Sophie Lark is really good at blending these dark Gothic thrillers with the right amount of romance and spice! Throw I a little mystery and you've got a great book to read during this spooky fall season. I love in this book how the MMC is with the FMC! So strong and protective but also a little bit of a gooey marshmallow for her! Definitely recommend picking up both books from the Grimstone series and look forward to seeing what else comes from this world she has built.

Giving this three stars only because I want to help it out a bit. I will not be reading this arc due to finishing the first book in the series, Grimstone, and absolutely hating it. About 60% through Grimstone we met a main male character of this book and he was an even bigger jerk than the brother and I just don’t think I can do it.

Me and Sophie Lark will be breaking up for the time being. :(

Thank you netgalley and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for this arc opportunity.

Elena needs a fresh start and when she meets a successful author at a mail order meet up. He seems to have it all- fame, money, and a sweet little girl to round out the family. But when Elena arrives for her new life, she begins to see lies start to unravel, and her new step daughter seems frightened and unwilling to speak. Staying at a high end hotel while the finished touches are put on their new home, Elena’s room keeps getting ransacked and the only person who seems to want to come to her aid is the handsome hotel owner.

Rating: 4/5
Spice: 1/5

Tropes:
Everyone has secrets

Triggers:
Confinement
Manipulation
Child Abuse

My Thoughts:
I love everything that Sophie Lark writes. This book has all the dark elements I love of her books with elements of a whodunit. Add in a tall, dark and handsome stranger and you’ve got an awesome read.

Monarch by Sophie Lark is a captivating, unputdownable & mesmerizing dark gothic romance set in a spooky small town with a fascinating group of townsfolk. A bookshop manager from Ukraine agrees to marry a famous American author & returns to his small town with him. The life she expected is not the life that appears & the owner of the hotel they’re temporarily staying at might just upend the very life she anticipated.

This is book #2 in the Grimstone series, but it could easily be read as a standalone. However, I enjoyed both books so I do recommend both!

Monarch is great for fans of…
🖤 Dark Romance
🖤 Romantic Thriller
🖤 Gothic & Spooky
🖤 Small Town

Honestly, this is a book that is quite difficult to describe in terms of tropes & genres but it was so good, I couldn’t put it down! This is such a unique romance set in a small gothic town. I’m very intrigued by this series & I think I liked this one more than the first even though I really have loved them both. I do recommend checking content warnings just in case.

This book comes with a map, a playlist & artwork…what more could you ask for?! The map is the coolest beginning to any read. Then, when you add in a playlist to help set the tone of one chooses as well as the amazing artwork that brings the story to life, which I appreciate.

I love the combination of romance meets thriller. I am so excited to see what this author writes next & I will read anything they write!

Married thanks to NetGalley, Bloom Books & Hambright PR for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

This is a dark romance book where there is an Ukrainian girl named Elena who moves to America for the sole reason of marrying a famous author. Elena was infatuated with moving out of Ukraine, and she was thrilled when Lorne, who was a tourist, met her and supposedly fell in love and asked for marriage with her. She accepted without much thought, traveled to Grimstone in America, met Atlas Covett, the hotel owner, and started to think maybe Lorne wasn't the right choice, but everything escalated when Lorne showed a toxic trait that was really wrong. It made everything more gruesome when Lorne actually did that worst trait on Elena and made her certain to cancel the engagement and leave Lorne, but the prick again did some unthinkable thing, which is unforgivable. But in all those toxic moments, Elena had Atlas, who finally saved her.

This is a dual perspective of Elena Zelenska and Atlas Covett, which indicates our ML is Atlas. The story starts with a normal pace; everything seems fine, but from the start there is this abnormality: "Why would someone from America propose to some foreigner whom he only met a few times and talked so little with?" It all sounds suspicious, and it should be. Elena is a Ukrainian girl who suddenly participated in some gathering for finding a partner but met Lorne, and despite her alarms, she thought Lorne was a ticket to leave Ukraine. She accepted despite the fact that she doesn't love Lorne one bit. Though she liked Atlas and felt safe and good when she was with him. And Lorne, everything seemed off about him from the start. He has a daughter, Ivy, and there is this disdain when he talks about her, and you see that it's all sounding so wrong. He's creepy, and despite the mention of him being handsome, all the things got blurred when he acted and talked that way. It didn't give one bit of the right vibe for ML, but Atlas—I don't know why—the mention of his height and attractiveness is something. Lorne is good-looking, blue-eyed, tall, and the kind of guy who workouts enough to build something good, but Atlas is something else. It's described as a fark eyes and super tall guy, technically 7 feet and so. One tall herself, that is so. Bonus thing, not to mention his charismatic character and manner, he's like Monarch, actually, and you can't even argue with that.

