So, I read the occasional dark romance, but being very particular with my pet peeves of the genre, I'm very, very picky. This book, though, absolutely delivered.

Right off the bat, it is thorough with content warnings. There's always discourse on CWs, but I personally am in support of them, especially when it comes to dark romance, which can include some intense and heavy themes. With the book dedicated to those who use the trigger list almost like a menu for fantasies, it truly owns its own TWs and sets the tone from the start. Absolutely loved this.

We get a few different viewpoints, but most of the time we spend inside Scarlett's (horny) head. We get train-of-thought and descriptions of her struggle to get satisfactorily laid.
The language is distinct, using vocabulary and vibes that fit the character whose viewpoint we are in at any given moment.
The story takes place over a few months in Autumn and Winter. I was reading this at the perfect time over the Winter Holidays and, well, let's just say it was a different holiday read than your usual cosy christmas books lol... No complaints there.

We proceed at a break-neck pace, which works for the story. Talking of pace, my one critique would be how sometimes I didn't even realise we've moved from one scene to the next. We could be in Scarlett's thought process, and then, without realising, the scene has changed to Scarlett describing what is actually happening next, in a different place. It got a little confusing a couple of times. It's something I also do a lot in my own writing, since as I'm picturing the scenes unfold in my head, the cut-off and start of a new scene is so obvious (to me), I fail to check if it is obvious enough for the reader who doesn't have the benefit of my in-brain slideshow to differentiate between scenes. This was nothing but a minor confusion (that could be just me being ADHD and not noticing/forgetting/not paying attention) so hardly anything to complain about.

I want to point out some highlights that stood out for me:

One of my pet peeves is when a main character needs to get a sudden case of stupid for the plot to advance, as in, the plot relies entirely on the MC to be completely void of rational thinking. It's an annoyingly common thing to see across narrative entertainment and it demeans the consumers and it weakens the characters. It's also a cheap way to create suspense, since it really isn't that, or wouldn't be that, if the MC just had a normal ability to think and form simplest deductions from observations.
I love that Scarlett is suspicious, anxious, goes over options, ponders reasons for the things that are happening to her. It's SO refreshing to have an MC who is actually believable and doesn't get deus ex stupido.
Sure, she gets into situations where you want to yell, "Girl, what the F are you doing, the D can't be THAT good!!" But, alas, it is a dark romance after all and recklessly getting into... questionable situations is kinda the point lol.

The language flows. The descriptions are so rich and fill the senses. I could hear the buzzing of the tattoo machine and smell the ink when scenes were in Scarlett's parlour.
The impressive vocabulary truly shines in the smut. SO many different ways to describe... things.. and Stipple made sure to use the breadth of her massive vocabulary to get it right. There's a lot of smut, and a lot of it is deliciously kinky. The characters also all have distinct voices, so it's easy to keep up with what everyone is doing in their naughty spaghetti pile.

To add to the wordyness, the book is also just laugh-out-loud funny. At least the first half, later on in the book the mood takes a turn as we proceed with plot points taking us to the preparation of the anguishing cliff-hanger leading to the sequel. I've heard it's already done, requiring just editing (there's nothing "only" about editing, though). Thank FUCK. I can't wait to read it.