sex is off the charts. But you\u2019re highly intelligent, have a great sense of humor, and own a heart that\u2019s all soft and kindness. I want it.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While they try to figure out who set Alexei up and sent him to prison, they\u2019re dealing with his dangerous family, a scorned ex-lover, members of the Russian mob, a violent gang and multiple murder attempts. It\u2019s fast paced and violent, and certainly kept me engaged and guessing as to who the ultimate bad guy was and how everything would go down.<\/p>\n

The world building in this book is better than the first. There\u2019s more focus on the character story rather than the world of social media which they inhabit, which is what I struggled so much with in the first book. This one reads more like billionaire businessmen\/mob story, which worked well with the dark mystery\/suspense aspects, and you could read this one as a standalone.<\/p>\n

Characters from the previous book appear, and there is some carry-over from the last book (the heroines are best friends, and there\u2019s a third to their group who will no doubt feature in a future book). I also enjoyed the addition of Rosalie\u2019s boarders. She shares her home with seven elderly men in need a home, which seemed really random until I realised that this was meant to be a twist on the story of Snow White (still very random, but at least there\u2019s a reason for it). Not overly important to the story, but the gentlemen added a fun dynamic to events.<\/p>\n

I did enjoy this one \u2013 3 stars.<\/p>\n

An Advanced Reader copy was generously provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Grimm Bargains<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/h4>\n

One Cursed Rose (#1)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

One Dark Kiss (#2)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

One Shattered Crown (#3)<\/strong>
\nTo be released 28 July
\nPre-order:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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About the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Rebecca Zanetti is the author of over fifty romantic suspense and dark paranormal romances, and her books have appeared multiple times on the New York Times, USA Today, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iBooks bestseller lists. The New York Times reviews has found that in her books, \u201chumor surfaces in even the tensest moments, giving the high-stakes drama humanity and warmth.\u201d She lives in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest with her own Alpha hero, two kids, a couple of dogs, a crazy cat\u2026and a huge extended family. She believes strongly in luck, karma, and working her butt off\u2026and she thinks one of the best things about being an author, unlike the lawyer she\u00a0used to be, is that she can let the crazy out.<\/p>\n

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Facebook\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Goodreads\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Bookbub\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Website<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out our\u00a0Rebecca Zanetti Author Spotlight<\/a>\u00a0for more great reads!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon Review 3 stars The second book in the Rebecca Zanetti\u2019s Grimm Bargains series, this is a dark romance with a morally grey uber-possessive hero, a feisty young lawyer with Snow White vibes, mystery, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,47,95,9,29],"tags":[59,1565,305,48],"class_list":["post-79318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action","category-dark-gritty","category-mystery","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-grimm-bargains","tag-rebecca-zanetti","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/One-Dark-Kiss.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-kDk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}