I grabbed WHAT IS DARK WITHIN ME on impulse because of the author's Threads posts (very || || || ||
I grabbed WHAT IS DARK WITHIN ME on impulse because of the author's Threads posts (very good marketing tbh) and I did not regret it at all. At its surface, this is a dark gothic romantasy about a woman who falls in love with the devil, but if you go down several levels, it's also about overcoming religious trauma, accepting your true self, and finding a love that is both brutal and true.
The writing in this was exceptional and felt very episodic, like I was watching a TV show in book form. I also loved the author's take on magic and the hierarchical systems that enforce it. Her writing style reminds me a lot of Freda Warrington, who is one of my favorite speculative writers. This was very slow burn and has a prickly, morally grey FMC and a villainous hero who would burn the world down for his love. There was nothing I didn't enjoy about this and I can't wait to read the next book in the series, plus everything else this author wrote. LOVE.
SUCH A GOOD GUY was a surprisingly humorous read: it's about a sociopath who's obsessed || || || ||
SUCH A GOOD GUY was a surprisingly humorous read: it's about a sociopath who's obsessed with the younger sister of his so-called best friend. He's also a pop star with a bubbly golden retriever personality that the heroine describes as a "psychotic surfer" and who self-describes as having a "reptilian" personality with a "brain full of a forest of knives." So yeah, he's a fun, rabid little golden retriever man.
Luna, the object of his affections, is an introvert who owns a crystal shop. She bemoans the lack of good men out there, and sees Luke, Mr. Psychopop, as one of the last morally decent guys out there. We know better of course, but part of the fun is waiting for her to realize that he's been busy hoarding her hair and teeth and impregnating her in her sleep, when he's not murdering people in Plant Daddy t-shirts.
I don't know how Kate comes up with these stories but I hope she never stops. Luke is up there now with Viscount St. Erth and Je Sweet as one of my favorite psychos.
Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a copy!
This book was absolutely insane, which makes me happy because that's exactly what I was || || || ||
This book was absolutely insane, which makes me happy because that's exactly what I was hoping for. BRUTAL SERPENT is the story of Viscount St. Erth, who has very good reason to hate the Wendover family. He also has plans to get revenge on them, which involve marrying their only daughter and getting her pregnant. How does this revenge work, you might ask? Wait and see.
This is definitely more erotica than it is a romance because I would venture to say that the sex and the fantasy that it sells are more of a focus than the romance/relationship development. That's the case with most of this author's books, but one of the reason I like them is because the plots are so unique and the heroes are literally insane. St. Erth does many crazy things like threaten to feed his wife to pigs, take her to the doctor for leeches (for fertility!) and blood letting (also for fertility!), and shove a snake down her blouse to keep her from talking. Also, he puts her PERIOD BLOOD into his WINE.
I would love to vacation in Kate's mind for a day just to see what it's like to have all of these wildly unhinged ideas. While reading, I kept trying to figure out what BRUTAL SERPENT reminded me of, and then it hit me: 60s and 70s erotic pulp. There's a definite bodice-ripper vibe to this book, especially since the hero literally gives no fucks and never stops being evil.
Viscount Erth is probably my favorite chaos goblin after Je Sweet.
THE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY WORST MAN IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES is pure camp, in ca || || || ||
THE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY WORST MAN IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES is pure camp, in case you couldn't guess from the title. Anne Stuart was writing dark romances before dark romances were even really a thing, and people used to refer to her morally grey heroes as "gamma heroes," which, in the romance reader parlance, used to refer to brainy, scheming, morally ambiguous men who operated on the same continuum as a high-functioning sociopath.
She's been writing these sorts of books for decades and has it down to an artform at this point, although now that she's gone the self-publishing/small press route, I have noticed that her overusage of certain words has skyrocketed and the banter between characters has become circuitous. I'm a fan of her work so this was more amusing than annoying, but because of this I would recommend that people who are new to this author don't start with her newer books; they have, in essence, almost become endearing parodies of themselves.
