Leigh RiversDark Romance · Romance
Little Stranger
Synopsis
Malachi Vize spent years in prison for a crime his foster sister Olivia set him up for, and the whole time, his obsession with her only deepened. Free at last, he returns for revenge, determined to own every part of her: her mind, her body, her soul, her fear, her pain.
On Halloween night, he stops lurking in the shadows and comes to claim the one thing he has left to take: her heart, whether she wants to give it or not. The first book in The Web of Silence Duet.
How it reads
Prose complexity 7/10
Content warnings (6)
AbuseViolenceGraphic ViolenceSexual ContentSexual AssaultTorture
- ❗TRIGGER WARNINGS AND SPOILER ALERT ❗ Plot : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Story :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spice :🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Rating :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tropes : sibling (they both are foster siblings), forbidden romance, dark romance, intense and too dark ☠️ but 🥹 (only for some people) please check the trigger warnings of the book. Pacing : medium. Characters : i) Olivia — I read few reviews of people saying that olivia didn’t deserve Malachi, and they didn’t like Olivia that much. I get it, but I liked her, and didn’t find her annoying. I liked how she tries to bring some sense to herself and Malachi but fails to do so, she fights against herself but then falls for Malachi. ii) Malachi : 🫣🫣🫣👀👀👀😏😭😯😵💫🥹🥹🥹🥹 my reactions to reading his pov in the book. Deep…deep breaths, because this man is so obsessed, possessive with her from the start. How only felt comfortable with Olivia, and his obsession is maddest level. 🤌🏼 Malachi even tries to kill their dad for interrupting his meal, as he quotes. 🫣 In the initial years of me venturing into dark romance territory, when I didn’t know anything about this genre, I hated this book, so after opening it, and considering it a horrifying, i closed it, and threw it where i picked it up from. But then, as i slowly for comfortable reading dark romance, the moment I started reading the book, i knew this book would be my favorite! And Malachi is my new favorite mute psycho. The spider? 💗 The kidnapping and not allowing Olivia to leave until he has had his revenge for her testifying against him. He stalks her, drugs her, and tidies her apartment and gets slightly anxious if he placed the rug in it’s place and then smirks knowing Olivia probably won’t notice. He also pleads to olivia on his knees to choose him, learns how to say her name multiple times, and keeps trying even though he finds the name annoying for the four syllables, but tries anyway. He also loves spikey, and furry a lot, they are his precious pets. [Mine too, I love spiders from now on, maybe terrified but still gonna love them 😤😯😵💫🫣] (Including Olivia herself) He tracks Olivia movements, takes care of her after well…destroying her. I loved Malachi, and didn’t know I could love him more than i already do. And that one scene of cigarette burn right there for a split second? Who knew Malachi could unlock hidden … let’s not go there. What I loved : leigh rivers’s writing is top tier. She writes so well, i loved the flow of the story, the plot, i kept flipping pages, wanting and needing more. What I struggled with : nothing. This book was so good, it exceeded five stars for me. Loveable characters or not : Malachi and Olivia were both loveable to me. Strong character development : yes. Plot driven / character driven : plot driven? 1000%, and character driven, this book was a delicious mix of both. Favorite quotes/ highlights : “Malachi has… issues. As well as all the trauma from his life before coming here that triggered his mutism, he isn’t mentally normal. Have you ever heard of ASPD?” “It’s still fresh—I went with him to get it done a few days ago and read a book for nearly six hours while he kept his eyes on me. I asked if it hurt, but he shook his head.” — “He points to the torch. I can’t f•••••• talk to you if you can’t see me.” “He’s waiting for instructions, the clueless look in his eyes making me giddy—Malachi Vize, innocent only for me, on his knees for his sister, looking like I own him.” “I shove at his chest again and again and again, until he snatches my wrists and pushes me into the wall. His mouth opens, as if he’s trying to say something, his lips shaping, no sound coming from them until he’s whispering, “Ol… Ol… N-N…” I shake my head and duck under his arm, grabbing the door handle. “Go,” I say sternly. “Just… just go, Malachi. There’s nothing to resolve