After seeing so much hype over Quicksilver, I wanted to try something else by the same author because I knew it’d be some time before I could give that book a go. That said, I picked up Deviant by Callie Hart and it was just not for me. I love dark romance. I’m pretty good with a lot. But this just didn’t do it for me.
FMC Sloane wants to find her missing sister and shows up at a random apartment to have sex with a stranger for information. That’s the base premise. She is so messed up over this she has to take pills to make herself go through with it. In walks MMC Zeth who makes her go through the deal, despite knowing why she’s there, why she’s doing what she’s doing. This rubbed me the extremely wrong way for multiple reasons. She’s a virgin who has zero experience in sex or romance, has to be high to go through with this, but when Zeth starts, she suddenly is into it to the point that he doesn’t realize she’s inexperienced? She thinks about this experience for years after it has happened? Zeth has slept with countless women, but isn’t able to pick up that anything is wrong? And doesn’t feel bad about having coerced sex with her because she got off? I’m a fan of CNC/dubcon but that’s not what this felt like at all. Maybe if she wasn’t a virgin. Maybe if we didn’t start the story with her freaking out beforehand and trying to talk herself into it. Maybe if he could tell what was happening and asked if she was sure. Maybe if she got what she actually came for. Maybe any of those things, and I would’ve been okay with it. But, instead, she holds up her end of the bargain and gets nothing and that’s what bothered me the most. She earned the information and help, and got nothing.
After that rocky beginning, I could already tell this book would not be for me. The rest of the story just rolled on and felt so paper thin. They meet again. He kinda coerces her into having sex again, but this time she goes into it with something eager to prove. They’re suddenly in love. He lives a dangerous life and she accepts this. And that’s everything? We get no personality from either Sloane or Zeth. We get no plot other than oh hey human trafficking is bad and we should get on stopping them I guess. There’s no romance or build-up. There are two lackluster sex scenes along with a random orgy. And that’s everything.
Deviant by Callie Hart is going to be a hard no for me. I think if you just want certain tropes and sex without plot, you’ll like this. If you were expecting something meaty to sink into, a plot with romance and hot sex, or characters that are well rounded and developed, you might want to look elsewhere. While I understand this book is under 200 pages long, I still hoped we get something I could hold onto that would make me want to continue the six book series. I was sadly disappointed.
