Quintessentially Q: Monsters in the Dark, Book 2

Theme song: "Mercy" by Shawn MendesBook two leaps back into Tess's and Q's world, and now more than ever, the pair will need each other. Mr. Mercer is changing, and that scares the living hell out of him. Afraid that his dark desires will break her, Q struggles with trust, having never needed to rely on anyone but himself. Until Tess.There were elements of horror and explicit scenes of torture to several characters. There was pain emotionally, physically, and mentally, and be prepared to have your heart broken, mended, and toyed with. Quintessentially Q focused on pathos; don't take the warning lightly. It was hella intense!Again, Pepper Winters is an insanely talented writer! Each sentence had weight and was presented beautifully. If you're new to the dark romance genre, I recommend this series for an inspiration of sentence composure, literary device/element usage, and general how-to-write prose.🍉🍊🍍Hero rating: 4.5Heroine rating: 4.7Writing mechanics (literary elements/devices usage included): 5Plot rating: 4.5Dialogue rating: 5Storytelling rating: 4.6Story ending rating: 5Sexual tension rating: 5Sex scenes rating: 5Sex scenes frequency: 4 (not good nor bad, just occurrence rating)**********************************************Overall rating: 4.8 starsWould I recommend this series: Yes.Would I re-read this series: Yes.Would I read future books by this author: Yes.

Darkness and light...pain and pleasure...misery and euphoria...life and death...Q and Tess have been through all this but it's as complex a tale as their fuckupedness together...but can they recapture what others vowed to destroy? This book answers that question with the perfect plot line for these imperfect souls who are not only opposites and what the other desires but more alike than even they know. Tess was destroyed...obliterated and left as a breathing tomb of destruction. Q was destroyed in his world of business and a heart he didn't even know he possessed was shattered into fragments as tiny and cold as falling snow...burying him in an avalanche of pain and loss. But can he bring the light and life back to Tess and allow his beast to thaw from it's frozen state and breathe life and passion back into his shattered soul? This book has the answers and you WANT to read it...you NEED to know just as much as Q and Tess need to know...and you'll be forever changed and marked by this unforgettable story!!

Pepper Winters has done it – she has delivered a sequel which is just as good as the first book. She is truly a wonder in the writing world.If you are looking for a lusciously, passionate, stimulating, sexy, enthralling and emotional read, than this is for you.Tess and Q are working on their relationship and what each one of them means to the other.It starts off lighter than the first book and then so much more happens and you just think – How can Tess go through this, how will she survive, how will Q survive?So much torment, angst, love and passion. I can't believe the physical and emotional struggles in this book. It is so spell bounding and captivating that you just can't put it down.As I have said earlier, Tess is fierce and strong. The tragedy in this book brings Tess to breaking point – her tormentors break her. Q is furious and out to kill to find his Tess. He will not live without her; he will not let them take her again. His passion and fight for Tess is heart wrenching. He aches for her.When they are finally re-united, Tess is broken; Q is heartbroken trying to mend his Tess. How can they survive?What a soul searching journey this is. A page turner from cover to cover.Congratulations Pepper Winters for bringing us a story that is beautifully written where you see the good in the characters even throughout what they struggle through.Can't wait for Twisted Together.

"I didn't want fake fear or tears. No. I wanted the while damn truth. I wanted to possess and obsess and consume. I wanted to be the air that Tess breathed. I wanted to be the water she drank. Keeping her alive all while wanting to kill her." This book picks up a couple days after the first one ends. We see Q struggling with the brutality of their reunion and trying to keep the beast caged around Tess. Tess wants Q to open up, by any means necessary, she will provoke him if that's what it takes. The couple are in a balancing act. Coming together to start a relationship neither of them know how to get to."Who could love me when I was a devil's protégé?"As they search for a balance, one thing holds true, they are falling for each other. But, when the unthinkable happens and they are left scared, searching and lost, can that be enough?I can't give anything away. But this one was tough, not the writing or the characters. No the struggles these two had to be put through. At points I didn't know if an end would be in sight. Winters is an evil genius. I was pissed at her at moments and got ready to send hate mail! She has a way of truly captivating a reader. I felt safe and secure in the warmth of a world she created only to have it ripped away and shoved into what nightmares are made of. It was gut wrenching and painful. Yet I couldn't stop and was desperate to see what happens next.That to me is the sign of a terrific book and great author. If you loved the first one, you won't be disappointed! And if you haven't read the first one yet, well then you are horribly behind and need to rectify that wrong asap!We do find out at the end that a third and final book is coming soon and I can't wait!"The world didn't matter. This was us. This was our f* ckedupness learning how to live without guilt and shame."