THE ABSOLUTELY is about a man named Kit, who is frenemies with an old roue named George. George is engaged to an heiress named Bryony, whose freckles are basically her whole personality. Her companion is her cousin, Cecelia, a renowned beauty. Both of these girls are kidnapped by the men for nefarious purposes; George because he wants the money and Kit, simply because he's bored and figures it might be a good time. Kit is literally the worst, but his encounters with Bryony stymie him because he's unprepared for her blend of headstrong and combative innocence. A lot of this author's books follow this formula but I fucking LOVE it.
I'm kind of surprised this doesn't have way more reviews because it's so good. This is || || || ||
I'm kind of surprised this doesn't have way more reviews because it's so good. This is like the dark romance version of B.G. Harlen's BREAK HER, in the sense that it takes a Hannibal/Clarice dynamic and turns it into erotica, but whereas BREAK HER is just erotica (which borders on horror and torture porn), IN SESSION is more of a very dark and taboo erotic romance that examines its characters in psychological depth.
Avery is a psychiatrist who sometimes handles court-ordered patients. Her newest one is a man named Nash Wyatt, a convinced serial killer. He immediately starts pushing boundaries and trying to get into her head and Avery is a little alarmed at how she responds to him-- with disgust, yes, but also in ways that go beyond clinical fascination.
Even though this is a novella, it feels like slow-burn because not much happens until the end. It's so worth it, though. From the very beginning I was fascinated with these characters and had to know how the story would end. Some of the dirty talk wasn't my cup of tea (like when he tells princess to make her asshole "wink" lol), but 99% of it, I was toooootally on board with. If you're into books with CNC, this is right up there with WILLING VICTIM and ASKING FOR IT. I'd read anything else this author writes.
The next time I see someone asking for a cozy non-con rec, I'm suggesting them this. Di || || || ||
The next time I see someone asking for a cozy non-con rec, I'm suggesting them this. Did I know that non-con could even be cozy before I read MOONSHINE SAVAGE? Nope. Surprise, surprise.
Saoirse is on her way to a librarian interview that ends up going nowhere when her car breaks down. She's almost assaulted by a bunch of gang members, but luckily she's rescued by a tall blonde backwoods god of a man named Jake. Not so luckily for her, he's absolutely unhinged, horny and feral AF, and determined to make her his wife whether or not she's amenable to that.
This feels like one of those 70s pulps but in a fun, non-cringe way. Mostly because the heroine gets some licks in of her own and because it's absolutely hilarious, the lengths Jake will go to make Saoirse his woman. $1 million dollar wedding rings and tattooing her car's license plate on his arm? There's nothing this crazy man won't do. He even buys her a BLT before ripping her underwear off. Such a gentleman.
I don't normally like breeding or sports romances, and even though this was both of tho || || || ||
I don't normally like breeding or sports romances, and even though this was both of those things, I really enjoyed it. The premise is great. Emrys is a PR agent turned art therapy teacher who is called in for one last big project: Tanner Courtenay is dragging his team down to the dirt with bad press due to poor conduct and criminal behavior. If she can redeem his image, she'll get the motherlode of all bonuses.
Tanner is one of the most unhinged heroes I've ever read. When he meets the heroine, he bashes out the lights with his emotional support baseball bat, covering her in broken glass. He literally has a business meeting with the heroine while he's getting blown by another woman; he gives zero shits. By the time he gets into a relationship of sorts with the heroine, he gets even crazier. He buys a microscope to see if she's ovulating (SCIENCE) and when he fucks up, he gets her some apology tortoises.
I understand that this is an erotic fantasy novella, so we're supposed to suspend our disbelief, but I was a little confused about why the hero suddenly got so into ~breeding~ and how/when the heroine fell in love with him. I love a toxic "I can fix him!" moment as much as the next girlie, but I wish there had been a little more development there. This was also marketed as being a grovel romance and it didn't really have a grovel. He was just a gloriously unapologetic asshole and she sort of went along with it, which is fine, but a totally different kink.
If you enjoy old skool Harlequin romance novels with brutal and crazy heroes, you will enjoy this book. Very similar vibe, but with a lot more sex. I'm probably going to hell for laughing at this as much as I did. Emrys is a soft and passive heroine but she manages to push back against Tanner in a way that was really satisfying, and I thought her name was so pretty.
I just read another book by this author and it has a lot of the same probl || || || ||
DNF @ 28%
I just read another book by this author and it has a lot of the same problems. The heroine is a bit of a Mary Sue and she claims to be one thing but the text portrays her as another. It's frustrating to pick up a book that's supposed to have a strong morally gray female lead, only to get a heroine who is, well... very much not those things.
