Promises & Pomegranates by Sav R. Miller is Book 1 in the Monsters & Muses series which is a series of six interconnected standalones and is a follow on from the Sweet Sin prequel novella. It is not required but advised to read the novella before Promises & Pomegranates as it gives us an introduction to the FMC & MMC as well as some secondary characters that are pivotal to the characters and plot.
The story itself begins with Kal and Rafael chatting in the latter’s office as it has come to their attention that the security feed all over the Ricci’s home has been infiltrated and the tryst between Elena and Kal are now on a flashdrive that Rafael is now watching thanks to Kal showing it to him. Believing there’s a blackmailer out there intent to bring down his already crumbling empire Rafael needs Kal’s help and knows he doesn’t work for free so when he asks what his price to help ensure the blackmailers stay quiet, the answer is simple: Elena’s Soul is the price to be paid.
Elena Ricci’s wedding day, around 8 weeks after the events of Sweet Sin. She is betrothed to Mateo De Luca who isn’t a nice guy and their marriage is more of an agreement between their fathers more than love. Elena is not a fan of Mateo and he is abusive and degrading, however, she gives him as good as she gets – she was taught to fight and she’s good at it, even if it is a man that is hurting her. Whilst we don’t see the abuse on page it is implied in the FMCs POV after the fact. She’s so deeply infatuated by Dr Kallum Anderson who she freely gave her virginity to on her 20th birthday 8 weeks prior to her wedding.
Dr Kallum Anderson is 32 years old, has a medical degree and is the enforcer/fixer for Rafael Ricci and Ricci Inc. Kal was only 13 when he met Rafael and his wife Carmen while he was at hospital with his mum who was dying of an aggressive form of cancer. When she succumbed to her disease, Kal reached out to his biological father who wanted nothing to do with him and he ended up in the foster system and soon he was picked up by Rafael from the street and groomed into being a fixer/enforcer by Rafael and groomed into a relationship with Carmen – the relationship is not depicted but it is implied and discussed.
On the wedding day, Elena is dreading the whole thing and she’s told she will learn to love her husband and as they are about to leave, he requests to see her and she’s trying to avoid it but she goes to see him anyway. When she arrives at his room, she sees him on bed looking very ill and throwing up and she is just watching him and then as the life slowly drains from him, she hears the voice of the person she has been longing for – Dr Kal Anderson – who makes no attempt to save Mateo’s life. We then realise that he is responsible for the demise of Mateo and they are soon joined by a priest and Rafael and Kal then forces Elena to marry him instead under the guise he is trying to help her – he is, but he is also trying to help himself.
Once the ceremony is over, they are back in the Ricci home and Kal is being grilled by Elena’s younger sisters while Elena is packing to leave. He decides to cut the interrogation short and goes to Elena’s room, hearing voices inside and he enters the room seeing her mother Carmen but no Elena. Carmen begs him not to take her daughter by trying to use her manipulation tactics on him so give Elena time to flee but Kal simply breaks her hand and finds Elena on the balcony of her room. She resigns herself to her fate and allows him to inject her neck with a substance so she passes out and when she comes around, she’s on a plane and confused as to why they are there and where they are going.
She soon finds herself on Aplana Island off the mainland of Boston which is going to be her new home. The home she finds herself in is a remodelled hotel that is now the home of Dr Kal Anderson and she soon feels like a captive in the marriage and her life, realising she was freed from one prison to another.
Luckily, the relationship between Kal and Elena starts to develop more, both are infatuated by each other and the sexual tension and chemistry between both characters is electric and you can feel it as you read through the pages. Whilst on the island, Elena and Kal find out that her parents are pushing the narrative that she was kidnapped by Kal (technically she was but Rafael agreed to it). They feel betrayed by Kal as he wanted to leave the mafia side of things and you don’t simply just get to leave. The marriage to Mateo was going to secure Rafaels future but as the wedding didn’t go ahead he had to pay out a small fortune to the Bollente family to ensure that he and his family remain safe and he blames Kal for this. Carmen on the other hand is just jealous that Kal is with someone else and that someone else happens to be her daughter.
