ABOUT THE BOOK

I gave Hades a fake name at the club, and now, he’s chosen me as his mate.

Once upon a myth…
I’ve always been sheltered by my overprotective mother, hence the nickname given to me by my tormentors. “The nun.” As a geeky scholarship student at the ancient and prestigious Saint Eudora Academy, I craved freedom, so, I sneaked out into the nightlife for the first time to mend my broken heart. There, I met a pair of alluring blue eyes and our worlds collided leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.

It was a single night, and we both wanted to forget someone. He said, I have six months before he returns. Six months to tell my old life goodbye. In my drunk state, I agreed, and he declared us as betrothed. The next morning, I ghosted him.

Imagine my surprise when I see him at my academy six months later. He’s returned like a raging inferno to claim me.

The connection and recognition are still there. He was supposed to only be a myth. The man I meet now is different. He’s tortured, dark, and deadly like Hades. A sense of danger surrounds him, trapping me toward him. I don’t know what he is capable of until a favor from the reaper and a chilling murder forces us to bond.

I fear the unknown ahead of me when I finally unmask him. I’m entangled in a web of secrets and lies where money and power rule in his dark world. He says he collects souls, and now he is here to take mine.

Valerius Vitalli will never let me go.

Loosely based on the myth of Hades & Persephone.

MY REVIEW

I have read every book Beena Khan has written so far because her characters are unbelievably cruel and incredibly vulnerable, and her addictive plots completely gut me.

Valerius and Annabella are two opposites who meet one night and share their firsts in a drunken and innocent union. Valerius vows to find her again in 6 months, but she sees it as a false promise considering the situation and forgets about it. Until he keeps his promise and tracks her down at her college as a changed man. He’s no longer the sweet, smiling man she made love to, but a smirking and mysterious ghost appearing out of nowhere and spouting cryptic messages with odd undertones.

Annabella has been called a freak and a nun by her classmates. Her innocence, plain appearance, and a scholarship to a prestigious academy have made her a target of bullies, especially her best friend’s nasty boyfriend, Maddox, who physically hurts her. With one request to the mysterious Hades who makes things happen for a price, Annabella’s life is shattered by selling her soul to the devil.

Valerius is not your typical made man. He is hiding from the Don of his family, Enzo, his brother, and making his own choice to “help” people in his own inexplicable and shocking way. He comes across as sweet and kind when he first meets Annabella and then in their 6 months apart returns broody and even more mysterious. He wants her soul and she will run when he reveals the monster he truly is.

The mystery and twists and turns in this book are fascinating as I watched the trainwreck that is Annabella and Valerius’s love story. My heart broke for both of these two lonely characters who only wanted to be chosen for who they really were. The monster and the freak. I loved seeing Annabella grow more confident as she started to stand up for herself no matter the consequences. And I grieved for Valerius’s soul as his actions were from a man in love, but with a grave outcome. This book is part of a duet and I am so looking forward to how this story will continue to unfold.

Pick up this romantic and passionate battle of light and dark in a gothic academic setting. It will not disappoint. 

Thank you to Ms. Khan for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beena Khan is a storyteller in her twenties residing in NYC where she brings dark fairytales and myths to life. She writes edgy mafia crime noir, romance thrillers, new adult, women’s fiction, and contemporary fiction that gives you a book hangover. Her books are painful, messy, dangerous, and raw. She has a Master’s Degree in Psychology and a minor in Arabic studies. 

Her women’s fiction and contemporary books is where you will find flawed gentlemen. Her darker books is where you will find morally gray anti-heroes and villains.

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