Her writing is good but I wouldn't call this a dark romance. It's basically what you would get in a Katee Robert book but with more dub-con/non-con. And while I appreciated the detailed TWs in the beginning of the book, they're a little misleading in one aspect. The author claims that the H and h never r*pe each other, but the hero literally does the hero in the butt while she's screaming at him to stop. I would consider that r*pe and not "coercion" or dub-con. It didn't particularly bother me but it might bother someone else.
Not my thing, but I could see this appealing to readers who are fans of Emily McIntire because it has a similar vibe.
I can't remember the last time I felt so repulsed by a book and yet so utterly deter || || || ||
I can't remember the last time I felt so repulsed by a book and yet so utterly determined to continue. There is definitely a bad fanfiction vibe to this book which is maybe why I continue to read it; it makes me feel a little nostalgic for all of the bad "lemons" I used to read in my fics when I was but a wee teen. Sadly, it doesn't hold the same appeal as an adult because now I know what good erotica reads like. But dammit, I'm just so fascinated. If this weren't the penname of Nina Pennachi, I doubt I'd feel this utterly compelled.
The premise for this serial is pretty simple. Jane's father suffered a terrible injury in the accident that killed her stepmother and his business is falling into ruin. She goes to her stepbrother to beg for money and he demands that she be his sex slave in return. Which sounds compelling, right? And initially it is... but the stepbrother, Guy, has no redeeming qualities. He hates Jane because she used to love him but eventually got tired of him being an asshole ALL THE TIME and stopped talking to him. Wow, so he's mad at her for having self-respect? Quelle surprise.
There's no self-respect in the present timeline though. As I said before, this is basically a sex fantasy for people who get off on humiliation and coercion. It's definitely CNC but the hero drags the heroine there, every step of the way, and she cries so much it's hard to convince yourself that she's enjoying it in any sense of the word. In this book, there's a scene that verges on pet play where he has her get on all fours so he can inspect her as if she's cattle at the market (his words), and he makes her lick his hand like she's a dog. Maybe you're into that. I'm not. I did not like this scene.
The sex scenes and dialogue are also kind of cringe and anachronistic. The heroine, despite being a virgin, uses the word "pussy" in her mental narrative. The author seems overly enamored with the phrase "ball juice," a phrase which I would be very happy if I never saw again. Since I believe her native language is Italian, I did wonder if maybe this is a literal translation from some Italian phrase. I didn't see a translator listed so I'm wondering if she did it herself or had a friend do it for her, because the writing in this feels clunkier than it did in her book, LEMONADE. I also hate that the dad calls his stepson "big boy." It just gives me the ick.
Why the fuck am I still reading this? Your guess is as good as mine. (Blink twice if you need help.)
The way I literally raced to the Kindle store when I found out that Ann Owen is a pe || || || ||
The way I literally raced to the Kindle store when I found out that Ann Owen is a penname of Nina Pennachi. In case you don't know who Nina Pennachi is, she is the author of the cult classic bodice-ripper nouveau, LEMONADE, and the as-yet-to-be-published-in-English book, CAPITAN SWING. I've never been more tempted to pick up Duo Lingo to learn Italian, let me tell you. Watching my European friends reading that book has left me jealous as fuck.
Anyway, the Slave for Revenge series is in English and it's serialized into bite-sized installments, AND it's about a stepbrother blackmailing his sister into a relationship. Well, that sounds familiar... and exciting. And it's set in Victorian times, you say? SIGN ME UP, MA'AM.
After reading this book, though, I feel conflicted. I'm giving it the same rating that I gave LEMONADE but for vastly different reasons. LEMONADE was a story of emotional depth and complex characters with some passages of truly beautiful writing, but it was a little too clunky and long-winded for me to love it, even though I think about the story all the time. THE DEAL, on the other hand, is what I would call a sex fantasy. It has some pretty extreme CNC and a hero who truly despises the heroine and himself for being attracted to her, so the entire foundation of their relationship is based purely on revenge, as the title promises, and exploitation.
