Demetra appare come una madre asfissiante, una donna che vuole avere il controllo di tutto e tutti. Se da un lato è disposta a tutto per riavere la figlia con sé, dall'altro non perde occasione per punirla e umiliarla. La sua ambivalenza mi ha destabilizzata, perché non riuscivo mai a comprendere le sue vere intenzioni. Besides three hot sex scenes and an enjoyable protagonist, Captive In The Underworld explores several aspects of mental health, self-care, and familial abuse with commendable nuance. The ending was like several consecutive (but also good and entertaining?!?) punches to the gut until the denouement, as I realized the full extent of Persephone’s dysfunctional relationship with her mother. Persephone was always going to be the annoying heroine in the story so I was hoping that Hades would of made up for it. Unfortunately she did not, her character was always straddling that line of being Great but never really crossing it. Ade era una donna bellissima, con un naso aquilino che sembrava scolpito nel marmo, alta e pallida come se non avesse mai visto il sole. Aveva la fama di essere vendicativa e dura, e infatti senza darle neanche il tempo di capire, la trascinò con sé nel Regno dell’Oltretomba. Qui, la giovane Persefone, sarebbe diventata la sua sposa e avrebbe dovuto soddisfare qualunque richiesta della Dea, altrimenti avrebbe ricevuto delle punizioni esemplari.

The road has been long and fraught with uncertainty, but for caleb and livvie, it’s all coming to an end. This wasn't what I expected, but overall I enjoyed it. The writing and worldbuilding were lush and gorgeous, and it definitely felt more of a dark fantasy novel with a romance subplot than a dark romance. Captive in the Underworld: A Dark Lesbian Romance Novel by Lianyu Tan is a re-telling of the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. The re-telling is in the gender bending of Hades, now sister of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia.The cover is beautiful, the writing is excellent, the narrative is well-paced. The main weakness is the timeline and time skips. Since the characters, for the most part, are gods and goddesses, the story spans over centuries, not years, and I sometimes had a hard time keeping up. Also, the romance itself isn’t as developed as the sexual relationship, and I think had the author delved deeper into that aspect of the relationship, the whole story would have benefited from it. I would have been happy with more magic and special effects too, but that’s just me being greedy. The number of people that Caleb has kidnapped isn’t exactly clear. What is clear is that Olivia is far from being the first. The reason for capturing Olivia is because he sees her being an exceedingly attractive and beautiful female, though impoverished. Still, when Hades pulls her into the dark realm of the underworld, Persephone longs for the world above, even if it means an eternity under her mother’s thumb.

There is a plot-and-character related whipping scene (nonsexual) which didn’t strike me as unnecessarily violent, but might upset readers whose tolerance is lower than mine. What's sad is this story could've been great. But I couldn't find it in myself to justify the author's choices for Hades' actions. She was needlessly made to be abusive. We weren't provided deeper meanings to explain her decisions nor to make her misdeeds a tad defensible. I didn't even get a sense of remorse from her.Nell is an out-of-work professional sub in need of a job. Jeremy Gray is a jaded film star in need of a “personal assistant”. With no job and no home, Nell takes Jeremy up on his offer in exchange for the promise of a better future: comply with all this demands, and he’ll pay for her to finish college and start a new life. Despite their imbalance of power, the situation actually works out fairly well for these two; things are complicated but not particularly dark or broken. At least until a stalker begins to threaten their secret life together. Degradation by Stylo Fantôme Need more mob in your dark romance? Here you go. Ruthless People follows the marriage of Melody Giovanni and Liam Callahan; a marriage arranged by their fathers to end generations of bloodshed between the Irish and the Italians. They were both bred to rule, both bred to be ruthless masters of all they survey. So neither is about to let the other master them. But like it or not, with so many people eager for them to fail and let their kingdom crumble, they have no choice but to work together and keep up appearances. Raw by Belle Aurora

I liked Persephone a lot. Life just keeps beating her down at every turn but she was so resilient and strong. I appreciate that she stood her ground and was not afraid to go toe to toe with Hades. Hades herself is a whole different thing. She’s an enigma and so hard to figure out. Again, she does awful things to Persephone so I can’t say that she was someone I particularly liked but she made for a very interesting character. There’s some damn hot sex scenes in this and I did like seeing them bond. Weatherspoon loves to play with themes of dominance and submission in her books. She has at least one other series besides Beards & Bondage (of which Haven is the first book) that revolves around the same. Haven is about a camping trip gone seriously awry, which pitches a young woman on the run into the arms of a solitary nature photographer who’s not keen on company. Drawn together by their shared experience the night of the incident, the two get involved in an intense relationship, hindered by their own dark memories. Asking for It by Lilah Pace I personaggi, come avrete notato, sono ben definiti. I caratteri spiccano attraverso i loro pensieri e le loro azioni. Anche nelle figure secondarie c'è un'ottima caratterizzazione.The flimsy attempts of the novel to improve Hades' image by trying to make everyone else seem crazy and abusive is kind of a lost cause. Throughout my reading period, when I wasn't feeling revulsion and disgust at the love interest we are supposed to root for, I cheered myself up by imagining Hades being fed into a woodchipper, and if you think that way about the love interest, something has gone very, very wrong. Her being in poverty enables Caleb to get away with kidnapping her, as he supposes. He sees her as the ultimate reward that his aim will surely desire. He intends to train her as one of the pleasure slaves we noted already, then sell her off into slavery to the man that once took and tortured him. Walking Into a Nightmare Note: There is a whipping scene later on, but it is plot-related rather than sexualized. If this is triggering for you, maybe give the book a pass.) Remember that thing I said about revenge plots being a recurring feature in dark romances? Lake Monroe is a senior in High School, ands she should be worrying about the things that normal seniors about. Not the fact that her childhood tormentor of 10 years, Kieran Masters, is going to be released from juvi and rejoining the class for their final year. Not the fact that she’s the one who got him sent away, and soon he’s going to be free to do something about it. Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas

When our hapless protagonist Olivia happens to walk out of the drugged slumber she was forced into, she realizes that her life has taken as sharp a turn as she could ever have expected. She is bound to her bed with a rope. In her general proximity is a complete stranger that refers to her as his pet, while he is to be regarded as the Master.Ho compreso il suo conflitto interiore e ammirato il modo in cui agisce. Si innamora di Persefone e farebbe qualsiasi cosa per lei.