Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "savvy-rose"

Tangled Garden: Wilted Petals & Chaotic Delusions by Savvy Rose

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A taut, gripping tale of erotic suspense.

Cyn is coasting through life, unhappy in a marriage to a man while in denial about her sexuality, dabbling in substance misuse just to get through her days and ignore the reason for her misery.

Dev, haunted by her demons, unexpectedly comes into Cyn's life, their attraction instant and impossible to ignore. Beginning a passionate affair, theirs is a romance that threatens to spill over into obsession.

To the other, each is an addiction impossible to satiate, a danger that threatens to escalate to a tragic and irrevocable climax.

'Tangled Garden' is the first in Savvy Rose's 'Beautifully Broken' series. A novella in two parts; the first, 'Wilted Petals', explores the beginnings and the fallout of an extramarital affair, reminiscent of a sapphic 'Fatal Attraction'; while the second, 'Chaotic Delusions', is a psychological drama, a character study in trauma revealing more twists and turns to this tale of two troubled women.

It took a while for me to warm to Cyn; while you can sympathise with the turmoil triggered by her denial and living a lie, it's a struggle to see past both her behaviour towards her husband and her dishonesty with her lover about her marriage, which triggers the catastrophic events that follow. Despite her issues and, at times, alarming behaviour, I found Dev a more sympathetic character. With the novella's second part told from her perspective, we learn more about her history; a psychological autopsy of a traumatised young woman who simply wants to be loved.

Not only erotic fantasy, this is a well-written, character-driven drama; a story realistically told and brimming with romantic suspense. Exploring themes of mental health issues and infidelity, the fantasy doesn't detract from the damage inflicted upon the characters by both the events of their pasts and also their present actions. I look forward to the next in the series and also reading more of Savvy Rose's work.

Gripping and sensual, 'Tangled Garden' is an erotically-charged quickie read that will leave you simultaneously satisfied and eager for more.



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