As they navigate through their marriage and start to explore the island, Kal is hellbent on trying to get a relationship with his long lost sister and believes if he has a wife and familial unit it will help the relationship and also give him access to his grandfathers trust so he can pay his sister. We meet Violet and she’s very similar in personality to Kal and while they are talking outside Kal’s bar, he had given Elena strict instructions not to leave and ensured that his staff would keep an eye on her. As she goes to leave, Vinny, a staff member tries to stop Elena and insults and assaults her and she fights back, leaving him a crumpled mess on the floor but not enough to stop him injecting a substance into her leg. Realising people are paid to mind their business Elena leaves and finds she’s gone out the wrong door.
Unsure of her new surroundings and trying to get somewhere safe before the substances takes effect we see Elena stumble across a bus station and she settles on a bench waiting for staff to comeback so she can try and leave the island but she is soon feeling the effects of the substance and when her husband calls her to try and find out where she is, she is barely able to hold the conversation and just as she passes out we hear that strange men are approaching her.
Kal finds his wife and sees her bloodied and bruised – most of which have come from her fight with Vincent and a business card next to her bearing the logo of Ricci Inc. on it. The men were sent by her dad to rough her up to scare Kal and Elena into having Elena returned to Boston. We start to see a caring side of Kal as he helps Elena recover after her ordeal and part of that is allowing her to watch as he makes Vincent pay the ultimate price for his part in hurting Elena.
The story moves quickly and the timeline jumps a few weeks and we soon see Elena and Violet meet for the first time, neither one knowing who the other is and Elena feels Kal is being unfaithful so storms into the bar, the first time since her attack and demands to know who the girl is. The rippling tension between Kal and Elena is a constant throughout the story and it just keeps you hooked on finding out if they are both in this for real.
We soon see them return to Boston to go to Elena’s sisters recital, however, when they arrive home, everything crumbles. Carmen drops the bombshell that her and Kal had an affair and makes Elena feel small and ridiculous. Elena flees the dinner and Kal tries to stop her but she still leaves with her sister and he then goes back to confront Carmen where he gives her a few home truths, fires a blank at her to scare her and then he goes after Elena.
At the recital, they find they are seated next to her parents box and so Elena still really angry and hurt uses this to have sex with Kal one last time not caring who sees or hears and when they finish their intimacy she excuses herself and leaves. She runs out of the theatre and goes to a secure apartment her parents know nothing about. She stays there a few weeks and goes home to pack some of her things as she wants to be away from her parents and while she’s packing she finds her mum in her room and she gives her a few home truths and seals it with a punch. As she leaves, she drops a bombshell of her own as she sends an email containing all of the details of the illicit activity her parents have been involved in throughout the years to the police, knowing that being a rat is the very worst thing you can do.
During their time apart, Kal has decided to dissolve the trust and to stop trying to pay his sister and used the money to buy his way out of Rafael’s grip and ensure no fallback can come his way should anything ever happen to Ricci Inc. He also decides to give Elena a true choice by giving her the space she needed to process things and drew up annulment papers citing fraud as the reason for the annulment. This is what brings Elena back to him, she is angry he served her annulment papers, knowing he knew where she was the whole time and didn’t look for her. They then confirm that they are in love with each other and when she tells him what she did to her family and realises that Kal was just a pawn and groomed by her parents she forgives him and they decide that there will be no annulment. Kal also then finds out who was sending him the grainy images of him and Elena and it was none other than 18 year old Riley Kelly who needs to disappear and needs Kal’s help – we find out more about her and her story in the next instalment – Vipers & Virtuosos.
All in all this book was a great read from start to finish and the character development for both Kal and Elena is fitting and they are perfectly suited. There is a lot of love and passion between the two and it just explodes through the pages and it is a really good page turner. I struggled to put this book down and I am excited to see where the series takes me. I liked the fact that it is loosely based on the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone and they are referenced throughout the book.
As always, with a dark romance, always check the trigger warnings/content warnings on the authors website before reading but if you like a good dark mafia romance with a morally grey MMC and a feisty and strong willed FMC then this is the book for you and you can find it at the links below:
https://amzn.to/41MvVbI - Promises & Pomegranates by Sav R. Miller (Kindle Edition)
https://amzn.to/3RL447f - Promises & Pomegranates by Sav R. Miller (Paperback)
https://amzn.to/3tS5OU9 - Promises & Pomegranates by Sav R. Miller (Hardback)
https://amzn.to/3RMoDQz - Promises & Pomegranates by Sav R. Miller (Audible)
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