Battles of Salt and Sighs is a dark fantasy romance that follows two storylines, with one pair (couple) capable of becoming ultimate darkness for their world, and the other pair struggling in a sh*t situation. (Well, so far, that is!) It follows four characters:
Larent - Good Guy in a Bad Place - Within the first 10% of the novel, we know that Larent is known for being easy on humans (the enemy) and not abusing them, and that he is having to do some things for show that he does not want to, but he does anyway. He is very definitely a morally gray character because he's basically a good man having to do bad things, and he's willing to do those bad things in order to keep the position he's won (presumably for a greater good, but I'm not sure if there is a 'good' side in this world haha).
Onivia - Good Girl (Woman?) in a Bad Place - Onivia is the young woman who ends up Larent's prisoner. She's also got good motives - she wants to save her sister; she doesn't think of herself as superior. She is pretty powerless, but she possesses a quiet, enduring strength. I think she grows most out of of all characters in the book, and at the end seems a stronger person for it. If I had to pick a favorite character, I think she would be it!
Magdalia - Spoiled girl teetering on the brink (of evil?) - Magdalia is portrayed as a spoiled brat. She's only eighteen, sheltered, and a lot of her initial reactions seem childish. Because she's so self-centered, she has a slightly disturbing tendency to not care about the lives of others. She, too, is pretty powerless, but she definitely has the potential to fight Duranth (her male love interest). Thus far, she is still a petulant child more than a resolved woman, but my guess is she will either become a total badass or she will descend into utter darkness with Duranth!
Duranth - Broken Man who embraces a lack of mercy - Here, I use 'broken' not to mean that anything has actually broken him, but that something (he admits himself) is broken in his mind. He's presented as a man from whom an essential part of humanity has been broken away, and he is totally not interested in putting it back. Sometimes he seemed pretty cool, but at others he comes across as unhinged, and I think unhinged might be closer to defining what he actually is 😃
So those are the players, and these are the dark elements they're playing with and that you should expect in this book:
Power imbalance: the women captives are not (yet) an even match skill-wise to their male leads, and there is little to no alliance between the pairs, although some grows throughout the book.
Dubious consent
There is some meaninglessly wrought death and violence - characters killed to show the darkness of the characters
Stockholm syndrome-like attachment between hero and heroine
Just be warned lol that I think the ending traumatized me a little 😃 though that may be an endorsement for some of you!