The Throne of Pain (The Romanos, #1) (2024)

Just nope to the Ariel Castro style confinement rape fantasy - DNF. A story about a man guilty of an Ariel Castro styled kidnapping-rape that disturbingly portrays the victim as being unable to help but get aroused by the criminal abuse; so basically every rapist's fantasy come true, and what rapists must tell themselves their victims are feeling rather than dealing with the reality that they have denied all CONSENT, agency, and autonomy to their victims. These aren't just "triggers" to former victims of abuse (or people who value women's rights), but a road map to incitement of violence toward women for non-consensual sexual gratification that tries to soften the crimes against humanity by portraying the victim as unable to help but enjoy her abuse.

If you find nothing romantic or sexy about a man manually choking a woman, throwing her around, abducting her, locking her in a cage with a bucket to urinate in, telling her she has no rights to speak, to sleep, to eat unless he allows it (basically removing all agency and choice from the woman), referring to the victim as a "pet," "toy," and "living doll," and abusing, humiliating, degrading, and demeaning the female physically, emotionally, and mentally -- and not in a BDSM scene sense -- then this book will make you want to puke. It did me.

Real BDSM is all about consent and trust, developed through communication, the use of safe words, and negotiated hard and soft limits, so this is NOT ANYTHING LIKE REAL BDSM because there is NO CONSENT IN THIS BOOK this is straight up kidnapping, sexual assault and abuse. While the author tries to give the nominal appearance of consent it is specious at best because TRUE CONSENT must be given BEFORE the person is physically assaulted (thrown in elevator hitting the wall and choked when she calls out), incarcerated against her will (locked in the cage after demanding to be released), and physically assaulted a second time until bruises and soft-tissue damage are incurred (the beating while kneeling for talking back). Any requests for consent after such intimidation are null since "consent" is arguably being given to avoid further physical abuse and forced imprisonment in retaliation for denial of requested consent -- in other words, it isn't consent after the abuse and imprisonment, it is capitulation for survival which is the hallmark of Stockholm Syndrome.

What is more disturbing is the fact that the main male character's history as a serial offender is played off as some sort of desirable/valuable "experience" or prowess. That the woman comes to have romantic regard for the man in a Stockholm Syndrome sort of way (that is downplayed and dismissed) is so far from sexy or romantic I could NOT understand anyone finding any of this remotely entertaining much less "hot." If you have any personal issues or experience with rape, sexual assault, sexual humiliation, sexual degradation, forced confinement, kidnapping, physical assault, domestic abuse, mental and emotional abuse, and denied bodily autonomy, then this book is more than a trigger, it is a nightmare that excuses abuse, minimizes victims, and glorifies sexual predation.

Ugh. So bad.

I like a dark romance, but this is ridiculous!
Man throws woman in cage, man spanks her because she spoke without asking, man rapes her.
Woman falls in love.
They want to spend the rest of their days together.
The worst of the worst!

Just No

This book was ridiculous. It started off with some promise (first few pages) & then went downhill. I expected dark-nope. I expected a good captive story-nope. She was out of her cage & in lust then love in like an hour. I mean really? I don’t like to DNF so plowed on and then starting skimming because it just got more and more ridiculous. Don’t fall for the blurb because the story is nothing like it implies. Do yourself a favor and go read something else.

The Throne of Pain (The Romanos #1)
Stella Andrews

Loved this book and it's characters Lucian & Riley. Can't wait to read more in this series and most definitely more by this Author Stella Andrews.

The Throne of Pain by Stella Andrews is book one in The Ramanos series and what a great dark twisted start it is.
It keeps you on the edge wanting more with every page you turn, whilst throwing a few shocks and twists into the mix.
It's definitely a book for the open minded because of the cage!!!! but it definitely gives us plenty of Steamy moments and a few heart pounding ones too.
I definitely recommend this but be warned there are a few eye rolling and REALLY!!!! moments throughout 📖

Started out with a bang and then fizzled around chapter 11 and I skimmed
To the end.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
💋💋💋

On finishing this book I had to take a deep breath , because I swear I never breathed once in the whole reading of it.
It tense, fast paced and emotionally draining ,and all in the best way.

Luciano Romano is a first class bastard, he’s not kind or sensitive.
What he is is real, he lives a brutal life as the head of the Mafia.
His family is everything to him , and the last thing you ever do is cross him.
Think you can live that life, be his partner, his lover, his Queen.

