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bunnerz's review
3.0
As a preface to this review, these authors are all new to me, and I had no idea what their usual writing style and stories were like before reading this book. I was initially interested due to the concept of a paranormal brothel, but this book turned out to be a huge surprise, especially due to the other non-descriptive reviews on Goodreads.
Deadly Desires is a very odd and twisted book that revolves around a paranormal brothel of assassin-prostitutes run by Madame Dupree. It also focuses on a 666-year-old pixie janitor named Trixie who is magically physically bound to the brothel upon its creation and starts off as a tiny 2-inch being. The main prostitutes that she regularly bothers and spies on include Diego the Alpha shifter, Taryn the succubus (and her pet bat Nergal), and Tiana the shapeshifting dryad. In the introduction, we learn that clients of the brothel often end up dead, and Trixie's main job is to clean up the bodies of these Johns and Janes. Later, we learn that the brothel is
The chapters are written by switching off the point-of-view with Trixie and the different prostitutes as well as some of their victims in each of their separate storylines. The text often contains 1st-person sarcastic and sassy interjections by Trixie from her perspective of the same events, and they can be very confusing and disruptive to read.
The descriptive language throughout the novel is very crude and blunt, which can be a refreshing change from euphemisms in most romance books. However, my main issue with the book is that I don't think the warning the authors provide in the synopsis and the beginning of the book prepares you to come across graphic MM (and lighter FF, menage, and reverse-harem) scenes and hard kinks like male Omegas that can get pregnant. I had assumed dark erotica just meant typical bloody dubcon limited to basic violence like rape, torture, and murder, but it crossed more uncomfortable topics than just that. I advise skipping this book if anything mentioned earlier and graphic scenes about ephebophile and pedophile characters are a no-go for you.
Dubious graphic and violent storylines that were an eye-opener for me included the following:
* Diego meets an Omega male, Riley, who later visits Diego for help with his heat and ends up mating with Diego with graphic MM Alpha-Omega scenes (knotting, self-lubrication, claws, scent glands, nesting, mentions of mpreg).
* Tiana sets up a puzzle room (like in the movie Saw) and then participates in it with a kidnapped ephebophile rapist client while shifted as an attractive helpless and clueless 17-year-old victim for him. Graphic scenes ensue as she pretends to innocently trigger him.
* Taryn simultaneously seduces and flays a pedophile rapist client while her bat Nergal eats slices of his skin.
* Tiana helps a mute sexually-abused dryad reunite with her tree after reading and reliving her violent memories with her abusers.
Some very bizarre kinky things that Trixie is described to have done in the book include
* spelunking in Taryn's vagina to "clean out" blood from her messy tortures and getting Taryn off with the process
* peeing on everyone any chance she can get
* getting off by riding Taryn's nipples (?!)
Overall, I found it a very interesting book that was decently written for a book with so many authors and distinct plots (with the occasional typo). It was pretty easy to read once I was able to get over the surprise of new weird, kinky, and graphic material, and the book did end with HEA for almost everyone Ultimately, I would have to say the scenes at the end of the novel were more palatable to my more vanilla tastes than how I was violently introduced to each character in the beginning of the book.
I was morbidly fascinated at the imagination of the authors, but ultimately, I was pretty uncomfortable throughout the whole book, and I would not choose to read a book like this again or any future novels in the series if I had known what kind of topics the book would cover.
Deadly Desires is a very odd and twisted book that revolves around a paranormal brothel of assassin-prostitutes run by Madame Dupree. It also focuses on a 666-year-old pixie janitor named Trixie who is magically physically bound to the brothel upon its creation and starts off as a tiny 2-inch being. The main prostitutes that she regularly bothers and spies on include Diego the Alpha shifter, Taryn the succubus (and her pet bat Nergal), and Tiana the shapeshifting dryad. In the introduction, we learn that clients of the brothel often end up dead, and Trixie's main job is to clean up the bodies of these Johns and Janes. Later, we learn that the brothel is
Spoiler
located in a different dimension, the brothel's job is to torture and kill damned criminals for Lucifer, and in the basement, Trixie throws the bodies in a portal to hell where they relive their torture indefinitely in the next realm.The chapters are written by switching off the point-of-view with Trixie and the different prostitutes as well as some of their victims in each of their separate storylines. The text often contains 1st-person sarcastic and sassy interjections by Trixie from her perspective of the same events, and they can be very confusing and disruptive to read.
The descriptive language throughout the novel is very crude and blunt, which can be a refreshing change from euphemisms in most romance books. However, my main issue with the book is that I don't think the warning the authors provide in the synopsis and the beginning of the book prepares you to come across graphic MM (and lighter FF, menage, and reverse-harem) scenes and hard kinks like male Omegas that can get pregnant. I had assumed dark erotica just meant typical bloody dubcon limited to basic violence like rape, torture, and murder, but it crossed more uncomfortable topics than just that. I advise skipping this book if anything mentioned earlier and graphic scenes about ephebophile and pedophile characters are a no-go for you.
Dubious graphic and violent storylines that were an eye-opener for me included the following:
Spoiler
* Diego meets an Omega male, Riley, who later visits Diego for help with his heat and ends up mating with Diego with graphic MM Alpha-Omega scenes (knotting, self-lubrication, claws, scent glands, nesting, mentions of mpreg).
* Tiana sets up a puzzle room (like in the movie Saw) and then participates in it with a kidnapped ephebophile rapist client while shifted as an attractive helpless and clueless 17-year-old victim for him. Graphic scenes ensue as she pretends to innocently trigger him.
* Taryn simultaneously seduces and flays a pedophile rapist client while her bat Nergal eats slices of his skin.
* Tiana helps a mute sexually-abused dryad reunite with her tree after reading and reliving her violent memories with her abusers.
Some very bizarre kinky things that Trixie is described to have done in the book include
Spoiler
* spelunking in Taryn's vagina to "clean out" blood from her messy tortures and getting Taryn off with the process
* peeing on everyone any chance she can get
* getting off by riding Taryn's nipples (?!)
Overall, I found it a very interesting book that was decently written for a book with so many authors and distinct plots (with the occasional typo). It was pretty easy to read once I was able to get over the surprise of new weird, kinky, and graphic material, and the book did end with HEA
Spoiler
with fated matesSpoiler
(with the exception of Madame Dupree, who Trixie is forced to kill for an unclarified reason to inherit the brothel).I was morbidly fascinated at the imagination of the authors, but ultimately, I was pretty uncomfortable throughout the whole book, and I would not choose to read a book like this again or any future novels in the series if I had known what kind of topics the book would cover.
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