here.” — “Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. F•••••• sorry. That damn word echoes in my psyche—a curse that won’t f••• off. Sorry’s just a word to try to get out of something, to dodge trouble if you’ve been caught out. Sorry’s a five-letter disgrace that shouldn’t even need to be used. It should be abolished from the f•••••• dictionary. Actions do speak louder than words, and if she’s as sorry as than words, than she makes out in her voicemails, then why does she sometimes look happy? Why is she going out partying with her friends? Kissing guys who—shockingly—vanish days later?” — “For those eight years, I didn’t communicate with a single soul. I’ve kept my voice to myself, where no one else can take it, since I was five years old. The one time I tried to use it, I struggled to pronounce her name, and Olivia yelled at me that I was a liar, that she hated me, that we were done, and slapped me across the face before I could get her name past my lips. I’ve been stuck in my own purgatory since I was born—the different one, the black sheep, the f•••••• mute weirdo who has an intense fascination with his little sister.” — “He interrupted my meal—maybe now he’ll know better than to take away my food, the f•••••• asshole.” — “It’s a pity I can’t protect her from myself. Her betrayal isn’t something I can shrug off like everything else. Her f•••••• people while I was locked away, having relationships, being happy, was unacceptable, but I let it all slide after squashing each element. But earning my forgiveness won’t be easy—I’ll have the whore begging on her knees for me to forgive her for all her f•••••• sins against me.” “The first year of my imprisonment, I thought Olivia’s silence was because she was pregnant—that I’d got her pregnant from that one time, and I even started asking her in letters if the kid was mine, tricking myself into believing I had a kid out there that was taking all of her attention from me.” — “I won’t talk. I can barely string a sentence together, even when I was training my voice box in my cell to produce four syllables without pausing. Pathetic, in all honesty. Wanting to say Olivia’s name and struggling to do so made me drive my fist into too many walls.” — “I know how to f•••••• talk. I do. But I just… can’t without making a fool of myself. I stutter, and my tone is all over the place.” — “Firstly, I didn’t cheat. And secondly, we weren’t in a relationship either. I was her secret little f••••••; someone she could teach what she loved.” — “Words like “missing you” and “I didn’t think it was possible to be without you, and now there’s a huge wall between us” and “will you visit me? I’m sorry for yelling at court” and my least favorite, a very dark time for me, “I’m not comfortable around these people. They call me a weirdo like the kids at school did because I won’t talk. Please don’t leave me in here,” yet she didn’t reply, even when my letters grew more desperate. No reply. Not to this letter, or the one after, or the fifty-odd after that.” — “I even begged her in some of these letters, demanding to know why she hadn’t come to see me, if I’d done something wrong. I was in a state of confusion for so long, wondering—no, calculating—what error I’d made in the last few years.” — “I even told her, in a very messy letter—one of my last—that I had no idea how to control the way I felt about her, and that if I had got her pregnant, I’d step up even though I had no idea how to be a good father, that if she’d visit with my son or daughter, let me see them, I’d do better.” — “My bones are shaking—I think I might pass out as soon as she vanishes into the building. Being so close to her like this, with her bright eyes and mesmerizing smile, kinda knocks me off my f•••••-up axis. I almost want to abort my revenge-fueled mission and tell her I forgive her, that we can be together now that I’m no longer seen as part of the Vize family—yet I still hold the surname on all my documents and bank accounts.” — “I stare at the letters, tracing my finger over them. “O-liv-a,” I say, shaking my head. “O-lay-ve-a.” “I know how to say her name, but when I try to sound out the letters, my tone shifts, and I f••• it up.” “What if I shortened it? She thinks my name is Kai. My real name is Malachi, by the way, not Kai, but she thinks that. What if I called her Liv?” “I sit up straight and puff my chest and try to say it all as one word. “Ol-i-vara.” “You w-were my first. I pr-promise. My… first and… my only.” “Y-You don’t lo-love me?” I stutter the words, but I don’t f•••••• care. She’s a liar. She’s lying, and I refuse to f•••••• take