Title: Master of Salt & Bones
Author: Keri Lake
Release Date: April 22, 2020
Genre: Adult, Dark Romance, Gothic
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis
When I was a little girl, I dreamed a handsome knight would come and rescue me from my wretched mother. He’d ride up on his white steed and break the curse I’ve been fated to carry since the day I was born.
Funny how things changed over time. How the fairy tale twisted into something far more crooked, darker than I ever imagined.
In reality, my knight is scarred and broken, living alone in a castle of bones that overlooks the sea. He isn’t searching for me. He never was.
Lucian Blackthorne is as cursed as I am, and equally shunned by the locals, the fishers of men, who believe him to be the devil in the flesh.
Perhaps he is, with the way his amber eyes draw me in, ignite me like an infernal blaze. And the sins he whispers in my ear are as wickedly intoxicating as the man himself.
Yet, his touch is heaven and his will is my weakness.
He calls us forbidden, an unsalvageable tragedy, with no happy end. Maybe we are. But in this story, he’s the one who needs saving.
Review
Well I had no idea what I was expecting with this book, but it wasn’t whatever this was. It was recommended to me as a romance and I can definitely see why but there was so much more happening besides that. It was a dark and twisted psychological read that had me hooked.
This book had so many different elements to it. We got flashbacks of Lucien and his childhood leading up to present day along with present day chapters from him. We also get chapters from Isa and I really like the way this was all balanced out. We get to see how the rumors whispered throughout town came to be. It was definitely dark but never took the turns I expected to.
The romance was never what I expected it to be. I kept waiting to be shocked, but it was actually quite sweet. Lucien is supposedly this monster, the devil of Blackthorne. Listen the guy had an absolute crap life with some awful people in it. Toss in his genetic predispositions for sadism and you’ve got a sh** show on your hands. Isa obviously had a traumatic past but it’s never exploited in any sexual way I think. We kisy have two survivors who find something in each other that others have distorted and made into something it isn’t. It was kinda of beautiful and I liked their ending.
Speaking of ending, this one was totally threw me for a loop with those final twists. I was actually worried my final question of parentage would never be answered but I actually got more than I even thought to ask. It was a quick read that was so well written. It’s definitely not a light romance but it’s also not Den of Vipers level sadistic. It was actually kind of a sad story that ends pretty happily ever after.
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