Riley does, she’s a lawyer , lived a good life , has a cheating boyfriend and hates dead rats in the pool, she not keen on living in a cage either .
Can these two possibly have a future together.

There is so much more to this story, but I don’t want to spoil it.
Be ready for the read of your life, Stella is one outstanding writer , I think this could be her best yet.

I received an Arc copy of this book and chose to post this review

This is my third book of the author in the last month or so. I must admit, I'm developing a taste for her writing. It started quite strong and almost came to a standpoint after that. Thankfully, it didn't stay like that and the last third of the book made up for it. I understand they had to build the relationship but I missed the darker element of the story that was introduced at the beginning. It came back with the cult and everything that followed. I'm interested to continue reading about this family for sure.

I received an ARC copy of this book via Booksprout.

These reviews are fake or we read different books. The blurb is the best part of the book 😖

🎁 FREE on Amazon today (4/11/2021)! 🎁

Purch Amz April 11, 2021

Riley thought she had things under control even going to the point of being a bitch to the receptionist at the front desk. When the woman's faced paled should have given Riley an indication that something was off but oh no! Riley goes up to the man in charge and start pointing her finger at him and the rest is history because Lucian his found his new pet and Riley 's life will never be the same. Their story is action packed from start to finish and we will see the woman that Riley transform into!

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

DNF at about 40%. I just wasn't invested, the characters decided they loved in other in a few hours and the heroine was going to give up her life and career to marry this dude. Hard no from me I'm afraid.

düster, furchtbar und doch unheimlich anziehend ,denn Bad Boys sind immer die am heißesten Typen .Und wenn sie lieben dann richtig
Nichts für schwache Nerven ,denn die Mafia ist gnadenlos ,doch wer zu ihnen gehört ist sicher .
Die Übersetzung ist leider stellenweise furchtbar ,da sollte man mal drüberschauen

Intense

A great Mafia romance, the Romanos are an important Mafia family headed by Lucian and his two brothers Romeo and Dante, they are all formidable and not to be messed with. Riley Michael's is a beautiful young newly qualified lawyer who has just gone through a tough break up with her college sweetheart and heads for a holiday she is feisty and lands herself in a whole heap of trouble when she takes on the person she believes runs the hotel. Lucian Romanos is not a guy to take kindly to anyone confronting him and both of these two don't know what they have set in motion. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read with lots of hot sexy action and some emotionally charged issues.

3.75 stars

The premise of the story was good. At times it felt cheesy though which frustrated me because I did like the idea of the story. I pur that aside though because the author did get me interested in what was going to happen.

The naiv writting style is the first problem I have with this book. Everything was explained in such detached way you couldnt feel yourself as a part of the story.

The major problem however was that in this book things happen without any explanation and completely out of the blue and I couldnt really detect any developing storyline. One moment a man enters a public hotel area and in the next heroine is abducted, one moment she is scared of lucien and remembers why she should have seen danger signs before approaching him (honestly there was no major sign about this as it takes less than 1 minute from seeing lucien and being abducted) and in the next she is telling him "good morning sir". Its just two simple examples but there were a lotttt more in the book that it made it difficult to relate with the heroin bcos she kept jumping from on emotion to next without anundrestandable reason.

The whole first chapter I forced myself to read was so unreal and illogical and crazy I couldnt continue anymore.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
ARE YOU MF KIDDING ME Stella Andrews YOU LITERALLY WROTE MY FANTASY ON INK AND PAPER AND I CANT LOVE YOU MORE THAN I ALR DO FOR WRITING THIS MASTERPIECE.

God, i was shivering w anticipation during this book. a TRUE page-turner if i've ever come across one. i LOVED this book so much, it consumed for the whole 6-hours i binge-read it.

i especially ESPECIALLY loved the part where the grandma didn't just approve of her in the first second- you kept it real by showing there are always hardships and none of it is rainbows and sh*t.
and oh my mf god, i LOVED how Riley turned to the dark side slowly. this is the best trope out there. the goodgirl eventually leaves her safe mundane haven for the wild fire of hell for the guy she absolutely loves.

a 6-star book in my opinion.

HAPPY READING!

Oh wow he can cage me any day!

