Looking for a quick palette cleanser in between reads? | Heaven Sent; Hell Bound - A Review

Review of advance copy received from Love Notes PR

Read this if...

• You love a Morally Dark MMC
• Persephone/Hades is one of your favorite Greek Myths
• You are a fan of Dark Romance

Vespera Cupid has spent her life feeling like she doesn't quite measure up to her family's legacy. When she gets the opportunity to prove herself as a matchmaker, she ends up with the last client she could have expected: Corvus Morningstar, the Prince of Hell. Her job is simple in theory: find him his eternal match. The catch? If she fails, Corvus gets to keep her soul. What starts as a high-stakes game between Heaven and Hell quickly turns into something neither of them expected.

Heaven Sent, Hell Bound  by Zavi James was a unique and interesting read, and I really enjoyed the relationship between Corvus and Vespera. Their dynamic was definitely one of my favorite parts of the book, especially watching Corvus become increasingly jealous and possessive whenever someone else showed interest in Vespera.

Now, this isn't my first rodeo when it comes to dark romance, so I do want to preface my thoughts on the spice with that. I realized while reading this that I am not a fan of dub-con or coercion. What saved it for me was the aftercare. I do feel like sometimes dark romance can go a little too far for the sake of shock factor. I don't want to knock points off for that because I'm the one who read the trigger warnings and still decided to go forward because I was really intrigued by the plot.

That said, I did like how Corvus and Vespera's relationship evolved throughout the story. I especially liked that Corvus accepted the darker parts of Vespera that she had spent so much time trying to hide, while Vespera was able to accept Corvus for all of his darkness. There was something really interesting about how they brought those sides of each other to the surface without judgment.

The side characters also brought a lot to the story for me. For some reason, the personification of the Hell Hounds gave me major The Lost Boys 80s vampire vibes. I have absolutely no idea why, but that was immediately the energy I got from them. And Zenith was hands down my favorite. His line delivery had me absolutely cackling.

He wasn't the only one making me laugh, either. Some of the back and forth between Corvus and Vespera had me putting the book down because I was cry laughing. I love a good bit of dry humor, and the comedic timing in their dialogue really worked for me. Those moments gave the story a nice balance against some of the darker themes.

I really liked the overall plot and the Heaven vs. Hell concept, but I do wish the ending hadn't felt so rushed. Some of the things I found most interesting, like bringing down Lucifer and Vespera giving up her wings to stay in Hell, were glossed over pretty quickly in the epilogue. I would have loved to actually see more of those moments play out rather than having them summarized.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and thought the premise was really fun and different. I just wish we had gotten a little more time with the ending and some of the bigger plot developments.

Because of that, Heaven Sent, Hell Bound gets 3.5/5 stars from me.