"She taught herself to hate, now she must learn to love."

Speaking against her half-sister's Entertainment had gotten Honey Wine stripped of her position as a guard. She now tends the "beasts" in the prison below the palace. The only way she can care for them and keep her own humanity intact it to foster a hatred for them. For some reason she feels more hatred than usual for the new beast that has been brought in. Perhaps because of his arrogance, or perhaps because of the dreams she has that include him. That is, until she discovers who and what he is. As time passes she finds herself drawn to him more and more, but it's not until his session of torture with The Lady that she realizes she must find a way of escape for him -- and for herself.

Kate Hill creates a world for the reader that is very realistic. I admit words elude me when I try to say why I love this story. I usually am not that fond of stories set in a medieval-style time period, but this one just sucked me right in from the first. I liked both the hero and heroine. There are a number of secondary characters who have you longing to read their stories. Though some scenes may be a bit intense for some readers, they were very well executed. The main problem I see with this series is that you have to wait for the next one to be published when you want it right now!

Sensuality--NC17. Blunt and some crude language; descriptive sex; oral sex; voyeurism; masturbation. Monogamous relationship. Secondary characters: non- monogamous sex; self masturbation. Sexually explicit scenes: 11.

Reviewed by Flora Bell
Courtesy Sensual Romance
Posted April 28, 2003

Summary

Drenched in blood and sweat, Sir Torn is thrust before the healer known as Honey Wine that she might prepare him for the brutal Entertainment to come: a slave—Torn—fighting another slave to the death for the depraved ruler's amusement.

The new slave's arrogant nature piques Honey Wine's interest in more ways than one. Against her better judgment, she begins to notice him as a man. And begins to suspect that he is so much more than a slave...

Sexual Content: NC-17. Genre: fantasy.