Book Review: Absolution by LP Lovell & Steve J Cole

Book Title: Absolution
Author: LP Lovell & Steve J Cole
Series: Standalone
Release Date: January 11th, 2016
Genres: Dark Romance, Suspense

***NOTE: This book is VERY dark. Please take that into account before reading. ***

Evie

All sins are equal in the eyes of God, but I'm not God. One sinner made me his sin, and I can't let men like him live. I want to kill them. Every. Last. One. Ezra James is no different. I was going to kill him, but then I found myself obsessed and possessed in the most reverent of ways. I became his sinner, and he became my sin, but the wages of sin is death, so I must kill him.

Ezra

The son of a whore, raised by criminals, molded to fit into a world without morals. I've never given a shit about anything until the night I watched a man drop dead at the feet of my little killer. She called to my depravity, and everything in me demanded that I take her, possess her, own her. Some monsters hide behind the faces of angels.

Damned. Broken. Irredeemable.

Through blood, absolution shall be found.

Absolution is one of those books I picked up out of blind faith more than anything. I'd never read any works from this author duo, but I must say between the blurb and the book cover, it attracted my inner dark-book whore attention. What I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt is these two characters are so beyond messed up, it's almost comical.

Evelyn is one religiously brainwashed heroine. From her early years, she's been taught that beauty is sin, sex is sin, men are sinners- especially those men searching out the carnal depraved things in life like SEX! It's her mission to rid the world of sin one John at a time...and her going undercover as a whore will be her easiest way to seeking that redemption.

Evie meets Ezra, renowned pimp and mafia capo while killing another sinner hooking up with one of his customers. She's working on his territory and Ezra doesn't take a liking to having to clean up her mess. And so their crazy relationship begins. Ezra doesn't f*ck whores but he will offer her a job in his whore house...He doesn't realize the level of her psychopathic nature- that he too is a sinner and sinners must be rid from this world.

Evie has "challenges" she must pass in order to be a whore for Ezra. She has to be broken so he can rebuild her into the whore he employs for his Johns. She can do it because he's just another Jihn to her. Except, damn, Evie can't kill Ezra. He's the one man that beats then f*cks the penance right out of her

I feel trapped in a never-ending cycle of sin and penance, and Ezra is both: my sin and my penance. And how is that even possible?

I must say I started with one giant WTF in my head with this book. How can a character be so religiously brainwashed yet a complete cold-blooded killer at the same time? Couple her with Ezra, a man that loves to break women, he's met his match...and she has met her's. He beats the ever-living sin out of her and she begs for more. This is where the hilarity comes into play. Evie is off her ever-living rocker. A woman who now is as attached to Ezra as he is her, she will slaughter some poor soul just to get some attention from him.

She's hot, but you know what they say, the hot girls are always crazy. Well, she fucking redefines that shit.

"Fucking shit!" I slam my hand on the roof. There, on the back seat, is a guy, eyes wide open and staring lifelessly at the ceiling. His head is at an odd angle, and his jaw is hanging open. She snapped his neck. What is she? Jackie-Fucking-Chan?

The hilarity of this couple and the authors' ability to take a book that's content is otherwise rather dark and make me laugh is sheer genius. Ezra had me in hysterics just trying to keep Evie safe but also clean up her messes. I kept having this internal voice saying "Clean up. Aisle 3!" The book is told in dual POV as well as italics where Evie's inner demonic voice lurks. Don't let the bookcover scare you, this is seriously more of a dark, f*cked-up, romantic comedy- no better term. Although some of the scenes seemed a bit repetitive, this was an all-around fun read for me and I look forward to lots more from this author duo.