Lucian is hot hot hot! The power he exudes is so hot! Riley was awesome character as well. I loved she had a take no prisoner attitude except when it came to Lucian. They were each others weakness, in a good way. As for some reviewers who say this is a rape fantasy book they're out of their mind. Abd obviously should have never picked up a book in the dark romance section. If anything i think this book was really tame compared to others i have read. I really enjoyed the story plot it wasn't to over powering of the relationship that was budding between Lucian and Riley. The only down side for me was that i wish the sexy scenes were more detailed and longer. Overall a great book that will have you hooked from beginning to end.

FAMILY IS EVERYTHING

I received this book for free and am giving my honest and voluntary review

Riley is a lawyer from Boston who meets Lucian at one of his hotels because there is a dead body in the pool, a rat. Lucian finds Riley to be perfect for him and proceeds to make her his. She has no idea he is the head of a Mafia family and falls in love with him. She has to find out if she can fit in his family and goes through an ordeal that kept me from putting the book down until I was finished.

I really enjoyed this writer and her book. It was a little unbelievable, since he basically kidnaps her in his own hotel and yet within a week, they are madly in love. But it did have a pretty good story line and the writer did build on the characters, made a good story line. Plenty of D/s and steamy sex. It wasn't as hardcore as some I have read but I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend this to others . Sherrie

Ok just WAY not for me. Read one chapter

Eu estou copiando a crítica de Jeanette Wolfe porque ela diz muito sobre o que eu penso de todos esses livros de fantasia de estupro, onde se justifica o crime hediondo por alguma compreensão mística/sobrenatural do criminoso ( e das autorAs, que vergonha!) de que elas "realmente queriam", "estavam molhadas", "ficaram excitadas" ou qualquer outra bobagem

Just nope to the Ariel Castro style confinement rape fantasy - DNF. A story about a man guilty of an Ariel Castro styled kidnapping-rape that disturbingly portrays the victim as being unable to help but get aroused by the criminal abuse; so basically every rapist's fantasy come true, and what rapists must tell themselves their victims are feeling rather than dealing with the reality that they have denied all CONSENT, agency, and autonomy to their victims. These aren't just "triggers" to former victims of abuse (or people who value women's rights), but a road map to incitement of violence toward women for non-consensual sexual gratification that tries to soften the crimes against humanity by portraying the victim as unable to help but enjoy her abuse.

If you find nothing romantic or sexy about a man manually choking a woman, throwing her around, abducting her, locking her in a cage with a bucket to urinate in, telling her she has no rights to speak, to sleep, to eat unless he allows it (basically removing all agency and choice from the woman), referring to the victim as a "pet," "toy," and "living doll," and abusing, humiliating, degrading, and demeaning the female physically, emotionally, and mentally -- and not in a BDSM scene sense -- then this book will make you want to puke. It did me.

Real BDSM is all about consent and trust, developed through communication, the use of safe words, and negotiated hard and soft limits, so this is NOT ANYTHING LIKE REAL BDSM because there is NO CONSENT IN THIS BOOK this is straight up kidnapping, sexual assault and abuse. While the author tries to give the nominal appearance of consent it is specious at best because TRUE CONSENT must be given BEFORE the person is physically assaulted (thrown in elevator hitting the wall and choked when she calls out), incarcerated against her will (locked in the cage after demanding to be released), and physically assaulted a second time until bruises and soft-tissue damage are incurred (the beating while kneeling for talking back). Any requests for consent after such intimidation are null since "consent" is arguably being given to avoid further physical abuse and forced imprisonment in retaliation for denial of requested consent -- in other words, it isn't consent after the abuse and imprisonment, it is capitulation for survival which is the hallmark of Stockholm Syndrome.

What is more disturbing is the fact that the main male character's history as a serial offender is played off as some sort of desirable/valuable "experience" or prowess. That the woman comes to have romantic regard for the man in a Stockholm Syndrome sort of way (that is downplayed and dismissed) is so far from sexy or romantic I could NOT understand anyone finding any of this remotely entertaining much less "hot." If you have any personal issues or experience with rape, sexual assault, sexual humiliation, sexual degradation, forced confinement, kidnapping, physical assault, domestic abuse, mental and emotional abuse, and denied bodily autonomy, then this book is more than a trigger, it is a nightmare that excuses abuse, minimizes victims, and glorifies sexual predation.

3 Stars

Throne of Pain was my first read from Stella Andrews and for what it was, I liked it.

