The Losers Duet by Harley Laroux

My second and forth books for this year were the Losers Duet by Harley Laroux, who’s probably one of my favorite authors in the Dark Romance genre and the person who started my love for demon romances (looking at you, Leon).

The Losers Duet, however, was a completely different vibe than Her Soul to Take, starting with the fact that there is no paranormal activity and ending with the fact that it was a polyamorous romance. 

Normally, I might give a brief summary of this book, but considering I’m doing both of these books in one, I think I’m going to pass on that as I’d be summarizing the series instead and, if I’m gonna be completely honest with you, I just don’t want to.

Review

Characters

All five characters in this book were well thought out, consistent with themselves, and well written, and each has their own difficulties they’re struggling with and are at different stages in managing those struggles.

Manson, for example, grew up in a household with an abusive father, and his biggest fear is that he’s going to lose his control on himself and become just like Reagan Reed. While he’s been in therapy (and hasn’t gone back in a while), Manson still struggles allowing himself to feel angry just in case it takes control of him.

If Manson’s anger is kept on a leash, Lucas’ is encouraged to roam free. Lucas also grew up in an abusive household, but he went the exact opposite direction Manson did when it came to anger, instead being someone prone to outbursts and aggression - a fact which is used several times in this duet.

Then we have Jason, who was raised in a highly conservative household and is probably the most relatable character to me. After he came out as queer to his family in high school and refused to break up with his boyfriend, Jason’s parents kicked him out, and he hasn’t had any sort of context since. While his POVs don’t talk too much about the effect that had on him, we get a couple scenes that either imply or flat out state that Jason still has the religious guilt he was trained on.

Vincent, the last of the four men in this romance, had a much happier upbringing, with welcoming and loving parents who encouraged him to share his love freely. He’s also the oldest of four, and with his family not being super wealthy, he did whatever he could to make some extra money and help around the house.

Jessica, the FMC in this book, grew up wealthy and privileged. In high school, she was the head cheerleader and dating the captain of the football team, and she was everything that came with that cliche: stuck up, bitchy, and a bully. During the story, she starts to become a more empathetic person after realizing how fake her high school friends were, as well as realizing what actually loyal people are like and starts setting more firm boundaries with her mother.

Relationships

Of course, this being a romance, the plot surrounds the relationships between our five leads, and while there is a secondary plot, it really was only there to cause trouble for the relationships (which is exactly what you would want in a side plot for a romance, let’s be honest).

All five of these characters had different but equally deep relationships with each other, and you could really feel their love throughout the story, something that really does tend to be hard when you have 5 POV characters who are all supposed to have some deeper bond with each other individually and as a group.

Jessica was welcomed into their group and, once everyone came to the conclusion that she was there for more than just a good time and there were legitimate attachments forming to her, there wasn’t a real exclusion to her the way there sometimes would be in these types of stories.

The only relationship we didn’t get much of a one-on-one view of was Jason’s relationship with Lucas, which is explained pretty easily because they acknowledge that they’ve let that relationship kind of take a backseat, and they both - specifically Lucas, who feels as though he’d been pulling away from Jason - work on improving their relationship.

Whether Manson and Vincent’s relationship is romantic or not can be up for debate; one thing that is for sure is they don’t have a sexual interest in each other, but whether there’s romantic or platonic love there, the intimacy and love between is still strong enough to be felt, especially when Manson puts his trust in Vincent for a day.

Honestly, Laroux could very well have let these relationships feel undeveloped in a book with so many POVs, but they didn’t, and I will never feel more grateful for an author putting in the work because this had every potential to be the letdown of the century, especially after Her Soul to Take.

Secondary Plot

Like I mentioned, there was a secondary plot in this book. Manson’s father has been hanging around town, and it’s stressing the boys out, especially since Reagan (and I could be spelling his name wrong because I listened to the audiobook of this rather than reading the e-book or physical book) starts stalking Jess.

It increases tension between the main characters and leads to a great climax for this novel, which probably has one of the most satisfying endings of just about any romance book I’ve read, and successfully highlighted the romance rather than taking attention away from it.

Rating

This book deserves a solid 4 stars; honestly, I might give it five stars later on down the line, but for the time being, 4 stars feels like an extremely satisfying rating for me; I love everything about this book, with only a few minor complaints that aren’t even worth mentioning. If you’ve been looking for a good polyamorous dark romance that isn’t toxic, the Losers Duet is definitely an amazing place to start!