They say good things come to those who wait.Bullsh*%!My whole life has been about waiting. Playing it safe. Be the good girl, don’t color outside the lines. Put in the hard work trying to prove myself to Dad, then to my college professors, then to my boss at New World Media. Just waiting for the day when it will all pay off. And right when it was all starting to—I finally had the house, the job, … finally had the house, the job, I was even thinking about getting a cat—boom!—my life explodes and suddenly now I’m here and—
“All done,” the doctor interrupts my thoughts, pulling off her gloves with a loud snap.
Even from the bed where I’m lying, my legs spread like the Thanksgiving turkey, I can hear the impatient growl of the man standing in the doorway. If you can even call him a man. More like a beast out of a friggin’ fairytale. “Well?”
Her pronouncement echoes throughout the room while the speculum is still inside me. “She’s a virgin.”
Intended for mature audience. Steamy romance with dark themes.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR:
Q – Where did you get the idea for this book?
A – Who doesn’t love a Beauty and the Beast story? I’ve been in love with this fairytale since I was a kid and read all sorts of different variations on it. Now that I’m grown up, well, I couldn’t help but imagining some darker twists and turns the story could take. A tortured hero, kidnap, and a girl falling for her captor—hello, this is the stuff dark romance is made of!
Q – Why should I read this book?
A – I write the kind of books I love to read, which is dark romantic erotica. I want stories that steam things up in the bedroom but not if those scenes don’t go hand in hand with three-dimensional characters, can’t-stop-flipping-the-pages suspense, and quality writing. I like alpha males, (doesn’t hurt if they happen to be billionaires)!, bad boys, BDSM, contemporary, urban settings, and fiction where women can be strong while also exploring all sides of their sexuality. My favorite books are ones that dare to go into the darkest and most taboo places in the human psychological experience, leaving you wrung out on the other end.
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Melanie, aka Precious or Pet, has been put in a precarious situation through no fault of her own. She has one of two choices. She can sign a contract blindly agreeing to spend a year of her life with a man she has never met and give him an heir in order to get her father out of the country and keep him alive or she can walk away and hope her and her father can stay alive. The chemistry and relationship between Melanie and Xavier was not so much dark as it was incredibly intense. With all the secrets that are being hidden by these two, there’s a great deal of insecurity that comes through their personalities. Between the dubious consent, Master/slave interactions, and sexy scenes there could be triggers for some. This story flowed seamlessly making me want to know all the details of each of their stories. This was a phenomenal read that I would recommend to anyone.
Wow!! Still floating from the hangover
This is a new author for me and she is still leaving me speechless trying to write my remove. My heart is still beating so hard thru my chest that I have to stop for a few moments before I write this review.
Not very often do I find a book that engulfs my emotions so much that I find myself not being able to dive right into the next book. This was that book. It draws you into the story after the first chapter and you find yourself lost so far in the pages that before you know it, you have read the entire book.
This books shows you many sides to one person and you cannot help but laugh, cry, and scream. This is one of those books where you can watch the two characters in the book genuinely fall in love with each other. You can feel their emotions seep thru the pages, you cannot help but fall in love with this story thru happiness and tragedy.
Make sure you have tissues close you will need them.
Excellent storyline.
I was introduced to this book by a book group and found it a thrilling read. Realising that Melanie had to now down to the mighty and dominant Xavier was a joy to read. She was witty with her inner voice, a constant battle of wills between herself, her inner herself and the man running the ranch. As time goes on they settle into a routine which only strengthened the pull she felt towards him, but uncovering his past brought new fears and also the downfall of their future
This is darker version of the fairy-tale we know. Melanie agreed to a deviant deal in order to save her father. Give at least a year of her life over to the hands of a beast of a man, known as ‘Master.’ His to control, she fights him at every turn. But he is resilient in his ways and knows how to push her buttons. There is a lot of sexual content… some more disturbing than others. While it is darker, and he is somewhat sinister in his actions in regard to her, there is also a sweet side to him. I liked her character and the way that while she was basically forced to become a ‘pet’ to him, she saw reason. Her inner dialog showed her thinking of all angles in just about every aspect of her time with the man. Very analytical. Her thoughts and feelings were constantly going from anger to awe to anger to more. There were secrets he was keeping, as he kept details of his life to himself, that were slowly explained throughout the story. Due to the nature of the book, this is suitable for mature readers.
Read: 7/20/19
The Virgin and the Beast was the first book in the Stud Ranch series by Stasia Black. It was a fairytale retelling and was my first book by the author.
Xavier. Well we really didn’t know anything about Xavier until the end, so no spoilers here. However, we learned quickly that he was silent, gruff, disfigured, a recluse and needed an heir. Xavier’s presence gave a mysterious vibe to the story.
Melanie was the daughter of a man who was arrested for a ponzi scheme fraud. She had a way to keep him from going to jail but had to agree to be off the grid for one year with the potential to be a baby mama. She was fiercely stubborn and independent so she had a very rude awakening…. at least at first.
It was told with a single POV, Melanie’s. After Black set the stage for the plot, she then began demonstrating how to train a submissive, without giving the potential sub (Melanie) the guidelines or what was being attempted. As a result the interactions between Melanie and Xavier were mechanical at first – no true relationship, friendship or other – beyond master, sub, sex and the motions of their daily life. This was pretty much the first half of the book.
It was well written and developed. It was the type of story that appeals to those loving a hostage, anti-hero and hard core BDSM theme. From a personal perspective, I struggled with the animal tactics as a daily BDSM life style. That pretty much ruined it for me for the first half of the book. If I was not reading this as a buddy read, I would have either not finished or skimmed. However, I kept going hoping it would get better, and for me, it did. The story unraveled and provided greater insight while getting past the humiliating behaviors. Again, the writing was good – it was just personal preference on what’s entertaining or not to me. No spoilers, so no elaboration.
In the end, I fully enjoyed the last half. I compromised with a 3.5 rating, which rounds up to a 4 on this rating site. It’s not a book that will appeal to everyone, but will appeal to some. If you choose to read it, the key is to stay with it to the end and not give up.
I liked the author’s writing style so I’ll read more in the future. The local vet is next in the series for a Snow White Retelling in Hunter.
This is my second book by this author (I didn’t realize it until just now) and it won’t be my last. I love a dark romance and this doesn’t completely fit that bill but I’ll take it. The story was well written with fully three dimensional characters. I am just shy of saying it was a perfect story because of one thing… Melanie’s mother was a woman who should not have had children. She didn’t treat her daughter well and made it clear that Melanie was unwanted. My issue with this is that there are women in all walks of life who don’t want children, shouldn’t be mothers or are mothers and end up being bad ones like Melanie’s. Her mother’s race should not have been played up in a way to insinuate that it was a factor in her mother’s behavior. The reader was told and told and told again that Melanie’s mother was Mexican. What does that have to do with it? If it had been mentioned once or twice in regards to some of Melanie’s features it would have made more sense but it was really not necessary to refer to it so negatively. It almost through me out of the story. I am glad I stuck with it.
I’ll preface this with dominance stories aren’t normally my thing. So, for me, what put me off a lot was that aspect of the book. I fully admit that’s me, and another reader might really enjoy it. I normally don’t take stars off if that’s the problem I have with a book; I’ve given dubcon/noncon books four and five stars, IF the rest of the story is there. For me, the dominance aspect was such a big part of it that I felt it overshadowed the rest of the story. As far as the story itself goes, I liked Mel’s and Xavier story, but I’ve got to admit that it’s not my favourite in the series. It hasn’t put me off the series, but it’s not one I’ll likely reread.