Review: Tears of Tess (Monsters in the Dark #1) by Pepper Winters

Dark erotica with an another enigmatic and dominating alpha

Title: Tears of Tess
Series: Monsters in the Dark
Author: Pepper Winters
Publisher: Self Published
My ratings: 4 out of 5 stars
Released: 28th August, 2013
Dark Erotica are my guilty pleasure, just like bodice ripper romances are for some. This doesn't mean I enjoy BDSM novels as I still stand by the truth that I don't quite enjoy them how ever I have a taste in Taboo romances. Namely prisoner and captive romances. It is not for the light hearted or people who get offended easily. I'm both but still I am somehow utterly fascinated by them. I am not saying that all of them are great but there a few selected stories which mind screw you for the umpteenth time and you'll still be coming back for more.

Tess is holidaying in Mexico with her boyfriend when she is brutally kidnapped and sold off. After suffering atrocities at the hand of her abductors, she is sold to a rich, enigmatic business man who is new master.

Tess is a fighting spirit. She refuses to be broken and become a sex slave as she was intended to be. Q, her owner, seems perplexed and entranced by her and keeps trying to 'own' her. Captive in a Fresh Mansion with servants and maids to do your bidding it is easy to lose the desire for freedom and simply give in but Tess fight it with everything she has.

I really enjoyed the start of the story as the plotting was tight and the events unfolding were not only horrifying but the realism that this type of incidents are occurring all time is chilling. Watching the story from Tess's POV gives the reader the perspective required to really understand what's going on around her and how she is both repulses and fascinated by Q, her master.

Tears of Tess is a good prisoner captive story but admittedly It is no contender to Captive in Dark or Chicken Soup as those book came with a sting of reality to the very end. I found the start riveting as my eyes were glued to the pages as I tried to decipher the various moods and motivations of Q. However towards the half way mark after some truly horrific events, I found the Q was being romanticised. I just wished he would have remained the cruel, controlling master that Tess imagined him to be rather than a torn, tortured soul who just happened to be it.

Overall Tess of Tears is a great dark erotica story with vivid characters which go through hell and back which changes them forever. IT deals with redemption and love and how people and desires change with circumstances. I have given it a slight lower rating than I expected to as I somehow was hoping it would be another chicken Soup or Captive in the Dark but I have realised there will be none. If you want to start with dark erotica and not sure where to look, start with this book and have a taster as to how you find them. If you are ok with the dark and the filth and find more and yes please send me recommendation if you find any.