Review: A Cage of Crimson by K.F. Breene

A Cage of Crimson
Deliciously Dark Fairytales #5
K.F. Breene
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication date: June 27, 2024
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating:

★★★

Of all the people in the world, why her?

It was supposed to be find the drug maker. Find her, and drag her back to the dragons to deal with. She deserves death for what she's done.

For someone like Weston, the best alpha in the world, the one who shuts people up just by walking in the room, it would've been.

Until he learns what she is…

Finding a fated mate is nearly impossible. Very few are able to do it. But the call of their bond is unmistakable. Against all odds, and in the worst situation imaginable, he's found his true mate. Her.

Worse? If there could be anything worse than a true mate that has brought the world to its knees - she doesn't seem to realize what she is. Her animal is suppressed. Locked away, leaving her nearly without magic. She doesn't know what the feeling is, and she doesn't care. She claims innocence. She thinks he's the villain in this story, and she aims to kill him before he destroys her.

It doesn't change his duty. He must bring her in, nature be damned. Regardless of how much it hurts, he'll resist the sweet taste of her lips and the heaven between her thighs. She must pay for what she's done.

He just hopes he doesn't die inside for the part he's forced to play in the destruction of his true mate.

 

My thoughts...

This story is supposed to be a dark retelling of Red Riding Hood... and I suppose in some ways it is. However, after the initial capture, I completely forgot it was supposed to be a retelling and just viewed it as an erotic shifter romance. It wasn't until I started to write my review that I was reminded that this was a retelling.

I liked the idea of this story. I mean, when it comes to shifter stories, you can only tell it so many ways before they all become the same. This wasn't one that I had read before. Aurelia is viewed as being a dud because her wolf isn't present. Because of being a dud, she learned from a VERY young age just how dark and cruel the world could be. However, in comes this old lady named Granny who gives her "safe" haven in exchange for Aurelia to make some pretty awesome, but non-lethal drugs. During this time Aurelia is beaten, starved, and watched those around her suffer. However, she remains loyal to Granny. One night she's abducted by the "enemy" a pack of wolves set out to take her to their leader so justice can be served to the person making these deadly drugs circulating the lands. Confused would be an understatement on how Aurelia handles all of this. However, as their journey progresses she starts to view them as friends and they have a friendly comradery as they lead her back to their land.

Now that all sounds good and dandy. Except, Aurelia refuses to see what's going on around her. She falls into this "mate lust" and has hateful sex with her main captor who is the Alpha. When she is presented with a chance of her old life, she's torn.... TORN after she realizes that Granny was using her, altering her "product" to make it addictive and deadly, AND the village she called home was a ruse for Granny's business and everyone in it was a hostage. She knows these things, and yet still wants to live that life with Granny. I just, that just made me want to bash her upside the head.

Another thing that really got me about this story is the sex. I honestly didn't even read it. It comes out of left field without so much as a "hello" and it goes on for PAGES. All the "baby's" and "oh yes'" were just faaaar too much for me that I cringed as I flipped to the end of the scene so that I could get back to the story at hand.

I was really enjoying the story for the most part and enjoyed watching the convoy soften towards their prisoner and start to see that maybe she wasn't the one making the deadly drugs, maybe they were being altered. I had issues with the over the top sex scenes and the way that Aurelia was so quick to forget EVERYTHING she learned on this journey and have thoughts about going back to Granny. That just made it seem like there was conflict and drama there just so the author could end the book on a cliffhanger and maybe have that conflict carry over into the next book. I don't know, but it was stupid, in my opinion, and felt like a slap in the face to all the character growth that had been taking place.