A Starred BlueInk Review of Hellebore Fields
“The power of these chapter endings is noteworthy; every ending statement is a perfectly placed hook ...”—BlueInk Review (starred review)
As promised, I’m back with the BlueInk Review of Hellebore Fields, and honestly, I’ve been vibrating with anticipation to share it. I can’t believe it took me this long to post it. This is what happens when you do more than write books.
Riv xo
Rivkah Plume’s novel is a page-turning, dark romance and erotic thriller that revolves around the potentially dangerous relationship between a violent college hockey star and a naïve literature major in search of her own “epic love story.”
Tesni Solaris is a scholarship student navigating the halls of elite academia at UC Wisteria and doing her best to fit in with all the “trust fund babies.” Tesni, a big fan of Victorian literature, is irrevocably changed when she’s partnered with a hockey player named Branwen Atthill to write a thesis exploring parallels between sports and literature.
Branwen’s reputation precedes him: suspensions from brutal hockey fights, restraining orders, etc. So it’s fitting that the two decide to write about obsession. But as Tesni is drawn to Branwen’s darkness—and his “ice-blue” eyes—she has no idea just how methodically he’s controlling and entangling her in his obsessive nature. “She doesn’t see the cage,” he declares. “She calls it devotion.”
When a student—a girl Tesni knew—is found murdered, with Branwen as a primary suspect, everything Tesni believes she knew about the short-tempered hockey star comes into question.
The brilliance here is in the novel’s structure. Although the crux of the story is the disturbing relationship between Tesni and Branwen (highlighted by steamy, graphic sex sequences), the narrative is constructed like a mainstream thriller, with intricate plot lines, relatively short chapters, and tantalizing chapter endings that make it impossible to put the book down. The power of these chapter endings is noteworthy; every ending statement is a perfectly placed hook: “Maybe he is dangerous. But then again, so are all the best stories.”
The fusion of seemingly disparate elements—such as pairing a romance novel with a love interest who’s an obsessive control freak and self-confessed stalker—makes this an intriguing and unpredictable read. Romance fans looking for dark literary escapism will find this twisted erotic thriller unputdownable.
Also available in paperback and ebook.
Author’s Current Residence
Carlsbad, Calfornia
Source link: https://www.blueinkreview.com/book-reviews/hellebore-fields-a-dark-academia-hockey-romance/
