Dark Succession by Katee Robert
My Rating: ★★★
I received a copy from Forever through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Ever since her brother died, Callie Sheridan has felt the effects of the loss everywhere. Including who she marries. The loss of her first fiancée selected for her didn’t prepare her for who her next fiancée would be: Teague O’Malley. Callie appears to be going from one bad arrangement to another until she realizes she really likes Teague… a man from another opposing mob family. Meanwhile, Teague despises being associated with the O’Malley empire. It’s why he was irritated about being married off as part of a business arrangement. At least that’s how he felt before he met Callie and discovered that she made him feel things he didn’t know existed. Too bad he’s determined to solve a mystery that might prevent a war, which just happens to be Callie’s explosive secret.
I’ve been reading and enjoying the Dark Olympus series, so I decided to start checking out Katee’s other books! We follow Callie and Teague through their rotating perspectives, but we periodically read from the perspective of characters other than them. I actually liked seeing things from the view of supporting characters despite the story mainly following Callie and Teague. I also think it makes things a little more interesting because I know some of these characters will eventually have their own book. It was a nice glimpse into what their books may look like.
As far as the story goes, I thought it was pretty good. Much of the book is about Callie and Teague and their respective family woes. Both come from major families in the mob world and wish to escape that life. For Callie, that dream moved further from reality than ever when her older brother died. As the sole living Sheridan heir, she’s next in line and hopes to completely move the family out of the business when her time comes. Meanwhile, Teague has always dreamt of taking his brothers and sisters and getting the hell out of town. Now that he’s due to marry an heiress, his own dreams have flown right out the window, but it doesn’t matter since he’s more than hot for Callie.
This book sets up the tone for the rest of the series as the Sheridan and O’Malley families prepare to go to war with the Hallorans. Since Brendan Halloran was originally due to marry Callie, the fact that she’s been set to marry someone new so fast is a slap in the face. However, Brendan’s awful reputation precedes him, and anyone who knew of the engagement before its announcement agrees that Callie dodged a bullet. Now the Sheridans and O’Malley’s have to make the appearance of an alliance become reality, which is something that Calle and Teague hope to prevent the war from starting to save countless lives. As I get further and further into the series, it’ll be interesting to see how far things go and how much the Sheridans and O’Malleys are able to form a united front and continue to interact from book to book.
As far as the romance goes, I found it believable that Callie and Teague really fell for each other. I think they’re a good match, but I was initially put off by how Teague was on the possessive side, but I felt better about the two of them when the possessiveness faded over time after she put her foot down. I don’t think their romance was sizzling, but I think that was partially caused by me being taken out of the story every time Teague referred to her as Angel. That just really bugged me because he started calling Callie that right away, so I kept getting taken out of the story every single time he said it. That said, I really do think they’re a good match and find how drawn they are to each other to be very believable.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. I do think that there are some things that don’t make sense, like how Callie makes some decisions without an ounce of common sense but expects her dad to take her capabilities more seriously at a faster rate. There’s also a plot running with Teague that makes me wonder how he truly expected his expectations to become reality for long given how realistic he generally is. Otherwise, I think it’s a great story and I’m really interested in checking out the following book in the series.
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