Reviews with content warning for Rape - Master of Salt & Bones

This was the third book that my dark romance book group decided to read so it does come with some trigger warnings and I want to highlight those first because I think with these kind of reads it’s very important that people know what they’re getting themselves into & that everyone is aware of some of the triggering things within the story.
TWs⚠️: Breath play, knife play, sadism, mental and physical torture, aversion therapy, child death, suicide, drug addiction, attempted rape, sexual assault, bloody scenes, paedophilia.

Despite all of those trigger warnings this is a really good book. It’s one that I think is gonna leave me thinking about it for ages to come as well which to me is always the sign of a good book.
So considering this was the pic for dark reads book club it does feature a dark romance however this book is so much more than that as well. The plot twists just kept coming and coming, and in the last 30% of the book every single chapter had a new OMG moment for me and then the last 10% was just like Jesus F Christ.
The story follows Isa (Isadora) who takes up a job as a companion for Master Lucian Blackthornes mentally declining mother. The Blackthorne family is shrouded in years of mystery and rumours, and their family home - actually a castle - has seen some tragic events in the past. Isa moves into the castle to start her job and from the moment she meets the devil of saltbones himself her life is set on a new mad path.
Throughout the book you gradually start getting fed pieces of the puzzle of Lucian’s darker past and I really enjoyed the fact that the dark romance mostly featured his troubled past rather than the female main characters past. However Isa also has some haunting secrets of her own.
Wrapped up in this story are relationships that test limits both mentally and physically, damaged & tortured souls who just need some healing, mystery, suspense, shady cults and just a little bit of everything to be honest.
I absolutely loved that I could see everything playing out in this book exactly how I would imagine it would be in a movie. This story has haunting Gothic vibes to it that just really set a scene and the story feels really fresh and the plot is certainly not one I’ve come across before especially in dark romances and I loved that.
Two reasons this wasn’t a five star for me: 1) there’s a few parts of the plot that I didn’t really like how they were resolved in the end.
2) I expected more from the sex scene, in that I’m not sure they were written that well in terms of where the story could have taken them

All in all this is definitely going to be a book that I recommend to people who are wanting to expand their horizons a little bit, maybe take a step out of their comfort zone while still playing it safe, and who enjoy not knowing where the story is going to take them next.

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