Review: Ruby Tears by Pepper Winters

Title: Ruby Tears
Author: Pepper Winters
Series: The Jewelry Box #1
Publication: March 12, 2024
Genre: Dark Romance
Find it on: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Kobo | Waterstones
Rating: 4/5★

From renowned Dark Romance author and New York Times Bestseller, Pepper Winters, comes a brand new addictive Dark Romance.

“Ten thousand dollars.
That pitiful sum changed my entire life.
It bought my entire life.
A measly ten thousand dollars, given to my boyfriend by a monster to taste me.
He took it.
The monster took me.
And I never saw freedom again.”

I’m the illegitimate son of a monster.
My other half-blooded siblings have their own demons…but me?
I truly have the devil inside.
I try to be good.
To do my best to ignore the deep, dark, despicable urges.
But every day it gets harder.
I thought family could help.
I reached out to my infamous half-brother, Q, begging for his secrets to stay tamed.
Instead, he gave me an ultimatum to prove I’m not like our father.
Infiltrate The Jewelry Box: a trafficking ring of poor unfortunate souls, kill the Master Jeweler, free the Jewels, and don’t lose my rotten soul while trying.
Only problem is…my initiation into this exclusive club is earning a Jewel all of my own.
She sparkles like diamonds, bleeds like rubies, and bruises as deep as emeralds.
She’s mine to break.
I can’t refuse.
If I want to prove to my half-brother that I’m not like our sire, I have to sink into urges I’ve always fought, plunge into madness, and lose myself so deeply into sin that the only one who will be breaking is me.

A spin-off from the New York Times Bestselling series Monsters in the Dark.
The Jewelry Box follows Henri Mercer (Q’s half-brother) and you don’t have to read Monsters in the Dark to enjoy. The storylines are completely separate. You Do Not have to read anything else to enjoy this Dark Romance Series.
Strictly R18.
Triggers on every warning possible.
This is dark, explicit, and will push every possible boundary that exists.
Be warned….
To all those dark souls out there…welcome to The Jewelry Box

Series TW: BDSM, Kidnapping, Noncon, Dubcon, Master & Slave, Bondage, explicit sexual acts, trafficking, bloodplay, breathplay

The queen of dark romance has once again left her mark on the genre and I was definitely not left disappointed. I’ve been highly anticipating Ruby Tears ever since it was announced it would be about Q’s half brother Henri. Q will forever be one of my all time favorite male characters in the dark romance genre but Henri is on his heels, giving him a run for his money. I love this first book in the new series and I absolutely can’t wait for the next one.

“You are the worst thing to ever happen to me because every time I look at you, I hurt. And when I hurt, bad things happen.”

We had already met Henri in the novella The Mercer Curse (definitely read that one before you read this book!) but in Ruby Tears we meet Ily who’s in Paris to give her relationship with her boyfriend Sam one more go. When she’s at a club with him she realizes how badly he treats her and breaks up with him. In the meanwhile Henri is at the same club trying to talk himself into the good graces of the boss of a sex trafficking ring, named Victor, so he can prove himself to his brother Q (this all makes sense if you’ve read The Mercer Curse). And that’s when Henri and Ily catch each other gazes and make their first connection, one of many. When Victor notices Henri noticing Ily, he makes Henri buy Ily from her boyfriend and essentially talks Ily into coming with them which leads to Ily being kidnapped to Victor’s island of jewels. Henri didn’t want Ily to get involved into everything but now that she’s a captive he wants to keep her safe until Q can get to them. The only problem is Henri doesn’t know how long he can keep the darkness inside him at bay and both he and Ily will have to act like master and slave.

She’d be stunning when she broke. She’d be the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, gasping and kiss-bruised, begging at my feet.

That’s pretty much the premise and gist of the story but of course there’s so much more that happens. If you hadn’t guessed already it’s a very dark book but very Pepper Winters. I’m even tempted to say that Henri may be darker than Q? I’m gonna keep my final verdict of that until the next books but that’s my first kinda feeling and I’m definitely here for it. Henri very much tries to keep the beast that loves the tears of women and gets off on their pain behind lock and key but that was before he met Ily and before the connection they made. It’s like he can see inside of her and vice versa. They both want each other so badly but this gets very complicated with everything that’s happening and both of them are not sure what the other is feeling is real.

His domination drenched my system with loathing as well as disgusting, despicable lust. He scrambled me up and choked me with his need.

My first perception of Ily is that I really like her and she didn’t deserve what happened to her. I love her and Henri together, though. Henri doesn’t want to hurt her but to sell the idea of him being interested in having a membership on the island he has to do things to her and it kills him that he loves it. Like I said, it’s a dark book with very explicit acts of sex (the TW’s are above). I wouldn’t recommend it to a newbie of the genre and I’d even recommend to read Pepper’s Monsters in the Dark series first so you can get to know Q and Tess first. But oh the sex scenes were scorching hot and the chemistry between Ily and Henri was the chef’s kiss. Perfectly written!

The book ended in a expect cliffhanger as per usual with this author’s books so I was ready for it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to next book like right now. I can’t wait to see where Ily and Henri’s story is going next. What is Henri going to have to do to her next? Will he be able to send Q his tracking information? Will he kill Victor like I want him to do? I guess I’ll have to wait and see but Ruby Tears was one hell of a start and it was sexy as fuck!

About the author:

On a career level, Pepper currently has close to 40 books released in nine languages. She’s hit best-seller lists (USA Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal) almost 40 times. She dabbles in multiple genres, ranging from Dark Romance to Coming of Age.

On a personal level, Pepper lives on a farm with two minis, four horses, countless birds and wildlife, and a precious little ball of fluff called Mo. Her little house-rabbit sits at her feet while writing all the words, and always seems to know when she’s writing a naughty scene. He’s her muse and the main reason why a rabbit is on her author logo.

Now back to the writing stuff…

After chasing her dreams to become a full-time writer, Pepper has earned recognition with awards for best Dark Romance, best BDSM Series, and best Hero. She’s an #1 iBooks bestseller, along with #1 in Erotic Romance, Romantic Suspense, Contemporary, and Erotica Thriller. She’s also honoured to wear the IndieReader Badge for being a Top 10 Indie Bestseller.

After releasing two books with Grand Central, Hachette (Ruin & Rule and Sin & Suffer) Pepper is a Hybrid Author of both Traditional and Self-published work.

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