.png)
Deathtrap by Alexandra St. Pierre
Publication date: October 1st, 2024
Pages: 534
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Synopsis:
Everyone Lilith touches dies. She has lived her entire life running from the grim reaper, who has followed her relentlessly since birth. He watches her from the shadows, and though he seems set on stealing everyone from her life, he refuses to allow her to take her own.
When Lilith gets a job as a bartender at a Voodoo Steakhouse, her shadowy demon companion leaves her in peace for four blissful years. It isn't until one of her colleagues passes away in a horrible accident, that she begins to fear he has returned, and this time, she may not be able to escape him.
*Deathtrap is the first book in a dark romance interconnecting series. This book explores very dark themes and has an extensive list of trigger warnings. If you are not familiar with the dark romance genre, it is recommended that you proceed with caution. This book is not suitable for everyone. 18+*
Available at:
Review:
The depths to which I had hoped to enjoy this book were profound. I started the book at the tail end of 2024 and was hoping I was going to hit it out of the park and start 2025 off with a 5-star read. Unfortunately, this book did not meet my expectations. The premise is good, girl dodging a clingy grim reaper but finds out that she is more than just the play thing for the reaper. However, the execution was not so great. First off, I read a partial review before starting the book that said "over half the book was non-con with heavy degradation and humiliation". I am not one to really shy away from trigger warnings so I didn't really put too much stock into the warning. I kind of wish I had. There is a line between what is dark romance and what is simply abuse. This one, I didn't get the hopeful warm fuzzies thinking that, 'oh well, he did really terrible things to her but throughout it she was just afraid to admit she wanted it!' But there were a lot of scenes where it was obvious that she really didn't want anything with Ramel. She even turned away from him in disgust a few times and yet he still forced her into situations she didn't wish for.
Throughout the book, the abuse became more and more hard to stomach. Especially when they would set her up in an impossible situation just so they could have the privilege of punishing her for it later. I get that eventually she started to enjoy the pain and the punishment but even I was like, "oh baby, that's Stockholm syndrome." Ramel only did most of the things he did because he had no memory of Lilith and was trusting God when he told him that she was coming for his job in Hell. But even when he recovered his memories he did some awful things. I did not like Ramel AT ALL. I would wrinkle my nose anytime he was in a scene which was pretty much the entire book.
The book absolutely dragged on and on and on for pages and pages until I was ready to DNF at 76%. My completionist personality trait was the only reason I decided to finish it and it just got progressively more confusing and as if the author just threw everything but the kitchen sink into the plotline. Making God the enemy was an interesting choice but one that aligned pretty well with dark romance. I have to say though, hinting at God's sexual preference by commenting on how all angels were made male until Lilith gave them a choice when they chose to follow her... that was wild. My innocent thought process: "oh, they have to open their mouths and take God's holy sacrament. Is that like a cracker or...?" NO IT'S NOT A CRACKER!
Summarizing my chaotic thoughts, I did not enjoy this book. I did not like the fact it dragged on, I didn't like that the non-con scenes were literal rape scenes disguised as romance, I didn't like the polyamory angle (personal preference. I am a reverse harem girlie not a why choose.), and I felt there was so much information in one book that could have been cut back extensively. I did not find any of the characters to be likeable and I have no desire to delve into the next book when it is released. Maybe some of what I said intrigues you and that is perfectly fine. We all have our own preferences and if you do read this book, be prepared to skim over some of the same arguments that are touched on over a dozen times.
