The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

God I hated the ending. If I knew this was one of those books to get you to pay for another book only to reach another crazy messed up hanging in limbo ending. Forget this mess………

When pirates board Ashley’s boyfriend’s yacht, she jumps over to save herself. An heiress lost at sea only to be saved and taken hostage by the captivating and cruel Poseidon.

This story was quick with a few steamy, intense moments and a touch of drama. Interesting storyline, but holds promise for so much more. I’m interested to see where Amelia takes the rest of this story in book 2.

This book was good until I got to the end of it which was not the end, now I have to get another book to see what happens. Hate that.

I read the trigger warning but it doesn't lessen my questioning the number of rapey scenes in this book. Is consent not sexy? Because there's zero consent in this book and you're hoping the whole time for SOMETHING. Even if she *wanted* it the first time he decides to go all the way, it's really scummy that the whole time he says he's actively trying to humiliate her. He also talks about his moral code a lot but there's no real characterization to prove he has one. For all we know, he just never has female hostages because he breaks his "rules" almost immediately. The author purposefully puts the sex scenes in his perspective to make them less creepy. And then puts the scene where she's stripped and almost raped by Somali pirates in her perspective so that she can repeatedly say she doesn't want it and "maybe she did want what Poseidon was giving her." But really this would all make more sense if at some point they had a conversation about their sexual interactions before the end of the book because it takes forever to get any definitive proof that's she's even remotely into it.

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is the first book in The Devil Trilogy.

This is Poseidon & Ashley’s story. I have to say I hung onto every word!

I loved this Mythology Retelling! Another of Amelia Wilde’s book that I couldn’t put down! And I almost missed this series completely. Lucky for me I have a blog and saw that the 3rd book was out now and after reading the blurb I knew I had to start this series!

Wow there is a cliffhanger but fortunately the 2nd book is already out and I have it on my kindle to start reading it as soon as this review is completed. I have other books that I need to read but I NEED to read Deal with the Devil now! 5+ STARS for The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea!!!

I was fascinated by Posidon, much of the time he felt like two different people, probably because he was so at odds with himself. Ashley was more difficult to like, she didn't have a strong personality, probably because of the way she was raised. This ended with a cliffhanger.

How in the name of all that is holy, did this book get so many positive reviews?
First (and the lesser of my issues): The writing style is a little awkward. What is with the repetitive statements? I felt like I was reading Howard Hughs during one of his episodes. Also, a lot of the arguments didn't have any logical flow to them. The speaker would make a statement and then support it with something unconnected and irrelevant; it was confusing. Like the author was shooting for some kind of deep, meaningful thought but missed the mark and ended up with gibberish.

Second (the main issue): This book is not a romance, it's a tragedy, and a horribly abusive one at that. I can understand BDSM, but that is absolutely not what happened here. This dude WHIPPED her. Naked. In front of a group of men. Just after she'd almost been gang raped. The cherry on top of his already horrible behavior to her. I kept thinking, ok this guy is messed up but he hasn't done anything irredeemable yet. Just some mean threats, this can be salvaged. But then 90% rolls around and that hope goes straight up in smoke. The fact that the heroine still wants him after that dumpster fire at the end makes me think she should be committed to an asylum if she ever does get rescued (because after suffering through her warped thoughts, we all know she's not the type to successfully escape on her own). It's the same twisted reasoning that battered spouses experience. So no. Just no to this whole book. People who enjoyed this story need to see a therapist.

Nothing is more annoying than books that end in cliffhangers. If an author has a story to tell, they should tell it and not drag it out for 2-3 books. If I had know this book ended in a cliffhanger, I wouldn't have bought it. There should be a icon or something that warns readers of cliffhangers!