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Cover of X's and O's

X's and O's

Elle Thorpe (2025-08-18)

Subgenre
Age groupAdult 18+
Content ratingHard R
Pages (Standard (250-400))
SeriesSaint View Murder Squad #
Setting
CSM age18+

Content levels

ViolenceStrong
Sexual contentExplicit
LanguageStrong

Protagonist archetypes

Why Choose Protagonist

Synopsis

One minute I'm cleaning toilets for minimum wage. The next, I'm waking up from a drug-induced nap with a monster staring down at me. Kidnapped and seconds from death, I think I'm done for... Until masked men burst in, murder my attacker, and turn my world upside down. They call themselves Murder Squad. A secret brotherhood of broken men who only kill the worst of the worst. And one of them thinks I'm his wife. X is unhinged, obsessed, and deadly. A psychopath who hides behind bad jokes and bloodstained fingers. Whip's older, grumpy, and used to women paying him to worship them. But when he finds out I'm a virgin, he can't keep his hands off my plus-size curves. And Levi? One year of handwritten letters was all it took to fall in love with a man I'd never met. My prison pen pal turned killer, fighting his darkness for a second chance. But they aren't the only psychopaths in Saint View. Someone's playing a twisted game, leaving rhyming threats and promising to end us all if we don't stop them first. With every lie we uncover, every secret we expose, the danger mounts. Until there's only one thing we know for sure. There's a killer out there. And this time, he's hunting us. X's and O's is a dark rom com. It's an adult, why choose romance, meaning the main character has more than one love interest. You can expect a plus size, tall heroine, psycho heroes, a murder mystery, and a spicy club. This book contains romantic suspense and triggering themes. It is the first book in an ongoing trilogy.

Tags

Murder MysteryDark Comedy

X's and O's: content & age rating

Intended for adult readers (18+).

Extremely graphic content with explicit sexual scenes, intense violence including murder and kidnapping, and psychologically disturbed characters. Dark themes throughout including stalking, obsession, and vigilante justice.

What to know going in

This book has strong violence, explicit sexual content, and strong language. Content notes include graphic violence, murder, kidnapping, captivity, and death (see the full list above).

Who'll love this

Adults who enjoy dark romance will be gripped by the suspenseful murder mystery and intense relationships between broken characters.