After Dark – Page 2 – Always Lost in Words

By Scarlet St. Clair. Pub Date: 3/7/23

5 (very smutty)*s. Best enjoyed when…you have some ‘me’ time.

This is not your average fairy tale retelling. This is super new-adult. Lots of anatomy, lots of heat, and lots of seggsual content. Reader discretion advised.

Publisher’s Synopsis:

“I wanted to answer, to whisper yes into the space between us, but I was afraid.

All Gesela’s life, her home village of Elk has been cursed. And it isn’t a single curse—it is one after another, each to be broken by a villager, each with devastating consequences. When Elk’s well goes dry, it is Gesela’s turn to save her town by killing the toad that lives at the bottom. Except…the toad is not a toad at all. He is an Elven prince under a curse of his own, and upon his death, his brothers come for Gesela, seeking retribution.

As punishment, the princes banish Gesela to live with their seventh brother, the one they call the beast. Gesela expects to be the prisoner of a hideous monster, but the beast turns out to be exquisitely beautiful, and rather than lock her in a cell, he offers Gesela a deal. If she can guess his true name in seven days, she can go free. Gesela agrees, but there is a hidden catch—she must speak his name with love in order to free him, too.

But can either of them learn to love in time?“

Review:

This is definitely an NSFW book. I have no problem with heavily erotic novels—I’ve ready Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty amongst others—but I wanted to preface this with that little caveat. That said, this is some hot hot heat.

Basic Plot ,Beauty and the Beast retelling: Elven king is cursed, the only way to break the curse is for someone to guess his name and say it out of love. Woman is trapped in a situation she doesn’t want to be in, accidentally kills another elven king (oops) while trying to break a curse, gets taken by the brothers of the dead and cursed elven kings, and they make her the prisoner of the cursed one. Presumably so she can break the curse, but also because they are assholes and want to torture their brother, possibly.

That’s the basic plot. Obviously our heroine wants to make her way home. She has trauma. She is part fae, which isn’t great when you live amongst humans, but may be worse if you hate fae because that means you kind of hate yourself. At the same time, there’s an undeniable sexual attraction between the Thorn King and our Geselda, the heroine. Like, major heat. A million Scoville. And it doesn’t help that everyone seems super horny all the time around the palace, and those who aren’t are either tiny pixie jerks or are spreading around magic lust dust to make everyone else feel hot and heavy in all the right places.

Now, given the above, this could go incredibly wrong and super corny/gratuitous, or it could go very well. Luckily for us, we’re talking about St. Clair, here. Author of Adrian x Isolde (King of Battle & Blood). She knows how to handle a hot scene, and she writes the shit out of it in this book. Like, woah. I honestly dug the whole thing. Had to drop my kindle a few times to keep from getting my fingerprints burned off. Honestly, can’t wait for the next one. Really hope theirs a next one. This was well worth the super sleepless night, and my spouse would agree.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest (too honest?) review. I had already purchased it, but I was still grateful for the chance to review it more formally for NG 😉

House of Pain

Precious Villains #1

by Karolina Wild, Pub date Dec 6, 2022

3.5* (Rounded to 4), Best enjoyed with bitter chocolate and sweet red wine

Publisher’s Synopsis:

“**This is an adult 18+ novel

During this year’s Game, hearts would break.

Gothic Harry Potter meets Gossip Girl, House of Pain is the first book in a dark fantasy romance trilogy set in the magical world of Inathis, where the witches are beautiful just as much as they’re wicked.

Alecto Black has spent her whole life in Inathis, yet she never quite fit in being the half-witch amongst the purebloods. When she finally enrolled in the most prestigious witchcraft university, The Venefica Academy, last year and joined the House of Snakes as a rightful legacy member, she thought she had finally found her place.

But every year, The Venefica Academy students that belong to 12 Houses all participate in the deadly Game that many witches don’t survive. And when the second year at Venefica starts, Alecto finds herself a target of one of the rival Houses while also having to face the enemy from the inside — fellow Snake, Blaze Leveau. As secrets start unraveling, hate turns into something more dangerous and deadly.

While Alecto tries to fight her new dangerous attraction to Blaze, she also finds herself asking how far she is willing to go to secure her place in the world that wants to destroy her?”

Blood & Bones:

House of Pain is the bitterest of dark chocolate cake laced with the sour tang of blackberries and raspberries—which is totally something I would make as a fall desert. Okay, fine. I already did—but can you blame me? It was just as deliciously sinful as this book! And this is definitely a guilty pleasure read given the dark content and anti-hero cast. If I had to make this into a movie, it would be low-lighting with lots of red.

The setting was dark, the characters were purposely not the most likeable and were morally charcoal. The best way to describe them was vicious—but what do you expect in a dark academia novel where the main characters are witches and warlocks from the House of Snakes whose magic mainly comes from sex and other more devious means? They also tend to use forbidden forms of magic in their pursuit to win “The Game”, a yearly competition amongst the magic Houses (think frat houses but co-ed) that is akin to capture the flag, but replace the flag with the House’s Book of Shadows. Witches have died in pursuit of glory during the game, and houses will go to truly insidious means to win.

Naturally, being a New Adult, this book has a lot of sexual content and darker themes. The main romance is a bully romance between Alecto and Blaze. Alecto is somewhat of an outsider in the core group of the House of Snakes, lead by Val. Alecto is considered somewhat prudish at the beginning, but we learn she has her reasons aside from the obvious as to why she doesn’t take part in the public displays of sex magic that the House of Snakes sometimes demonstrate. Blaze is a powerful warlock with hidden family troubles that cause him to lash out and bully. His current favorite target is Alecto. He does some truly heinous things people, but so does everyone else at the Venefica Academy. However, he discovers that not all of his passionate feelings towards Alecto are hate-based. And Alecto has desires that are Blaze-based that she wished she didn’t have. They fight their feelings throughout, but grim truth is that sometimes you can’t fight against some cravings, no matter how bad they may be for you.

Over the course of House of Pain, loyalties are tested, vengeful demons are unleashed, and powerful magic is used in insidious ways. This is a dark, dark book, but also very good. It’s like watching a fast, sexy train wreck happen. By the end, you’re grateful it’s fiction but you’re also not done with this world. And it’s not done with you.

Thank you to Netgalley & Karolina Wild for the advanced copy in exchange for this fair and honest review.