Oleander

Caspen Devero was poison. Slow, beautiful poison, to which I gradually became addicted.

It took me years to understand: he was not born this way. He was nurtured — by someone’s caring hand and someone’s hardened heart.

Back then he was just a beautiful bud — not yet unfolded in all its dazzling beauty, but already mortally dangerous. The one that I should have uprooted before it blossomed.

I hated him. I loved him. And until him, I did not know that these two feelings could coexist so closely and indivisibly within me.

Beautiful things can also be poisonous. And sometimes that’s precisely why it’s impossible to break away from them.

“Oleander” by Scarlett Drake is a dark, sensual, and psychologically intense story about love that is nothing like the safe feeling found in romantic books.

At the center of the novel is Caspen Devero. Handsome, alluring, and dangerous. A man you want to understand, save… and stay as far away from as possible. But the closer you allow him to get, the harder it is to determine where love ends and obsession begins. This story is not about healthy and proper relationships.

Rather the opposite. Here, love coexists with hate, desire — with fear, tenderness — with cruelty. And it is this contradiction that creates that very feeling: “I understand that all of this is bad… but I need to know what happens next.”

The main question after the first few pages sounds something like this: 

If you already know that the flower is poisonous, but still reach for it — who do you blame when it is too late?

It is a great joy to present this book to you, because it truly deserves attention!

More about the book and reader reviews — Goodreads