Sometimes, I lay in bed, listening to my own heartbeats thudding against the mattress and willing my heart to stop. This is a love story yes but it’s mostly a story about humanity. How far can we break before there’s nothing left to repair? How much anger can one heart encompass before it burns away into nothing but ash? How long can you live inside yourself before the loneliness eats you alive? This book is more of a 4.5 star read, but I’m giving it more because it’s put me in a reading/reviewing slump and I can’t remember the last time I was in one.

These two family drama storylines carried the whole book for me, and if it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't have finished the book. That night in a field of planets absent of stars, he granted my demands, kissing me until my lips bruised and the sun rose over the horizon” The second half of the book was quite unbearable for me. Tate and Charlotte, our lovely leads, were quite simply obnoxious. yes, i know i sound like a broken record but i did love each and every character in this book. tate was suffering. a young man himself when his good for nothing dead beat, alcoholic father dumped his teenage son on a fresh out of med school tate, so he could run off with his too-young gold-digging girlfriend. struggling with balancing his job and a rebellious brother who he struggled to connect with, kellan's death affected him so much, that tate never forgave himself.fast forward four years later and kellan’s death has brought together two broken souls - charlotte and tate. both are ridden with guilt and self loathing, over the death of their loved ones. I happen to think that the strongest foundation for a relationship ever is shared grief. *insert 'this is fine meme'* 🌚 this is an age gap (12 years) she’s 22 and he’s 34 - but he would constantly refer to her as a “kid” and he would go on and on ab why he shouldn’t and couldn’t be with her bc she’s way too young and y’know his dead brothers best friend - yet his inner thoughts was him going on about how horny he would get whenever he was around her, make it make sense pls

don't let these funny scenes let me take away from how good this book actually is. the characters were really well written and I even cared about the side characters lives to the point where I hope Charolette's sister and her love interest get their own book. I like how the grief was handled in this book on Tate’s side. There was so much regret and self hate that I rlly felt bad for him. So many miscommunication and missed opportunities between these brothers. Tate only wanted the best for Kellan and protect him from his dad, but showed it in the worse way and their relationship is the true tragedy of Darling Venom. in part 2 when charlotte became charlie we got to see a different side to her, gone was the suicidal girl instead, there was a girl who has learned to be happy in her own skin, yes she was still having problems with her sister but she never gave up on her. charlie is the definition of resilience, this girl fought for her sister's happiness, tate's happiness/their relationship, & for terry to find himself again. It’s true clownery that I was able to convince myself I would be able to write a review for this masterpiece. It’s hard to write a review for something that emotionally destroys you whilst making you fall in love with every character and every redemption arc. perfect timing, king. Served this bitch a humble piece of guilty pie. As you should. Penalty for anyone with a piece of humanity in their hearts.👏🏻Even tho Kellan was not the main character he carried this book for me. I loved reading the little snippets from Darling Venom😭 the way he actually didn't hate Tate and wrote about him made me cry AGAIN in the ending😭😭 Kept up the whole “I’m so jaded, we can’t be together” miserable thought. (No wonder he and Kellan were brothers) stars of course. i devoured this book. i planned on finishing it in one sitting, but when i realized i was sobbing at 6am, my plan changed. i went into this book blind, but i would definitely recommend looking up trigger warnings. From my previous readings, I knew that Huntington wrote dark subjects and it wasn’t surprising that this was a dark and heavy book as well. No spoilers, but please adhere to the trigger warnings.

Imagine my surprise when what I actually felt when Kellan finally jumped off that roof was a cold, cold fury.I was ready for a sliver of true sadness to enter my body only to be exorcised by a piece of juicy sandwich a few mins later ( there's not much of emotional trauma that a sandwich can't take care of). hated by her sister leah for a tragic event which caused a fire in their family home leading to the death of their parents, leaving leah with burns all over her face & body from saving charlotte, the guilt over being the cause of the accident has built up so much that she no longer wants to live. on her 14th birthday (valentines day) she decides to end it all but instead, she meets stops a boy from jumping off the same rooftop that she chose for her suicide.

the proposal scene?? ain’t no way he proposed in the same spot his brother killed himself.. how tf is that making a beautiful memory? that’s just disgustingwith that, I want to give a big props to the author for the beautiful note at the beginning of the book