Quite often when I find a new author and a story I like, I get to the second or third book and by that time I’m kinda like “meh”, but not this time. The first book was excellent but this one was perfection. In the most painful way, lol.At more than one point, I thought to myself that there was no coming back from what just happened. I mean, how..? For both of them! It was savage.TESSSo let me, first of all, say that Tess has come to be one of the strongest characters that I have enjoyed reading about. Like I said in my review of book one, Tears of Tess, she was a bit of a pain in the butt for me at the beginning and I wasn’t too impressed. However, by the end of Tears of Tess, she had impressed me and my heart was hers.In this book, she blew me away. The feels. Oh My God, the feels!Tess has decided that Q is the one for her and nothing is going to get in her way. Not even him. So, off she trots to his humble abode (ha, right!) to prove to him that he needs her as much as she needs him.Just when it looks like she might be able to make things work between her and Q, life once again says “nope, not yet”, and her world ends, basically.What she endures is nothing short of horrendous and you really feel like you want to reach through the pages and just hold her.Q -We finally get to see the world, and Tess, through Q’s eyes and it is as terrifying as it is beautiful and exciting! This man is so close to his primal instincts that he could almost be closer to animal than man.He is scared to death of letting Tess in somewhere that no one else has dared to go. He feels that there is no way he can give her what she needs outside of the bedroom...or kitchen...or dungeon...or helicopter but he just can’t stop himself from having her.Things are just getting interesting for them and then...life just stops. Tess is gone. Taken. And it messes this man up to a royal degree. We see the monster that he tries so hard to keep hidden come out to play. And play it does.FINAL THOUGHTS on QUINTESSENTIALLY Q by Pepper Winters - I did not want this book to end. And I needed this book to end, ya feel me?

Relatively new to Peppers writing I'm now reading her earlier books; going right back to where it all began all I can say after reading part 2 of Monsters In The Dark is no words can do this book justice. This book gave me all shivers all the way down my spine. It was dark, raw, depraved, evil personified. It is easy to see how Pepper earned her crown as the queen of dark. This book makes me want to re-evaluate all the starts I have given other dark books. With the exception of one other series, nothing I have read has come even close to this depth of dark.Tess started off in Tears of Tess as a strong character, kidnapped and trafficked into the sex trade she was given to Q as part of a business deal. Together they embraced their inner darkness and were a formidable couple. This part see's their level of perfect ripped apart as Tess is recaptured by the evil traffickers that took her from Mexico the first time. Her characters is dealt blow after blow of torment, assassinating her strong character, breaking her mind. Peppers writing is so descriptive and emotive that you are drawn into the story, feeling like a voyeur to Tess's torture. There is no author like Pepper that can write dark to this degree.Told from a dual POV; Peppers books as always are slow paced. She develops the story and fine detail with finesse, it never feels rushed and a story of this magnitude and gravity shouldn't be either. Q is the anti hero, I am instantly drawn Peppers male MCs, she writes strong, dominant alpha males that you immediately fall in love with, care deeply for. She makes you deeply invested in her characters and their tribulations.A truly addictive series and for all lovers of dark, if you haven't read this. you need too. Not much has come close.

Okay, after reading the first book in this series I was craving more. I didn't realise the twists and turns that this story could take but this one definitely stressed me out the most.. (in all the best ways possible). I found myself literally unable to put it down and if my life hadn't have gotten in the way, I probably would have read it all in 2 sittings. I loved the different POV chapters in this book, finally getting a look into Q's beautiful and twisted mind - I loved this aspect of the book. The plot of this one made you realise why Q and Tess are so perfect for each other and really solidified my love for their relationship, all while making me wonder what was going to happen next for them and how could it possibly stress me out any more! I spent most times reading this covering the next page with my free hand so I didn't spoil what was going to happen next.... the suspense build up was REAL!!! It really pulled me into their story and I'm currently reading the 3rd book, not wanting to put it down or finish this beautiful love story once and for all! This book is an amazing second slice of their story.

A truly 100% mesmerising read!Just how can a person find themselves absolutely riveted to reading on with Tess and Q's story? Well when the pensmanship is as good as Pepper's then it's easy to sink into this very visual and extremely potent story and be quite honestly mesmerised by what unfolds.So you would think that Tess falling into captivity again would be kinda boring and a bit 'been there done that'. Well think again. What Pepper comes up with this time, is well, WOW, honestly how Pepper writes it this time is very powerful. And if you liked Tears For Tess then I pretty much guarantee that QQ will blow your socks off!I am really looking forward to Twisted Together and watch and read on at how they can both settle into their demons and the monster and watch as they truly learn what their love is true and meant to be.Pepper has an extraordinary talent at dark romance and whilst some content leaves you screaming at either the horrendous situation with Tess or the downright shock of a man with the needs that Q has, I don't think that anyone that truly enjoys dark romance can deny this is high end writing.

After reading the first book I couldn't wait to read Q Q and I wasn't disappointed. Q Q is a lot darker than tears of tess and at times a quite disturbing read. It started out as a nice read with Tess and Q both trying to find their way in their new relationship and then you are descended into hell. Reading what Tess was put through was heart breaking and at times I had to put my kindle down and walk away. Couldn't help but think what would I do in Tess's position would I fight or lay down and die. Tess was such a fighter in the first book and to watch how she was torn apart piece by piece was gut wrenching. We also get to see a lot more of Q in this book and really see what a dark soul he can be. He really proves that there is nothing that he wouldn't do for Tess. I also loved the other side of Q Pepper showed us. We saw him falling apart, feeling weak and helpless as he saw his esclave drift further and further away from him every second of every day. This story is beautifully written even though it deals with rape,torture,murder,mental abuse and shows how much evil and depravity exists in this world. All in all this is an amazing book and after all the darkness come light. I can't wait to read the next one.