I thoroughly enjoyed reading A Mermaid's Kiss and decided to read the subsequent books A Witch's Beauty & A Mermaid's Ransom. The very dark theme of the subsequent books was such a contrast to the first one. While the first one was by no means light reading, it was nowhere near as dark as this book which included the hero being repeatedly rape/sodomized while growing up & living in the Dark World...not to mention David being forced to have sex with his mother in A Witch's Beauty. There was nothing that twisted in the storyline of the first one which would make me expect this kind of thing when I started to read these books.

I would've given this book a 4 star but the switch to the more violent abusive theme just kinda turned me off.

Ms. Hill has created a world worse than Hell. Hell is about redemption, but in the Dark One world, there is only utter evil. No light. I cannot express how much her work affects me. I was honestly horrified at the evil of Dante's world, where murder was not bad, only blinked at, accepted. Dante is a savage, beastial creature who, at first, seems incapable of anything beyond violence. Meet Lex, a girl whose happy little world is smashed apart when she realizes that she does not get to choose who she loves. Lex's life is ripped open and made vulnerable to the evil of the human heart. A MUST read. You will NOT be sorry.