Enthralled

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨.5


First Impressions
Enthralled is the story of Alex and Cosima and after reading the duet that dealt with Dante's book, I knew I had to pick up Cosima's book and whew this book led me on quite a roller coaster and I loved just immersing myself into this story like this. And I was a bit nervous about this book because there are mixed reviews and some reviewers I trust struggled with this book, but knowing what I was going into with certain aspects, I knew I just had to buckle my seat belt and this author delivered and I fell so hard for this book. I also think I was in the right mindset to truly enjoy this story like I wanted to. So my best advice going into this book.....be ready for a sadist/masochist romance that definitely has darker elements to the story.

First Line
It was the biggest day of my life.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Alexander
The Heroine: Cosima

Summary
Cosima is the daughter that is the beauty of the family. She is the one that she always knew what her destiny would be, and it would be like that of her siblings. She knew that she would have to make a sacrifice, what she didn't know was that would cost her. Her father sold her to pay off debts and he sold her to a man that is the devil himself....Alexander and she is now his slave to do with as he pleases. Cosima has pride though and she won't submit without a fight. But as they play a game of cat and mouse with his each other, she starts to feel a building connection to Alex that she didn't expect and before long she will not only submit her body....but her heart and soul to him. But they have enemies and sometimes a happily ever after isn't possible for the darkest of hearts....

What I Loved
What I loved most was the emotional connection that is slowly built within this story. There is a LOT of spicy scenes, but I do feel you do need to read them as their deeper connection is slowly built within those scenes. Some of these scenes will not be for the faint of heart. It deals with aspects of BDSM, humiliation and degradation and sadism. So keep that in mind. I actually really loved the aspect of master/slave. It actually reminded me of some older bodice rippers that had these elements only in a more modern context within a dark romance. And with each chapter, the author gives you these tidbit of the building the serial duet plot that will only build the mystery of what is happening in this world, the secrets that Alex and Dante are keeping, what keeps these brothers apart, whether the father is a hero ....or a true villain and what sacrifices will need to be made for love.

This book dug deep into my heart and broke it all different type of pieces and it ended in a way that I didn't expect but man I can't wait to delve into the conclusion because man.....my Alex and Cosima. I need them to have their HEA. But wow DANTE!!!! Now I get his connection to Cosima. In his duet I didn't fully understand his connection to her, but I DEFINITELY get it now. And wow it only adds so much more depth and I can't wait to see these brother rebuild their relationship and I need that brother bond and NOW!!! And discovering who is the true father of Cosima and his connection to this duet blew me away!!!!

What I Struggled With
The BDSM stuff was really rough at times. And also there were some scenes where Cosima is tortured (not by the hero) that was really really rough to get through and pushed my boundaries. And not the cliffhanger I expected, I am still on the fence how I feel about it, but it ended weird. So there is that. But this book was addictive and so compelling so I rated it as high as I did because it definitely dug deep into my emotions.

Overall View
Enthralled was a deeply impactful story that was richly dark, edgy in its thrall to the reader and will have you questioning all of your morals but in a good way. It emphasizes the good in life and to embrace and hold onto it in such a poignant way!

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Dark Romance, Erotic Romance
Character Types: Anti hero, Mafia, Sadist/Masochist
Themes: Danger/Suspense, Hades/Persephone, Beauty and the Beast, BDSM, Dirty Talk
Tropes: Fairy Tale Retelling

Book Perspective
Duo POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Both

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
Pam Godwin
Sam Mariano
JM Darhower

Song This Book Inspires
Wicked Games by Weeknd

Recommendation For Reading Order
Yes you must read this duet in order

Steam/Spice Explanations

Simmering cup of tea---soft warm touches and light intimacy
Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

what the actual fuck was that & why.

Book one in the enslaved duet, Enthralled by Giana Darling is my first read by this author. I kind of went into this book completely blind only reading a few reviews on this book just because it sounded like it something that I would really want to read. And I wasn’t wrong. This book is extremely dark and pushed me to my limits a few times. I don’t even know if I would categorize this as romance to be honest with you, I mean I see that technically yes it is, but this book gave me more Stockholm syndrome then romance. Our main characters are Alexander and Cosima. I’m going to get right into it and say that Alexander is an absolute dick and I still don’t know if I actually like him or not. He is just not my type of hero by any means. Alexander is mean, deceitful, in some ways unruly, cold, and vicious. Yet he’s actually really perfect for this book. No matter my feelings of him I can’t really picture anybody else in his place. Cosima, our poor Cosima. Anytime it was Cosima’s point of view I was ready to rip her out of Alexander’s world and make sure that he’s never able to find her ever again. She is strong, determined, understanding, curious and overall compassionate. She’s forced into this life with Alexander just to protect her family which is very precious to her and in the end her feelings for Alexander may have changed from where they were at the beginning of the story. Overall, I enjoyed this book. It’s definitely not one of my favorite dark Romance is but it’s also not the worst that I’ve ever read. Giana Darling’s way of writing was a little hard for me to get into at first but once I did, I wasn’t able to put it down. This book is not for the faint of heart, so if you are truly not into dark romance I don’t suggest reading this book. There should be, I’m not really sure if there are many trigger warnings at the beginning of this book. Please be wary before reading. If you are into dark romance I would take this book by caution. There are some very intense scenes in this book and I honestly didn’t think I would make it a few times. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

feminism? nowhere to be found

This is definitely a dark romance, considering the premise, but I think the author did a good job of making the relationship believable. At least one of my stars is for the sex scenes alone because they were pretty damn steamy, but if intense BDSM is not your thing, then you will not like this book. The writing itself was fine, and the characters are interesting enough, but let's be honest--we don't read these kinds of books for their in-depth character studies and intricate plotting. It's nice when smutty books have those elements, and this one did a pretty decent job with them, but that's not why I picked up this book. I'm gonna go take a cold shower.

This conclusion was unavoidable for me after the turmoil I felt reading book one. I was all twisted up in a million ways and the darkness was a lot to handle. Cosima goes through an unbelievable amount of shit I kinda hated her family and everyone else for not helping her. I do like Dante and the continued crazy secret society / government / etc stuff. This was a crazy series that really put me through it. It’s very steamy and twisty and I wished there was less pain on the way to the ending and HEA but the characters were strong enough to come out on top. 3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

4.5 stars I received an ARC of this book from the author and I voluntarily reviewed it! Thank you Giana Darling! Wow! So many twists and turns in this book. As soon as you think you have one thing figured out, Darling flips the plot on its head and leaves you all dazed wondering what just happened. Darling truly pushed her style of writing in the book. It was flourishing with metaphors and poetic passages. As always, I loved the references go greek mythology and how they were carried out from the beginning of the story until the end. How to make Cat happy? Coherence and consistency. I truly think this was Darling’s best novel in regards to character development. Cosima was such an interesting journey as a character. She is layered and complex. Heck, the whole PLOT is complex. My mind is still realign from what I just read! So, of you like unpredictable and unputdownable dark romance, READ THIS.