Now, I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with this. I wrote an essay in defense of dark romance recently about how authors shouldn't necessarily be held responsible for the actions of the characters, and how you can write about things that you don't endorse. I think this is a fantasy for people who enjoy CNC and coercion and that is fine. But it makes for some uncomfortable reading and I would be very unlikely to recommend this book to anyone unless they specifically asked me for something forceful and degrading, because it's pretty clear that the heroine is unhappy and conflicted.
Also... the sex scenes were very unsexy. At one point the hero tells the heroine to drink the "juice of his balls." And you might argue, "well, it's VICTORIAN, Nenia, what else are they supposed to say?" But if you're going to take the "it's historically accurate route" how the fuck would the sheltered, man-fearing, church-going heroine know what the word "pussy" means? Like I said, it's a sex fantasy. You're not supposed to really read it beyond the surface level storyline I guess (although will that stop me? noooo).
I'm probably going to keep reading because it reminds me of some of the adult fanfiction darkfics I read as a kid who was definitely not supposed to be reading fics like that. But don't go into this expecting LEMONADE: PART TWO. The only thing that is the same is her slightly rambly writing style. I can see why she published this under a penname, probably to prevent such comparisons.
Whoa. I'm honestly kind of shocked that this has such low ratings because it seems l || || || ||
Whoa. I'm honestly kind of shocked that this has such low ratings because it seems like it's a pressure cooker of everything that the YA community claims to love: mature voice, lyrical writing, chaotic sapphic energy, morally grey characters, poison, and court intrigue. Even better yet, I read this hot on the heels of another work of Elizabeth Bathory fanfiction, THE BLOOD CONFESSION, and I actually think this one might be better!
Less is more going in but I'll try to give a brief summary. Anna Darvulia is a midwife's daughter who lives in a home with an abusive father. She and her mother barely scrape enough together to earn a living with the father drinking all his profits, so when she catches the eye of Countess Bathory and earns her favor, it seems too good to be true. Anna and Elizabeth eventually grow close, developing an almost romantic bond. And as Anna falls deeper and deeper under her spell, it seems like there's nothing she won't do to keep her status as Elizabeth's "dove."
The writing in this book is great and I thought the author did a really great job managing that historical tone without being too verbose. Once the book started rolling along, it had me clutching the book with white knuckles, desperate to find out what happened next. It's pretty violent for a YA and the fraught relationship between Anna and Elizabeth reminded me of some of the 1970s bodice-rippers I read, where the "hero" was actually blatantly unapologetically evil, and I think this is the first F/F book I've read that captures that same energy-- although this is not a romance.
I'll definitely be checking out more from this author because this was slipping-off-the-edge-of-my-seat good.
Did I stay up until 2am on a work night reading this? Yes.
Do I regret it? No.
The Sno || || || ||
Did I stay up until 2am on a work night reading this? Yes.
Do I regret it? No.
The Snow White trilogy has honestly been such a fun surprise for me because it made me enjoy a lot of tropes I usually hate. Dangerfield's writing is snappy and consumable, like a book in saltwater taffy form. I don't know how she came up with a Snow White retelling in mafia form but it worked out pretty well as a reverse harem, especially since the "dwarves" in this book are actually a bunch of psycho men who are ride or die when it comes to the heroine.
LACE VENGEANCE was a pretty satisfying conclusion to the series. I feel like this book had more fan service than the previous two books, because huge chunks of it were just domestic scenes and lots of fucking instead of plot. I didn't mind the fanfictiony vibe, but the last act of this book and the confrontation with Zachery reminded me of how good Dangerfield is at high-octane and how much more of it I wished there was in this book.
The best part of this series was seeing January grow into her own, tbh. She went from being laughably, satirically naive to honestly pretty cutthroat. And it was satisfying to see her one-up the men who treated her like she was just a pretty painted object. Also, the group sex scene in the middle was like a four-point-something on the spicy scale. I wasn't expecting that.
Here's my tier ranking of the dudes, not that you asked.Â
1. Doc and Daddy Eli, tying for first. 2. Adriano 3. Bobby (dead last, boo, #sorrynotsorry)
Doc is the only guy who's allowed to make me a "pussy juice" cocktail and not get mace sprayed in his eyes.
