TITLE: I DARE YOU
SERIES: RUIN ME
AUTHOR: MONICA JAMES
GENRE: DARK PSYCHOLOGICAL ROMANCE
RELEASE DATE: JULY 23RD 2026
Synopsis
One brutal night shattered Hallie Holiday’s life.
By morning, the girl everyone knew had vanished.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
Only silence.
Three years later, Hallie lives under a different name in a town where no one knows her past. Staying invisible is the only way to survive.
But fate has a cruel sense of humor because he is the last person she ever expected to see again.
Kit Rivers—her childhood best friend’s older brother.
The town’s favorite bad boy.
The boy every girl wanted.
But the boy she remembers is gone.
When their paths collide again, the pull between them is instant.
And in a town where men have mysteriously turned up dead…that kind of connection could get someone killed.
Hallie knows who’s responsible.
Jupiter Lemmings.
If Hallie tells the truth, she exposes the killer—and the truth about the night that destroyed her life.
But if she stays silent…Kit could be next.
Hallie has spent three years running from the past.
Now she must decide how far she’s willing to go to save the man who saved her.
However, some secrets don’t stay buried forever.
And when they surface…someone always ends up dead.
By morning, the girl everyone knew had vanished.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
Only silence.
Three years later, Hallie lives under a different name in a town where no one knows her past. Staying invisible is the only way to survive.
But fate has a cruel sense of humor because he is the last person she ever expected to see again.
Kit Rivers—her childhood best friend’s older brother.
The town’s favorite bad boy.
The boy every girl wanted.
But the boy she remembers is gone.
When their paths collide again, the pull between them is instant.
And in a town where men have mysteriously turned up dead…that kind of connection could get someone killed.
Hallie knows who’s responsible.
Jupiter Lemmings.
If Hallie tells the truth, she exposes the killer—and the truth about the night that destroyed her life.
But if she stays silent…Kit could be next.
Hallie has spent three years running from the past.
Now she must decide how far she’s willing to go to save the man who saved her.
However, some secrets don’t stay buried forever.
And when they surface…someone always ends up dead.
Meet the Author
Monica James spent her youth devouring the works of Anne Rice, William Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson.
When she is not writing, Monica runs her own business, but she always finds a balance between the two. She enjoys writing twisted AF stories, hoping to terrify her readers...just a little.
She is a bestselling author in the U.S.A., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and the U.K.
Monica James resides in Melbourne, Australia, with her Unicorn, and her three crazy cats. She is slightly obsessed with red lipstick, heels, and crime documentaries, and is that person who always runs late.
Stalker Links
Website: authormonicajames.com
Facebook: facebook.com/authormonicajames
Goodreads: goodreads.com/MonicaJames
Instagram: @authormonicajames
TikTok: @authormonicajames
BookBub: http://bit.ly/2E3eCIw
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EWZSyS
Reader Group: http://bit.ly/2nUaRyi
Newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/mvjjk6k2
When she is not writing, Monica runs her own business, but she always finds a balance between the two. She enjoys writing twisted AF stories, hoping to terrify her readers...just a little.
She is a bestselling author in the U.S.A., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and the U.K.
Monica James resides in Melbourne, Australia, with her Unicorn, and her three crazy cats. She is slightly obsessed with red lipstick, heels, and crime documentaries, and is that person who always runs late.
Stalker Links
Facebook: facebook.com/authormonicajames
Goodreads: goodreads.com/MonicaJames
Instagram: @authormonicajames
TikTok: @authormonicajames
BookBub: http://bit.ly/2E3eCIw
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EWZSyS
Reader Group: http://bit.ly/2nUaRyi
Newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/mvjjk6k2
My Review
❥ 𝐈 𝐃A𝐑E Y𝐎U ❥ Is the first full length dark psychological romance book in the ( Ruin Me ) duet by author Monica James. (Main characters) Hallie & Kit (Secondary characters) Jupiter and Kit's younger brother Dandy, who is Hallie’s best friend. This also ends on a cliffy.
From the cover, to the blurb and what this author delivers with her unique writing style and characters we end up loving, I couldn't not buy this book..Straight away your thrown into the 'Prologue' which sets the tone for the whole book.
In the sleepy little town of Hollow Banks you wouldn't think it bred such despicable human beings, but it did..
This pulls you in gradually, bullying conducted by a mean girl Rebecca was Hallies worst day as she tried to fit in, but on the other side of the coin it also became one of the best days for her, because it's that same day when she made friends with another outcast named Dandy.
Two friends transcended into best friends effortlessly, they just got each other, their quirks, their humour., their love for the movie dirty dancing. They become inseparable. She also meets Dandy's older brother Kit when hanging out with Dandy over her curfew he takes her home and takes the blame in hopes that she goes without punishment. Needless to say, that's not the case.
You can't help but get thrown into the feels with this flourishing friendship between Hallie and Dandy.
Until
One night changed their lives in the most traumatic event which stripped each of them to the core. One changed tragically the other abandoned with no closure.
New town
New name
Its here in this new town where she meets Jupiter Lemmings and runs into Kit again.
But just when you think Hallie is settling into life in a small town she has a score to settle in the town she ran away from.
This had twists and turns like a twister claiming its victims. Us the readers..
