Review: Seducing Kaden

Seducing Kaden by Siobhan Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This series. This series is such an addiction, it’s almost untrue. Each additional book hooks me in deeper, leaving me desperate for more. If I could find a way to have all the future books sitting on my Kindle right now, I would forego all the necessities of life and binge read them. Forget eating, forget sleeping, forget sunshine, and everything else that is needed, I’d sit and consume these books as though they were oxygen and my body on the verge of asphyxiation, such is how desperately I need these books.

Seducing Kaden is the sixth book in the Kennedy Boys series, and the third book in the series to be considered a standalone novel. As with the two prior books, Loving Kalvin and Saving Brad, I do believe it works best if you have read the Kyler arc and continued through with all the books. The best experience comes from watching how all the characters have grown, comes from watching the relationships and secrets bloom, and this works best if you read all the books rather than simply diving into the books as standalones. Although each relationship arc has a start and an end point, with each being wonderful, the snippets you get to see of all the hidden secrets and hints throughout makes it well worth reading this series in order.

With all that being said, I know not everyone will read all of the prior books. The Kyler books in particular will not be for everyone, and some will jump straight to the standalone novels. The taboo element is what leaves some unwilling to read the Kyler arc, and Kaden’s story also contains a taboo element. Less so than the start of the series, but it is still something that is considered taboo. For those who enjoyed the taboo element of the Kyler book, I’m positive you will love the return to a somewhat taboo relationship.

This brings me to another point. The taboo element will leave some people unwilling to read, but I feel as though some people will need to be forewarned of some elements in this story that may leave them unwilling to read for other reasons. Namely, trigger warnings. Siobhan Davis has inched towards darker storylines with her last few books, and the same is true with Seducing Kaden. Without giving away the story, know there are incidents of abuse and cheating within this one – two things I know some want to avoid when reading romance. As I said, though, I do not wish to give away the storyline, I just wanted to give a warning.

For those still willing to dive in, who have not been scared off by the possibilities, I’ll now dive ever deeper into my feelings towards this one. For anyone who has read any of my prior Siobhan Davis reviews, you’ll know I’m about to tap out series fangirl word vomit. As ever, I apologise.

Since starting the Kennedy Boys series, the two oldest brothers have been my favourites. Kaden and Keven have been there in the background, yet there has been a bit of a question mark over them both. We have received small glimpses into their lives, we’ve got the odd detail here and there, yet we never received all the information. Being a lover of mysterious bad boys, it made the two of them my favourite brothers. Keven is my number one Kennedy, but Kaden is a close second – thus, you can imagine how excited I was for this story.

My excitement multiplied when I started to hear rumours of this being the darkest book Siobhan Davis has written to date. There were promises of things that suck me right in, things that leave me obsessed with books – the dark and gritty underworld of gangs. It’s one of my favourite things in romance, and I was excited to see Siobhan Davis including it, especially with one of my favourite characters. Enter even higher levels of excitement and further high expectations.

I will be completely honest and say it took me a couple of chapters before I was sucked into this one. At first, we go back and forth in time to get a full picture of the romance between the two characters. I wasn’t really feeling the relationship between the two of them at first, but as details continued to emerge I quickly found my mood changing. Once I was beyond the initial few chapters, I found myself sucked into the book. In the typical fashion of a Siobhan Davis novel, this became a story I could not put down.

Although Seducing Kaden was not quite as dark as I had hoped it would be – I would like to point out my notion of darkness is vastly different to what most people consider to be dark, whereby the books that reach a level of ‘oh yes, that is just dark enough for me’ tend to be books most people cannot finish due to them being too dark – it was a darker read than some of the books in the series. I would label Saving Brad as darker, but it was a different kind of darkness being dealt with in book five. With book six, this is the clear gritty kind of darkness; with book five, it was the emotional kind of darkness. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of emotion to be felt throughout this one, but the darkness was of a clearer kind – the atmospheric darkness rather than the darkness of personal issues as with the prior book.

Honestly, though, this is another insanely addictive read. You’re sucked deep into the story, with many layers unfolding as you work deeper into what is going on. There is plenty of emotion to suck you dry, there is plenty of romance to make you feel the heat, and there is plenty of action to keep your heart pumping. This is signature Kennedy Boys, demonstrating why I am so addicted to this series and will dive into each new book the moment it appears on my Kindle – with each new book Siobhan Davis brings something new, while keeping the signature elements that make these books so addictive.

In fact, Siobhan Davis is doing exactly what is needed to ensure fans keep coming back for more. At present my reading addiction is J. Kenner’s Man of the Month series. Don’t worry, I’m not about to go off base and rant about another series – I just with to make a quick parallel. The Man of the Month series is a collection of interconnected novellas with each story dealing with a different romance trope. Having a different type of storyline for each couple when reading romance books make series insanely addictive, and fewer authors do this than you realise. The Man of the Month series makes it obvious what you’re going to be getting, that you’re going to be getting something different every time. Siobhan Davis does the exact same thing, yet it is subtle – for the Man of the Month series it is part of the advertising, yet with the Kennedy Boys series it is happening naturally and with such wonderful flow (not to mention, these are full length novels of addiction rather than novellas). There is no pomp about it, it’s just happening – and this is why I will keep coming back for more. I know I will receive consistently wonderful books, and each will bring me something different.

Not to mention, the snippets at the end of each book leave you desperate for the next story, giving you enough to whet your appetite of what is to come in the next story. As I’ve already mentioned, Keven is my number one Kennedy. There is no analogy I can think of that covers how quickly I plan to jump on the book. It has always been this way, from the moment his character was introduced. However, the feeling has been intensified even more by what happened in this book. There were plenty of nods towards Keven’s story throughout this one, plenty that leaves you curious, yet it is the ending that hits the hardest. Hot damn and many profanities – I need that book and I need it now. There is so much promise, an insane amount of possibilities, and I cannot wait to dive in.

Therefore, I ask you to excuse me as I disappear into a ball of feelings as I await the next book – and then be prepared for insanity once I start reading it. It’ll be a good one, I know it.

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