The Neurospicy After dark archive

A little chaos, a one-sided love to hate relationship with a co-written dual POV perspective culminating in a fantastic read that had me giggling and deeply concerned.

Boom Boom Bang (Love & Lawlessness Trilogy, #1)

By, Sam Evans & Travis Walter

Dark romance/suspense

(Maybe even Rom-Com vibes, it was funny with good banter?)

Tropes:

– Enemies-to-lovers (more like one-sided love to hate lovers)

– Morally gray love interests (both of them)

– Forced proximity (as in they live in the same town)

– Danger-to-lovers

– Cinnamon Role MMC x Black Cat FMC

Spice Level:

3.5🌶️/5🌶️ (explicit scenes, plot + spice balance)

Content Warnings:

– Violence

– Crime elements

– Power imbalance

– Explicit sexual content

– Trauma themes

– Emotional manipulation

What worked for me:

The black cat FMC (Fiona) versus the golden retriever (maybe a cinnamon roll?) MMC (Tre) relationship and chemistry. I absolutely love the premise of the story and related heavily to Fiona, her profession and why she is choosing to do what she is doing throughout the book as I have had similar thoughts. It was kind of fun to live vicariously through her while reading this book.

I loved the banter, the spice was well written and supporting characters had some great moments that indicate additional interconnected standalones potentially forthcoming.

What didn’t work for me:

I found myself annoyed & concerned with Fiona often as I kept wishing she would relax and let thingsgo, but honestly, I think I related to hardcore with Fiona and was projecting. Although she does need therapy for a few of her issues.

Tre was sometimes a bit too aloof and, maybe a bit too laid back. He was just out there doing his own thing, then falling in love with this vengeful slightly unhinged black cat FMC and nothing she did really upset him. He gave surfer dude vibes. I do wish I had gotten a bit more back story on his relationship with his parents and used that with a bit more character development.

What was unique about this book: 

It was co-written with Sam Evans and her husband, Travis Walter. Her husband wrote Tre’s perspective and she wrote Fiona’s perspective. Let me just say it is obvious they are written be two individuals that know each other extremely well and are of opposite sex. It does sometimes cause some halt in the flow of the writing but overall, I did end up enjoying the co-writing dual POV.

It is a fast and enjoyable read, I was able to finish in a bit over 3 hours.

I recommend a pre-order.

Title Releases on May 26th 2026

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review—no sugarcoating, no holding back, questionable grammar and dialogue entirely from my brain. All thoughts entirely my own.