Will continues to be a shit and I love him for it. But Will has a tendency to get under his skin and he finds himself being vulnerable, with someone other than Phoebe, for the first time in a long time. Kim is so good at presenting a facade to the world to hide his inner shame - his Bolshevik past, his brother’s death - and he can’t stop himself from lying at every turn because it’s how he’s managed to survive for so long. If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you might have noticed my favourite characters are the morally-grey-will-totally-stab-you-if-need-be-but-secretly-just-wants-to-be-hugged characters, and that’s Kim to a T. I think Kim Secretan is now my favourite love interest from all romance novels I’ve read. Will and Kim begin to work together to unravel the complicated connections between a cutthroat nightclub owner, an ex-soldier and his sweetheart, a group of aristocratic anarchists, and a box of chocolates. Will has a knack for getting himself into trouble, which happens when he takes Maisie out to a nightclub and senses something criminal going on there it’s not long until Kim walks back into Will’s life as he too suspects that not all is at it seems at this club.

While the plot in Slippery Creatures takes a bit of time to fully develop as we’re introduced to a fresh cast of new characters, The Sugared Game takes off right at the first page - literally. But then suddenly Kim is back in his life, talking about blackmailers and a nefarious anarchist group that hasn’t quite forgotten about either of them, and Will once again finds himself drawn into the shadowy, unlawful world of criminals and state secrets Kim is so good at playing in. Will is bored: he sells books all day and spends time with his best friend Maisie and his new friend Phoebe, but hasn’t seen or heard from Kim, his sort-of lover, in over a month. The Sugared Game picks up a couple of months after the conclusion of Slippery Creatures. Luckily, her second novel in The Will Darling Adventures, The Sugared Game, is a lot more exciting and impressive than a grocery list - but I want you to know that I’d still read it if she told me to. I think at this point I’ve made it pretty obvious that I’d read anything KJ Charles puts down in front of me.

Slippery creatures kj charles