"Kitten," he said, "monsters can't love." 
 By the time I reached the halfway point of this book, I was ready to slap a big fat 1 star rating on this review and write a vengeful spiel. Yes, that's right. 1 star. I was seeing red. I was RAGING with fury. 
 So, you ask, "why now the 4 star rating?" Well, let's see... 
 It felt wrong to fantasize about such things - but Caleb didn't care. Fantasies were all he could have and no one could take them from him. 
 This book would have been complete shit without Caleb's point of view. If we had only seen Caleb through Livvie's eyes, we would have never fully understood him. 
 Caleb could feel Livvie's tears as they slid down her face. It was as close to crying as Caleb could get and for a moment he imagined they were his tears. They were his confessions. They said all the things he couldn't...because he was a coward. 
 The only way this book was going to work meant that Caleb's bad side had to continue to show on the outside while he was struggling internally with the idea of how to let down his guard. If he had gone soft too soon, or if he had gone completely soft, every single part of this book would have become a farce. I am thankful that neither of the former things happened. Caleb was never romanticized. This is a crucial element of a taboo read. The second the story becomes romanticized, the credibility is gone. We as the reader can feel emotion, sympathy, even fondness for these characters, but we need to be kept in the cold, hard truth that THIS situation is NOT good. That THESE people are SCREWED up. As long as we continue to see things for what they are, then we can allow ourselves to be swept away in the lives and emotions of our characters. 
 This story was just as much of a thrill ride as it was a mind screw. I was entertained. I was angered. I was scared. I was hesitant. I even found some grain of contentment when it was all said and done. 
 Yes, there was a scene before the halfway point which had me angrier at any book scene (and I can easily recall at least 3 books which have had a similar sort of betrayal scene that did not anger me even half as much as this one did) than I'd ever been. So much so, that I was this close to quitting out on the read. Even now, I'm still pissy when I think about what went down. 
 But at least I got some satisfaction in this: 
 "I guess you do want revenge," Ruthless me whispered. 
 You bet your sweet ass, I do. 
 I'm grateful that this author was able to turn things around for me. I didn't have much faith, to be honest. In the end, the story was quite the entertaining journey. The Dark Duet may not be an easy read, but it's definitely an interesting one. I hope to read more from C.J. Roberts in the future. 
 Not to be too much of a fly in the ointment but... 
 There were a few minor complaints : 
 1. This book needed more editing. Aside from the obvious swapping of you're and your, as well as a few typos, there were several instances where sentences probably should have been rearranged for easier readability. Given that I'm a huge comma abuser (I stick them everywhere in a haphazard fashion), I won't try to argue where the commas should go, but even I had a few moments of wondering if there was a better way to get a point across other than slapping in a bunch of commas to break up sentences : 
 "So, according to Caleb and Muhammad Rafiq, Demitri Balk, also referred to as, Vladek Rostrovich, is supposed to be there? 
 or another example... 
 "Will, Rafiq, be there?" 
 2. There were too many "styles" of writing going on : There were past scenes and there were present scenes - sometimes switching when you didn't know it was going to happen. The first couple of chapters took some getting used to. Aside from the regular past and present scenes, there were also memories, dreams and flashbacks in italics. As well, there were also first person points of view mixed with third person points of view. If just a couple of methods had been used instead of all of the above, the read would have felt more cohesive than it did. 
 End note... This part's my fault. Even though I warn against romanticizing this story, I can't help but imagine Paul Walker as Caleb ever since someone else brought him up as a casting choice. And hot damn, it's a strange war in my head not to drool over the rapist, slave-holding asshole when he's this hot. Apparently, I'm warped...