The Ritual | Shantel Tessier

🌙 Quick Reading Snapshot

• Vibe: After Dark 🌙

• Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

• Genre: Dark College Romance

• Spoilers: No

This was my second time reading The Ritual, and somehow it hit just as hard — if not harder — than the first. Ryat and Blakely’s story is only the beginning of this series, but it sets the tone immediately. Dark, intense, chaotic, and impossible to look away from.

This book is dark in every sense of the word. It’s a dark college romance wrapped in secret societies, power, control, and tradition, all existing in a world that feels heavy and dangerous from the very start. There’s a constant undercurrent of suspense, and nothing about this story feels safe or predictable. You’re never allowed to fully settle in — just when you think the chaos has peaked, something else pulls you deeper.

Even going into this as a reread, knowing what was coming, I was surprised by how many details I had forgotten. The book holds onto its answers until the very last moment, and that slow reveal kept me glued to the pages. For a book that’s over 500 pages, I flew through it in about a day and a half. It gave me butterflies, the kind of heat that keeps you up way past your bedtime, and more than one moment where I realized I was literally squirming in my seat.

The spice is intense and unapologetic, but it’s paired with real suspense. This isn’t just shock value — it’s layered, unsettling, and deliberate. That combination is what makes the story so addictive. You’re not just reading for the heat; you’re reading because you need to know what’s coming next.

Trigger warnings are absolutely necessary here. This book includes graphic violence, non/dub con, branding, forced sex fantasy, drug and alcohol use, masks, breath play, bondage, kidnapping, and anal. If you’re easily triggered or prefer your romance on the softer side, this is not the book to test your limits with. But if you’re comfortable in darker territory, the story fully commits and never backs down.

I love this book. I love this series. The Ritual is the kind of read that consumes you while you’re in it and lingers after you close the book. It’s messy, intense, and completely unapologetic — exactly what I want from an After Dark romance. I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t easily triggered and wants a story that’s as suspenseful as it is spicy.