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346 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 18, 2013







Oh, Holy Hotness! I’ve been completely immersed in Cari Silverwood’s deliciously dark and wicked world all this week as I’ve been binge reading her Pierced Hearts series. It’s almost like falling unsuspecting into Dante’s Inferno as every book takes a darker path than the last, rather like the Circles of Hell and I can tell by the blurb of book 4 that it gets darker still. It’s something akin to a spectrum which starts out light grey and ends up jet black and we’re edging ever closer to pure black! It’s definitely a must for all you dark erotica junkies and the upside down naughtiness mentioned in the blurb? Oh, boy - I think I practically combusted when I read that scene – HOT does not even begin to describe it!! It’s definitely a case of boundaries pushed, lines crossed
We’ve met Chris and Kat before in the previous books. Kat is a switch who loves to go all domme on female submissives and poses the most enticing challenge to male doms – none of them have ever been able to truly get her to fully submit. Her extreme brattish behaviour and her list of limits have scared away more than a few very worthy doms. No man has ever been strong enough to take her mind and Chris intends to change all that. He relishes the challenge she poses and is desperate to get her to fully submit, body and soul. The perfect opportunity and justification (as he sees it) presents itself when Kat snoops and poses a danger to Klaus and Jodie in the previous book.
Chris decides to take her away and force her to submit to him. He has always wanted to take things a little further with Kat, enjoying the challenge she poses but the rules and etiquette of the BDSM world prevent him from fully unleashing the true sadist within so he abducts her, transports her cuffed and chained in a coffin like box to a remote house often used by sex slave traffickers where he can play without rules and reproach. I did mention the dark, right?
Clearly, he believes he knows better than Kat what is good for her and what she needs but he’s definitely blurring the definitions of consent as he forces her over and over to take the pain he dishes out and to submit, however unwillingly to him. He has a minor glitch in his plan as his very good friend, Andreas pretty much catches him in the act of abducting Kat. Andreas has a far softer heart than Chris but is very loyal to him and wars with his conscience. He’s incredibly turned on by what Chris is doing but, deep down, he knows it’s wrong.
Can I just say that this one very nearly melted by brand new Kindle – it is so incredibly hot. How wrong is it that, as the books get darker, the consent gets more and more dubious I am enjoying them more and more? The hallmark of good dark erotica is to turn you on and yet frighten you, at least just a little and Cari Silverwood definitely managed to do this – I was really quite awestruck by Chris who, let’s face it, really had seemed to be a fairly well adjusted dominant and accountant in the previous book. Lesson learned – no one is who they seem and everyone has a dark side waiting to be unleashed into the world!
Andreas and Chris combined to top Kat beautifully but they offered stark contrasts in their approach with Chris believing that bringing Kat fully under his dominion is enough whereas Andreas believe that Kat needs to be loved and cared for – they’re at opposite ends of that spectrum although I do believe that Andreas gets more than a little corrupted by Chris! They did, however, learn from one another and there’s significant emotional growth for all three main characters by the end of the story. Is the ending truly happy? I’ll leave you to decide. I was ultimately satisfied by it but this is dark erotica and I think being left feeling conflicted about your feelings for these books is definitely par for the course.
Another aspect of the story, a much darker aspect, is revealed towards the end and sets up book 4 like a dream and I am moving straight on to that one as soon as I hit publish on this review – can’t wait. We’re headed for the jet black I mentioned earlier and the murky world of sex trafficking and I can’t freaking wait!
Cari Silverwood – I bow down to you and put you right up there with my favourite dark erotica authors. I honestly can’t wait to see what your deliciously wicked imagination comes up with next. I am all anticipation!!
4.5 wickedly erotic stars
"A timid, quiet, and fragile submissive meant nothing to me. Kat pulled me in like a wild lioness in the ring of the coliseum drew a gladiator." Chris
"Water flowing over a woman's body was an orchestral composition played by heavenly powers. Or some sort of fancy shit like that." Andreas
"She was truly my work of art in human flesh and mind. I'd never forget her mind. Getting inside there was as important to me as getting inside her pants." Chris
"Was I that bad a person that I wished her here with me rather than free?"