Thanks to the author for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
3/19- Paperbacks are now available! You can get them for yourself or ask you10/2- GUESS WHAT'S FREEEEEE TODAY?
3/19- Paperbacks are now available! You can get them for yourself or ask your library to order them!
1/6- FREE for TODAY only!
So does this mean I can call myself an Amazon best-seller now? :D
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1/22- After being live for just under two months, LITTLE DEATHS hit 50 ratings! I'm so happy! Thank you so much for reading and talking about and reviewing my book. As an indie author, it seriously means so much and I'm grateful for each and every rating. Thank you! �
This is a dark slasher movie inspired romance with an ex horror actress and her stepson. The heroine is multiracial and twelve years older than the hero, who is a virgin. TWs include rape, assault, deaths, off page and on page animal deaths (not nice ones though), drug abuse, alcohol use, emotionally abusive parents, discussions of mental health problems, emotionally abusive relationships, death of a parent (off page), and other disturbing themes.
I hope you love Donni and Rafe as much as I do. ...more
Eve Dangerfield has become a new favorite of mine with books like ACT YOUR AGE and V || || || ||
Eve Dangerfield has become a new favorite of mine with books like ACT YOUR AGE and VELVET CRUELTY. VELVET CRUELTY was an especial surprise to me, because it had so many tropes I normally don't like in romance. The overly innocent heroine and RH mafia premise should have put me off, but it ended up being a pretty action-packed adventure, even if the answer to the "do they bang question?" was technically not. Which is a surprising twist for an erotic romance. Also, I thought it was hilarious that this was a Snow White retelling, but with four mob guys. Disney Princesses really can't stay sweet and innocent for very long in the mobverse.
I was SO excited to get my hands on SILK MALICE, so my whole week was made when the author sent me an ARC a couple days before I planned on buying myself a copy. What a glorious end to a rather exhausting day. Naturally, I started reading immediately. SILK MALICE starts where the last book left off. January has been kidnapped by her evil ex-fiance, and is starting to realize that she feels more for the men who kidnapped her than she should. They feel the same-- not that they'd admit it-- and are willing to move hell and earth to get her back.
SILK MALICE is paced very differently than the first book. It's a lot slower. The beginning was great but then 75% of the middle is basically just smut and romantic confessions. It's not badly done, but it felt like I was launched from Point A to Point C and we'd skipped over a Point B somewhere. I wish the guys' feelings had been taken into account more. It felt like there should have been more of a transition from obsession to tenderness. Book one was SO DARK and it was like January just forgot a lot of the bad stuff they did to her. I didn't get mad about the bad stuff, because it suited the story, but the tonal shift in this story made me blink and think to myself, "But what about all the bad stuff?"
The last quarter of the book is where the story really finally starts to find its footing. There's some real plot. January starts to show more of the spine I expected her to show from the beginning of this book. The scene in the living room and by the swimming pool were particularly good. I loved the contract scene and the epilogue left me with chills. They were little glimpses of the things that hooked me in book one-- clever tongue-in-cheek satire of a genre that also works as a standalone, witty banter, and action-packed, morally grey situations. SILK MALICE is a decent sequel but it's not as good as the first book and mostly feels like set-up for the third book, which is a problem that a lot of second books share. I'll definitely be reading LACE VENGEANCE and hoping all kinds of bad stuff happens to Zachery Parker. Maybe Ms. Dangerfield will even make January the one who gets to hold the knife.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
This was one of the most insane and ridiculous things I've ever read and yet somehow || || || ||
This was one of the most insane and ridiculous things I've ever read and yet somehow, I enjoyed it the way I enjoyed The Royals of Forsyth series. It's a dark reverse harem romance about a bunch of scary mafia guys and it starts with a wedding that gets messed up Kill Bill style. While choosing which of this author's books I wanted to read, I was scanning through the samples and this one hooked me instantly.
VELVET CRUELTY is a retelling of Snow White. January Whitehall is an innocent eighteen-year-old woman who is naive about literally everything (to the point of stupidity, really), sings and chirps and sounds like a kitten during sex, and who enjoys cooking and cleaning as a pastime. I honestly feel like this is supposed to be satire, having read this author's other books where the heroines where smart, intelligent women in STEM, so the whole thing kind of feels like the author is doing a loving parody of the dark romance genre where all the characters are just continually winking at the audience.
