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Branded

a spicy, dark Western romance

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Von: Saffron A. Kent
Gesprochen von: Heather Verdugo, Maxwell Hamilton
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Über diesen Titel

 A searing dark, western romance featuring a college student using a false identity to exchange spicy letters with a prison inmate, only to be hunted down when the convicted cowboy is released 🐎💌🔥

She's a shy college student who will bring him to his knees.
He's an ex-con cowboy hellbent on revenge.

It all began with letters. Every word he wrote etched itself into my mind, into my soul.

I had no choice but to fall for him. Was it really so bad that the letters were part of a pen-pal program . . . for prisoners? Or that they weren't addressed to me?

It's not as if we'd ever meet. It's not as if I'd ever get to look into Beau's eyes that yearn for the ranch he left behind. Or that I'd ever get to feel his work-roughened hands dominating my body just as he does my fevered dreams. What harm could there be?

Until one afternoon when I find myself standing in front of Beau - pretending to be someone I'm not. But the joke's on me because for all my pretences, his deception is much crueller . . . The hardened, dangerous, impossibly beautiful man is nothing like the man in the letters.

And it's too late for me to run.

What you need to know about this sizzling read:
🖤 Morally Grey Cowboy - a big ex-con with even bigger 'touch her and d*e' energy
🖤 Shy FMC - a sheltered, insecure college student with a traumatic childhood
🖤 Scorching Hot Spice - forced proximity, dark forest chase, bondage, only one horse
🖤 Extreme Plot Twists 👀
🖤 Favourite elements: swoon-worthy letters, hilarious banter, age gap, plus-size rep

Content Guidance:
The contents of this dark romance book may be triggering to some readers. It contains explicit sexual content and a morally gray hero. Please refer to the trigger warnings.©2025 Saffron A. Kent Literatur & Belletristik Western
Alle Sterne
Am relevantesten
The story and the cover hooked me from the start. I love dark cowboy romances with a hint of Yellowstone energy — morally gray cowboys, tension, red flags flapping in the wind. The plot is strong and the MMC delivers exactly the dark, intense energy I hoped for. But the FMC… genuinely ruined the experience for me.

The book starts off promising: (spoilers ahead)
The FMC was in a prison pen-pal program, writing to a felon for six months, then agreeing to meet him once he’s out on parole. When she discovers he isn’t who he pretended to be — and is actually someone she really shouldn’t get involved with — she somehow doesn’t run from him, but to him. Until he kidnaps her. Casual.

And during those kidnapping chapters she is constantly shocked:
Shocked he lied.
Shocked he kidnapped her.
Shocked about the horse tranquilizer (!!).
Shocked by every single one of his 57 obvious red flags tattooed on his forehead!

Like… girl. He was in prison for eight years and is literally your kidnapper. Why are we surprised??

Then there’s the dialogue. She repeats all his answers as stuttered questions — all. the. time. It’s impossible to ignore once you pick up on it. Pair that with her wildly chaotic inner monologue and it’s emotional whiplash:

“I hate him. So much.”
→ one page later →
“I love him. I loved him from the first letter.”

She punches him while saying “I don’t belong to you!”
…then immediately whispers “I belong to you!”

It was genuinely fudging confusing.

Her thoughts and the things she says to Arsen were often so immature that it was straight-up cringe. And unfortunately, her POV chapters dominate the book — which is rough, because Arsen’s chapters are the best part: intense, controlled, dark, genuinely compelling. I wish we got far more of him and far fewer of her.

🎬 Final Thoughts
The plot stayed strong.
The MMC remained intriguing and perfectly dark.
But the FMC was dreadful from beginning to end, and it dragged down my entire reading experience. I couldn’t connect with her at all. The stuttering, the frantic flip-flopping, the immaturity — it was too much. The book could've been much shorter and better if you cut out her constant repetitions.

Such a shame, because this story could have been amazing.

📊 Breakdown

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐
Spice: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Narration: ⭐⭐⭐ (did not enjoy Heather Verdugo's narration much, maybe because of the FMC character)!
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐ only for the MMC
Overall: ⭐⭐

A Dark Cowboy Romance… Ruined by the FMC!

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