Thank you to Pepper Winters for sending me an ARC copy of Quintessentially Q for an honest review.

I completely fell in love with Tess and Q in the first book of the dark erotica Monsters in the Dark series, Tears of Tess, so I jumped at the chance to read this ARC. I don't consider this sequel to be a standalone. A lot of things were left unexplained because the reader is already expected to know it.

Please read the first book or you most likely won't like, appreciate or understand this book.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *****(Some spoilers were deleted by request of the author)*****

Tess and Q are already in love (she says it, he doesn���t, but they both feel it). The sex is HOT and it takes up the majority of the first third of the book. We feel their emotions, learn about their expectations of one another, but they are both too afraid to really give in and trust the other completely, especially Q. Communication has always been a problem for them and it continues all throughout the book.

Both Q and Tess forgot to remove the tracking device in her neck--which is a totally stupid move on their part--which led the bad guys right to her. My only problem with her kidnapping is that I had no idea it was going to happen. The blurb for QQ doesn���t state anything about it. I had heard that this book was darker than the first���and it is���but I expected it to be darker with Q and Tess in the bedroom, not at the hands of traffickers. According to the last book and the beginning of this book, Q and Tess planned to go after the bad guys to make them pay so I wasn���t surprised that they had a big part in the book. What confused me was how they were introduced.

My main question that I had for the original book was finally answered in this book. The question: Why did Q string Tess up during the dinner party? Frederick asks this and Q explains. I totally forgive Q for doing this horrible thing because his explanation made perfect sense. My only problem is that Q didn���t tell Tess and she still wonders why he hurt her like that.

We first meet Frederick in the previous book and, even though I knew he was a good guy, I still didn���t like him. I just didn���t trust him or know much about him. I now love Frederick thanks to this book. He plays a much bigger role and I loved the scenes where he stood up to Q, his best friend, and beats the crap out of him. He doesn���t fear Q at all, which is great, and Q cares for him like brother. Their scenes together were some of the best.

I loved seeing Franco as a badass! I knew he was tough���after all, he is Q���s head of security���but seeing him kick ass, murder rapists and treat the blonde girl with the belly button ring with such kindness makes me swoon.

I wish we saw more of Suzette. She���s an awesome character.

I loved watching Q get his hands dirty���literally. He���s so determined and headstrong, even though he���s breaking on the inside and suffering from deliberating migraines.

One of the final scenes left me in awe. I had hope Q would submit to Tess and it finally happened!!! She beat the crap out of him and I loved every minute of it.

Even though a lot of horrible things happened to this couple, the bad was needed to bring them closer together. The bad made Tess darker and, once Q submitted himself to her darkness, he became lighter. He found balance with the beast, which is what Tess had wanted since the beginning of the book���for him to be both man and monster at the same time.

I really liked this story, it moved me to tears several times, but I found myself distracted and a little bored because of the book���s repetitious nature. At times I felt that the author just copied sentences from a previous passage and pasted it into a new section. My sympathy for the characters faded in the middle of the book���where most of the drama and pain should be felt���because of the repetition. I understand that Q and Tess went through hell, physically and mentally, and I know that it takes time to heal, but the author used the same words, again and again, to express how the characters��� felt.

When the author didn���t repeat herself, she used lots of interesting similes to describe emotions and surroundings. That���s normally great but I felt that it took away from the story because she used so many. It made the story sound wordy. On top of that, for all the hell the characters went through, I was surprised that they were sane enough to come up with some of these very detailed similes to describe what they felt or what had happened. Their brains should be mush from drugs, pain, guilt, lack of sleep, etc; not well enough to overly describe their surroundings.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved watching Q and Tess grow as humans, monsters, friends and lovers. They deserve a happily ever after. Let���s hope they get it! ;)

4 Stars!
( )

Meh...stopped after the first 20 pages ( )

batshit part 2: electric boogaloo

i cant say that i enjoy these books, but i certainly can’t look away from them. ( )

As I said with Tears of Tess, fan-f'ing-tastic book. Loved it, hated it, could not put it down. A rollercoaster ride. On my top 10 list of books I love! ( )

"You stole my loneliness. I may have given you wings, but you've become my gravity. I'll never be free of your force."

First, I want to give a little warning, if you have not read the first book, you cannot read this one yet. Also, these books are extremely dark. They are twisted and gut wrenching. If you cannot handle extreme situations, this is not a series for you.

What to start with first... I just don't know. This book is all kinds of great fuckedupness! It's twisted and dark. It's soul shattering. I would dare to say that it is better than the first book!

Tess. Our sweet Tess who falls in love with the sadist in Q. She doesn't want his gentle side. She wants the monster. The one who everyone is afraid of. She wants him to just let himself free so he will be able to love her unconditionally.

Q. He finds himself in a battle inside. He doesn't want to unleash himself on Tess. His fear is he will go to far with her and she will run or worse yet, he may end her. He struggles with the foreign feelings he has for her. All he knows is that she is his and he will do anything to keep her by his side.

"The world didn't matter. This was our fuckedupness learning how to live without guilt and shame."

The real struggle begins in this book. Both are tested. How far are they willing to go to continue loving one another. What would they do or not do to find their way to one another. While Tess is back in the underbelly of the slave-trade, Q must find her and bring her home. While she is fighting for her life and others', Q is unleashing the monster, doing anything he can to find her. Tess tries to keep her sanity. Q prays that once he finds her, she will not be broken beyond repair.

I don't want to give much away. This book starts with Tess and Q, then falls into Q trying to find Tess to save her while Tess is barely hanging on the edge of sanity, Q destroys, Tess destroys. In the end, the question will remain, will the things that happened to Tess destroy her forever or will she be able to come back from the reality she no longer wants to be in? ( )