She's kidnapped by four dudes who have a grudge against her fiance. At first they plan on killing her, but when they find out she's a virgin, they have other plans in mind. The rest of the book kind of devolves into a competitive free-for-all where they all vie to be her first. One thing I liked was how each of the guys-- Basher/Bobby, Domenico/Doc, Eli/Elliot, and Adriano/Adri all had distinct personalities. January was so helpless and naive that it could be painful reading things from her POV; I liked the guys' POVs better; they were hilarious because of how few f***s they had to give.
This is definitely very different from the author's usual works in terms of tone. Her other books are more straightforward BDSM erotica with a light, jokey tone running through them, but this was a straightforward dark romance with dub-con and has all of the usual caveats with the genre and some additional ones (think DEN OF VIPERS but infinitely better written). It honestly speaks to the talent of the author that she was able to take such a farfetched and ridiculous premise and make me speed through it in twenty-four hours while putting the sequel down on lock. I probably would have given it five stars if January had more of a personality and dialogue that went beyond "um," "no," and "please." But even she had her moments. That scene with the Orchard completely cracked me up. Go Jan.
UPDATE: Raise the Blood is getting a companion book called My Blood Is Risen. It's going to be written entirely from the hero's POV UPDATE: Raise the Blood is getting a companion book called My Blood Is Risen. It's going to be written entirely from the hero's POV ...more
I keep telling myself that I need to read more indie authors but then I never do. I' || || || ||
I keep telling myself that I need to read more indie authors but then I never do. I'm always afraid that I won't like the book-- and even though that's a risk with any book being published, I feel worse giving a bad review to a book that was written by someone who doesn't have a major publishing house to back their PR. And I'm not going to lie. But one of my friends recommended MANSIONS to me on my Instagram and told me that it was a gothic romance, which is basically my love language, and when I looked into it further, it looked like it was also going to be toxic and intense, which sounded super fun. Especially since I've been on a lil' gothic romance kick lately.
MANSIONS starts out intense and then gets really, really dark. Unlike a lot of dark romances, it doesn't do this by gratuitous gore or other shock tactics. Most of the darkness comes from the toxic relationship, and the hero and heroine going down some very dark spirals. The hero, Dorian, is a sociopath and also a sadist, and the heroine, Adrienne, is a masochist with severe emotional issues. Childhood trauma has made her quick to run at the first sign of trouble, and she works as a photographer in war zones for the adrenaline kick, as well as to make a difference. When Dorian aggressively hits on her at a gala and demands that she come to his hotel to hookup, she's terrified by how much she wants him and immediately flees. But then something terrible happens, and when Adrienne comes back to the United States, she's been severely maimed.
From here, the book just gets even more toxic. The heroine is suffering severe depression and PTSD. The hero is manipulative and awful, but what keeps him from being totally unlikable is his scary devotion to the heroine. It's so fanatical, it's almost religious. He's been obsessed with her since an encounter from when they were children, and since then she's kind of become the One Thing He Could Never Have. And even though she's really vulnerable, she keeps coming up with ways to thwart him. So even though she kind of isn't exactly the flawless vase he thought he put on the pedestal, he kind of ends up liking her more for all of those cracks. At one point, he even says that he's not in love with his fantasy ideal of her, but who she actually is when she's in front of him, and I really liked that.
Some things that will probably upset readers: both characters are legitimately, melodramatically crazy in a way that you really don't see anymore outside of a gothic throwback or a soap opera. There is medical gore (light) from the heroine's accident. There is drug use. The hero has a mistress and a wife who he is sort of seeing in addition to Adrienne, but most of his interactions with them are off-page and it's clear that she is the favored one in this scenario. There are references to suicide and suicidal ideation, on and off-page. At a couple points, it got so heavy that I stepped back to work on a puzzle and think about the book to prepare myself mentally before continuing further.
At some points, this came very close to being a five-star read for me, but it had a ton of typos and it also felt a little too short. The story is fully realized, which is utterly impressive given the length, but I wished there were more scenes between the two of them when they were young and then over the years before they met up again as adults. I think it would have made this book even more emotionally devastating. Still, I think MANSIONS will stick with me for a while. What a gloomy, intense read. Eat your hearts out, Catherine and Heathcliff, lol.
