I must confess something. I stumbled upon this book when someone in one of my bookish Facebook groups mentioned a particular scene about an accidental O during a gynecological exam and I was... intrigued... I ignored my TBR, as I often do, and dove into this story.
Book title: Darling Venom
Author: Parker S. Huntington
Audio: Dual narration (and it's amazing)
Tropes:
- Enemies to lovers
- Forbidden love (best friend's brother)
- Lost love
- Love after loss
- Age gap romance
- Tension + spice
Spoiler Free Review:
I wasn't expecting Darling Venom by Parker S. Huntington to break me, tear me apart, and somehow heal me all in one story. That scene in the gyno's office? Honestly, it isn’t at all what this book is about, even though it gets all the attention. Dr. Marchetti was purely professional. Innocent Charlotte is inexperienced, a virgin, and has a crush on her dead best friend's brother who is now giving her her first gynecological exam. Totally normal. Is there good spice later? Yes. Yes, there is. But it is nowhere near what this book is about. And what this book is really about, beyond the tropes and the spice, is life itself, which makes Darling Venom one of the most emotional romance novels I’ve read.
The book starts with two kids wanting to jump off a roof to unalive themselves, then creating a pact to meet up every year on Valentine's Day (Charlotte's birthday) to check in. They agree to tell the other if they're going to break the pact. They keep these meetings and their pact for 3 years, until Kellan breaks it on the 4th year, their senior year. I adored reading about these roof meet-ups and watching their unlikely friendship bloom. Knowing what's coming is hard, but we don't get the full details of that day until later in the book, and it was perfection how those details were revealed.
The unfolding story of the aftermath of Kellan's death is so tragic yet beautiful. We witness what Kellan left behind and how his life affected Charlotte, his brother and his father. He teaches us how connected we all are, even if we don't always see or feel it. And how we can help each other heal if we allow it. Grief and moving on with life are hard things, but this book walks you through it masterfully. Even though you're going to get sucked in by the backstory with Kellan, this is really a love story about Charlotte (Charlie) and Tate and how Kellan's death brings them together.
A note about the audio narration... is was SO well done. I love a dual narration and the voice actors were perfection. It was amazing just how Charlotte would announce the chapters. In the early chapters as a young teenager, you could just hear the angst and eye roll in her voice! And she got less angsty as she got older and more mature.
SPOILERS AHEAD - read at your own risk.
The Characters:
Charlotte, aka Charlie aka Lottie aka Venom - our main FMC and Kellan's only friend
Charlie, as she's referred to for most of the book, thanks to Tate, has gone through some hard shit, to put it mildly. She made a stupid mistake at 13, which led to a house fire that caused her parents' deaths as well as disfigurement of her older sister. That is a lot to come to terms with, especially when your sister now blames and hates you, yet saved your life and is trying to raise you! No wonder she wanted to kill herself. I love that it was seeing Kellan want to jump that saved her life.
But she feels the guilt of not saving Kellan, for most of the book she struggles with this. The moment Charlie frees herself of her survivor's guilt is breathtaking. “I was a bookmark in the middle of a novel already written.” She wasn’t the author of Kellan's story. His path had already been written in his mind. She could only delay it, not prevent it. Like a bookmark, she was a temporary hold in his life, delaying the inevitable ending he’d already chosen.
Because she couldn’t save Kellan, Charlie throws herself into helping Tate and Terry through their grief, pushing them to face mistakes, accept loss, and keep living. It's a theme that makes Darling Venom such a powerful romance about grief and healing. And in saving them, she finds a way to save herself too. The banter and tension between her and Tate is especially electric.
The chef's kiss was Kellan leaving Charlie his manuscript named after her, and how that gave her life new purpose. I lived for those brief snippets and wanted more! Charlie decides to donate all the proceeds to the library, which is great, but I wish the author had thought to have her donate half to support suicidal teens. I feel like both would have a huge impact.
Kellan - the insanely talented emo writer who died way too young
I would have devoured an entire book on Charlotte and Kellan. He was such a tortured soul, though I have to wonder why he was so enamoured with his father if he stole his first and insanely popular book from him?! I wish the author had filled in those gaps for us. I wanted to understand how that all came about, though I definitely suspected Kellan was the author of The Imperfections before it was revealed at the end. But that would have made him how old when he wrote it?! A pre-teen?! Someone do that math for me. That's crazy, but I digress.
It was torture seeing all the details of Kellan's last day come out in small bits. The letter Leah didn't give Charlie. The voicemail Tate didn't listen to. TORTURE!!! But the kid knew what he wanted. Charlie may have extended his life a few years, but he knew this was his fate. What did we learn? That sometimes we can't save others. They have to choose to save themselves.
Tate - the hot doctor, Kellan's older half brother whom he lives with
Tate's character is so complex. He's a bit dead inside, not living life, just existing. He owns a bougie OB clinic for the uber rich. Is that a real thing? Probably. We meet him when Charlie goes to his office on Valentine's Day 4 years after Kellan's death to secure an appointment for her boss, only for her to discover the doctor is Kellan's brother and barge in to find him, well, occupied. But that stare! That scene! Though it made me sad realizing why he acts out on that one day. Guilt. Grief. Ok, he acts out all the time. He's an ass.
We learn there is so much more to Tate. He really is soft inside that harsh exterior, and it comes out more as he gets closer to Charlie. But boy does he make her work for it! And you really can't blame him. He's jaded. His dad was a deadbeat addict who forced him to raise his younger half brother, just when he was making a name for himself in his field. Of course he's going to be bitter and jaded and not see the warning signs in Kellan. It just takes him a really long time to come around. But Charlie is there pushing and challenging him.
Leah - Charlie's sister (Lottie)
She literally walked through fire to save her sister’s life. Scarred by that fire, losing her parents, her beauty (or so she believed), and her career. She carried bitterness that made her relationship with Charlie almost unbearable.
“More importantly—she was finally coming to terms with the cover she’d been dealt with in life and remembering what the most important part of the book was. The spine.”
That line wrecked me. Like, gut-wrenching sobs, wrecked me. This takes the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover" to a new level. It was powerful watching Leah accept her scars, rebuild her bond with Charlie, and step into her own strength—finally letting love back into her life.
Terry - Kellan and Tate's father
Oh Terry. His transformation should have felt forced, but it didn't. He was a bastard, a drunk, an addict for most of the book. He stole his own son's manuscript and accepted all the praise. No wonder he couldn't look at his own son. But seeing his healing through the new manuscript, with Charlie's help, was down right beautiful. I am proud of him.
In Conclusion...
This Darling Venom book review can’t capture every way the story broke my heart and mended it back together again. What a beautiful, heart-wrenching broken love story of a book. It is intense and hard to read at times, especially if you’ve lost a loved one, which, who hasn't? But Parker S. Huntington’s Darling Venom is also an excellent reminder to check in on your loved ones, to forgive them, to cherish their love. To live.
If you pick this one up, prepare tissues. And maybe prepare to see your own grief differently.