There Are No Saints

Sinners Duet, Book 1

By: Sophie Lark

Narrated by: Lee Daniels, Jeffrey Holz

I loathe Alastor Shaw.

The city of San Francisco thinks we’re rival artists.

In truth, we’re predators battling for hunting ground.

We never chased the same prey. Until the night we both laid eyes on Mara Eldritch.

Shaw wants to use her as a pawn in his twisted game.

I’m fixated on her for a different reason.

She makes me feel things I never thought I could feel. Want things I never wanted.

Only she can make me lose control.

I don’t know if I should protect her at all costs…or destroy her before she ruins me.

Mara knows I’m no saint. But she has no idea she’s dancing with the devil….

The Lark Notes:
I have always been fascinated by true crime, as well as by villains and anti-heroes. A serial killer is, of course, the ultimate anti-hero—the baddest of the bad boys. Redeeming a character who starts so evil was a challenge that inspired me to entirely new heights and entirely new depths. Come on this darkly sensual and utterly brain-bending ride with me! — Sophie

There Are No Saints is the first audiobook in the Sinners Duet. Listeners be warned: this audiobook contains extremely dark themes that might be triggering to some. This is a steamy serial killer romance that will take you on a journey through the twisted mind of an artist on the brink of madness.

©2021 Sophie Lark (P)2022 Sophie Lark

Strong start, weak finish

The beginning of the book was really creepy and well developed. The ml was interesting and terrifying. The second half was just silly and over the top. It jumped the shark when they made the sociopath change because “oh she’s different”. Absolutely ridiculous. FL is an absolute open book that gets described as closed off and traumatised. Girl where. It could have been so good, but sadly nope. Narrators had lovely voices.

Good Start, But Devolved Into Repetitive Internal Monologue—action also fizzled out pretty quickly.

This story had a phenomenal start to a deliciously dark romance, but it devolved into to repetitive internal monologue. Characters thought about events in detail, repetitively. It even worsened into some pretty irritating purple prose. Sadly, the dark nature of the story was resolved pretty quickly, and the angst forgotten nearly as soon as it began. While others complain about cliff-hanger, I don’t mind them since if an author or series is good, I’ll continue it whether it’s a standalone or ends on a cliff-hanger. What I do have a problem with is when books are drown out into multiples without quality content. This story wasn’t all that eventful. I did pick up on similarities to shows like the television series Hannibal, but the artistic arrangement of victims is a common enough occurrence to still be interesting rather than generic. I’ve listened to several of Sophie Lark’s stories, and I know she car really write some quality descriptive stories with great dialogue and a good overall plot. However, she does tend to get a little lazy and resort to telling readers/listeners rather than illustrating for them. It’s frustrating because based on how good I thought the 2 books in her Grimstone (2024 release) series were, I know she’s a superb author, creative and talented. This story was pretty good, and I will continue to the second book in the series, but it could have been so much better with a bit more descriptive action and much less repetitive thinking on the parts of her main characters. Authors should remember that readers/listeners just experienced events in the book, thus, we don’t need a recap of those event in the form of a character’s reminiscence. It’s not necessary in order for the readers to relate to and understand well-written characters. There is a better, more creative way to introduce characters’ personalities to readers. If authors describe characters well enough and use descriptive writing, their emotions and thoughts will be intrinsically understood by readers/listeners. We will be familiar with them enough to understand subtle implications. That’s why I detest internal monologue and think it’s a lazy way out. There was way too much of that in this story: way too much unnecessary phrasing like, “I ran as fast as I could.” Well, obviously. Would any reader think that a person held out if he/she was running for his/her life? What about hitting as hard as he/she could when in a fight against a mortal enemy? Is it really a necessary description? No. It’s silly and unnecessarily verbose. The words serve no purpose save word count. I hate it most of all when a bad guy thinks about how bad he is as a way to get that across to the audience. It’s so juvenile and childish. It makes it difficult to take the baddie seriously. I don’t want to know his reasons and thoughts about what he’s doing right away—especially if not knowing helps me experience some delicious angst. Don’t redeem the morally dark character too soon. There’s a fine line between doing it too soon and drawing it out to the point of silliness. Allow readers to enjoy the delicious emotions, then reveal redeeming qualities slowly without giving silly reasons to continue the angst and separation. “I’m no good for her,” and overly-drawn out misunderstandings, miscommunications, or silly secrets are the worst. I’m even okay with morally dark men who simply have a change of heart without explaining away previous bad behaviors, but in this case, I think Mara overlooked Cole’s cruelty way too soon—and way too easily. It was a bit wasted actually. But, let’s see how it goes in the second book of the Sinners Duet. Narration is great, too. Jeffrey Holz is an excellent narrator, he struggles a little with the steamy talk, seeming a bit awkward, but only a little. Lee Daniels does a great job.

There Are No Saints

My favorite movie is Silence Of The Lambs. I love the strange tension and attraction between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter. So, a serial killer romance is right up my alley.

I really loved the concept of this story. It's dark and sexy and just a great time.

What a time

Sophie Lark is one of my favorite dark romance authors. This books was dark, spicy, and had a good plot. It was easily bingeable. I couldn't atop reading.

Such a great book!

I loved this book! Such a good read and the 🌶🌶 scenes were great!!! 10/10 recommend

Daaaayummm!

Such a dark, twisted, and steamy slow burn romance between an inspiring artist and her “stalker” who is a serial killer. Page gripping to say the least. I didn’t want this book to end. Onto the next one!!

Umm.. I don't know

I don't know how to feel about this book. I'm annoyed that it picked up at the very end, and now I have to listen to the second book to see how it plays out, but I'm not really interested to know.

I'm unsure if real dark romances have ruined me (nothing like Haunting Adeline), but this was very mild if it's considered a dark romance.

Cole is basically the guy from the show You, just stalking her, and I feel like nothing really happens throughout the book.

The spice is decent; I feel like there are more graphic scenes about second/third base type stuff, but it could have been more.

Loved this so hard

Such a good book, it's definitely got darker themes but I didn't feel triggered or overwhelmed by them at all and my childhood had similarities to Mara's. I loved the characters and how they grew as individuals in different ways the longer they spent time together.

Dark and Twisted? Yes, Please!

I was absolutely captivated by the story of Mara and Cole. It's a dark one, no doubt. Nonetheless, I love how their brokenness brought them together, despite an unconventional start 😅 Plot and spice were lovely!

Amazing

This combined both types of book that I love to read it was simply amazing from dark Romance to the darker side of serial killers loved this book