When one of my friends told me that THE MISTED CLIFFS was not only a villain romance || || || ||
When one of my friends told me that THE MISTED CLIFFS was not only a villain romance, it was also a marriage of convenience romance, I basically tripped over myself ordering a copy of this book online. Unfortunately, this series appears to be out of print, which is a shame, because the covers are beautiful and the stories are really fun. I actually remember reading book one in high school-- which is about this heroine's mom when she was young-- and thinking it was okay, but kind of meh. Well, clearly I need to reread that book because THE MISTED CLIFFS, which can be read independently of the first book in the series, totally blew me away with how awesome it was.
So first, a caveat. The names in this book kind of make it sound like a teen girl's first attempt at a Wattpad fantasy novel. The heroine is named Melody. Her mother is named Chime. The love interest is named Cobalt, and his mother is named Dancer. It sounds like it might be intolerable, but the story is-- hear me out-- AMAZING. Cobalt, also known as Dark Cobalt and The Midnight Prince, is the son of the villain in the first book. He's also a ruthless strategist and conqueror who will stop at nothing to retain his birthright, when his kingdom of The Misted Cliffs was much larger, and contained several now-independent countries as part of its commonwealth.
Cobalt is the son of a ruthless family. As I said in the previous paragraph, his father, Varqelle, was the villain of book one. His grandfather, Stonebreaker, is a psychopath and a tyrant. Cobalt isn't quite as bad as either of them-- at one point the heroine says he's waging a battle between dark and light-- but the fact that he can take the time to think and plan makes him even more dangerous. That is actually how his marriage to the heroine comes about. He, his father, and grandfather are planning on how to make Harsdown theirs, and he proposes marriage as an alternative to war. He goes to her expecting a boyish tomboy and is instead struck by the beauty of the woman who can cast powerful mage spells as well as fight with a sword.
I think the author did such a good job with everything. The shyness between the hero and heroine in their rather difficult marriage. The attraction between them. Cobalt's uncertainty with everything that isn't battle. The battle scenes. The court intrigue. The history behind all of the characters, good and bad. Game of Thrones this may not be, but it has the emotional complexity that fans of fantasy love, as well as the action and the magic, but without all of the grimdark bloodshed, violence, and racism/sexism that can make such books unpalatable reads. I finished this in just under twenty-four hours and ordered books #3 and #4 in the series before I had even finished.
As far as villain romances go, this is very gentle, but Cobalt is such a wonderful, haunted hero, and I liked how even with the heroine softening his harsh edges, he was still like YAY CONQUERING. Even if it's a bloodless conquering. I can't wait to see how he furthers his villainy in the next book, only to be thwarted by his wife at every turn. They're the ultimate power couple and yes, I stan.
I feel like this book blackmailed me into liking it because it did a lot of things t || || || ||
I feel like this book blackmailed me into liking it because it did a lot of things that really fucking annoyed me, and yet I couldn't put it down. I'm currently doing an audit of the villain romances I have on deck because I want to feature some of my favorites, and this is one that has been recommended to me by several people. A tall, dark, brooding type who basically lives in his armor and wields a sword capable of ending the world? YESSSSSSS.
The heroine, Seren, is a weaver living in medieval times but she has just been rejected from apprenticeship. As she is walking home, stinging with failure, she is assaulted by two men claiming to be knights and that she's to be the mother of the next Merlin. Being a peasant woman and a rational human being, she assumes that they're about to rape her and have their fun with her, so when a mysterious man on horseback offers assistance, she takes his hand.
Unfortunately for her, the would-be rapists weren't rapists at all. They were actually agents of Merlin-- and the man who abducted her is the Kerrigan, the champion of Morgen Le Fey. Whoops. They plan to use her as leverage to take over the world, and she just moved the dark pieces one step closer to checkmate. But one thing none of them ever counted on was Kerrigan falling for their captive.
So this is like villain romance lite. Kerrigan threatens to rape Seren a couple times, but apart from brooding and killing some people who deserved it, he doesn't do anything outright evil. Seren is the typical heroine in these sorts of romances-- good and idealistic to the point of near stupidity and not at all believable. I did like her but it's because hating her is like hating a Disney princess or a bunny. Anyone who hates those things is probably a psychopath. Who hates Disney princesses and bunnies? The serial killer next door, that's who.
