Quintessentially Q by Pepper Winters: Spotlight and Review

Quintessentially Q 
by Pepper Winters

"All my life, I battled with the knowledge I was twisted...fucked up to want something so deliciously dark - wrong on so many levels. But then slave fifty-eight entered my world. Hissing, fighting, with a core of iron, she showed me an existence where two wrongs make a right."

Tess is Q's completely. Q is Tess's irrevocably. But now, they must learn the boundaries of their unconventional relationship while Tess seeks vengence on the men who sold her. Q made a blood-oath to deliver their corpses at Tess's feet, and that's just what he'll do.

He may be a monster, but he's Tess's monster.

Buy Links:      Amazon US        Amazon Uk        

Author Bio:
Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex...her books have sex.

She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends.

Her debut book, Tears of Tess, will be followed with Quintessentially Q. You didn't think Q could stop so soon, did you? Her other two titles, Last Shadow and Broken Chance will be coming soon.

Connect with Pepper:    Website      Twitter      Facebook     Goodreads      Pinterest 

Tour Giveaways

Signed paperback of Quintessentially Q and signed swag pack

Two signed paperpacks

My Review
My sincere apologies to Pepper as this review should have been posted last week, but it's such a crazy time of year that I hadn't finished reading the book on time.

I had the pleasure to review Pepper's first book, Tears of Tess, and I loved it. That book could have stood alone, but it left me wondering what would happen with Q and Tess. So when the opportunity to read the sequel came up, I jumped at it. If you haven't read Tears of Tess I recommend you pick that one up before you read Quintessentially Q. It will give you more of the backstory. (Buy links are at the end of the review)

In Quintessentially Q, we get to find out more about the enigmatic Q who Tess falls for. We get to see more clearly into Q's head, to understand his fears and motivations, and it rounds out the character so we can see his internal struggles, despite his cool exterior.

Overall, I'm enjoying the series, but I found myself wanting some threads to be resolved and for a lot more action. Ms. Winters does a great job at giving us a deep understanding of her characters' emotions and as a reader, you will experience everything that they do. I found the first four chapters or so difficult to get into. They're mostly hot sex and inner monologue. The sex was great, but the rest tended to be repetitive. The action really starts to build when Q takes Tess to his corporate offices and she ends up being kidnapped again by those seeking revenge for Q's dealings. What follows is a heartbreaking account of Tess's ordeals and Q's desperate search to find her. The last part of the book focuses on helping Tess to overcome what's happened to her.

Tess and Q's journey isn't over and I'm looking forward to the next book to see how they continue to build their relationship together, while fighting the evil mechanisms that brought them together in the first place.

Buy Links For Tears of Tess:

Amazon US: http://goo.gl/KWNI7t

Amazon UK: http://goo.gl/IC7TPS

Itunes: http://goo.gl/P3RyrP

Goodreads Link For Tears Of Tess: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18134894-tears-of-tess

Goodreads Link For Quintessentially Q: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18398089-quintessentially-q

Tears of Tess Promo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI1azW2ydUo#t=0

Review: Tears of Tess by Pepper Winters

Tears of Tess, a debut novel by Pepper Winters, is a New Adult Dark Contemporary romance. It has the following disclaimer on the blurb:

"not suitable for people sensitive to grief, slavery, and nonconsensual sex. A story about finding love in the strangest of places, a will of iron that grows from necessity, and forgiveness that may not be enough."

Needless to say, curiosity got the best of me and I signed up to do a review stop for Pepper's Blog Tour.

I'm glad I did.

That disclaimer should NOT be ignored. When they say it's a dark book, they're not kidding. Tess Snow is the title character, twenty years old, in a stable, vanilla relationship, though she secretly craves more in the bedroom. When her boyfriend takes her on holiday, the unthinkable happens. Tess is kidnapped by a human trafficking ring and sold into sex slavery. While I'd like to think that this kind of thing is just a figment of the author's imagination, it's sobering to realize that it does happen. 

Tess finds herself delivered to Q, an uber-rich, Dominant man, who begins to show her just what it means to be owned. Her darkest fantasies are suddenly becoming reality and now she doesn't know what to think.

This book tackles some tough themes: abandonment, rejection, desire, redemption. But the thing that stuck most with me was Tess's struggle to come to terms with her sexual fantasies. She wants to submit, to be forced, controlled. And that scares her, as I think it would many young women just beginning to explore their sexuality. To complicate matters, her boyfriend and only sexual partner is as unkinky as they get. 

I went back and forth right along with Tess. How do you come to terms with desires that many would consider sick and freakish? What I really liked though, is how the author managed to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When Tess is with Q, she is playing a role, even though she doesn't realize it at first. There are two disturbing rape scenes, which are not portrayed in a positive light and I tip my hat to Pepper for that. Role playing non-consensual sex is completely different and though it's hard to read, Tess has to experience it to realize the difference. 

And I'll confess that I totally fell in love with Q. He's everything the tortured hero should be, and we see that he is just as uncomfortable with his desires as Tess, and the vulnerability we see in him makes me want to grab him and save him from himself. 

The BDSM in this book is very edgy, much more so than what I normally read, but it's so well written that it didn't disturb me in the way I thought it might. 

I very highly recommend this book, but please, please, please - take the disclaimer seriously. It is not for the faint-hearted. I can't wait for the sequel, Quintessentially Q!

Want to win a copy of the book? Leave me a comment by midnight EST on September 30, and I'll choose a winner via random.org. There's also a tourwide giveaway that you can enter using the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post. 

Tears of Tess

by Pepper Winters

A New Adult Dark Contemporary Romance, not suitable for people sensitive to grief, slavery, and nonconsensual sex. A story about finding love in the strangest of places, a will of iron that grows from necessity, and forgiveness that may not be enough.

"My life was complete. Happy, content, everything neat and perfect.

Then it all changed.

I was sold."

Tess Snow has everything she ever wanted: one more semester before a career in property development, a loving boyfriend, and a future dazzling bright with possibility.

For their two year anniversary, Brax surprises Tess with a romantic trip to Mexico. Sandy beaches, delicious cocktails, and soul-connecting sex set the mood for a wonderful holiday. With a full heart, and looking forward to a passion filled week, Tess is on top of the world. 

But lusty paradise is shattered.

Kidnapped. Drugged. Stolen. Tess is forced into a world full of darkness and terror.

Captive and alone with no savior, no lover, no faith, no future, Tess evolves from terrified girl to fierce fighter. But no matter her strength, it can't save her from the horror of being sold.

Can Brax find Tess before she's broken and ruined, or will Tess's new owner change her life forever?

Author Bio:

Writer, reader, sometimes wife. An avid devourer of sexy romance and angsty New Adult. Nothing beats lolling in a bubble bath with her array of book boyfriends, and plotting torturous stories to put her characters through. 

Living Down Under means she writes in the Queen's English, not Obama's, and aims to have an entire catalogue of sexy books that keep you wanting more. Oh, and she may or may not be in love with Q from Tears of Tess.

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Tears of Tess Blog Tour Giveaway