Review: Sweet Poison (The Rise of the De Langes Book 3) by Rachel van Dyken
𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦.
𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳.
𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭…
His breath hit my neck, lips brushing skin.
"𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘢𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺, 𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘵?”
All it took was one phrase—“𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦?”—and I was already losing.
To the enemy.
To a Tinder date gone violently wrong.
To the Syndicate’s most dangerous heir.
It was supposed to be my last middle finger to the establishment before they sacrificed me on the family altar of arranged marriage. So I took control. I made the rules. I chose the husband.
Louis De Lange.
The twin who should’ve died.
The traitor.
The man who lost my sister—his so-called true love.
He said he had nothing left. So I made him my weapon.
But the problem with controlling a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
You never see the fangs until they’re already at your throat.
The plan was simple. The timeline set. Sixty days to infiltrate, manipulate, and survive.
But I wasn’t banking on Louis being more than broken—I wasn’t ready for how dangerous he could be when he finally decides he’s done bleeding for everyone else but himself.
I was playing to win.
He was playing to lose.
And we were both about to learn…
The sweeter the poison the more bitter the fight.
To the end. Love. Hell. Or destruction. Let the games begin.
I know I said I was done with this series after the last book, but when I was offered an early copy of this one (and assured by those who had been involved with it that it took longer than expected to get out because they needed extra time to make sure it would “be the best it could be”), I figured… why not? Even after the number of errors I found in the previous installment, didn’t my history with this series mean that I owed the author a chance at redemption?
Unfortunately, this book was filled with so many continuity errors that it genuinely made my head hurt.
Look, I understand that being a full-time author means juggling multiple storylines under tight deadlines. I respect that. But at some point someone, anyone, needs to be paying close enough attention to catch these things before publication. It almost feels like the popularity of this series is being relied upon as a safety net, as though readers either won’t notice or simply won’t care. Unfortunately for everyone involved, I am not that reader. I have standards for the books I enjoy, and I hold every book and author I read to those standards.
So let’s all grab a glass of wine, and jump right in shall we?
Right out of the gate, we have Louis thinking about his brother and what happened to him when they were younger, and he vows that when he finds the person responsible he will “repay them in kindness". I’m fairly certain the intended phrase was “repay them in kind" considering the fact that he’s clearly talking about taking someone’s life. Small? Sure. But then there’s the fact that this is marketed as an “arranged marriage” romance when it absolutely is NOT. Tempest chooses Louis because she needs him to infiltrate a rival family so that she can get the information she needs in order to keep her own discretions from coming to light.
And speaking of Tempest, every other daughter in this world is hyper-guarded to the point of being forced into marriage if a man so much as sneezes in their direction. But Tempest? She’s free to go on Tinder dates and hook up in the college library without issue. Make it make sense.
The phrasing issues continue. Raven (Tempest's sister), who is now happily married, is described as “screwing with his enemy in the wrong castle,” when clearly the author meant “screwing his enemy.” We also get lines like “Not that mattered” instead of “Not that it mattered.” Again, small things in isolation. But they pile up. Quickly.
And those are the easy ones.
The continuity lapses are where things truly unravel. Early on, Raven is drinking champagne. Later, she’s touching her stomach in a way that clearly signals a visible pregnancy. You could argue timing ambiguity, but this kind of thing happens repeatedly, often within pages of each other.
For example; Tempest leaves for brunch with her new husband while wearing a white pantsuit. We are explicitly told Louis straps a knife to her thigh before she pulls her pants up. They return home, and suddenly she runs upstairs to change out of her dress. Her dress. From where?
Later on, she shoots Louis in the shoulder. The bullet passes through him and embeds in the wall. Two pages later, she’s digging it out and dressing his wound.
And the one that truly made me stop reading and just blink at the page: Louis pretends to be sick while at her family's home. Tempest takes him to the bathroom. We are told he’s gripping the counter. She’s near the sink. He admits he isn’t sick, pulls her close, kisses her.... and her father walks in. Fair enough. But then he says, “Can you two be newlyweds anywhere but my office?”
I’m sorry… your what?
At no point did we leave the bathroom. They are magically transported into her father’s office mid-scene. It felt like I had skipped a page. I hadn’t.
Now, I will absolutely give credit where it’s due. The banter between Tempest and Louis had moments of genuine wit, and I did enjoy their dynamic, particularly when they weren’t internally monologuing about how they were using each other. The flashbacks to Frank were charming and gave us a glimpse of his warmth as a grandfather. And a main character’s death was handled beautifully, in fact the line “may heaven grant you peace after a lifetime of war” genuinely hit me like a punch to the gut. And I absolutely loved the throwback to a character from Rachel’s earlier historical romance writing days, long before her massive popularity.
But those bright spots weren’t enough to outweigh everything else.
Sadly, if unchecked errors, and inconsistent storytelling are going to be her new standard moving forward, I don’t know how much longer I can justify continuing with her new releases. And that’s disappointing to say as someone who has been a fan of this author since 2013.
DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.
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