Review - Enter The Black Oak by Monique Edenwood
Anyone who groans at the erotic romance tropes of secret society/irresistible heroine/dominating men who are actually just abusive/cheating, look away now. This book ain't for you. The blurb warns you as well, so don't read the book then bitch about the men being too dominating, the heroine being too beautiful, yada, yada. You were warned. End of.
If that is your thing, then great. Fill your boots, but having read this book I can, hand on heart, say it isn't my thing. There's a fine line between an anti-hero who ruthlessly pursues his love interest, and one with a shitty attitude towards women. There's a lot of talk about how stunning Jack is, how dominating and how virile, and I KNOW this is an erotic fantasy romance where anything can go but I learned quickly it just wasn't mine.
I'm not going to write an excoriating essay on why I didn't enjoy this book, and I'm not going to dock stars because it wasn't to my taste. In the end, it's best just to say it wasn't for me.
BLURB
Falling for a man like Jackson Wilder was not something I had planned.
He was wild, experienced and savagely beautiful. He was also damaged and dangerous. Our love was a cosmic collision of lust and obsession that left me scorched by exquisite flames of desire and domination.
Jack possessed me. He educated me. Loving him was the greatest pleasure I'd ever known... up until the moment I discovered the dark secrets he had been hiding.
I could never have imagined that pulling myself out of the agony of betrayal would lead me to reconnect with a former friend, Cameron O'Neill, scion of one of Manhattan's wealthiest and most powerful dynasties, and sworn enemy of Jack.
Cameron's craving for me was acute. The relentless force of his devastating masculine beauty and his powerful, controlled virility was dizzying. Desire colored his fierce gaze. I knew it was wrong. Jack would never allow it. I had to do everything within my power to resist him, even when he pulled me down the rabbit hole where I uncovered dark truths about Manhattan's most secret society that led me to the brink of madness...
Enter The Black Oak is a thrilling romantic suspense set in Manhattan's high society. It won the International Book Award for 2021 in the category of Fiction-Romance.
Enter The Black Oak will take you on a dangerous journey through lust, desire, betrayal and obsession that will leave you breathless by the end and desperate for more.
Mature Audience.
Enter The Black Oak features a love triangle between the heroine and two highly dominant and damaged men who are also sworn enemies. The novel is an homage to radical female strength and stunning masculine beauty. If depictions of powerful, beautiful, dominant but damaged men are not your thing, this may not be for you!
Approximately 134,000 words.