Promises & Pomegranates ♥ Sav R. Miller ♥ Monster & Muses #1

Published August 2021 ♥ Independently Published by Sav R. Miller

❥ Trigger & Content Warnings

From Miller’s Website : Graphic Sexual Scenes, Graphic Violence, Physical Assault, Torture, Murder, Grooming, Knife Play, Blood Play, Scarification. This is not a “safe” romance.

Note: this is an age gap romance – the heroine (Elena) is 20, and the hero (Kal) is 32.

From Goodreads : Promises and Pomegranates is a full-length, standalone, dark contemporary romance inspired by the Hades and Persephone myth. It is NOT fantasy or a literal retelling. If you’re not a reader of the genre, this book may not be suitable for you. Reader discretion is advised.

❥ Hades & Persephone Inspired

❥ Dark Romance

❥ Forced Marriage

Promises & Pomegranates Review

Contains minor spoilers.

First, can I say I did not know that a twelve-year age gap qualified for a warning?

Promises & Pomegranates is book one in Sav R. Miller’s Monsters & Muses series. Miller’s story is told through the eyes of both Elena & Kal. Mafia Princess Elena has been forced into a marriage with The Doctor/Cleaner Kal after being blackmailed because she fucked Kal in the first place. The apparent answer is to kill her current fiance on the wedding day & stick Kal’s name on the certificate instead. But, as it turns out, Kal is blackmailing her father.

Plot-wise, I had some issues with this book. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is good. The plot made little to no sense to me, though. Elena’s mother leaked to the press that she had been kidnapped & fiance had been murdered. Yet besides her father’s goons, no one seems to be looking for the missing socialite. Elena speaks to her sisters regularly; they know she wasn’t kidnapped and instead married Kal. Everyone seems to go with the false kidnapped narrative. Elena is even in the Sunday paper in Aplana, where she lives with Kal. I get that twenty-year-olds maybe don’t read the newspaper, but seriously, she goes about her life as if nothing happened.

Elena is a punch first; ask questions later kinda girl.

Despite Kal owning half of Aplana and, in particular, a bar called The Flaming Chariot, located in town, Elena rather beat on bouncers than tell them she is Kal’s wife. It’s fucking peculiar, but I wanted and needed to know who was blackmailing Kal. Despite him blackmailing Elena’s father, someone else is blackmailing him. Recording various intimate interactions between Elena & Kal, leaving the footage for Kal to find. A good mystery will get me every damn time. Only, in the end, it wasn’t even a good mystery.

I liked both Elena & Kal well enough on the surface. I liked how Miller moved from one perspective to the other. It kept the scenes fresh and exciting. If we had only been following one of their perspectives, I imagine I would have enjoyed this book even less. Neither Kal nor Elena are interesting enough on their own. The only exciting thing seemed to have been their sex life.

If you are looking for some well-developed characters, this is not the book for you. There is nothing below the surface of this book. It is what it is & what it is; is a few decent sex scenes. The characters are superficial; we never know much about them or how their minds work. Barely scratching the surface of who they are. That’s not necessarily bad; it’s just not for me. I need substance. There is little to no romance in Promises & Pomegranates either, so this book will not be for you if that’s your substance.

Promises & Pomegranates isn’t a bad book, but it isn’t great either. Not in my opinion. I didn’t have much expectation when I went into this book, and I’m glad I didn’t. So if you are looking for a quick read full of Do not touch, Do not look at, Do not even breathe in the direction of my lust vibes, give Promises & Pomegranates a whirl.

By the time he pushes the piece of paper in my direction, sets his mug down, and removes his glasses, I’ve imagined all the ways I could kill him.

Even though the man at my side is a doctor. His presence tells me that right here, right now, he’s my father’s fixer.

They’re feral, flames dancing in the golden rings, and part of me wants to feel bad for forcing her into this.

How I’d drag her to the depths of Hell but convince her she’d gone to Heaven, using my tongue to write wordless poetry on her sensitive, swollen flesh.

He looks savage, like a monster come to life in dire need of his pound of flesh, and it steals the oxygen from my lungs for the briefest of seconds.

I don’t know how fake marriages work. I guess I just assumed our living arrangements would be separate.

I don’t know how, but every time our lips meet, she tastes fucking divine; like a holy scripture written to absolve me of my sins, something sweet and succulent and entire too pure for her own good.

If this is Hell, lock me up and throw away the key.

Like a goddess coming down just to save my wretched soul from damnation.

Willing to do whatever it takes to keep this man looking at me like I hung the stars in the sky with my bare hands.

If hearts were made of glass, the remaining pieces of mine would be jagged and splintered, wholly incapable of being glued back together.

Betrayal slithers like lava down my spine, obliterating everything in its path.

❥ Sav R Miller : Website ♥ GoodReads ♥ Instagram ♥ tikTok

❥ Purchase : Chapters/Indigo ♥ Amazon ♥ Barnes&Noble ♥ Indiebound