Black Sheep

Dark Desires, Book #2

By Zara Cox

ISBN13: 9781478970224

Author’s Website:


Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar


In a family of cold-hearted black sheep,

I, Axel Rutherford, am the blackest.






Alex Rutherford grew up in Hell, his father has always hated him, it was encouraged brother rivality that turned worse by the passing years, he was beaten constantly, and most of all, he was betrayed by the love of his life before force to enlist. All of this, cause him to become hard and hostile to the world, while doing everything possible to bring down the decaying mob imperial of his father. Most of all, he wants revenge against the person who betray him the most, Cleo McCarthy. For Cleo McCarthy, her life for the past decade has been Hell since her parents died and she became the ward of Finnan Rutherford, Alex’s father. She lives her life in fear of stepping out of the line and seeing someone she cares been kill. Now, Finnan wants Alex to come home, but when Alex doesn’t want anything to do with his family again, Finnan sends Cleo to get under Alex’s skin.

As Alex and Cleo meet again, the passion they felt for one another returns, but each one has a secret that keeps other one away, and won’t let them truly be together.

While at first sight it doesn’t appear so, Black Sheep is a romance story at its core. Even though Alex hates Cleo, you could see when reading that he still loves her and couldn’t let go of what he felt when they were younger.  For Cleo it was different, while you can read the sexual tension, I wasn’t sure if she really loved Alex until the end, she might have want him, but I was not sure if she continues to love him.

The storyline was okay. It had plotlines that were interesting and some parts that I want to know more who they would be resolve, but at the same time there where parts were the storyline got bored. I feel that some scenes were rush and could had been layout better, while others took longer than I expected. I was hoping for a more powerful or impacting end to their problem, but it was quite plain.

As the book advertises, Black Sheep does contain erotic scenes such as this type of genre has. Given that the main characters are half of the time plotting against each other, these scenes more like angry sex than romantic. Their constant need for each other and the idea of punishing the other, makes it harder for them to understand what they truly feel for one another. While the story mentions aspect of BDSM, their actual sexual scenes doesn’t have much use of it, the BDSM is more for the punishment of their sins.

At the end, Black Sheep was an okay story, it’s an easy storyline to follow and predictable that you learn from the beginning about the only thing that keeps Alex and Cleo apart; it all comes down to the trust that they had on each other.

If you are interested in the work of Zara Cox or her series Dark Desires, then I recommend Black Sheep. In this story, two lovers meet again after years of distrust and hatred for one another, and learn the truth of what keep them apart for so many years, and some sins need more than one person to carry them.

