Promises and Pomegranates Monsters & Muses Book 1 PDF Free Download

Wow, this book takes you on quite a ride. It’s my first by Sav R Miller but I doubt it will be my last. I was really impressed with the whole book. I’ll admit I looked for a few spoilers before I read it and I’m glad I did. I’m not sure I’d rate it do high if I’d been blindsided by some of the things in here.

This is definitely a dark romance, I wouldn’t call it pitch black but most definitely dark gray/black. I’m sure the pomegranate on the cover is a pretty big clue to this being a Hades and Persephone inspired book. It does a good job with Kal as Hades but I’ve always imagined Persephone to be more innocent. Elena isn’t innocent by anyone’s standards.

I really enjoyed Elena as our heroine. She’s not just mentally tough she can hold her own in a physical challenge but she’s still sweet and feminine. Sometimes tough heroines lose that femininity in the name of strength. Elena easily masters both here. My only complaint about her is purely my personal preference. I like the heroine to be pursued, even reluctant but won over by the hero. It’s clear here that Elena strongly pursued Kal before the book begins. He didn’t even notice her existence until she started trying to seduce him. We don’t get first hand flashbacks of their initial relationship here. Just him coming to steal her from her fiancé after taking her virginity two months earlier. She didn’t want to marry the fiancé but she also didn’t want to marry Kal. She makes the best of though.

Kal is dark and brooding anti-hero. He’s a former assassin and he’s had a very tragic backstory and he’s been heavily manipulated by Elena’s parents. His whole revenge plot is a bit murky to me. There needed to be a reason for him to take Elena, he kept calling her his pawn but I’m not sure what his original intention was for revenge after marrying her. I guess it doesn’t matter because he falls in love with her and it’s delicious.

Story 5/5, Heat 4/5, Darkness 4/5, Angst 2/5, Cover 5/5

Medium burn, there’s some sexual activity starting around 18% but they don’t consummate their relationship until 44%. After that there’s quite a bit of sex, it’s both spicy and passionate. No condoms, h was a virgin but he took her virginity before the book starts, knife play, blood play, exhibitionism, degrading dirty talk. Seriously the dirty talk here was absolutely fire 🔥.

A bit of push away from both at various points. No OM drama, some OW drama. 2 week separation where H attempts to annul marriage. No cheating between H and h, no cliffhanger and HEA.

Safety readers – I don’t know if you would call this a safe read or not. There is zero cheating between the couple. Neither of them even looks at another person after he takes her virginity before book timeline starts. H did have a long-standing previous affair with h’s mother years before the book begins. The h’s mother is married to h’s father during and after affair. It seemed to me he may not have even been an adult yet when h’s mother started their affair.

The h initially fell for H thinking he was leaving her love poems but they were actually for her mother. Eventually he figured out h was the one getting them and continued to send them to her. The h had no idea about her mother’s affair until the mother reveals it to her out of jealousy over h’s marriage to H.

I really loved the book and I imagine I’ll read a lot more from this author. I hope all her H’s have filthy mouths like Kal.