In my opinion, I think the book is good—the pace, the added touch of mystery, the suspense—because even though you can guess something, you wouldn't have it unless author validation. It's not predictable at the same time as predictable. It's kind of like a paradox in there, and it may be annoying, but the characters traits and how they behave can really outshine them anytime. I say even though Atlas's POVs were less than Elena's, I enjoyed that little of it, especially how in control he is. It's like a big mountain, behind you and echoing, "I'm here, and everything is in control when I'm here." Elena is a little bit too heroine; she acts unsure and wants to go accordingly to what Lorne says, and it pisses me off, especially when she's not the thing Lorne wants her to be, and she cares about LVY like a real mother, added heroine hormone, and her development was from listening to what he says to want nothing to do with him. I know this is confusing, but from the start she has a right instinct. She actually felt right about the situation, and she wasn't stupid at all, but the author decided that her being unsure would make things amusing because in the book she sees and feels when something is wrong or off, but again, like some heroine she walks in to trap. But again, I feel like I like her a lot, actually.

I rate the book 4 and development 4. It was good, and I mean it, Elena deserves everything, and Atlas can be a real "I can't have enough of him" guy, except despite it being romance. I couldn't forget how real I feel about both of them; their character wasn't made of cliché occurrences; it was a real situation when I could see how it made them develop and why it was romance. I couldn't forget how real I feel about both of them; their character wasn't made of cliché occurrences; it was a real situation when I could see how it made them develop and why it is like this. It wasn't exaggerating when they talk about what happened to them; they didn't overreact about it. It was actually what it is if something the same happened to real people, and it made me just a little sour when I realized despite it being romance and being a happy place, I actually felt a lot of empathy. But overall, it was a super good book, and I definitely recommend it.

🎃🖤📚🥀🦉

Thank you Source Books, Bloom Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is soooo perfect for the spooky season!! Sophie Lark seriously knows how to write an amazing thriller, spooky, romance. I loved the first book in this series and Monarch did not disappoint! Atlas, the man that you are!!!! I devoured this book in one day, I seriously could not put it down! Once you start this book, you get lost in the pages, you get lost in the story and just need to know what happens next!! It will have you on the edge of your seat till the very end!

I highly recommend this book, and this series to anyone looking for a thriller romance to read this spooky season. Monarch can be read as a stand alone, however if you enjoy it, I would also recommend reading Grimstone because that book was amazing too!!

Monarch: ★★★★★ (5)

Pub date: available now!

Tropes:
- touch her and die
- he falls first
- forbidden romance

3.5⭐, 2.75🌶️

So while this wasn't the book for me, I still really enjoyed and per usual, felt Sophie's style in the storyline and THE ARTWORK! This book had some of my favorite pieces of character art in it! (If you're reading it, try to read it/ go back and look at the photos in color versus black-and-white on your Kindle. They are just incredible)

I loved the premise of this book being a forbidden romance because of her being engaged to another man - and dont get me started on how sweet her relationship with her fiancés daughter was adorable. MAKE SURE you read the content warning on this book because it was a bit tougher to read with the child abuse. Overall, I liked this book - didn't love it- and I think how predictable it felt and the veryyyy fast ending and thriller events just didnt impress and entertain the way Grimstone did.

"Do you feel that? I love you. What do you want me to do to show you? Ask me for anything. Ill give it to you. Will that prove it? Ask me to do anything. Try me, Elena."
"I already believe you."

🩵Slow Burn Romance
💙Age Gap
🦋She's a 'Mail Order' Bride...for another Man
💙Protective MMC
🩵Romantic Thriller

"The picture and the ring mean the same thing. They mean, I'm with you. I love you. Ill protect you, Ill take care of you. Carry me with you always and keep me in your heart. Because you are there in mine."

Thank you Hambright PR and Netgalley (w/ Sourcebooks Bloom Books) for granting me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

4⭐️

Monarch is the second book in Sophie Lark's Grimstone series, and it does a wonderful job of combining spooky thriller vibes with swoonworthy romance.

After finishing Grimstone, I had to jump right into this one. I knew right from the beginning that something seemed a little off with Lorne, especially when we were introduced to his daughter, but I absolutely LOVED that the chemistry and tension between Atlas and Elena started right in the beginning and the slow burn was sooooo good.

Though I personally preferred Grimstone, both are the perfect books to read right now for spooky season!

Read this book if you enjoy:
👻 Slow burn
👻 Forbidden romance
👻 Mystery-like
👻 Spooky vibes
👻 Small-town
👻 Dual POV

I highly recommend picking this up as soon as it is released on October 8th, 2024!

Thanks so much to SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, NetGalley, and Sophie Lark for this amazing eARC!

I was lucky enough to receive arcs for both books in the series, unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the first one at all so I went with this one with zero expectations. And I think that … made this book fun. I rarely enjoy “attraction to lovers” books but I didn’t had any problem with this one, I just went in with an open mind to just have a fun romantic thriller, and it served it as a spooky read for October.

