Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Salt in the Wound

I was drawn in by this book being a Tristan and Isolde retelling, but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. Mark Trevena and Isolde Laurence are like if Christian Grey & Anastasia Steele were combined with Rhysand & Feyre in the Court of Nightmares, but without any of the trust or true intimacy. This age-gap, arranged marriage, dom-sub relationship was WILD at parts.

Isolde’s dedication to her faith and her sexual awakening were well-written. She is a well-developed and complex leading lady: strong but submissive as part of her “sacrifice.” Mark is undoubtedly captivating, powerful, and mysterious, but cruelly pulls the rug out from under Isolde and reader, both, by the end. The setup for book 2 is definitely strong!

Content Warnings

sienasummerrreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Isolde met a cold-hearted monster known as the devil at 17. She goes to college and wants to become a nun for the Catholic Church and pledge her vows. But her father makes a deal with the devil for an arranged marriage for personal gain. Now to give in to temptation and hand myself over but it’s not that easy when my faith is playing on my mind.

This was saucy. I was hot and bothered. I went into this pretty blind with no idea of what to expect. Isolde was battling with her faith and was stuck in the middle of three men in her life. Her father owner of a big-name bank, her uncle she looks up to and has guided her on her religious journey and now the devil himself Mark Trevena. Mark is a controlling dominant who owns a sex club and must keep his appearance up and starts teaching Isolde about his world and oh boy is it kinky and delicious. Then we got towards the end and I was gutted and angry for her. But then Sierra wheels me in with the last two pages and I’m in shock! I enjoyed this a lot. I will say personally I’ve never been around a lot of religion and don’t understand that side of things only getting the idea. It was hard to connect to the FMC on that level but I have an open mind and am excited to continue the series.
Enjoyed the audiobook and if you do read this first book has no intercourse but trust everything else they do is delicious.

If you love:

🔹Enemies To Lovers
🔹Age Gap (14yrs)
🔹Arranged Marriage
🔹Possessive MMC
🔹Religious FMC
🔹Delicious Spice

Genre/Type: Dark Adult Romance 18+
APK: Kindle / Audiobook
Pages: 175
Audiobook Length: 5hrs 26mins
Narrators: Isabella Ruther - Solo
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series or Stand Alone: Book 0.5 Prequel To The Lyonesse Series
Tropes or Themes: Enemies To Lovers, Age Gap (14yrs), Arranged Marriage, MMC Possessive, Teaching FMC, My Wife, Mine, Tension, Religious, Sexual Content, Praise, Sex Club, Crawl, Sir, Dom, Sub, Virgin, Bondage, Exhibitionist, Blood and Impact Play.
Mentions: Death Of Parent
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Content Warnings

sydcreads's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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clareasday's review

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No

3.0

Content Warnings

emilykilburg's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

livreads16's review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This is the second worst book I’ve read in my life so far.

Content Warnings

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Salt in the Wound is a novella retelling of the love story of Tristan and Isolde (and Mark) and this novella is chronologically #0.5 in the Lyonesse trilogy by Sierra Simone. I'm excited to see how I like novel #1 in the series because I only somewhat liked this.

I've previously read Sierra Simone's Priest series and I definitely expected that series to be in some part about religion because it's about a priest and his family. I didn't expect Salt in the Wound to be about religion at all but it was and from my atheist point of view it was a bit distracting. The male characters keep manipulating Isolde and they were using her religion to do so, I hope she's able to get back at them. I expect there to be more mention of religion in the sequel "Salt Kiss" and I'm wondering if it's going to be as prominent as it was in this book.

I don't like Isolde with Mark, he's too old for her. I mean he's in his mid 30's (I think) when she first meets him, she's only 17 at the time. There are time skips in this novella so, Isolde stars the story off at 17 and ends the story in her early 20s, but in my opinion Mark still comes off as a predator. Don't even get me started on Isolde's Dad, what a trash can of a person! My goodness. He disgusts me.

The ending was my favorite part

Isolde meeting Tristan at the end pieced everything together for me, and honestly it re-sparked my interested in the sequel, Salt Kiss.

The spice in this was alright, I really didn't like the last scene

because of the blood, it grossed me out

. I'm giving this 3 chilies out out 5 chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️ worth of spice.

Overall this book was okay, I'm interested to see how the rest of the series is going to play out. I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5
⭐️⭐️⭐️

I listened to this for free on the library website and app - libbyapp.com

Content Warnings

mada_m's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Salt in the Wound is a prequel for the new trilogy coming in the next couple of years (Salt Kiss is the first book of the series). For those who read New Camelot, you might remember Mark and his club - we are going to get to know him really well, starting with his bride, a few years before their story truly begins.
What should you expect? A complicated and powerful heroine, secrets, kink and all the goodies. Exceptional writing, as always!

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