Master of Salt & Bones

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I was so ready to love this. A hero, who has a troubled past, is shunned by his little town and lives in a gothic castle meets his soulmate? It literally sounds like my next favorite book. And while the idea was awesome, the execution and and all the other elements fell flat for me, unfortunately. For a few months, desperate for an escape nineteen year old Isadora will be hired as a companion to Lucian's ailing mother. Being a daughter of a sinner and father unknown she's lived her life striving to escape the hold the island has on her. I think this book has the perfect combination of dark romance, mystery intrigue, psychological thriller, and a cast of morally grey characters I really enjoyed this read and I think the author did a wonderful job with incorporating the past and present because those chapters flowed nicely and we learned more about Lucian’s past. I did think that story was a bit too long and certain things dragged a bit but aside from that, this was a solid read and one of my favorites from this author. I hate funerals. If I was a grief eater, I could feast all day on the sadness and misery that comes with being forced to stare at a casket."

Master of Salt & Bones' reminded me a bit of the fairytale Beauty and The Beast, but in a darker, more tormented, and demented way. This is what I expected it to be going in and I think that that's the impression the blurb is trying to leave - we have an isolated, elusive, misunderstood, suffering, brooding H who lives in this castle and is the town's legend and we have this again misunderstood and jaded girl, who goes to work in the castle. I imagined that she would see him for who he truly is, slowly break down his walls and they'd have this sweet romance that'd make me feel super soft. The slow-burn and build-up towards the culmination of the romance makes it so good that it kept me invested. And they pay people to torture them? and apparently they're super dangerous, but we never deal with them????? so what was the point????????????

The main male character is known as The Devil of Bonesalt. LOOOOOOL. Maybe the Devil of Boning. I mean, these sex scenes were HILARIOUS. At not one, but TWO POINTS, this guy pushes his penis into her WOMB. The American education system really needs to up its sex ed game. Slowly building love interest. Attraction, yes, but their mutual romantic interest took time. They built a relationship, trust, loyalty. I am aware about. Makes the climax so much sweeter Isadora Quinn is unique heroine, brave, straightforward, musical prodigy who is a daughter of junkie mother, abandoned to be raised by her auntie when she was only ten, shunned by the village people who are constantly gossiping and verbally abusing her about the traumatizing incident she’s been involved at a high school party.

Honestly, the writing style was so captivating. Seeing Lucian’s past and the things that led him to the man he is now gave her a glimpse of the rugged and uncompromising personality he portrays. I do have one regret about Izzy’s character, and it’s that she didn’t have as much progression as I would have liked to see. Actually, she had a lot of growth overall. What I’m really trying to say is that she didn’t embrace part of herself as much as I hoped she would. Because if she had: dark phoenix rising. My god, did want. So maybe that says more about me than anything else, lol. There were only a few deviations. What was it about the crow and the shadow? When I read the description of the book here on GR it said it was fantasy and that’s why I bought it. I’ve been waiting for this plot twist the whole time and maybe he was a shapeshifter but no. So maybe the raven and the shadow were just another brainstorm? I’m not sure, these 2 were never explained. Master of Salt & Bones' was a chilling, passionate, and consuming dark romance that will leave you believing there's good in everyone, and that even the darkest souls need love.The first 30% of the book was the most disturbing part of the book for me, and I'm glad it took a different direction after it. 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 has been through lot of really bad situations and so has Isadora. They both are survivors, yet predators, in their own way. They unconsciously attract the good and the worst out of each other and I liked the honesty of it. But I would have appreciated if they had become friends or built their relationship on trust before becoming lovers. It seemed a little abrupt to go from avoiding each other to being all over each other in the middle of the book. This book is hidden, underrated gem. It’s twisty, angsty, surprising, extremely smart. There are so many jaw dropping moments. It was like walking in the minefields. Anytime an unexpected bomb may explode and shakes you to the core with new revelations.Overall: I didn’t expect to love this book too much and I’m so happy to discover this shiny gem. It was smart, heart pounding , entertaining. I loved the cover (yes, I stared at it for five minutes straight before reading) and it didn't incite a single feeling in me that would have warned me what this story held. It was twisted, dark and not a usual fairy tale. I don't know why they didn't mention the warnings but they should have. There weren't any major particular details BUT it does mention (superficially) physical, sexual and substance abuse, and BDSM and sadism too but not between Lucian and Isadora (MCs). So while I loved this book, I can’t gushingly recommend it like I would with any other five-star read. But if you might be okay with those triggers, then my god do you have one hell of a book to look forward to. I don’t want to really get into any specifics with this because there are so many potential spoilers that I might veer too close to, and really, this is a book that should be read instead of read about.

The Narrators have done an amazing job, really took me on an emotional journey, feeling all their pain. If you are looking for a romance book, you should look for something different. First genre when you look on goodreads says this is supposed to be a dark-fantasy-gothic-romance, and romance in this book is probably one of the reasons why my rating is so low. The relationship between Lucian and Isadora started with lust, but it's not even the worst thing anyway, because the worst thing is that Lucian was interested in Isadora mainly because she was young (he is 19, he is 33) and she was a "forbidden fruit". I love age gap romances but the romance in this book was just bad. I love that there is a tinge of Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera dynamic in the romance. Lucian is a scarred hero while Isa is a a heroine thrust into his dark world and brings light to it despite both being broken souls. Either this was tamer than her other romance titles, or I'm becoming immune, but this story didn't make me read only in daylight with my hands over my eyes. And I'm so grateful, because right now, with the way things are in our world, I needed a consuming read that didn't completely disturb my mind while reading it. They’re all wrong for each other. He’s 13 years older than her, he’s involved in very shady things and he doesn’t think he has the ability to love. And yet he is so attracted to her that it almost becomes an obsession. He just can’t stay away and she doesn’t want to.

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I finished this book almost a week ago, and I've been constantly thinking about it ever since; if that's not the telltale sign of a personal 5 star read, then I don't know what is. Each time I bring myself to type of my feelings surrounding the gothic, yet contemporary atmosphere, the haunted, tragic characters, and the dark and disturbing plot of Master of Salt & Bones, I can't quite find the words to do it justice. His words dance around my head, the deep timbre of his voice titillating my senses. "I want to drown in you." 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. It is said that when Lucian was younger he was incarcerated in a psychiatric ward and scars mar half his face. The very scars that earned him the devil moniker.