Salt in the Wound

Written by Sierra Simone

Narrated by Isabelle Ruther

The first time I meet the devil, he knows my name.

The second time I meet him, the truth becomes clear: Mark Trevena is to be my husband.

No matter that we don't know each other. No matter that he's older than me; shameless and sinful; the owner of a secret club where the powerful come to play. My father has spoken, and I'll be the devil's bride the minute I graduate from college.

Except my future husband has one condition for this arranged marriage: we have to pretend it’s real. 

He’ll teach me, he says. How to pretend to be his in pain and pleasure both. How to pretend to arch and writhe under his touch. But his lessons are teaching me something else entirely…

…that Mark Trevena wants me in a way that's not pretend at all. 

And no matter how I might fight it, the devil will have his due.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sierra Simone
• Release date: Aug 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781949364354

Sierra Simone

It all started with a series of tropes: just one bed, forced proximity, and a dash of enemies to lovers, and now ten years later, Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone are best friends and co-authors of the USA Today bestselling A Merry Little Meet Cute and A Holly Jolly Ever After. Sierra is the USA Today bestselling author of Priest and American Queen. When they’re not writing, Julie and Sierra enjoy forcing their families to go on vacation together and eating an array of pies while watching delightfully bad movies.

Reviews for Salt in the Wound

[Maya · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Salt in the Wound is a novella retelling of the love story of Tristan and Isolde (and Mark) and this novella is chronologically #0.5 in the Lyonesse trilogy by Sierra Simone. I'm excited to see how I like novel #1 in the series because I only somewhat liked this.

I've previously read Sierra Simone's Priest series and I definitely expected that series to be in some part about religion because it's about a priest and his family. I didn't expect Salt in the Wound to be about religion at all but it was and from my atheist point of view it was a bit distracting. The male characters keep manipulating Isolde and they were using her religion to do so, I hope she's able to get back at them. I expect there to be more mention of religion in the sequel "Salt Kiss" and I'm wondering if it's going to be as prominent as it was in this book.

I don't like Isolde with Mark, he's too old for her. I mean he's in his mid 30's (I think) when she first meets him, she's only 17 at the time. There are time skips in this novella so, Isolde stars the story off at 17 and ends the story in her early 20s, but in my opinion Mark still comes off as a predator. Don't even get me started on Isolde's Dad, what a trash can of a person! My goodness. He disgusts me.

The ending was my favorite part Isolde meeting Tristan at the end pieced everything together for me, and honestly it re-sparked my interested in the sequel, Salt Kiss.

The spice in this was alright, I really didn't like the last scene because of the blood, it grossed me out. I'm giving this 3 chilies out out 5 chilies ?️?️?️ worth of spice.

Overall this book was okay, I'm interested to see how the rest of the series is going to play out. I'm giving this 3 stars out of 5
⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Lynn Anne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I die, I want to come back as an FMC in one of Sierra Simone's books.

Damn!?

This Gabe me so many New Camelot vibes, and I'm so excited to read more. Tristan, who are you? Why am I so attracted to you already?

[Lisa Smith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tempted novella to the series, interested to see where this take her