Master of Salt & Bones

Product Information

Living in a small sea side community known by its superstitions resides 'Blackthorne Manor' a modern day castle which overlooks the township otherwise known as Bonesalt due its white clay and sand that covers the exterior of the castle. Isadora Quinn's journey working for the enigmatic Lucian Blackthorne is an inferno you won't want to escape. But she is a person with her own insecurities and trauma that shaped her to who she is until she meets Lucian.

Through flashbacks, we also learn how Lucian developed his fetishes, which were some of the strangest scenes I've ever read. And also,as it is categorised under the romance genre,I felt the romance was less,and the plot and flashbacks took more of the book. There was a romantic subplot in there but it was sooo under-developed that I just couldn't feel anything between the characters. And one thing that most dark romance characters(especially the hero)lack(in my experience at least) is their oh-so-dark-and-broody-and-dangerous-and-what-not reputation doesn’t happen to be well-earned.Needing the extra money to not only help her and her aunt, Isa agrees to a job working at the infamous Blackthorne estate despite the warnings. TWs for sexual assault, abuse, violence, suicide, institutionalization, breath play, knife play, animal cruelty, torture, murder, hallucinations, panic attacks, severe mental health issues, and probably several others I just can’t remember right now. It’s goosebumps inducing with a mixture of hold on to your seat thriller that you will want to experience over and over despite the madness. That’s right, this author managed to make the male lead into such an enigma that I spent 3/4 of this voraciously consuming his backstory and still I want more. The story starts off with a nerve-racking prologue that does a good job at making you uncomfortable and keeping you in suspense, an intentional move by the author to stir up your senses.

The lines between good and evil are blurred greatly, as the sparks between Lucian and Isa continue to burn into an inferno of passion and desire! If you love the dark, the forbidden, the complex, the twisted yet beautiful dance with danger in the shadows, then this book IS FOR YOU! At first, I admired Isadora’s tenacity, but there were certain incongruities that didn’t mesh for me.

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. Also there is a massive age gape between MMC and FMC ( still age of consent but first time reading something like that). There were some "mysterious" things happening throughout the story, but none of them were really explained. I had the feeling that in the first 50% this book was more about Lucien and Isadora is just the background In his story because there were so many chapters from his younger years.

This is a standalone dark gothic romance and it deals with some very heavy kinks and traumatic experiences. But like I mentioned above, there were so many unnecessary scenes that ate from their character development. Between fucked up childhood of the MMC and learning about Sadism ( very descriptively) this made 50 Shade of Gray dull in comparison ( in my opinion). He’d ride up on his white steed and break the curse I’ve been fated to carry since the day I was born.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. Lucian Blackthorne is a man that as much as you would like to sum him up with a few words, you can’t. What a charismatic, dangerous, secretive, seductive but also caring, deeply atoned, sad and lonely character. This is the first book I've read by Kerri Lake and I'm very impressed with her storytelling and her amazing writing!

There are several overlapping plots in this, each a mystery unto itself, but the main one is Lucian. There’s a few chapters of what the couple are up to that’s at the end of the book or on the bio of the authors on Instagram and that slightly settled my hangover but I definitely need more!Consent matters to him, and while he’s openly enamored with the fantasy of forcing Izzy, it’s only the fantasy he’s attracted to, and he wouldn’t pursue it without her agreement – actual rape is horrifying to him. The author is a new favorite I will be reading more of her books but in small doses because after reading this it left me feeling some type of way like I needed therapy. Esse livro aborda tanta coisa, que a sinopse não faz jus a sua intensidade e a quantidade de temas que ele traz.