I enjoyed both characters in here unlike the first book, I liked how gentle and caring he was for her, Elena really deserved her happy ending.

But I have one criticism: this series was my first dip into Sophie lark, these two books are the only ones that I’ve read by her and it left me to wonder … the relationships in this serious happens too fast? And the couples fall for each other basically very quickly so I want to know does this happen in all of her other books because I am planning to read her mafia series “brutal brithright” and “kingmakers”.

Wow. This book was crazy 😮‍💨

I enjoyed Grimstone but I think Monarch is my favourite!

So much happened within 350 pages and it had me hooked. I think the last 40% is the best as the relationship between Atlas and Elena really started. The last 20% was the most intense and had me deciding if it really needed sleep because I desperately wanted to read on to see what would happen.

The stolen moments between Elena and Atlas were intense but sweet. I love how Atlas was obsessed at the first sight but Elena tried to fight her feelings and push them down. It just made it more explosive down the line!

I still have a lot of unanswered questions about the world of Grimstone but I think that’s the beauty of the haunted town. There’s always something there to make you wonder…

Monarch by Sophie Lark is the second book in the Grimstone Series.
 
This story is about Elena who is Ukrainian and looking for a better life. She meets an American man, and they plan on getting married for convenience. Elena is very sweet and kindhearted, but also naive and inexperienced and that showed itself quite often. When she arrives in America, her life turns out different than she imagined. Elena stayed way too flat, and I would have liked to see more of her personality.
 
Her finance Lorne is a thriller author, and he gave me the creeps from the beginning. It felt like his writing about crimes and serial killers got to his head. He is way too dominant and each time he tries to get intimate with Elena was just so weird. I also disliked the way he treated his daughter. He is building a new house for them to live in and until it’s finished, Elena lives in the local hotel called Monarch. This hotel belongs to Atlas, and he is attracted to Elena and at the same time notices their weird relationship and wants to protect her.
 
My favorite part of this book was the atmosphere. It was so eerie and suspenseful and so many strange things happened. It gave me a little bit of Verity vibes. However, the plot and especially the romance fell flat for me. For the longest time I had no clue where the story was going and there was this weird love triangle. Elena is trying to work it out with Lorne, but their relationship is just horrible, and they don’t fit together at all. Then there is Atlas who I liked so much better than Lorne, but he is the forbidden option. Unfortunately, the story glossed over a lot of emotions and feelings and rather focused on the suspense. That's why I wouldn’t even call this a romance and the way the relationship develops is completely missing. You only get to see the beginning and shortly after you get an epilogue with their happy ever after and I felt like I missed part of the romance. It’s rather a mystery thriller with only the inkling of a romance at the end and that was just disappointing for me.
 
If you’re looking for a fast-paced spooky season read, this might be for you, but I expected a lot more from this story. 2 stars.
 
(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

This is one of my new favorite books from Sophie Lark. This book had me hooked from the very beginning and once I started it I did not want to put it down. One thing that I love about Sophie’s writing is that I almost always feel connected to the characters and the world that she has built. I immediately fell in love with Elena and Atlas and their characters as a whole and their relationship. In both this book and the first book in the series, I loved reading about the town of Grimstone and hope that she continues to explore more stories in this town. This book had the perfect mix of romance and suspense. The book was fast-paced and as I got to the end of the book I wanted more chapters and wanted to see more of these characters. Thank you so much Bloom Books and NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book.

This was a nice and light more spooky type book, I think it was perfect for the fall season! Sophie never misses

Monarch was such an incredible read! I loved the dark romantic suspense and i absolutely devoured the book! Thank you so much Sophie and NetGalley for allowing me to read!!

Please give me all of Sophie Larks books forever and ever because each one is better than the last and I’m pretty sure she puts drugs in them BECAUSE WHY AM I SO OBSESSED

Perfectly spooky and underlying sinister tones. Forbidden romance, insta love, gothic architecture. I couldn’t put this down! So deliciously good and satisfying. I adore the FMC!

.Forced proximity
.Protector/protectee
.She's engaged to someone else
.Virgin FMC

This book takes a different turn from the first one in the series. It's less spooky but still has that dark, gloomy vibe. It leans more into a thriller with a solid ‘who did it?’ mystery full of red herrings, clues, and puzzles that kept me hooked. I found the answers a bit easier to guess this time compared to the first book, but it was still fun.

I loved the two main characters. Elena is innocent but not clueless, smart, and tough. She adapts to new situations and has a caring heart. And then there’s Atlas, a gentle giant who’s big and strong but softens around Elena. Their relationship is very well developed, showing a slow burn that’s even slower than in the first book, but it’s definitely worth it. I lived for their stolen moments together.

