Title: ⟫ Between The Devil and the Sea
Author: ⟫ Chani Lynn Feener
Rating: ⟫ 3/5
Blurb: ⟫ What happens when a devil claims a demon?
Detective Shadow Yor hates his life.
He spends all of his time, day after day, struggling against the demons in his head that tell him he’s a worthless, unlovable person. This doesn’t change when he’s sent on a new assignment with his partner to solve a series of murders. He’s good at his job and will find whoever did it, there’s no doubt there. The only question is whether or not he’ll be able to keep himself together, or if his empathic abilities will finally be the death of him.
Apollo Orobas is bored.
He’s bored of his secret nighttime proclivities and bored of playing the part of charming neighborhood do-gooder. Apollo isn’t good, never has been, but just when he’s starting to think life holds no interest, Shadow Yor stumbles into his sights. It doesn’t take long for him to figure out the detective is also hiding his true self, and suddenly coaxing Shade’s monster out into the light is all Apollo can think of. As obsession sinks its claws in, he decides it’s time for a new game, one Shade is going to play with him. Whether he likes it or not.
Kidnapped and forced to endure whatever twisted plans Apollo has in store, Shade struggles to hold onto his idea of right and wrong, but the more he tries to resist, the more those lines start to blur. What chance does a mere demon have against an actual devil? Especially one who soothes those twisted voices in his head and makes him feel for the first time ever that maybe he isn’t as unlovable as he’s always believed.
Trigger Warning: This is a stand-alone dark romance which means there are many themes that some might find disturbing. Some of these include, but are not limited to, dub-con, violence, a seriously obsessed male lead, a male lead who deals with low self-esteem, and explicit sexual content not suitable for all readers. Please be sure to read the Author's Note for a complete list of warnings! HEA guarantee!
Review: ⟫ I debated on writing a review for this book – my mind was kinda all over the place. I loved the premise and the blurb caught my attention, along with the beautiful cover. However, I found that some of the book dragged – we had a LOT of Shadow’s thought processes and after a while it became more than a bit tedious.
I was also struck by the way in which characters behaved: Shadow’s partner’s actions towards the end of the book simply didn’t ring true for me and I struggled with that aspect of things quite a lot.
The idea of a White (slightly dusty) Knight being turned to the darkness definitely intrigued me, but I don’t feel that this book really managed to portray just why Shadow made the decisions that he did. It was more than obvious that he was struggling with feelings of worthlessness and depression, but despite his inner monologues I couldn’t quite figure out just why/how he fell for Apollo.
The other thing I struggled with were the character’s voices – sometimes they merged in my head and that made things very confusing.
I did like the world building that was present and would be interested in reading more about such a place/world but ultimately, this book didn’t hit the spot for me.