The sex scenes in this book were actually really hot-- the scene in the mirrored room was EVERYTHING-- but there were two gross-out things for me in this book that kept me from giving this a higher rating. First, the fetishization of the heroine's virginity. It's referred to as her gift (which, ugh) and when he kisses her he goes on and ON about being the only person to ever claim her mouth and being able to taste her innocence (which also, ugh). Because this is sort of set in the fantasy equivalent of medieval times, I could *sort of* buy it, but I really didn't like it.
The second thing this book does that really annoyed me is right after the hero and heroine have sex-- like, literally days after-- people just KNOW she's pregnant, and start talking about "the child" and "the baby" even though it's literally just cells at that point. Pro-choice me cringed at this because on the one hand, I GET IT, but on the other hand, language like this is why we just lost Roe v. Wade. IT'S NOT A BABY. It's not even a fetus. Something about that just really squicked me out.
Apart from that, I thought this was fun in a cheesy aughts fantasy sort of way. Like the BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD, I kept thinking "this is so dumb" but being unable to put it down because the story was so entertaining. The bromance between Blaise and Kerrigan was hilarious and I loved how Merlin was a woman and locked Thomas Malory in a dungeon for besmirching her character. At times, it had a portal fantasy/Narnia vibe to it that was almost nostalgic. Just know going into this that it's essentially fated-to-be-mated with a lot of those tropes and dated whoops!sexism references that can make you feel like you need to apologize to your Women's Studies professor.
Update: Reread my copy and I have to credit this book with (1) making me super into Dad || || || ||
Update: Reread my copy and I have to credit this book with (1) making me super into Daddy kink as a trope (along with Brianna Hale, #queen) and (2) making me feel way less weird for liking and reading books with CNC. Also, Jafar and his eyeliner are hot AF and I will die on this hill.
So I knew about this author from her Dark Olympus series, but I only recently found out that she's also pretty well known for her Disney villain erotica series. And obviously, as soon as I figured out that some of my villainous faves were going to be doing the nasty with the heroes and heroines of my childhood, I figured out why these books are the series that launched a thousand shameful inner-fanfictions. Villains rule.
DESPERATE MEASURES is a story about Jasmine and Jafar. It's a little confusing since the world-building in this book is so vague, but Jasmine's father is some unspecified big shot and Jafar coups him to take his power. But he also wants to take Jasmine. The two of them have apparently been attracted to one another for years, and for some reason they have a safe word even though they've never done it, which is handy because they're both into consensual non-consent.
For some reason, Hades is in this book. (I thought for a moment, it was Dark Olympus Hades, but apparently this is the Disney version of Hades because these books have him paired up with Meg-- which I find terribly confusing.) Hades, as he does in the Dark Olympus books, basically owns his own underground sex club and he's into exhibitionism (and all sorts of other stuff.) Apparently this club is where all the movers and shakers go, so Jafar takes Jasmine there as a neener neener (but also as a weener weener, if you get me), and basically things heat up from there.
I thought it was interesting making Aladdin the bad guy. I never did trust Aladdin and the way he lied to Jasmine in the movie was always super sus, so I could totally see all that pathological lying masking an evil side. The chemistry between Jasmine and Jafar was great, but I REALLY wish we had seen them before the coup. I would have liked to have seen the dynamics between Jasmine and Jafar, Jasmine and Aladdin, and Jasmine, Jafar, and her father on page. I also feel like the politics of Carver City were really vague. This is basically porn with plot and I get that, but since that's what the book was going for, I wish the plot had been just a little bit better. I wanted to know more about these weird politics.
In some ways, I actually enjoyed this more than NEON GODS. Maybe because while I was researching Aladdin and ending up down various Wikipedia rabbit holes, I ended up finding about this movie called The Thief of Bagdad which apparently Disney's Aladdin took some inspo from. That movie also has a Jaffar (with two F's) who was played by this dude named Conrad Veidt. And if you look him up, he definitely gives off villainous "Daddy" vibes, so that's basically who I was picturing Jafar as in this book. DESPERATE MEASURES had its flaws, but I still enjoyed reading it.
Nenia � I yeet my books back and forth �
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