What I love about this series is that, while it’s a dark romance, it isn’t completely crazy. The characters have deep relationships, whether romantic, friendly, or family-related. They’re not just terrible people with no respect for anything; they have their own morals and are genuinely good inside. They can make friends, love, and even be funny. All to say, I found a good dark romance that hasn’t completely made me lose faith in humanity.

I’d love to see more books set in this world. I don’t know if there are any planned, but I’ll be first in line to read them if they ever come out.

I was intrigued and couldn’t put down Monarch. I found Elena and Atlas’s story thrilling. I loved the world building created by the author, I wish I lived in Grimstone. Throughly enjoyed!

ARC Review of Monarch by Sophie Lark
* * * * *
A thrilling and darkly erotic romance set in good old Grimstone as our story continues with Atlas and his obsession. Sure, she's with another guy...but is that going to stop him claim what is his?

Elena took the chance of coming to America for a better life. The price: she had to get hitched.
The bloke seemed alright enough: author, building a nice big fancy home, father to a lovely quiet young girl. Though, something feels off.
Plus, it does not help when the owner, a giant with an intense stare and incredibly handsome, has her in his gaze.
Atlas has never been so possessive towards a woman in his life. Elena is beautiful and gentle. She's too good for her idiot husband...sorry, fiancee.
As Elena adjusts to what is to be her new life, as threats appear on the wall and everything is closing in around her, she's lost to who the real threat is and if she can save more than just herself from the danger.

Fantastic read. Loved Atlas in the first book and was excited to get his story in this one, and it was 5 stars! Elena is just a beautiful woman - thank you for the illustrations - and has a heart that just grows around Ivy who deserves so much love.
Steamy photo session. A creepy castle. A murder?
Actioned packed!!!!

I liked the concept of Monarch a lot. If you were to judge this book by its cover—which I love—you might think it is a story about a castle-y house where things go bump in the night. But this house takes up approximately 2% of this story, and the rest didn't quite catch for me.

To start, Elena is a mail-order bride from Ukraine, brought to Grimstone by her fiancé Lorne, a native to the small town, who led her to believe he was a shy, awkward single father, who happened to be a successful author with a lot of money. She is happy to be in America and live out her version of the American dream, so she accept's Lorne's proposal over the phone, he helps her get her visa, and she joins him. On her first day at the Monarch hotel, she catches the eye of tall, broad Atlas, who is the owner. He falls instantly and unshakably in love with Elena for reasons that still don't make sense to me, and over the following weeks, becomes increasingly jealous of Elena and Lorne's relationship, distrusting Lorne's intentions.

At the same time, Elena is exposed to more sides of who Lorne really is, and his anger flashes through in moments of time that leave her reeling and scared. She also bonds with Lorne's nonverbal and traumatized daughter, Ivy, who is being abused by her father and her caretaker throughout the story. However, Elena straddles between "he's a great man who loves me" and viewing Lorne as a monster, which is actually a very true feeling a lot of abuse survivors can connect with—however, these insistences from Elena don't make any sense when Lorne repeatedly terrorizes her and Ivy, and she doesn't realize Lorne is a danger until…Atlas tells her?

Throughout the duration of Lorne and Elena's relationship, he is trying to rush what is referred to as a Frankenstein-esque castle, disjointed and large due to contractors quitting when they won't make the additions Lorne is requesting. After the house is built, Lorne tells her that they can be married there, and Elena is desperate to believe him because she cannot return to Ukraine and face the consequences of the horrible thing she did that led to her desperately wanting to leave.

While Elena grapples with all this, she has to deal with Atlas overstepping in his attempts to protect her, then she begins an affair with him. Unlike many other romance readers, I love a cheating trope when it's done right, but I almost never love it when it's instalove, as it was here. I did not, could not, understand how Elena and Atlas fell in love with each other.

If the narrative had spent less time trying to tease out how bad Lorne is, many other things it attempted to do could have been executed well. As it stands, the thriller aspect fell flat, the ending was rushed, the love story was unbelievable, no one was held accountable for abusing Ivy, Lorne's "why" wasn't explained, Elena's "bad thing" wasn't that bad (imo hehehe) and is conveniently resolved in a single phone conversation with someone who was seemingly avoiding Elena's calls and texts the entire story, the person who was vandalizing Elena's room was too weak and borderline emaciated to execute the severity of the destruction more than once so that was difficult to buy, the caretaker's willingness to participate in Lorne's shenanigans made no sense, the plot was thin, and the spice was…uncomfortable because it almost always started somewhere nonconsensual for Elena.

I say this every time I read a Sophie Lark book: I absolutely love her writing. I will keep reading her books until I finally find characters I love and a plot I can rock with.

Thank you to so much SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, Bloom Books, and NetGalley for providing an ARC!

2.5 ⭐️s
1 🌶️