It took me a bit to pick up There Is No Devil by Sophie Lark after finishing There Are No Saints months earlier. I think it might be the pretentiousness of it all. I wasn’t ready to dive back into hipster artists being weird together. That said, this conclusion to the Sinners duet really pays off. The spice continues to heat up and we get a bit of backstory with a very satisfying conclusion.
Please note, there are obvious spoilers for book 1 in the duet.
Mara moves in with Cole and is blown away by the luxury and wealth. Cole continues to be absolutely blown away by the fact that he is in love with a poor. I mean, it sounds ridiculous but it’s true. He lavishes her and brings her up to his status level, going on shopping sprees, getting her to stop her bad habit of nail biting, teaching her to drive a car. Oh yeah, and Alistair is still after them because of course the cops don’t believe that an acclaimed artist in a serial killer. That’s the superficial storyline. Very contemporary. Very mainstream.
But let’s look at what is actually happening. We get Mara and Cole’s backstory. Cole is attracted to Mara because he can recognize the trauma of a bad childhood in her because it’s the exact weight that has forced his hand all these years. Neither believe they are worthy of capable of love. Mara because her mother abused and neglected her. Cole because he was told by the adults around him just how evil he was. Seeing their backgrounds really helped color the narrative and make it deeper than murdering art hipsters in love. I almost wish we’d’ve gotten more of it in the first book so that this book could focus more on the build-up and tension building that leads to the confrontation with Alistair.
That’s one of the pitfalls. We’re learning about their stories, but it leeches the tension out of the narrative. Things build but then we get a memory of some tragic past. It’s such uneven pacing that only the incredible spice we get is what bridges the gap between tension points. The ending, however, when Alistair is finally confronted, it really truly was satisfying to read. It was well done and well deserved. But, it’s the very final scene, the very final confrontation between Mara and [not going to spoil it] that ties that perfect bow on this duet.
If you’ve read There Are No Saints, and liked it but weren’t sure if you should pick up the conclusion, I definitely think There Is No Devil by Sophie Lark ramps things up and really delivers on being a dark romance. Despite uneven pacing, the emotional connections between Mara and Cole, well written smut, and well earned ending more than makes up for it.
