THE MONSTER and the DOLL by JADE WEST

‘I wanted to climb Elaine Constantine and tear her apart on the descent. I wanted to own her. Hurt her. Destroy her.’

We love Jade West, she’s our indulgent pleasure for sure, so we couldn’t wait to pick up the Starcrossed Lovers trilogy. When The Monster and the Doll boxset landed on our kindles we dived straight in and what a journey it was! The rollercoaster ride begins in Heartless, then gathers pace in Soulless and dramatically flies off the edge in Relentless. Heed the trigger warnings if you’re new to Jade West, if you’re not new to this Author, you know exactly what you’ll be getting and that’s intensity, darkness, filthy erotic passion, and situations that’ll make your jaw drop. We bloody loved it and we got exactly what we were hoping to get in Lucian and Elaine’s explosive love story.

‘Shared secrets, and rage, and hate, and this weird new sense of casual somehow. It was fucked up, just like we were. We were two peas of fucked-up in a very fucked-up pod.’

Jade West sure has a way with boundaries. You willingly take her hand as she guides you to your own personal boundary, lets you peek over the edge at what’s to come before her words literally catapult you over to the other side. The element of surprise at how far this Author is willing to take you is exhilarating and addictive, well it is if you’re as much of a fan of her books, as we are. We bloody love it!

‘She was a mass of confusion and rage. Rage and want. Rage and fascination. Rage and being so fucking butchered by her own pain that she was a pool of risk, waiting for anyone around her to step up and take what they wanted from her.’

‘I couldn’t deny it…I wanted the monster to love me enough to keep me safe…It was true…Oh my God it was true…I wanted the monster to love me.’

We never questioned the connection between Lucian and Elaine, their chemistry was explosive, and our kindles were in danger of melting from their passion. Their romance wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t sugar and sweet. It was the exact opposite. Ugly, raw, and darkened by tragedy and horror.

‘I resented her for making me choose her. For being so beautiful, so broken, so strong that I had to take her for myself. I resented her, even though it hadn’t been her choice.’

Our initial interpretation of Elaine Constantine was that of a puppy left out to starve in the freezing cold, chained to a fence with barbed wire. A puppy that no matter how much it’s downtrodden, still has the capacity to live, to love, and to show bravery and rage when needed. On the other side of the coin, you have Lucian Morelli who inhibits that enticing disturbing darkness that you want to run a mile from, but instead can’t help wanting to embrace, love, and devour! Because you just know underneath all that hides a seed of vulnerability and capacity to love. One of them feels too much, the other feels nothing at all.

‘Lucian Morelli wasn’t scared of anything. The man was the devil, reigning over hell.’

Lucian and Elaine’s love story is Jade West’s dark and messed-up version of Romeo and Juliet. Two rival families intent on complete destruction and annihilation for reasons unknown. This story is fraught with intense drama, the extremity of emotions, brutal retributions, aggressive passion, and is the epitome of dark and disturbing. Once again, heed the trigger warnings, but if you love dark and twisted erotic romance, go forth and ENJOY! We sure did! An unputdownable trilogy from the wonderful Jade west!

“I mean it,” he whispered. “I’ll kill them all, baby, one by one. They’ll all rue the day they ever looked at you that way, let alone touched you. That’s a promise.”