After she finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman, Riley goes on vacation to regroup. After a horrible experience at the pool, she goes to the lobby to make a complaint and has a run in with Lucian, the hotels owner. Lucian is a mafia man and comes from a life of corruption, crime, and death. He immediately takes a liking to Riley’s spitfire attitude and kidnaps her to make her his “pet.” Although the start of their arrangement was rough, Riley soon finds the good in Lucian and their relationship grows into something much more. But as it gets serious, Riley isn’t so sure she can live up to Lucians expectations as his dark queen.

Lucian and Riley’s relationship was very insta-lovey, it happened so fast and I didn’t quite like the transition from “pet” to girlfriend. I also felt like there was a lot of saying and not enough doing. The dramatic storyline in the end was actually really good and wish I had gotten more of that in the beginning of the book! The plot had MAJOR potential but just fell a little flat for me. I did like Lucians protectiveness over Riley – that’s always a favorite when it comes to mafia romances.

Dante is Lucians brother and I was really drawn to his story, so I’ll probably continue this series to find out what happens to Dante!

DNF. I got through the first three chapters and couldn’t take any more. Grammar mistakes and unrealistic characters. The guy literally throws her in a cage, has threatened her life and told her she was his pet and prisoner for the foreseeable future, yet her body reacts to him because he’s handsome and she’s curious to see where it goes? WTF? Who would ever react that way?

Then there is the horrible writing. The grammar: “I am as a hot as hell,” “He eyes widen” or “aftershave is seriously gorgeous,” what does that even mean? 🤷🏼‍♀️

She repeats phrases like, “it all happens so fast,” or the inconsistent phrases like, “I take my time and feel impatient” or my favorite, she’s literally locked in a cage and he says, “wait there.” 😑 where the hell is she going to go? 🤔🤦🏻‍♀️

Mind you, this is all in the first three chapters. I do not recommend.

Dnf 22 %

I'm so not feeling this book, its insta love, insta victim, insta sub, insta weird.

The fmc is annoying from the first moment she opens her mouth, think Karen. She's manhandled by H, kidnapped n put in a cage. He threatens her with all kinds of sh*t, makes her sit n eat from floor like a dog, spanks her etc.

Then at 22% he has an epiphany and instead of breaking her he wants to build her up n make her his queen, she thanks him for her abuse n says she feels alive.

Yeah right.

Love dub con, love bdsm but this isn't it. Safe, sane and consensual it isn't.

The characters are ott characatures of this trope. Cringe worthy diagolgue and absolutely zero chemistry.

Nah, not for me

This is Riley and Lucian’s story. Riley is a feisty lawyer and when she finds a dead rat in the pool it brings her to the attentions of Lucian who is the head of the mafia and owner of the hotel, and once he sets his sights on her he is determined that she is a perfect match for him. Lucian is a brutal and dark man, but what will Riley do when she finds out who he actually is? This is a well written story which this author had done an outstanding job in penning, and this tale is dark and twisted which all had me totally captivated throughout this addictive page turner. I look forward to reading more from this author and I recommend her work for all.

This is a very deep story. I do not recommend reading if you don't like overly agression sexual scenes.

Riley going away to get herself together after seeing her fiancee and her friend sleeping together. The hotel she chose was controlled by Luciano head of a mafa organization. Her mistake, disrespecting him out in the open where others could see. Kidnapped, caged and forced to do sexual acts beyond being a Submissive. It was about complete control and breaking women to his will. Riley ended up liking his control over her but she ended up having control of his heart.

If you comtinue reading this series, all the males in this family have the same mentality.

This is a mafia family story about the head of the family Lucian. Without giving away the story it starts with a kidnapping that actually is a little funny. The story is a really good story and pulls you in. Riley, the victim doesn't really understand she has been kidnapped - but the story has ups and downs and unexpected side stories. It is a very good start to the series. If you like mafia family stories this book is certainly one to read. It is my first mafia story in a really long time and I enjoyed the entire book.

The Throne Of Pain

Wow! Talking about a rollercoaster ride of EMOTIONS, well let me tell you that there’s a lot of it going on in this story. If you’re into multiple emotions back and forth like “roughness, pain, dark erotism, excitement, sensual, alluring foreplay, pleasure, love ❤️, devotion, determination, courage...this book is DEFINITELY for you. You’ll even want to scream at the character Lucian at some point, cause he’ll be driving you crazy with his altering behaviour traits... but in the end, you’re gonna want the PAIN as well and ALL OF IT !