it.” “I shut off the voicemail, and step forward, my body shaking with rage. “It was r-r-real. All o-of it was r-real. Everyth-thing was real. You mean th-the world t-t-to me. But you won’t s-s-say it back, w-will you?” “I am sorry,” I say, f•••••• up the enunciation but who the f••• cares? “The spider. The knife. The cameras. All o-o-of it. I’m sorry.” I close my eyes and blow out a breath. “I need you, Ol—” I stop, my heart racing so fast, I think it might stop.” “I stay against the wall, my hands behind me, and try to think of everything possible to make her stay. Willingly. I want Olivia to choose me.” “Please choose me. Nobody ever chooses me.” “Something weird is happening to me. My chest is sore, and my eyes feel immense pressure, and they’re… wet. I think I might be crying for the first time in my life.” “She opens the door, but I rush in front of her, blocking her exit as I drop to my knees and grab her hands. “Olivia,” I whisper clearly. “Please don’t leave me. Please stay with me.” “Her sadness is all over her face—she’s looking at me like I’m the one breaking her heart, her eyes following a tear as it slides down my cheek. “Please,” I beg. “Accept my v-version of love. Pl-ease. I love you, Ol-l-l—” “Olivia doesn’t tell me she loves me back, or that she’ll stay. She just gives me a warm smile and pulls her hand away before squeezing past me. I don’t turn around to watch her walk out of my life for good.” “Malachi, despite all his craziness, deserves better than me.” “Olivia was more important. I knew to wait. I knew that one day, even if we were in our f•••••• thirties, I’d bury my cock in my sister and make her moan my name so damn loud. I’d have the sound in my ears until the day I died. I’ve never been afraid of dying—it’s inevitable. But the thought of dying and leaving Olivia behind? Of leaving her with all the poisonous toxicity in the world? That terrifies me. She can’t trust anyone, especially not Mom. But she can trust me. She can always trust me.” “All I could do was hide under my bed with my pet spider, who never wanted to talk back to me. Every day and night, we would hide under my bed. He was my best friend. But he never ever spoke, so why would I? He was happy without using his voice. I could be happy as well. He was my comforter. My protector. If he could conceal his voice and be brave enough to hide under my bed and not cry, then I could too. It was the start of the new me. They wanted to hear me scream while they pushed the needle into my arm, so I didn’t. I was starved, thin, weak, but at least I had power over my speech. They wouldn’t take that from me too, because I hid it somewhere only Olivia could find it.” “I kiss her—the only girl I’ve ever imagined giving my heart to. It might be a little black, a little jagged around the edges, and my mind might be a little wild, but she owns them. Olivia owns my mind, body, and soul. She did when we were kids, when we were teens, when we were giving in and letting go. Even when I had her chained up in the basement, she had a hold over me. I had it in my head that I wanted revenge on her—I now know I just wanted her back. And guess f•••••• what? I got her back. She chose me. Olivia actually chose me, and I intend to keep her.” Similar authors : i have never read a pitch black hero like Malachi before, leaving caden from beautiful fiend by Lola king, he’s deranged, but Malachi’s obsession exceeded my expectations, and some, so when I read more books, maybe there’ll recommendations? Any other details : olivia was kidnapped by Malachi and she was covered in cob webs, blood, come, that was something I liked? (Does loving Malachi become a crime? 😵💫🫣) I loved the book, the plot, I wanted to read more of Malachi, why is the book so short and only has two books????? 😤 My man deserves more. I really wonder how Malachi would feel knowing that he wanted to be chosen and loved, and there are so many people who love him. How would he feel, when he sees that he is loved not only by Olivia but us readers too? I really did not see any reason to hate Malachi. I read some reviews that meant that Malachi had gone through a lot as a kid resulting in his mutism, it really broke my heart, at one point, i cried for my Malachi, I love this man, someone please make him real, so I can love him better. 💗
- <div>It was… okay? I don’t know, I love a bit of messed up love 😉 but like, this felt rushed at some points. Honestly, if you haven’t read Psychotic Obsession or EOD, you may find this more enjoyable than I did but knowing what the rest of the series is like, this felt surface-level</div>
- 3.5