Disclaimer: This is a review, and as such will contain opinions, spoilers and (often) general shit talking. (If you talk about what you don’t like about a work, you learn a lot. When you think through a work with the stakes presented to you by the creator, by the context of the work, you learn a lot. I review things, not because I love to dislike things, but because dislike contains rich and vital information for the process of experiencing something, but I cannot access it without interrogating it.) So, if you don’t want to have this thing spoiled for you, or don’t know how to behave when a person on the internet, that you don’t know, has opinions that don’t line up with yours, this review is not for you. It’s also not for the author/creator of the work. Please and thank you.
Leave Me Behind by K.M. Moronova promised dark military romance but delivered something closer to “Tokyo Drift but make it military vibes” – and not in a good way. What I got instead is a story that skirts around darkness, glancing at it furtively as it skitters along the edges of the light, but never fully committing to the intensity it promises.
The first red flag? A book that names something “Riøt” without understanding how ø changes pronunciation, making it more ridiculous rather than edgy.
The military elements feel like they’re based on “every military FPS video game ever” rather than actual military knowledge or research. The discipline is questionable (even for a commercial outfit), the tactics are nonsensical, and don’t get me started on the “practice guns” that fire projectile rounds from sniper rifles but somehow don’t seriously injure anyone (except for when it’s plot convenient) – we’re straight-up ignoring physics here.
And our FMC is supposed to be a deadly sniper, but she keeps referring to her “sniper” when she means “sniper rifle” – honey, a sniper is a person, not a gun. She claims to be “used to being the deadliest person in the room” but doesn’t know basic shooting techniques (you don’t hold your breath when shooting, you exhale or pause on the exhale). Her Big Brain™ fails her repeatedly with observations that amount to “idiot observation skills”.
The real problem is her complete lack of agency.
Everything she accomplishes is set up by men, enabled by men, or happens because men suddenly lose their competence. She takes revenge only when a man gives her the opportunity and demands she take it. The one time she tries to do something herself (sending the MMC away), it gets overridden by his decision to stay. Is the agency of this Badass FMC in the room with us?
And despite all the hype about the MMC’s darkness and danger, he’s just a big teddy bear. The “shadow daddy” likes it “hard”, but there’s no real edge to him. The character has the classic tragic backstory, but I don’t buy that he’d sell out his relationship with his brother for a woman he’s known for weeks. The darkness we’re promised never materialises into anything substantial.
The “I can fix him” vibes are strong with this one, but the execution falls flat. We get the standard “Bunny” nickname (seriously, this is becoming a dark romance cliché and it needs to stop), meant to contrast with the darkness, but lacking any acknowledgment of the cultural significance. And this on top of the FMC’s last name being Gallows yet that doesn’t somehow define her nickname? I beg 🙏
The banter is wooden, the dialogue feels forced, and the sexual tension dissolves under the weight of over-explanation and inner monologue. The sex scenes are inconsequential, laden with contrasting inner monologue that somehow makes everything more confusing.
And can we talk about men spouting clichés during sex and as they’re about to cum? Show me the woman who wants a man to start babbling off a list of clichés at that moment, because I haven’t met her in my 40 years on this planet.
And that brings me to the adverbs.
The prose is drowning in adverbs to such a degree that they hamstring everything else. Sentences make statements, then modify them with adverbs, deflating the punch of the original sentences like emptying balloons. This book has made me hate the word “emptily”. I have never in my life heard it that many times in one sitting. The overuse of adverbs is a masterclass in how NOT to write.
Medical and tactical inaccuracies also abound. Characters survive injuries that should be fatal, walk around with boots “sloshing with blood,” and somehow remain functional. Night vision tactics that make no sense. A knife “wedged between radial and ulnar bones” that doesn’t affect arm function. The list goes on.
And there are plot holes you could drive a tank through.
The mystery elements don’t work because the MMC chapters give everything away, decreasing tension rather than building it. Characters suddenly don’t want to kill when they’re supposed to be “death machines” and “monsters,” but this turning point has no weight because it wasn’t properly set up.
The corporate-paramilitary angle could have worked, but the execution is too shallow. We get surface-level darkness without any real exploration of what makes these characters tick or why we should care about their journey.
I spent considerable time trying to figure out what this book actually knows, because it’s clearly not military life, guns, banter, plot development, or how darkness shapes character. It feels like someone scrolled through military TikTok while watching their partner play FPS games and decided to write a whole book based on that, consisting of tropes and weak one-liners drowned in adverbs.
Like many purportedly dark romances, this one concludes that all you need to be happy and instantly heal from trauma is domestic bliss with children. It’s a disappointing resolution that undermines whatever psychological complexity the story might have had.
This book represents everything frustrating about the state military romance written by those who like to use the military aspects for vibes and to show masculinity or danger. The book promises darkness and delivers fluff. It claims to feature strong characters but strips them of agency. It attempts to tackle serious themes but lacks the research and depth needed to do them justice.
This is a book that knows it wants to be dark and dangerous but doesn’t know how to get there, leaving me with a frustrating experience that’s neither dark enough to be compelling enough to be fun.
The one thing that I absolutely loved about this was the cover, but that’s apparently getting a makeover into one that aligns more with the industry average. The newer cover lacks all personality, where the old cover is (if I’ve understood correctly) illustrated by the author and feels like a glimpse into how she sees these characters, which I absolutely love.
Someone said it’s getting republished through trad and that would explain the cover remake and why it’s being stripped of all personality.
I wanted to like this book so much, it ticks all my boxes, but despite that super promising premise it just fell so short. I am disappointed, because I did so want to love this.
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